Financial advice please

Sjo, that is hectic. Once you have an account paid of, get rid of it. I chose to go a debt free lifestyle and it is really nice. Will probably have to get a house on debt some day, otherwise nothing. All that money could have gone into savings.
 
Snyper564 said:
Would seriously advise creating a budget and looking where the expenditure is going. A year or so ago I sat down and looked at every expense closely and found a number of items that could be reduced for example going to prepaid used to be R1200 a month now R200. That's a saving of 12k a year. Managed to change insurers and saved R500 a month that way that's R6k a year. These are just two items those two alone saved me R18k a year and that's not a small sum at all. It does take discipline my wife and I have what we refer to as the "receipt jar" every receipt we get goes in there and she logs it onto excel at the end of the month I can track every months spend on everything since the day we got married and can closely see what goes where. This is absolutely key to good money management.

If you don't track your spend it will get the better of you.

All the best I really wish you well, I can imagine its not going to be easy.
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Why not just use 22seven? You won't have to go through the huge exercise of putting things in excel and it can track investments, savings, etc
 
jman said:
Why not just use 22seven? You won't have to go through the huge exercise of putting things in excel and it can track investments, savings, etc
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Thanks will have a look into this, the thing is we usually take things a step further for example. Pnp + woolies -> not only groceries but toiletries too, I know this might be super overkill for some but we like to know where everything is and be able to see exactly why there was an extra R1000 spent etc... It all adds up at the end of the day. Its an effort but I am comfortable and I like to be comfortable so its worth it! :)
 
RedViking said:
Sjo, that is hectic. Once you have an account paid of, get rid of it. I chose to go a debt free lifestyle and it is really nice. Will probably have to get a house on debt some day, otherwise nothing. All that money could have gone into savings.
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Same here, this is the best approach, my only debt is the house everything else is cash... CASH is KING!
 
Snyper564 said:
Thanks will have a look into this, the thing is we usually take things a step further for example. Pnp + woolies -> not only groceries but toiletries too, I know this might be super overkill for some but we like to know where everything is and be able to see exactly why there was an extra R1000 spent etc... It all adds up at the end of the day. Its an effort but I am comfortable and I like to be comfortable so its worth it! :)
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You can easily categorise them separately after the fact in the app/website. One category for toiletries, one for groceries - then allocate separate transactions to their respective category
 
jman said:
You can easily categorise them separately after the fact in the app/website. One category for toiletries, one for groceries - then allocate separate transactions to their respective category
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Oh ok, will def look into it then :)
 
jman said:
You can easily categorise them separately after the fact in the app/website. One category for toiletries, one for groceries - then allocate separate transactions to their respective category
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Used to use it but it got a bit tedious to maintain. Like inter account transfers would sometimes be categorised as an income/expense on one side, but not on the other, which messes the balances up. And some spend wouldn't be categorised correctly etc. Then when you do make all the manual adjustments, it wouldn't remember, then you'd have to do it over again the next month...
 
Thank you all for your advice.

At present I am basically doing exactly as has been mentioned, but wasn’t sure which card to focus on.

I won’t respond individually as that would take an age, but in summary:

No medical aid, monthly expenses are rent, food, petrol, vehicle and insurance, credit cards, a small life insurance policy and cellphone.

Most of the debt was due to vehicular expenses and trying to prevent losing a job, not really random splurging. Either way it’s there and needs handling.

Thank you for your responses - in addition to budgeting and self discipline, I shall pursue the overdraft/ personal loan route and see what’s on offer.

The real solution of course is to earn more money, and that’s a large focus of my energies at present.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
No it's not. Risky af. But I get your point...
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Look when I say cash is king I use my credit cards to pay for all my monthly expenses so I can get my rewards (that's a whole other story) etc... BUT if I spend R5k on groceries I don't spend R10k just because I have that on the credit card. The biggest trap I think is not settling every credit card every month. That is what I do. I really don't carry cash at all its just the concept :)
 
Earning more money helps.

I don't know what your educational background is, but I'd recommend you look at Coursera. It is an online learning platform. You can skill yourself up. Not saying it is as valuable as a degree, but I think it counts.

You can do the courses free of charge, in which case you would not earn a certificate. Or, pay for a certificate, which is a few hundred Rand. But the best option for you is to ask Coursera for financial aid. Pretty sure you would qualify. Then your certificates will be free and you can use them to get a better job.
 
Debtridden said:
Thank you all for your advice.

At present I am basically doing exactly as has been mentioned, but wasn’t sure which card to focus on.

I won’t respond individually as that would take an age, but in summary:

No medical aid, monthly expenses are rent, food, petrol, vehicle and insurance, credit cards, a small life insurance policy and cellphone.

Most of the debt was due to vehicular expenses and trying to prevent losing a job, not really random splurging. Either way it’s there and needs handling.

Thank you for your responses - in addition to budgeting and self discipline, I shall pursue the overdraft/ personal loan route and see what’s on offer.

The real solution of course is to earn more money, and that’s a large focus of my energies at present.
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Great! Then my only recommendation is try and at least get a hospital plan. My wife's medical bills hit R48k in one week with some bizarre viral infection, its not worth the risk...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Used to use it but it got a bit tedious to maintain. Like inter account transfers would sometimes be categorised as an income/expense on one side, but not on the other, which messes the balances up. And some spend wouldn't be categorised correctly etc. Then when you do make all the manual adjustments, it wouldn't remember, then you'd have to do it over again the next month...
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I too experience this. Just takes some extra effort. Maybe I'll be less motivated to do it in the future
 
Kosmik said:
No, the real solution is to budget and live within your means. Doesn't matter how much money you earn.
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+100 Could not agree more, just because you earn more doesnt mean you should spend more... this is just another trap...

Maybe not your cup of tea but worth a read: Everything That Remains its a book on scaling down, makes you realise exactly what you really need.
 
With the credit cards, surely you pay more interest (at the same interest rate) on the higher amounts owed?
 
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Kosmik said:
No, the real solution is to budget and live within your means. Doesn't matter how much money you earn.
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Whilst I do agree with you on that, there’s not much future survival if you don’t up your income. Living within meager means is no sort of life, it’s also unambitious. So it’s a balancing act, but certainly shouldn’t only be done with the view of living within current constraints. That’s all I was saying.
 
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