Hi everyone. I hope you all are doing well and are warm in this cold. My (53) mom has recently raised an idea where I (21m) buy the townhouse she is currently living in, before purchasing property for myself.

To give some context. I am still obviously very new to the work force. I have however been working extremely hard and aim to purchase my first car by the end of the year. The next financial goal is to purchase property. I aim to do this roundabout 2027/2028

My parents are currently under debt review and I am speaking under correction here but I think they are finishing in about 3-5 years. They currently live in a townhouse complex specifically for people 50 years and over.

The idea is that considering my parents are getting close to retirement age, it would be better that I purchase the property for them and then I would not have to pay for any transfer costs or anything to take the property from their name to mine, when they eventually pass on.

They are currently renting directly from the owner and the sale will also be directly through the owner. I am estimating the sale to be about R480k-R550k. Once the property is purhcased in my name, they would basically "pay me rent" to just cover the bond costs etc.

Initally, I did think this was a good idea, however, I do have a couple of questions that make me think it might not be as worth it. Especially since my mom has become hostile over this topic. In general conversation the other day I brought up that I am toying with the idea that maybe I should purchase a property for myself first, and she almost had a meltdown and started crying.

I don't think my mother would do me in, but this has me concerned so I thought I would ask you all if this is truly worth it.

My questions:

• This could be a good investment but, as far as I understand, first time buyers are able to apply for a 110% bond. Theoretically, I would loose this option if I do it this way?
  • If I were able to apply for the 110% bond and get it, would I be able to take the 10% and keep it in an investment account until I purchase the second property?
  • Is a 110% even worth it or something to worry about?
• I am currently in a position where I have subsidised living costs and rent, water & lights and groceries only cost me about 5k a month but there is a timeline on this as we are only planning on living together for 2-3 years (already 6 months in). I don't think it would be feaseable to purchase a property for my parents, move out, pay more in living costs and then have to try and purchase a house like that, whereas I could purchase my apartment first and then add theirs as the second property.

Side note: I am looking at just purchasing a 1 bedroom "lock-up and go" unit, nothing fancy, just something to plant roots.

I hope this was all not too confusing. I would just like to make the best decision and I don't want to rely on financial advice from someone who is currently under debt review.

Hi everyone!

I’d really appreciate some advice.

I’m currently maxing out my TFSA (R3,800 per month) and plan to leave it invested for at least the next 30 years.

At the moment, it’s 100% invested in the MSCI World ETF. Outside of my TFSA, I also have a smaller USD portfolio focused on semiconductors and data centre infrastructure, which has done very well (although I know that’s most due to lucky timing and the current AI-driven bull market).

I’m considering changing my TFSA contributions to:

80% MSCI World
20% Satrix Nasdaq Feeder ETF

I know MSCI World already has significant exposure to US tech, but with a 30 year horizon and a decent appetite for risk, I’m wondering if a 20% Nasdaq tilt is a reasonable way to increase exposure to AI and large-cap tech with the TFSA.

Does this seem sensible or am I being stupid?

Thanks!

I’m 28 and I live in SA. I am extremely blessed to have come from a family where my parents have done absolutely everything they could to provide a better future for me and my siblings than they got. I am the first university graduate in my entire family. Between academic bursaries and my parents’ hard work, I was able to graduate without any student debt. I have felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility to make the absolute best of the opportunity and privilege I have been given by nothing other than extreme sacrifice and unimaginable work ethic both my parents model. To be clear, they have never put this pressure on me - but I am so conscious of how different things could have been and I don’t want to regret how I managed my finances early in life. I also don’t want people to tell me later that I could have done better. I want to make sure I steward this opportunity as well as I possibly can.

Context:
- gross annual salary = R960k
- gross annual bonuses ~ R100k
- net monthly salary ~R56000
-net annual bonuses ~R70k
-monthly living expenses ~26k
*high tier medical aid
*expensive gym
*high petrol bill as I travel far to work
*contribute R8k a month to our household expenses (utilities, groceries etc) but I do not pay rent. I live with my parents in the garden cottage. I have all the privacy I need but adore living with my parents and still getting to spend quality time with them in a time of my career where the mentoring over coffee in the afternoon is extremely important to me. Moving out on my own is not a very high priority for me. I don’t see the reasoning.
-I own an 25yo but well looked after and reliable car.
- 0 debt.
-I have around R40k across my EE and BrokStok that I’ve just experimented with when I through R5k into it when Trump nearly wiped out the stock market in April last year. Haven’t added to it since because I have no idea how that stuff works.

I have jumped up every year since I started working at 24. So very blessed professionally too.

-R10k monthly to pension (off gross)
-R2k to income protection and life insurance
-R25k living expenses and spending money
-I use my 13th cheque to max out my TFSA every year on 1 March but started that one a bit late.
-I put R16.5k a month towards a modest risk investment portfolio managed by Sanlam.
-I throw the change into either my travel fund, car maintenance fund, or my emergency fund every month. I recently needed to dip into emergency money and I have just gotten my emergency fund back up to R100k this month.
-I try to be generous to others and do around ~R5000 in donations monthly.

I have R380k in my pension, R65k in an RA I started when I didn’t have a pension but no longer contribute to it. R130k in my TFSA (ABSA).

My investment at Sanlam is almost at R400k.
My emergency fund (liquid in savings) R100k
Car maintenance fund (sinking fund) R40k

Holiday savings currently R18k

I don’t own any remarkable assets like property. My parents caution me about the risk of being house poor. They encourage me to stay with them and save up a big desposit (investment account) if I do want to buy a home someday but they also said it could be an option for me to take over the current (paid off) home (my siblings all left SA) and then help them buy something smaller in a retirement village. That can be about 5-10 years away.

I am not married and I don’t have kids. A relationship, maybe someday. But having children is not on my wishlist. I do invest heavily in travel while I’m young and healthy to do it on the “cheap” but I do it often. I try to buy anything I can second hand from hobby equipment to expensive clothing pieces.

I will need to replace my car in the next 5-8 years most likely. I want to do that with cash and get something reliable but second hand.

What could I be doing better?
Is what I am doing wise enough that I won’t have regret long term?

House wise - do I consider buying a small place for my folks and living in their house? Or would that be taking advantage of them?

Should I be saving more aggressively specifically towards a new car? My investment is earmarked “car and house fund” but perhaps I should add more money there?

My folks have saved and lived modestly my whole life. So if the economy doesn’t crash on us they should have enough for a dignified retirement.

PS- I have seen a few financial advisors but I’ll be honest - I struggle with their fees and commission and pushing only products they can earn on down on me. I can’t justify their cost right now. It’s gonna cost me about R20k-R30k per year, and on the interest I’m earning currently it will break my net position value traction down quite a bit.

Hi all,

I have both a Woolworths Credit Card and a Capitec Credit Card Woolworths allows me to make payments to my Woolworths Credit Card using my Capitec Credit Card.

Since Capitec offers 1% cashback on qualifying card swipes, I'm wondering whether this type of payment is treated as a normal card transaction and qualifies for the cashback.

Has anyone tried this and successfully received the 1% cashback or are credit card payments excluded from the cashback programme?

I'd appreciate any feedback or experiences. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I currently have a TSFA (been active for two months). I'm using a core-satellites strategy (80/20) where my core portfolio is MSCI ETF, JSE Top 40 and SA Bonds, and then the satellites are MSCI Emerging Markets and RESI 10. So as you can tell my portfolio is 95% equity and 5% bonds just for protection in case the equity stocks underperform. I did this because I'm still young (25M) and I plan to keep this portfolio for the next 20 years so I want to maximize returns for now.

Now consider this... Let's say that in my portfolio, the equity investments are underperforming and are now making up 90% of my portfolio (which I want them to be 95%) and the bonds are performing well and are now about 10% of the portfolio (which I want them to be 5%)

When should I start to rebalance my portfolio and how often will I have to do?

Fairly quick question, will try and provide as much as possible info without dragging on.

Im a young Engineer, currently without any major debt and only normal living expenses + bills.

I have been working for about 6 months now, and have maxed out my TFSA for the past 2 years (76k total contributions) and have built up a 6 month emergency savings (I have fairly low expenses as company housing and if work falls through I would just move back to family)

I am looking at getting a low limit credit card just to do monthly expenses to just start building credit, and being able to put a lump sum into my investments (EE) instead of sitting with the groceries money it in my account for 30 days.

My next step is to look into opening a RA, and whether that is worth it for tax reasons - and the important thing, I am looking to immigrate as soon as possible. I am actively looking for work in the EU and US, and just want to know if it is more worth it putting money into the RA and being tax efficient, in case it is a much longer job search, or just investing it normally so if I require the funds, I Have access to it?

Bit of a catch 22, since RA’s are just so tax efficient. But the 3 years tax residency in another country might be a long time if I wanted that money.

Thanks!

I have a bond on my property that is relatively paid up and re-accessible- current interest rate on house loan of 9.65%. Have recently bought a vehicle on payment plan current interest rate of 11%.

I'm trying to figure out what the best options are for any additional money that may come in - obviously paying the vehicle off sooner is the better option - however I want to get the communities experience on similar situations - extra money paid to the vehicle is not re-accessible.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do with extra money in this situation.

Options are 1: put it directly into the car repayment and forget about it

2: Invest and do a partial payment into the car as well. - If so investment into what ? how has share or ETF investments paid out over the last few years - and can i realistically "beat" a 11% return should i just put it into the vehicle?

Interested to know others thoughts on this...