'Black diamonds' lose shine

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zagame

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Johannesburg - Thembi Motaung, a manager at a South African legal firm, faced a painful choice when she started to fall behind in meeting her hefty loan repayments on both her home and her car.

"I had been defaulting on both my mortgage and car repayments for three months, so I had to choose which one to let go," said the 36-year-old mother mother of two who lives near Pretoria.

"I've been using public transport all my life so I found it easier to do without the car."

Having had to let go of her much-cherished Audi A4, Motaung joined a growing number of South Africa's so-called "black diamonds" who had fallen foul of the credit crunch and faced the heartache of repossession.

While a rise in interest rates, inflation and food and fuel prices have hit all sectors of South African society, research shows that the biggest sufferers have been members of the emerging black middle class.

With rising frustration, South African unions launched a nationwide strike on Wednesday over the rise in prices that hit major sectors of the economy.
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http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?ArticleId=1518-25_2370733

Buy! Buy! Buy! but cannot afford it, commonsense out the window for that law firm manager:eek:
 
lol@some of the replies on the article page

Pop Idol on 2008/08/25 09:24:25 AM - Typical....

Black Diamonds?? oh PLEASE,theyre still Black and not used to ANYTHING.So they get themselves into debt and if they fail to meet their payments,they blame apartheid.So TYPICAL of the black chess pieces.Whites and us Coloureds are used to paying for everything so we know how to budget.
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don't know so much about it being apartheids fault ( but you never know ;)) and credit act has hit everybody but it does seem that "newly advantaged" ( previously disadvantaged is so 80's has been hit the hardest...

While a rise in interest rates, inflation and food and fuel prices have hit all sectors of South African society, research shows that the biggest sufferers have been members of the emerging black middle class.
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"The information we receive from bank indicates that the upper class with home loans from R2m-R5m were the worst affected," said Coovadia.

"These people have accumulated a string of expensive assets and are now finding it hard to maintain their lifestyles."
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For the black middle class, hopefully by the second generation they are more used to money and more informed and will become more responsible regarding credit. Who can blame someone for buying the flashy BMW when he starts to earn the "big bucks". My first pay cheques as a whitey also went to "toys", albeit a little bit less expensive and not requiring credit, but I did not have friends who saw material things as the way to judge me.
 
jmak said:
For the black middle class, hopefully by the second generation they are more used to money and more informed and will become more responsible regarding credit. Who can blame someone for buying the flashy BMW when he starts to earn the "big bucks". My first pay cheques as a whitey also went to "toys", albeit a little bit less expensive and not requiring credit, but I did not have friends who saw material things as the way to judge me.
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I respecfully disagree.

There are a lot of people - of whatever colour - who knows how to work with money and does not run out and buy the most expensive **** with their first proper salary cheque.
 
jmak said:
For the black middle class, hopefully by the second generation they are more used to money and more informed and will become more responsible regarding credit. Who can blame someone for buying the flashy BMW when he starts to earn the "big bucks". My first pay cheques as a whitey also went to "toys", albeit a little bit less expensive and not requiring credit, but I did not have friends who saw material things as the way to judge me.
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LOL, dude it's not only blacks who are prone to buying expensive cars.
 
theyre still Black and not used to ANYTHING.So they get themselves into debt and if they fail to meet their payments
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Basic personal financial management is not something that any person needs to "get used to", you can do it correctly from day one, as it's just a little bit of elementary logic, reason and math. It doesn't require any more skills than the typical 12-year old has. The rationalization that people need to "learn" from bad debt experiences when they're "younger" is just a sh-t excuse that people use to avoid admitting their inane denials of reality and wishful thinking. (Sure there will always be true "bad luck", but the majority of bad debt experiences aren't.)
 
killadoob said:
LOL, dude it's not only blacks who are prone to buying expensive cars.
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x2 My dad can't budget for crap and he's white, he had A LOT of debt a few years back, luckily I inherited my Mom's business sense, thank god. :D
 
Turtle said:
Basic personal financial management is not something that any person needs to "get used to", you can do it correctly from day one, as it's just a little bit of elementary logic, reason and math. It doesn't require any more skills than the typical 12-year old has. The rationalization that people need to "learn" from bad debt experiences when they're "younger" is just a sh-t excuse that people use to avoid admitting their inane denials of reality and wishful thinking. (Sure there will always be true "bad luck", but the majority of bad debt experiences aren't.)
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The problem is if you're sitting with a bit of money, most people don't know what to do with it, leaving it in the bank is a waste and maybe they just need a bit more to get that something they want, also buying is a sickness, I've seen it before, once you pop, you can't stop (at least for some people).
 
Turtle said:
Basic personal financial management is not something that any person needs to "get used to", you can do it correctly from day one, as it's just a little bit of elementary logic, reason and math. It doesn't require any more skills than the typical 12-year old has. The rationalization that people need to "learn" from bad debt experiences when they're "younger" is just a sh-t excuse that people use to avoid admitting their inane denials of reality and wishful thinking. (Sure there will always be true "bad luck", but the majority of bad debt experiences aren't.)
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Amen to that

how somebody in a high ranking position in a law firm didn't apply the logic,reason or math before getting herself into debt is mind boggling, love to know which law firm this is so I can avoid them at all cost unless it is a firm defending zuma in his trial ;)
 
Accuse a black diamond of overspending and advise him to tighten the belt (as an individual in his private capacity) or trim the excess fat (as a business entity) and he'll accuse you of being racist!!
 
I wish my first car could have been an Audi A4, perhaps you should set your sights a little lower there Thembi.
 
Yeah... my first car was a 90's model Corolla!

Why can't they also drive with that??
 
Ady said:
I wish my first car could have been an Audi A4
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Never mind first, I'm on my third car and I haven't reached that yet (currently drive an old Sentra I bought second-hand when I started working). My first car was one of those old boxy Toyota Cressida's, I think early 80s model that I bought (used) for about R5K around 1998, it got stolen; second was a (used) little Renault 1400 that was very unreliable and practically fell apart. These were my "student cars".
 
Ady said:
I wish my first car could have been an Audi A4, perhaps you should set your sights a little lower there Thembi.
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Yip lol! Taxi - Audi A4 - taxi... If she had a Toyota Run X or Polo she would have been fine.
 
nowhere does it say that it was her first car.

But to the point of the article – I think one will find that most classes of society across all race groups have been suffering in the last 18months or so. Business included. Unless one is to believe that all retail sales and vehicle sales in South Africa are driven by the black diamonds – in which case then our economy is in more trouble than we realise.

of course that doesn't go to say they haven't lost their shine.
 
I doubt that any form of research or statisitcal analysis was undertaken to come to such a conclusion. It would have been more newsworthy had there been some form of camparitive study performed. I think everyone who is indebted is bound to suffer, regardless of their luxurious possessions. The rise in fuel cost, electricity, and food prices should affect everybody just as much.
 
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