Hi guys, 27F in Cape Town. I've never been taught how sctual life finances work, right down to the small fact that I dont even have a credit score.

I work an online job that pays me pennies, I earn around 9k per month, 10 if I pull extra late night shifts. I have a final job interview for a similar job woth similar pay, so I will (hopefully) be working 2 jobs soon. Both salaries combined, I should be making 20k at least.

I have no savings, my partner relies on me (too much, but that's another long story) we currently live in a granny flat on his father's property for the past 8 years, and its become increasingly tense and i want out. We pay utilities, no rent, which is a blessing, but id rather be paying rent somewhere that isn't so hostile and awful.

My partner wants to build onto this granny flat because he thinks his father will let us rent the place out and keep the profits. I know for a fact this "deal " will not last long at all. I dont want to spend another penny on this place, I just want somewhere to call MY OWN HOME. But I know that on my salary, this is near impossible.

Ontop of that, I have a dog who is my soulmate, and 3 cats. Im not willing to give up my animals, especially my dog. The cats are recent rescues and we are trying to find homes for them because they are fosters, but my dog is a rottweiler who is very sweet, but no one sees past the breed. Pet friendly rentals are impossible to find, im willing to move a while away. But id like to stay relatively close to my parents because im close with them.

As someone with ZERO financial knowledge, how can I start saving money? Where can I save it so that it will gain interest? What are my options for finding a place to call home? Is there any way I could get a home loan in the future to build a tiny home somewhere near by? I am lost, I need to think of my future and I am running out of time, its making me anxious and scared and I need help. Any advice, please.

EDIT TO ADD: I have no credit score, my job labels me as a contractor so I dont get payslips or anything employee related, I dont know where to start with anything.

Hi guys. I am a 24 year old female ( turning 25 in a few months) and I have no car or a place of my own. I've been having a tug of war between moving out and getting my first car. Initially a car was the goal because I work far from home and travel time with the taxis is +/- 2 hours. Getting a car would have been more convenient and saved me time for my studies aswell ( I am studying to become a CGMA). I ended up changing my mind and started thinking about moving out. Moving out without a car didn't make sense at first, but being the first born daughter was reason enough for me. I would move closer to the office and move in with a friend to make it easier for us. The friend has decided to not move out of home and now I'm stuck again. I don't know if I should still take the risk of moving out or rather get my first car.
I earn below 20k and I feel like renting would be a big burden on my salary.

Recently got promoted. The promotion came with a pathetic 5% increase, despite significantly more responsibility - and being lowballed in previous “promotions”

Im wondering whether I should push for a market-related adjustment or just start looking elsewhere.

The problem is… I’m somewhat comfortable. I like the familiarity, flexibility and people, and I’m not desperate to leave. But this money doesnt cut it, and i presume i will continue to be lowballed if i stay without adjusting to market for this role.

Would you:
Push for an adjustment internally, then leave if they say no?
Start interviewing now and see what the market offers?

Appreciate any insights

Hi everyone. I have been investing in 10x Total World within my TFSA on EE and in my regular ZAR EE account as a discretionary investiment. But I have been considering investing directly into Vanguard Total World within my EE USD account, as the 10x Total world is anyway the feeder fund for VT.

Vanguard Total World TER = 0.07%

10x Total world = 0.29%

Both invest in the same fund, so VT feels like a no brainer. I know there's a 0.5% FX conversation fees, but the lower fund fees should offset this in the long term. Is there something im missing?

Would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

Hi folks, could someone explain the ongoing ETF fees on Easy Equities to me like I'm a 5-year old please? I haven't seen any fees pop up since purchasing my ETF's - are fees somehow deducted automatically? Is there a consideration somewhere (eg only at purchase and sale)? TIA

I bank with Investec and this week noticed an unusual MTN debit order coming off my account. I have never had an MTN account or any dealings with MTN.

After going to MTN, I discovered that someone had opened an account in my name. They have my name slightly misspelt and an incorrect email address, but somehow have my correct banking details. They then used the MTN account, and the charges were debited from my Investec account.

MTN has apparently opened a fraud investigation, although getting assistance from them has been difficult so far. Investec has helped me submit a stop-payment request and a debit-order reversal, and has advised me to report the identity theft to SAPS.

SAPS has unfortunately been another struggle. I was initially told they couldn't open a case because I don't know who committed the identity theft, which seems rather strange, since surely identifying the perpetrator is part of the investigation. I eventually went back to Sandton SAPS and was told to return with a bank-stamped statement, which I'm doing now.

I'm particularly interested in how someone obtained both my personal information and my banking details. Two organisations that have recently had fairly extensive information from me are UNISA, where I was completing a degree, and SARS, as I was recently audited. NB: I'm not suggesting either organisation was responsible — I'm simply trying to identify the possible weak link and would appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar.

What I’ve done so far:

• Contacted MTN directly and opened a fraud case.
• Contacted Investec and requested a stop payment and debit-order reversal.
• Pulled my credit report. Thankfully, the new MTN account/enquiry is the only unusual activity I can find.
• Registered with the South African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) and am waiting for that process to be completed.
• Started the process of reporting the identity theft to SAPS.

Questions for everyone:

1. What else can I do to protect myself?
2. Has anyone experienced identity theft or fraudulent accounts being opened after dealing with either of these organisations, or found out where their information was compromised?
3. Has anyone experienced something similar with MTN?

Should I submit or not? I don't know what to do.

If I submit the IRP6 I'm liable for approx. R7k provisional tax payment, but my employer covers it through PAYE. I'm not drawing any income from my side business during this period.

Hi everyone I just started an online side hustle that pays quiet well for the hours and I also have a day job that I pay taxes for.

When/ how much do I start paying taxes for this new money that I will be receiving and how do I check how much those tax that will be.

I have quite a bit of debt I want to close with this money so I don’t want to use all of it and next thing I find that I owe sars thousands of money.

It has been proven from time and time again that properties in South Africa (excluding Western Cape) have underperformed the JSE Top 40 never mind S&P 500, yet people still invest in them. WHY? I mean the stress involved in managing tenants, poor service delivery from municipalities and high rates and property taxes.

Here is a scenario.I am with Capitec and have 50k in my TFSA.I want to invest it in for eg Satrix Top 40.Every month I max out my limit at R3830 per month.I open a EE account and have the funds moved over to them into a TFSA so I do not withdraw the money and lose that benefit.I purchase 50k of Satrix Top 40.I have a debit order for R3830 every month from my personal account to this TFSA.Is it possible to have a instruction that this amount gets invested into Satrix Top 40 monthly as it is paid in?

Hi everyone,

I am 24 years old - almost a qualified CA(SA) and I have a burning question.

How do people afford driving new Rangers/Toyota’s, having a wedding and sommer buying a house in the span of 2 years?

My estimated salary (ataying in audit) will be around R700k per annum from next year. That will never allow me to have that luxuries?

Am I missing something?

Hi,

My sister and I are going to be purchasing a property cash for R530 000 where we will be renting them out, from there we will then be looking into purchasing our second property roughly the same price and once that is done we will have some money for a deposit on the third and finance the rest. So basically building a small portfolio that will pay for the next property etc..

The question I’m sitting with is whether or not we should open up a PTY LTD for the purchasing of these properties or have it in our personal names?

I’ve always thought the right way would be in a PTY LTD, can someone just help me clarify this?

I've had it with FNB and ABSA.
I need a bank that will:
1) allow me to access a complete list of transactions for as long as I need to
2) email me a CSV and PDF monthly

Apparently that is too much to ask of FNB and ABSA??

I'm trying to understand gap cover better after recently discovering that my understanding of it was way too simplistic.

I always thought it basically worked like this:

Hospital procedure costs R100k.

Medical aid pays R80k.

Gap cover potentially helps with the R20k.

But apparently why the medical aid only paid R80k matters a lot.

For example, say your medical aid will pay up to R30k for a certain type of equipment during an authorised operation. The hospital uses R40k worth. Medical aid disburses/cascades the first R30k amongst the first few equipment line items and then pays R0 on the remaining R10k worth of equipment items.

Some gap policies, as I now understand them, may not cover that R10k at all because the medical aid paid nothing towards those particular line items even though they covered R30k out of R40k for that group of items.

Looking at it differently, if the medical aid had disbursed the amounts such that each line item got a piece of the R30k (instead of cascading it), then the gap cover would then have to cover the remaining line items up to the percentage above medical aid risk that they pay.

So to my questions now....

1. Is this generally how gap cover works in SA?

2. Are there gap policies that would cover the first example too?

3. What other common gaps (lol) are there that people only discover when they actually claim?

4. What wording or benefits should I specifically look for when comparing providers?

I'm not really interested in which company advertises 300% vs 500% etc. I'm trying to understand what risks are actually covered and which ones I'm still carrying myself.

EDIT - To further explain the scenario:

1. There are, say, 8 items each costing R5k. Total R40k.
2. Each of those items are lumped under a single equipment benefit of R30k.
3. So therefore 2 items receive R0 from the R30K.
4. Insurance did pay the R30k. But the amount was cascaded to only 6 items.
5. I would expect gap cover would consider those two items a gap because medical paid R30k but...
6. ... because those two items got R0, gap cover doesn't consider them a gap. And that you're fully liable for them.

So Ive been withdrawing money from Paypal to my FNB account for like 2 years now, but today out of nowhere when i do the usual, go to Forex-> Paypal, the Paypal option is missing. The only options are ‘Forex rates’ and ‘About Forex’, idk if this is just a me issue or…

My 66 year old mom is unemployed and the house she has been living in has just sold. She will be getting about R800 000 from the sale (co-owner).

I’m looking for suggestions for the best place/way to invest this money so that she can withdraw the interest every month to try supplement her income. I know it won’t be much, but hoping it can at least cover rent for her somewhere. She has no other investments or retirement/pension funds other than a SASSA grant. Other income is between R5-10k from ad-hoc baby-sitting, and flower arranging. I will likely also have to contribute where I can.

Her expenses include rent, groceries, a cheap hospital plan, and R500 car insurance.

I am not looking to preserve/grow the capital for it to outlive my mom, honestly just want to make it work as best as possible for her whilst she’s alive. I’m also not looking for advice on decreasing her expenses or increasing her income in other ways. I just want to know what investment opportunities are available for a retiree and what I can expect from the interest each month.

Very basic research has brought up things like government retail bonds but I honestly have no clue where to even start.

I’m considering hiring a financial advisor and would be grateful for recommendations for where to find one, and what I can expect to pay for their services.

I have zero experience in this world and honestly feel completely unqualified to be the adult making these decisions, so please have some grace in your responses.

Hi there everyone

I’m going through a pretty scary part of my life and I need an adult to help me navigate 🥲

During Covid times my family had their business shut down and we’re pretty much on the cusp of losing everything, my parents couldn’t feed my brother and sister and everything was falling apart

Stupidly I took out debt to keep them from getting their cars repossessed, kicked out of their house and help them keep food on the table, looking back on it now I probably would do it again I mean it’s family, however i am absolutely drowning in debt that I just cannot manage anymore and my parents will not help whatsoever (lesson learned we don’t talk anymore). I am about 200k in debt excluding my car which is my only asset, I don’t have any clothing or phone contracts all my debt is in loans, credit cards and overdraft fees.

My entire salary is instantly gone every month and I just can’t do this anymore I need help. FNB will not give me a consolidation loan and I don’t know how to help myself out of this situation I try to live as minimally as possible with some treats here and there I pay for wi fi every month.

Please can someone help me navigate this I just want to get my life on track so that my wife and I can build the future that we want and move forward.

Screenshot of my budget sheet

https://imgur.com/a/vV3TxDK

Good day. I hope everybody is well.

I need some advice please.

I would like to find out is it possible to change the repayment terms on vehicle finance.

I am currently paying around R4800 per month for 72 months.

I would rather like to pay R6000 per month for the loan to get paid faster.

Is it possible to ask the lender to debit more money per month.

The lender is toyota financial services.

The loan started on 2025-04-01.

There is no balloon.

The vehicle is a Toyota Vitz 1.0XR AMT.

Your assistance will be highly appreciated.

I've been doing some research into emergency funds and recently reopened my old TymeBank account. From what I can see, it's possible to earn up to 10% interest with a 10-day notice period on the Goalsaver account. At the moment, my emergency fund is sitting in a Discovery savings account, but I'm considering moving it.

My idea is to split my emergency fund into several pots of around R30,000 each (roughly one month's living expenses per pot). The fund is largely inactive most of the time, so earning a higher interest rate on it seems like a no-brainer.

My questions are:

How do you actually activate the 10% interest rate? I can see a banner in the app mentioning a 10-day notice account and saying "activate here", but I can't find anywhere to enable it.

Does anyone here use goTymeBank for their emergency fund? If so, how have you structured it?

Are there any catches, limitations, or downsides that I should be aware of before moving a portion of my emergency fund across?

Keen to hear from anyone with first-hand experience.

30M from Cape Town, working in investor relations with background in finance/ economics. Acquired and then sold a small business (staff-run laundromat) about 60% return in 2.5 years. I’m looking for opportunities to invest/ acquire/ build another business but would like to partner with someone this time. I feel that it’s a better way to go (for solid growth) as opposed to just keeping the cash in unit trusts/ ETFs. Ideas on how best to go about this?

How are you using your Nedbank private banking benefits to make the monthly fees worth it?

When I started working, I joined Investec because they made me feel special and I was hoping they would give me favourable borrowings rates.

Then I joined discovery bank in addition, bought the cheapest life policy (R200 a month) so that I can have access to vitality. Discovery has been the most successful at gamifying their rewards programme. They cooked!

Fast forward to this year, I applied for a home loan, and Nedbank gave me the best interest rate, but the condition is that I have to have a private bank account with them. WOW they suck. I have to email the banker consistently because there was an issue with opening my account. I miss the “personal relationship” with Investec where they made me feel valued.

Nedbank private clients, please tell me how amazing they are so I can feel more at peace.

I've been with Investec about 15 years and my monthly fee is about to tick over R700. I don't mind paying premium fees — I'd happily pay more — if the service justified it. Right now I don't think it does.

What Investec used to be:

• My private banker met with me roughly every six months. Real conversations about goals, debt, and informal financial guidance.
• Bankers had a stipend to take existing clients for coffee. That's now redirected to new client acquisition only — existing clients are effectively deprioritised.
• Annual client events at the KZN office — dinners, talks, genuine networking. Either those have stopped or I'm off the list.

What's changed:

• Interactions feel transactional.
• Prime Saver rates are no longer market-leading.
• Recently priced vehicle finance — 2–3 day turnaround and the rate wasn't compelling enough to beat paying cash. I paid cash.
• App and ATM access are still good, and I want to stay fully digital — no branch visits.

What I'm looking for:

1. Fully digital banking (any ATM, app, email).
2. A real relationship banker, not a call-centre queue.
3. Competitive savings and lending rates for a premium-fee client.
4. Value-add: complimentary financial guidance, client events, networking.

Has anyone moved to FNB Private Wealth, Standard Bank Signature/Private, Nedbank Private Wealth, RMB Private Bank, or Discovery Bank Purple? Honest experiences welcome — especially from people who've left Investec recently. Is the grass actually greener, or is this just where premium SA retail banking is heading?

I opened a Pty Ltd about a year ago. For most of that time: crickets.
I finally got my first client and they paid R16,000 into the company bank account.

The situation is currently:
• Client paid: R16,000
• Company owes me about R500 for money I personally spent opening the bank account
• Website expense of about R4,000 is due shortly
•No other expenses

Basically one client and one tiny little company
Now I have absolutely no idea what I’m supposed to do next.

How do I do the company tax return thingy?
Do I need to pay myself anything from the company? Is it worth withdrawing some money personally, or should I just leave everything in the company and eventually pay the 27% corporate tax?

And at the same time, SARS has contacted me saying I need to file my personal tax return. Normally I get auto-assessed, but I assume because I now show up as a director of a company, I have to file manually.

So where the hell do I start?

Can someone please explain this to me like I’m 5?
I have AuDHD and I’m aware this is probably not rocket science, but I’ve sat on this for so long that I’m now extremely anxious and stressed about it.

Something that should probably take an afternoon has somehow become a psychological mountain.
I’ve also discovered that most accountants seem completely uninterested in helping with tiny little companies because I don’t have a minimum R50 million turnover apparently.

I just need someone to explain:
“You have R16k. Do X. Record Y. File Z. Pay this. Then do this on your personal SARS return.”
That level of explanation..

Also, why the bleep isn’t basic tax/admin for running a company taught in schools?

Help please.