Happy Savings Month!

Do you recognise what is in this photo?

Rare? Almost extinct!

Yes, it’s that rare thing we call money!

July is National Savings Month. Can it be a year since I wrote about stokvels? I wonder how many more have been set up in the last year? And I also wonder how on earth people can afford to save when we have been shown that the cost of simply living has increased by nearly 6% this year?? And have pensions kept up with the rate? I wish! Alan Winde, the Western Cape Minister for Finance has a catchy phrase for us “Start early and save smartly!” He recommends that we try to save at least 15% of our monthly income. Yes, well.


South Africa Inflation Rate
The inflation rate in South Africa was recorded at 5.7 percent in May of 2012. Historically, from 1981 until 2012, South Africa Inflation Rate averaged 9.7 Percent reaching an all time high of 20.8 Percent in January of 1986 and a record low of 0.1 Percent in January of 2004. 
(Thanks to the official website)


Scary hey??
For example, our petrol price plays see-saw over the year, and as the petrol price rises, so does absolutely everything. From canned and frozen food, to loo rolls and asprin, it seems to be an excuse and not a reason to raise prices these days. And absolutely nothing comes down when the petrol price drops, I wonder why??

When I was deciding what to do with my life and dithering between joining the police force or becoming a teacher, my mum and dad kept dropping three words into any conversation that we had. Those words were ‘medical aid’ and ‘pension’. At the tender age of sixteen and knowing everything there was to know about life, I did the usual rolling eyes and thinking that retirement was a long long way off! Fortunately I have both those ‘added extras’ now that I need them.

When I turned forty I decided to invest in some extra 'pension' help to keep me going in my old age and to enable me to eat more than cat food! On paper in 1987, looking forward to the money maturing in 2013, (like me!!), I was RICH!! I could afford a new house, a new car, holidays overseas, caviar and champagne if I so desired. I was set for the rest of my life. Now, thanks to inflation, it will just about keep us in groceries and gout pills, but at least I have that. And, thanks to Rob whose very first pay check was whipped away by his boss until he had agreed to ‘put some away every month’; we are ‘comfortable’, like the cushions on our old couch!

Can you see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

And if all else fails……here is another way to try and save some money!