I LEARNT THE HARD WAY

Maya has practical advice for cash-strapped South Africans

THERE’S little she doesn’t know about the money world. She’s an award-winning financial journalist, edits a major newspaper’s personal finance section, runs a website offering practical financial advice and has published a book to help South Africans run their financial affairs.

Maya Fisher-French also knows what it’s like to be in dire financial straits – she’s learnt from experience how to dig her way out of a black hole of debt and despair. In fact it’s happened to her more than once.

The 44-year-old mom of two had her first experience of the harsh financial realities of life at the age of 16. “We had a beautiful home in Johannesburg and all those good things. And then my father died and my mom, brother and I were suddenly financially destitute,” Maya says, chatting to us at her home in Hout Bay, Cape Town.

“My father had been living in debt. My mother hadn’t worked in 17 years and was suddenly a single parent. There was no will in place, no life cover. We lost everything. I remember us having to sell all our furniture.

“To see first-hand what happened to my mother and how it affected myfamily – that really shaped my thinking, as a woman, about being financially independent.”

After graduating at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) with a BA in English and an honours degree in economics, she worked in the financial sector. But when she and her husband, Maya with her husband, Jonathan, and sons, Joshua and Benjamin, at their home in Hout Bay, Cape Town. Jonathan (44), decided to have kids Maya made a career move to journalism so she’d have more time for her family. The couple have two sons, Joshua (16) and Benjamin (12).

She and Jonathan considered themselves financially stable. But just after she gave birth to Benjamin, financial disaster struck again.

The newspaper Maya was working for closed down and Jonathan was retrenched. “We had two kids, medical bills from the baby, this huge house we’d just bought – and then we had no jobs.”

The hardest thing for her was calling creditors to explain they couldn’t pay their bills, Maya says.

But she found most were relieved she’d made the call. “That was a big lesson for me. Do you know how much it costs to hand you over to a debt collector? They Maya Fisher-French is City Press newspaper’s personal finance editor and runs mayaonmoney. co.za. were just happy I’d been honest.”

After Jonathan found work again – he’s now the MD of a technology company – and she started freelancing, they were on a better financial footing. But Maya says they were yet to learn their hardest financial lesson. “We carried on spending and about six months later my husband got his first bonus. I suggested we use it to fix up the house. My husband said, ‘No, we’re going to use it to pay the overdraft.’ I’d had no idea we were in overdraft! I hadn’t realised because, just like my mother, I never asked. It was easier to just keep swiping those cards.”

It was a turning point. Maya drew up a strict budget and started paying for their weekly expenses with cash only. “At the beginning of every week I’d draw a certain amount of cash based on our budget. I’d have different envelopes – one for