The Financial Matters.
It's time out for our financial Matters feature. This is the Obumasanga show. I'm commato, I'm in for bra orbs this evening and my guest is in studio. He does a lot of content around financial matters and his name is the Masasa. He's a YouTube content creator. In fact, if you are on the socials, you might have come across his content. Actually, I think you must have come across his content. He's in studio this evening. The MASA good evening and welcome.
Hi.
How are you. I'm very well, I'm very well.
How I love the studios here. Really, it's so different from the other one. You guys must have spent a pretty opinion.
Listen. You know we don't always need to be saving.
Hey, we are people are they want to be happy? You know, I suppose it's an emotional buye. This was an emotional Bye.
Zamasa. You make a lot of content around financial is.
It's very niche, very specific, and you speak a lot about saving.
Why.
I think saving is the first part of a long journey to getting financial freedom right or ultimately getting the thing that you want. What a lot of people actually don't get is that it firstly starts with a mindset, right.
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine while driving here, and I'm sure she's listening, and one of the things that I was having a conversation about was that she's too focused on how much things cost her currently, rather than saying where can I make extra cash as a start, but then also saying when I get that extra cash, what do I do with it? Because generally it's not about how much you make, it's about how much you keep and what you do with it.
So more often than not, we are focused on the wrong things. Because when you sit with people and you say to them, let me assist you. Let's let's see what your what your last three months bank statements look like, it's like they get shocked. They're like, I did what Yeah, yeah, I spent that on that. Why would I This is not me exactly.
And why do you think that's the case.
Why do you think we aren't tracking our finances as.
We should be. I tried, you know, I'll tell you this much.
I try and keep a mental note, but I, like many people, I think, will never actually sit down and go through their specific things I bought, maybe I don't want to be confronted with the truths about my habits.
One hundred percent.
Most people don't want to actually see in black and white who they really are versus what they purport and see themselves in their minds as being because what you spend on is who you actually are and not the person that you think you are. And if you spend on yourself and your future self, future self always looks back and says, what did also do in twenty twenty
five to put me in this position? Because ultimately, what the life you will live in a year, in two years, in five years is the life that you craft today. So looking at those numbers actually freaks people out because it makes their problems real, and a lot of people
don't want that. But it's through facing that as a start that ultimately allows you to get you into your space where you can say, well, actually, I need to pay myself first as a principle, I need to save and yourself first doesn't mean you today, it means you in the future.
Why are you dragging us so hard? Why are you going in so hard?
Because we all suffer from the same thing, but at least having the frameworks or understanding or to say how do I spend? It needs to be systemized more than it needs to be you pulling all of this hard weight, and that's that's it's actually the hardest thing. But once you get it right, when you systemize how you do things, it becomes a little bit easier.
That's why you.
Always hear those crazy see people that are part of that fire community that want to retire earlier and all of that type of stuff. They say the craziest things, But when you look at it, it's like, no, what it really was was it was a system that was built specifically for the type of life that they wanted to get under the circumstances that we're in at that
point in time. So your system doesn't need to be as crazy as you're saying to yourself, I need to like not buy this particular coffee, I need to not do this thing I need to But what it means is that to say, whatch is my goal?
What do I want to achieve?
Watch is a system that can put around that and then less thinking every day and knowing that everything is systemized.
What does a saving mindset look like?
You know?
Because I like how you say it's not the I won't buy this coffee. And I love how many people I heard it in a different podcast where someone is like, not absolutely buy the coffee, you know, but but be alive to watch.
Your spending what you're spending on.
And I thought, what does the mindset of a save I actually look like?
Because I'm a spender, so.
I think, I think what it is is we're not We're not different because we want to buy. We're always constantly being our our lizard brain is being told every single day that bye bye bye bye, yep it. Buying is not the issue. Buying when you shouldn't be buying is the issue.
But how do I know? How do I know when I'm not supposed to be?
You know, if you can't afford something because you think about it too too many times before you make the purchase. You know, when you if I say to you, right now, let's go and run somewhere and you're like, oh, I need water man, that thing's gonna cost you like seven bucks, ten bucks. If it's if you really like trying it, you don't have to think about that.
Yeah.
But if I said, if I say to you, oh, like, there's this really new car that's just come out and you go, ooh, that car would really suit me. And then but you go and then you want to go check do I have affordability, could I get this car and whatnot. But in every step of the way to buying that car or thinking about buying that car, you feel you feel iffy, like, okay, let me go test do the test drive. Let me you know you're making the wrong choice right now, you know it. You shouldn't.
Your car is fine, and you're not in a position to be able to buy. And when you are in a position to be able to buy, what you have to try and do is not to buy the car above that car that you wanted because maybe you were in an A car but there was a BEE car. But maybe you're like, I can reach a B cup, but maybe I can balloon payment to get a C car.
Yeah, I mean, you live on and you know, my husband always says, if it's not chairman, it's not a car.
So I mean maybe you feel like, you know, I live.
Once we get that German machine, le men try it out, you know, and then if they take it back after them and it's okay.
And I want to say this too, I want to say this to people.
Yes, I don't get to this point where I'm here evangelizing all of this stuff. I'm here to give facts about what everybody else is going through. In South Africa. Most people their salaries don't last past five days. These
are the statistics on the ground five days. That's why we have a running joke in this country that says, you know, like when twelve o'clock hits on Payday, you're just literally hoping you would rather switch your phone off because you know the realities that you're gonna be faced with. So a lot of people are actually dealing with a lot.
It's not just you. Does that show that most people in South Africa are indebted one, but two they make purchases that they probably shouldn't and they don't have savings.
We don't have a savings culture in this country.
But at the same time, there are a portion of people who have started the people in collective investment schemes in stockfels who do get into the savings mechanism and it does help them out.
But a lot of people say they save for consumables. Yes, yes, so you join us stock.
I know for a fact many people around you you join us stockfel. You know that you are you. You are Namba three in the quo and maybe there's four people when your uncom when it hits Yeah, I'm like you planned that isn't a good habit. But you know what I'm gonna when I get this one, I'll go buy that handbag, you know, because I've planned for it.
Marginal utility, dimission, diminishing marginal utility.
I always asked this, I said this to I think I said that.
Had the conversation with my mom and I said to her, there's a bag that you bought I remember specifically, like almost a decade ago. Do you still use that bag? And she was like, which bag? And I said, and I knew the price of it. I'll never say it on it, but I said to it. But at that point in time, it made it feel good.
Yes, yes, And I suppose that's at the heart of it for many consumers, right, It's that It's what we say when we were about to make the bad decision.
What do you say? You say, I work hard. I work hard.
You know you know.
I work hard.
Let me just reward myself and you know, life is unpredictable to.
It tomorrow I might not be here.
You know, you know you're about to make a bad decision then becau you're trying to convince yourself all right, So how do we then, you know, build that savings culture that you speak about. I suppose and many of our callers have said this before, where they say, maybe we should start speaking about more financial education from school. One of the time we're children, because once you've cultivated the habit as a child, you become an adult and its second nature.
So it's very interesting.
I'll speak from sort of like my perspective growing up with grandparents and stuff like that. What I realized and started to understand what there was always a policy out there.
So my grandmother had tons of policies. She had like.
Life policies, death policies, she's still alive, education policies. So I got to understand that there was something and money. There was something particular, a kitty of cash that was going every month from what she was doing, and it was going into a policy. Now there was long term thinking and maybe it was not kind of termed in the way that it's like we're saving for a future thing. It was just ePolicy right up in the eastern caps, so it's like everyone has e police and she would
show you. She's like, if anything ever happens to me, here's where all my policies are.
Yeah, but this one for this one.
And funny enough, it clicked when I got to I think.
Grade ten, right Senard eighth. When it clicked for me is when.
She said, oh, there's there's a policy that's now matured. Because I think I was fifteen, it was a fifteen year policy and I was like, oh, She's like, yes, we can now kind of like pay for the rest of your thing.
I was like, oh, I was like, okay, that's interesting.
We went to go sign papers and I had my idea and what or do perst it together thing at the time, and I was like that kind of that was the first click. The second click for me was when my mom when I was when I got to first year, my mom said, we're gonna have to start putting money away right for but what I'll do is that I'll match you. So put some money away and then I will match you. And then I was like, okay, for what right. Remember I'm still still like eighteen nine,
so I'm like, for what you like? No, for the future, so that something comes out. But the main thing that clicked was when I started working right and there was a guy who who will say will He managed to get me to save five hundred bucks right I was in I wasn't broadcasting as well, at a youth station, and he said to me, let's put five hundred bucks away. At the time, I think that must have been like five percent of my salary at the time, five hundred bucks.
So I was like, okay, cool, that's fine, put that away. I managed to do that without knowing it for five years, and like fifty grand came out of that. It was a fifty grand that future self really needed at that time, but past me had the foresight to get into that, so it became a habit. I no longer saw the five unue rand deavid order. I no longer saw it. But it wasn't just saving at that time. He got me to do a double. It was saving and investing.
And I suppose the difference but between the two is the one short term and the other's longer term hundred percent.
And that was knowing where I was.
Knowing where I was at that time, you got to understand my psyche and he said, look, what's five hundred bucks between you and anything else? It's one good weekend away, but you're already making cash in other means. Be searching of this five rebox and put it away. And it really really came in handy because life goes in ebbs and flows, and then fifty k it came in handy.
Listen, we're speaking about cultivating the mindset of saving, the saving mindset. It's a difficult one because as a nation, as a people, we don't have a culture of saving, and it's one that we need to build and almost you know, make a case.
For which I think we'll do. In just a bit.
I want to go to our phone lines because we've got a caller that's been holding for a while. Kid morning, you're in Atriageville, Good evening, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for calling.
Good liveing man, and even into your seven or shore dear listeners.
Welcome gidib, thank you.
Go ahead, Okay, say, I don't know if maybe what I'm asking is relevant or not is not per sefe saving this investment. In two thousand and nine about mtent shares empten Regulations Part one for two and then they told me ten shares, and then they said, after two to three years, they're going to transfer our shares to the JS you so that we can sell them and
maybe buy chures from telcomor the other companies. Password to penty sixteen and they tell us that they are in financial travel a bit because the new Gerant government has decided to find them because they were overcharging the Nagerant people on data plice. To pay those people, they decided to buy us out emptien leculations all amptien circulatives part one people and then reintroduced npien circulations part two. When I try to talk to them, I've had shares with
you guys for many years. I haven't seen given in a single even and now you're telling me that you've brought me out without my concern or permission? How does that record? If I buy shares in your company, I'm investing in it, so I don't know if maybe you can tell me what's away for here?
And how do you feel after that money?
Is it leaving you a little discouraged when it comes to the investing.
Friend A bit frustrated because whenever you call them, they transfer you to their call friend tip people, and they don't know anything about the shares they tell us to go to. They become mean and said, you know what the dealer was between MTNNN. Don't talk to us, and then they drop the phone and then you don't know who to tell you anymore. You know.
These are some of the things that happen when people decide to, you know, challenge themselves and then go into the saving space. And I know about the controversies around this, I can it share? What do you have to say to my name?
So I think one of the core things that she needs to try and find right some of the agreements that she signed on too. When it comes to these larger sort of like share schemes, it is a voter oriented majority rules. So it might have been a case that a majority of the shareholders actually agreed to the sale. So they couldn't have just sold it. It's not possible, right, and if they did, they would have contravened something.
That's one. Two.
I've been part of these share schemes and there is a lot of communication that goes out.
But what a lot of people, what I found a lot of people.
Do is that maybe at times they change their contact information et cetera, et cetera, because they do send out messages. I was part of the Putuma Nati shares right and I luckily sold at the right time. But what is core for you to do is that you need to find the agreements that you signed or tried, maybe an email, an old email that.
You can access, et cetera. That's one of the things.
Two, you need to find some sort of legal advice around this, and there's generally free legal advice. But you need to show proof of ownership of those shares, because if every year they would have sent you like an email, an SMS or whatnot, that means that you were still part of the scheme and you were there. And you can show proof of purchase as well through bank statements, et cetera.
So you need to go and say this is what I have.
You need to try and speak to a person now, because more often than not you find that because people move on because they think that everybody else was part of that share scheme agreed, or there was a quorum.
Most of the people agreed.
We don't need to necessarily explain certain things the minution to a lot of other people. So you need to actually go and find out go to the people that administer the second share scheme and say, hey, I'm from the first share scheme and there are a couple of things that I do not understand and I need those and I need clarity around those, and then you take their formal official responses from that as your way forward.
Do they resolve your problem or do they not resolve it, which means that you can go legal if you feel that you've been aggrieved Clivni, I hope that helps you.
It has helped a lot. Thank you, because the only thing that we received from them, no email, no phone calls, no nothing. It's just every m they send us from the post uh a summarized version of their a GM. Meetings by are not part of the say we are many and then it's only they are part of that because attend and there's nothing about judents or paying out or buying us out.
Listen.
I hope that you'll be able maybe start on the legal advice you know, and and see how you can go forward from there.
Okay, thank you for both of you.
You've been Shelton, thanks a lot. OK.
That's Gibney in at Triageville there.
She's got a question on shares, and I was saying to you as much of that. You know, when things like that happen, and I think it's it makes people a little discouraged, It sets them back a bit. But the idea really is to keep going, isn't it?
One hundred percent?
So the the interesting thing about it is that whether or not she maybe gets a she was basically speaking about the dividends, et cetera. Maybe she might not realize all of it, but she will get something out of that, and that money is going to come in handy. What this means is that obviously you've got to vet the things that you invest in. You've got to feel comfortable that it's not money that you're gonna need at the drop of a time.
It's you've got.
To understand that saving means that I've got a kitty, I'm saving up for an emergency thing. I'm saving up for a big thing. Maybe it's a holiday, maybe it's December. You know, the kids really drink a lot of oros over December.
So you've got to figure that out.
And there's a lot of things that you can save for on an immediate basis, but investing requires a different mindset. So that's why we speak about savings months because it's the first step.
Then the investing is the other step.
Yeah, and I think that once we have a saving, you know, unlock, there's a discipline element that comes with it, and then you're able to move on and to grow. So I wanted us to make a case for becoming a saver. I save, that is the term or building a saving mindset. Let's make a case for saving, because there are many people I don't know, you know.
Who's gotten rich from saving. You know, I'm not sure. I mean, I live in the now. I live in the moment.
So let's make a case for why people should save, but not just save, Why should they start now?
So I'm almost certain that everybody who's listening now has been in some form, some or other form of financial difficulty, like the wrong of life. Now, I want you to think about the feeling that you had when you could not, as an adult, figure out how you are going to
get out of the hole that you were in. Now, I want you to multiply that feeling tenfold as you get older, as more responsibilities as because everybody around you has responsibilities, you're not being able to be disciplined enough as Zundom dahala as an adult to save for any eventuality. Life is not straightforward. Just as much as people say, ah, you know, I live in the moment, anything could happen.
You could live to ninety. That could happen.
You could live to ninety, and then you would then become a burden on the people that are closest to you.
Do you want that? I don't think many people want that.
You still want even as a retiree, even as somebody who's middle aged, you still want to have the freedom to dictate what happens to your life, to you, to the people most trusted to you, saving having those investment emergency funds, et cetera, those thirty two day notice accounts that starts to build a wall a moat around your castle, which is you and your loved ones people depend on you.
No one can plan what happens in their lives. But when that unplanned person meets a situation that is beyond them, they then say I wish I had and you don't want to be that person. That in itself should be a reason for you to want to start to get your life and your savings in order.
Yeah, yeah, and I can I can identify. You know, you've got your back against the wall and you're thinking what am I going to do?
Only there and then it's too late. It is because you're in it now. We're speaking to.
The Masa, the Basa YouTube content creator. He's big on the finances and he's sharing with us about the culture of saving, cultivating saving my mindset and he this is to mark National Savings Month. It's to encourage you to get started. Let's go to our voice notes and hear what some of our listeners have to say. All right, before we go there, Before we go to our voice note, Sumasa,
let's speak about understanding your money personality. You know, it's it's tough, right because it means you need to stand in the mirror. Yes, and you are an impulsive buyer. Yes, Comoso, you are a senseless consumer. You you're a senseless consumer.
There's no reason why you are buying all these things in your fine.
And that really can be difficult, especially for people who who don't usually reflect.
Yes, you must first start by being realistic. Understand your crutches. My crutch is things technology, digital that that is my crutch, right, But what helped me to understand my crutch. A lot more was that I no longer needed to buy the best and latest. I could buy the one just after the one. Yeah, so I'm a just after the one person. But then what I did was because I'm a I'm a fanboy of an ecosystem. I said to myself, I want all of the little gadgets that fit into this ecosystem.
So I can't if I've got a phone by another phone, I've got to move to a better iPad. I've got to move to a better watch. I've got to move to a better thing. So I don't buy the same thing at the same time. So I console myself. Then the second the other thing is this, You've got to set buying windows for yourself. Set buying windows so you can't just decide on a whim that this thing, I'm going to buy.
It because it's it's it's I needed.
Now you've got to understand when that thing becomes at its most cost effective chest. So in other words, you some people will buy and this this, this always always befuddles me. Some people buy a new phone at the at the end of August, the beginning of September, when the new one is coming. It's no, it's coming in September. They announce of September. It's out by end of September. Now, okay, every yay, Yeah, that new eye watch? What phone is
coming every September they announce it. You should know this by now. So when you go buy the previous technically the previous model at a supposedly cut down price, they're just clearing out stock. If you wait just another month in October, that same phone, because the new one has come out is weight So I buy the next best.
Yeah, I need to take that down. Actually I should. I should.
I wonder if there's a next past when it comes to shoes and.
Bags, but last season's once.
Yeah, because because if you buy for if you buy for classic, if you buy for, if you buy momentary, your toast. But if you buy to create a wardrobe that's going to last you for at least the next five years, then you're not, for instance, your your simple ones.
You're black.
Now I'm getting to shoes, yeah, but you're going to need the standard ones. You're gonna need your black, You're gonna need your Navies, maybe your grayes.
You your browns, your neutral colors. So those shoes I do.
I always say, if you're replacing a really good pair, you and even go a little bit more prices than what you think you are because you're gonna hold it for at least the next three to five years. Yeah, but it's the ones that are neon. Why listen that one is going for that it actually is.
We're speaking about saving zero double one, double A three oh seven O two. I need you to call us on that number so you can share your saving experiences with us. What I want to hear from you that impulsive buying. How are you fighting that? How are you disciplining yourself for learning to be a more disciplined spender? And is this something that you promised yourself at the beginning of the year. I know many people there are those New Year's resolutions.
How's that going? How's that going? Since? Why?
Since you said, you know, I'm not going to spend this much in January, I'm going to start. I'm going to save one point five, just one point five. You know, I'm not gonna go for that drink night. I'm gonna go for one drink nights and not three like I usually do. How's that going? Are you still on track, and when you look back, what's keeping you from being on track? And let's let's have a moment of reflection as we speak about saving tonight. Okay, I think that
we've got our voice. Notice, really, now, let's take a listen.
There's a great calculation that says that twenty five percent of your take home pay should be allocated towards your accommodation.
And it's quite.
Interesting that if you take that calculation, how most of us are way above the twenty five percent. And in an ideal world, if we could get it out to the twenty five percent, and we'd have.
More play to save and lived comfortably. But it is with the costs of living, in the cost of transport and food.
It does become like an unsustainable goal. But I do believe that's starting small. We're like fifty round a month, but farm under round a month and would make a massive difference because before you know it, you'd have saved up something for a rainy day.
Yeah, thanks for that voice.
Note, I'm just here thinking this sounds great unless you live in Cape Town.
So I quickly had to do the math to see how much of my room and board, yes, I spend and yeah, I think I'm on twenty percent.
Okay.
So and it's very interesting because these frameworks, again, remember I spoke about those frameworks. These frameworks actually helped you to understand car.
I don't have any more car payments. I became.
I was like, I'm okay here, I'm okay, what do I need? I traveled more than I'm like, it's I really but it's not.
It's not.
It's like it's an A to B, but it's a decent A to B that I invested.
In a long time ago.
It took a lot of money when I first started, but now I'm like, I don't pay anybody. It's my cast just it's me and insurance and patrol obviously. Yeah, but these are the core things that you need. So that voice note was awesome because that is a framework
to work off. Because if you know you're spinning twenty five percent on rooman board, then you've got twenty five percent that you can then try to save, and then there's another twenty five percent that can take care of your house and of transportation of all these other things. So you start to build frameworks that help you to understand what you're looking at when you look at your money.
Yesh, Yeah, I love that.
Actually, someone here in the whatsape line saying, here's my invest here's my invest plunder from my early days when started buying of shares. I'm still hurt even now. I bought Richmond Shar's way back, held them for a while. One day I woke up, was jumped. They've jumped what one hundred percent? Yeah, excited to see that. I didn't research why that was. I sold them immediately on the day, only to find out that actually, I think it's just
like a eleven thousand percent. That doesn't sound right, but he's basically saying the exponential increment was officially kicking in seven days later. Safe to say, I was out by then, and now I can't afford them one hundred percent.
So you know the thing with shares is that none is good at picking shares. Rather start by picking indexes. There are people that are paid to pick shares, so don't try to You're not going to hit the next big share thing, right, Most people pick industries.
If you're not going to pick indexes, pick industries.
So you're looking at let's say, for instance, banking, and you go, I think the banks are going to do well because of ABCP over the next five years. So I'm going to group all the banks together and take my money and bet on all the banks. They won't all win, but as an index those grouped, if your bet is right, it makes sense. But I genuinely always tell people you are not a financial analyst.
This is not your job. You work somewhere else.
You're you're a well compensated middle manager somewhere.
Stick to that. Rather give it to somebody.
Else, a financial advisor, a an analyst, give it to a money man or a money woman, and get them who it is their job to to log into computers every day to look at what's going on. And then you can set your risk profile and say I am moderate, I am moderate to aggressive, I am aggressive, et cetera, and split your money up. But generally speaking, do not. No one is good. No one is good at picking shares. Nobody, even the top guys, they group them together.
Someone else here is saying, we love image and it costs us. Words of advice given to me by my by another older friend. That itel you want to buy, Ask yourself is it going to add value to you?
That's leslie and Melbourne. And that's such a deep question. It's not. It's not. It really isn't. It's like the crazy so so.
But there's But again I always say to people there are things that are crutches. So like one of my brothers with like super close and his thing is definitely branding and imaging and it's worked for him, right. He's the type of guy that when we were still like in varsity, he would drop three k on a shoe. I'd be like, Broski, three k on a shoe? What
do you mean? But the way that he has branded himself, personal brand everything over the years has actually put him in good stead because he's like a massive marketing person now in South Africa and he's done that.
He was always sure of that. But other things he didn't spend a lot of it.
He never spent on tech, He never cared for cars, He never whatnot understand what it is that your crutch? What is my crutch? Right as the master as homoso as whoever, what is my crutch? Then manage your crutch because that's what childs the money. That's where the leakages are coming, that's where the roof is leaking.
Where you think you blind.
Yourself because this is something you feel you deserve and you think you can.
Do it all. You think you can be the tech guy you think you can do you can pick one.
You just want to be there everywhere where, where people are, You want to be there.
Pick one, Pick one.
You can't you can't be everything unless you came with that into this world of the Trust Fund, my brother and my sister.
You you better slow down.
We're speaking to Zumasa Vibasa, who's a YouTube content creator. He makes content around finances.
He's in the.
Studio here and it's a really enlightening conversation. I feel judged, I feel dragged. So if you're sitting in the car right now and you feel this is personal, it's okay. It's okay, same same you, and I feel it's personal too. We're taking your calls on zero double one double a three oh seven two or zero two one double four six oh five six seven. I also see your one sapps are coming in taking fast zero seven two.
So what is it?
Chris zero seven two seven O two one seven O two zero seven two seven O two one seven two. That's where you can get in touch with us on WhatsApp all right, speak about automating your savings, because I think that's the smart way.
To go about it.
So you know that you want to save twenty five percent, you have your de would order.
Is it a order, it's a debit order. It's fine, it's an automated debit order. And that is a good way. But the other thing that I find that a lot of people suffer with is that the money is still within reach.
Big problem that one.
Because now you can see it, You're like, nice, it's seventeen fifty four rand and ninety nine cents sitting there.
And you know I can make it back. It is I can make it back.
Craz really, but it's taking you maybe four months to get up to that level. So you overestimate your earning your earning potential going forward because you don't know that, but the past has shown you that this is what you're able to do. So automating your savings is a really great way. But then you've got to be in a position that says, maybe it's an account that you don't have a card for and it is a physical thing.
So every time I need to go check it, I need to literally either log in not on my phone but on a laptop. So my logins for that bank account, maybe put it in separate banks. Right, that debit order goes from my primary bank to another bank, maybe a
bank that gives you better interest on savings. But what it can't do is if you know you have this problem of self control, or you know you have immediate problems, it can't be something that you can easily get a hold of, especially if it's a short term savings fund. Once it starts to get to longer term where there's a thirty two day notice, you know that there's a barrier to me getting this money. Yeah, right, there is a barrier. So all of these things do assist, but
automating it is great. But you know what's even better, homozo yea knowing what you're spending on. I know that a lot of banks have started to show you what your last three months averages, Like my bank does that, my personal bank does that, and it says to me, buddy, that's what you done. It even goes into the categories of spending. So I know that there was a particular month where I was traveling a lot and my fast food intake went higher and by golly, it was there.
It was up. I could see it. I was like, whoa.
And it tells you there's been a thirty forty percent increase in your eating out, dining out and fast foods. But if you don't know that it's happening, you won't and you won't unpack that easily enough for you to change that habit.
Somebody here says, I've learned something from putting away my tithes. I'm a deep believer, so when I started working, I had a separate savings account where I would put my tires. Each time I would get money, ten percent of anything and everything, And it's taken from the top.
I think that's really interesting.
If you're gonna, if you're gonna do it for the Lord, do it for yourself.
You can do it for the Lord.
You can do it for the Lord, do it for yourself as well.
I think that's beautiful.
It's someone taking their life lessons right and practicalizing them, and I hope that we can all learn and from that. We're speaking savings here in studio with the Masa the Vasa.
All right, I want to.
Speak about increasing your spending when you're salarly.
Increase you your lifestyle creep.
That's the truth is that now that I'm a big short CEO, I need can't be driving my I need the things that you show my big shorttedness of my CEOs. Yes, I need When they say the imagine they say ceo and then they're in the barking you imagine they say CEO spots and there I am.
Well, look I I It's it's never the CEO person who has this problem. It's always the people that jump from junior to middle management, right, and all those that also those that jump from middle management to senior management and then from senior management to you c suite. So it's the people who get the increase that is life changing. Thus they think they must change their lives. It's always
a big problem because what that does right. And to be completely honest with you, you're not the only person. If you're listening to this, you're not the only person struggling with this. I struggle with this. I'm having a crisis of conscience around my room and board. I now feel like I've outgrown this place and I need another place. I'm having this so I'm saying to myself, can I really add another five to seven K on my room
and board fees? Is it something that I can do to then move to the place that I want to move to? And these are questions and conversations that I have with myself. So I always say to people more often than not, what you're dealing with.
You're dealing with.
Not having a system of understanding what it is that you want. Yeah, when you systemize everything, you know, when you asked at the beginning of the show, you said, or you said, how much of what you promised yourself at the beginning of the year are you hitting? So my list still stands, and I'm taking stuff off, not at the rate that I thought I would, but my list still exists, And on my notes app it's still up there because I go there and I take stuff.
I'm like this, Okay, I'm like twenty five percent in on this one. Now I'm lying with this one. I need to go back to ten percent completion because then what that does is that it helps me to understand what it is that I promised myself. And you, before you go to bed, you're the only person you can't lie to.
Hey, the hard.
Truths today that we're learning about money and our savings culture. Let's talk about, you know, questioning all our purchases. You know, earlier on in the show, you were speaking about how you don't necessarily have to stop buying that cup of coffee every day, and I think sometimes we get so
obsessed and maybe that's what's not sustainable. It's masaa. At the beginning of the year, you're so far fired up that you're saying, I'm going to mix in every single day, cutain, I'm bringing lunch, I'm packing, I'm packing, and I'm not gonna buy any coffee. I'm gonna make the free coffee that the office gives us. And I'm not gonna buy anything when I stop at the petrol station, I'm not getting out of my car.
And then by.
Much all of that, you've you've gone back to the old you, the real you.
The mask is has come off again.
And I think sometimes we start or we're being too I don't want to say too hard, but we're setting standards that are out of reach, that are just too far far up.
There is that a reality?
So so in a way it is a reality, because honestly, this is like your seventh sheear and hold this year.
But you're not. You don't know that. To you, you see it as just shopping.
Now, what that does for you as a person is that you start to lose control of what really kind of matters, which is for you your future.
Right. I'll give you a simple example. So sparkling water.
I have this thing with sparkling water, and it is a crazy thing that I have. I buy sparkling water every day. Right, So you know what I did for myself. I started to do a little bit of math. I said to myself, what if I got myself that the machine, the machine at ale. Yeah, And I worked it out
and it was like it wasn't extravagant. It was maybe like once of purchase a thousand bucks, but off that little acid maker thing with water with government juice I was going to save maybe like I think a thing of water for me went down to like five rand a leader of water or sparkling water. So it was the thing that I understood that I had a problem with.
And it wasn't like it was an exorbitant amount of money, But it was that ability to know what's going out that assists you to know how to stop the leakages. As a start, then you can start to save. And it's not to say that trouble won't hit you. It's just to say you need to have something to face the troubles.
Okay, I'm gonna judge you for drinking sparkling water because you know it's it's somebody who stopped drinking.
OKAYO.
Yeah, there's also another thing that I did, right. I stopped last year August. I did one hundred day from August to I think this September to December, I did one hundred days. Then I then I relapsed, Well, I didn't relapse. I'm from the Eastern Cape, so December is big for us, okay, right, you know, like nobody cooks, nobody cooks, nobody buys liquor, Like there's always look at every other house because everyone's doing in these like yes ceremonies, yes, okay.
So so generally.
I went to two, one too many, three too many, ten maybe I don't know, but and there's one like every other day. So you end up there's enough alcohol, there's enough food, there's enough whatnot. So I drank for a little bit then, but then at the start of the year again, after coming out back from holidays, I then so I have not had a consequential drink this year. Yes,
I have touched alcohol, but not to drink. So it was like to toast and to do stuff and you know, like Mom's birthday, that type of stuff.
It was a dumb pye, So I had to couldn't say, but you didn't go.
And buy alcohol, No walk into to walk into a liquor.
I've not walked into a liquor store to buy even when I go and I'm buying for other people, and I still buy for other people like my brothers, my sisters.
And I'll be like, yo, here's the cash go by, And how has that affected your savings? It massively liquor.
Taking liquor out of the thing has massively saved a lot of money, I would say, I probably, And I mean it's not like I gotten to a point where I really enjoyed my liqu was. So there was another thing. I understood my crutches. So I would then drink certain bottles, wouldn't. I didn't even club, I don't even go out.
So you were about the expensive bottles not really necessarily expensive, but I mean, like like a fifteen year old particular thing, that's what.
I like now aren't those like two million? No, no, no, it's just one million. So so you had to and and understanding your crutches. That's what it did for me, Yeah, I said, but it also helped me because I'm working
towards a goal. Right in a couple of years, I'll be forty and I want to look at a particular way when I'm forty, and I want to so I've invested, I've reinvested that energy I was putting into enjoying myself now and said, yeah, maybe when I hit forty, I want to look a particular way and I want to figure myself out. So it's it's an actualization of what it is that I want. Yes, yes, I know you persionists. I could get hit by a pass, but it's probably not gonna happen.
Zumas. You're actually so funny. Listen, we need to wrap up this conversation.
So let's let's go through your principles as we as we wrap up your savings, principles that.
We can apply, well try to apply in our lives.
I know we're different and our circumstances may be different, but I think there's those key principles that we can all share at a certain level.
I think the first is to know right know what is going in, what is going out. Then the second thing is with how much you keep what are you doing with it? Yes, then when you say what am I doing with it, then we can possibly think about investing, because most people want to invest, but they skip the stage of saving. My brother and my sister, where are you going to get that money? It's going to come
from your income. Then from your income, it's going to be from what you keep after you've paid for your life, and then from after that you can then save that and ultimately invest it. So it's not one or the other. Yes, we want the dividends, Yes, we want all of those things. And opportunities will come and you need to be ready for those opportunities. So when a share scheme comes and it says, hey, if you buy for five thousand rand, we'll give you twenty thousand rands of value if you
hold it for ten years. That's one of the things that helped me. But that's because I had people who were aware of it. So you need to be aware.
One.
You need to know how much is coming in, you need to know how much you're saving. You need to know what you're doing with it, and ultimately that's the.
Start Zamasa Vibasa YouTube content creator in the finance space.
It's been really great having you. Thank you so much.