How much money it takes to be happy in South Africa

[Mike Hoxbig]

They would be in a better position if they didn’t have 3 kids.

Or if she didn't have parents...

 

[konfab]

Again why must it be the best plan available? And why isn't the lazy ass wife also working especially to help support her parents? 35k for medical aid is beyond ridiculous.

15k just for them, jeez man now we're scraping the bottom of the barrel to find exceptional circumstances to determine why 1m is peanuts...

It an example to show why 1m doesn't go that far. Someone earning that salary would still have to make careful financial choices.

I would recon that you would need to earn something like R100k after tax in order to really not care about financial expenses for the most part.

 

[Sinbad]

It an example to show why 1m doesn't go that far. Someone earning that salary would still have to make careful financial choices.

I would recon that you would need to earn something like R100k after tax in order to really not care about financial expenses for the most part.

Even then - if you're not careful, expenses expand to occupy all available cash.
R100k a month is easy to do if you buy a nice car or two and a couple of properties.

 

[TStringList]

I know the cost of living is higher these days but I don't understand some of these bond and medical aid costs.

Just now someone will say that 200k per month is the minimum to live comfortably.

 

[azbob]

I know the cost of living is higher these days but I don't understand some of these bond and medical aid costs.

Just now someone will say that 200k per month is the minimum to live comfortably.

That’s only R125k after tax.

If you want a decent house in a decent area, that’s around R80k pm. Leaving you with only R45k.

Medical aid is at least R5k
Car repayments R25k
Groceries R5k (if you starve yourself or buy from shoprite that is)

So you’re only left with R10k for savings, school fees and others costs.

Make it R300k pm and you just might be able to get by.

 

[Harmonic]

Aren’t you renting an apartment for R30k pm or something? Doesn’t sound like you’ve learnt.

At the moment yes, I bought a farm a couple of months ago from and elderly couple in their 70s. Part of the deal was that they can stay there rent free for 6 months after transfer while they find an old age home.

By accommodating this, I got a fat discount on the price.

 

[notayoba]

The price to live what used to be considered a middle class lifestyle is sky high.

In SA that would be:

-Roof over your head: 3 bed house, somewhere not particularly fancy. bond/rent + rates,taxes,water,electricity : 20k/month

-2 kids in a mid-tier private school. 10k/month

-Medical aid for the family. 6k

-Armed response. R500

-Fiber internet. R900

-Cellphones for all. R1200

-2 cheap reliable cars. R7000/m

-Pension savings 5k?

-Insurance for house/cars. R3000

-Petrol 3k?

-Household/Garden maintenance R1500

You're up to 60k pm take home pay now, which is what? 85k/month salary?

And now you still have to buy clothes/food and beer and maybe a pencil or 2 for the kids.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

That’s only R125k after tax.

If you want a decent house in a decent area, that’s around R80k pm. Leaving you with only R45k.

Medical aid is at least R5k
Car repayments R25k
Groceries R5k (if you starve yourself or buy from shoprite that is)

So you’re only left with R10k for savings, school fees and others costs.

Make it R300k pm and you just might be able to get by.

Then you're looking at a 120k bond, 50k car payments and only one overseas holiday. The struggle is real. Also fsck those striking workers demanding 10% on their massive R6k salaries...

 

[TStringList]

The price to live what used to be considered a middle class lifestyle is sky high.

In SA that would be:

-Roof over your head: 3 bed house, somewhere not particularly fancy. bond/rent + rates,taxes,water,electricity : 20k/month

-2 kids in a mid-tier private school. 10k/month

-Medical aid for the family. 6k

-Armed response. R500

-Fiber internet. R900

-Cellphones for all. R1200

-2 cheap reliable cars. R7000/m

-Pension savings 5k?

-Insurance for house/cars. R3000

-Petrol 3k?

-Household/Garden maintenance R1500

You're up to 60k pm take home pay now, which is what? 85k/month salary?

And now you still have to buy clothes/food and beer and maybe a pencil or 2 for the kids.

This is quite a reasonable estimate and I must say that I agree that 85k is just about cutting it here.

 

[SAguy]

The price to live what used to be considered a middle class lifestyle is sky high.

In SA that would be:

-Roof over your head: 3 bed house, somewhere not particularly fancy. bond/rent + rates,taxes,water,electricity : 20k/month

-2 kids in a mid-tier private school. 10k/month

-Medical aid for the family. 6k

-Armed response. R500

-Fiber internet. R900

-Cellphones for all. R1200

-2 cheap reliable cars. R7000/m

-Pension savings 5k?

-Insurance for house/cars. R3000

-Petrol 3k?

-Household/Garden maintenance R1500

You're up to 60k pm take home pay now, which is what? 85k/month salary?

And now you still have to buy clothes/food and beer and maybe a pencil or 2 for the kids.

Good estimates IMO

Only thing I would change is that if your gross is about 85k/month then you should be putting away at least R12k for pension. Roughly 15% of gross.

Then there's also no savings, which may seem like a luxury but if you have no savings and your car breaks then what do you do - take out debt.

I learned to live with putting 10% of net away into savings. So you're closer to needing a gross of R100k/month to have a sense of financial freedom in an average middle class life.

 

[notayoba]

Good estimates IMO

Only thing I would change is that if your gross is about 85k/month then you should be putting away at least R12k for pension. Roughly 15% of gross.

Then there's also no savings, which may seem like a luxury but if you have no savings and your car breaks then what do you do - take out debt.

I learned to live with putting 10% of net away into savings. So you're closer to needing a gross of R100k/month to have a sense of financial freedom in an average middle class life.

I think 100k sounds about right, my example was sort of scraping by/base line for that level of existence. And with that 100k there still can't be too much spending on 'extravagant' things like hobbies, sport, travel and entertainment.

But seriously, if you just live to pay essential bills and survive, you've got to start wondering about the point of it all. It's the hobbies/sport/entertainment/'extravagant' things that make life worth living. But that's a separate existential dread discussion.

Edit: I shake my head every day looking around me. People that I know cannot possibly be earning that type of cash rolling in R1m cars, and kids in 15k/kid/month schools. Something does not compute. Either insane levels of debt, or inheritances or lotto winnings, or a lot of my acquaintances are criminals.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Good estimates IMO

Only thing I would change is that if your gross is about 85k/month then you should be putting away at least R12k for pension. Roughly 15% of gross.

Then there's also no savings, which may seem like a luxury but if you have no savings and your car breaks then what do you do - take out debt.

I learned to live with putting 10% of net away into savings. So you're closer to needing a gross of R100k/month to have a sense of financial freedom in an average middle class life.

The biggest difference IMO is to have both spouses working and contributing. Then you have 2 sets of savings. This is really the biggest change from yesteryear when families could afford stay at home mums. If that is still the case, it's going to be a lot harder...

 

[hellfire]

R20k gone in tax
R3k in medical aid
If you save for retirement, that's another R10k

Now you're down to R50k before you've even paid for house or car.

throw kids in, medical aid doubles.
private school for those kids, another 10k-20k a month depending on age and how many kids.

 

[SAguy]

I think 100k sounds about right, my example was sort of scraping by/base line for that level of existence. And with that 100k there still can't be too much spending on 'extravagant' things like hobbies, sport, travel and entertainment.

But seriously, if you just live to pay essential bills and survive, you've got to start wondering about the point of it all. It's the hobbies/sport/entertainment/'extravagant' things that make life worth living. But that's a separate existential dread discussion.

Edit: I shake my head every day looking around me. People that I know cannot possibly be earning that type of cash rolling in R1m cars, and kids in 15k/kid/month schools. Something does not compute. Either insane levels of debt, or inheritances or lotto winnings, or a lot of my acquaintances are criminals.

Yup, my wife and I do relatively well and I can't afford a R1m car. Then I see laaities with R1m cars and I don't know how they do it.

 

[SAguy]

The biggest difference IMO is to have both spouses working and contributing. Then you have 2 sets of savings. This is really the biggest change from yesteryear when families could afford stay at home mums. If that is still the case, it's going to be a lot harder...

Yeah, a family of 3 or 4 who are trying to live an average middle class suburb life could be ok on R85-100k a month - but without a second income you are likely to be living month to month.

Amazed how the previous generation could do everything on one income. Though there was also less to life back then: No cellphone contracts, no computer upgrades, no morning runs to get bootleggers coffee. Sure, a lot of these things are luxuries, but if you don't have them then it's harder to enjoy life.

 

[s0lar]

Yup, my wife and I do relatively well and I can't afford a R1m car. Then I see laaities with R1m cars and I don't know how they do it.

Exactly the same this side. According to the "what you earn and spend it" thread. I have no idea how these guys afford the cars and houses they own. Truly stumped other than they must be screwing the tax man or living way above their means and riding credit.

I haven't touched my credit card in over 5 years and intend to keep it that way.

 

[Snyper564]

Exactly the same this side. According to the "what you earn and spend it" thread. I have no idea how these guys afford the cars and houses they own. Truly stumped other than they must be screwing the tax man or living way above their means and riding credit.

I haven't touched my credit card in over 5 years and intend to keep it that way.

I would assume many live way beyond their means and just make MINIMUM monthly debt repayments on CC.

Its expensive to keep up with the Jones you know ;P

 

[backstreetboy]

 

[3WA]

throw kids in,

Never!

If you ever see me posting about how I’ve got a kid and it’s wonderful to be a father, know that the contraception failed and the kid was an accident and I’m just lying to myself about the joys of fatherhood while my soul is dying.

 

[OhYeah84]

Getting rid of the ANC would ensure that all the money in the world couldn't come to generating as much happiness!