Podcast appearances and mentions of sam beckbessinger

Sam overviews her recent problem solving endeavours including poop spatulas and pods for your ears. While deliberating on friction in our lives and how to remove it, we mention... The incredible Shōgun (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dgun_(2024_miniseries)) miniseries. Temu. They really don't need us to link to them. Various Apple products. They, too, seem to be doing fine without our links. The Station Eleven (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_Eleven_(miniseries)) miniseries. • Red Dead Redemption 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dead_Redemption_2) • The Untitled Goose Game (https://goose.game/)

Our intrepid explorers consider the world's many overlooked and dissapearing organisms, and how to think about changing environments while making more of what is already around us. Along the way, Sam and Simon mention: The Cape Silverside, or "Sukkelvis" fish. Else Bostelmann (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Else_Bostelmann) The Schmidt Ocean Institute (https://schmidtocean.org/) Godzilla x Kong (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14539740/) Last Chance to See (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8696.Last_Chance_to_See) by Douglas Adams Cave of Forgotten Dreams (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1664894/) Survive the Century (https://survivethecentury.net/) The How to Save a Planet (https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet) podcast. All We Can Save (https://www.allwecansave.earth/) Palworld (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palworld) Love on the Spectrum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_on_the_Spectrum_(American_TV_series)) Saunas and their associated cold-water shenanigans. You don't need a link. The Boy and the Heron (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_and_the_Heron) Vengeance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vengeance_(2022_film)) The Book with No Pictures (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20821299-the-book-with-no-pictures)

Games are fun. Work... not so much. Sam and Simon reconnect after many aeons spent not speaking on the internet to talk about games, and why they're fun and important in a way that work isn't and is. Along with other stuff. Things mentioned in this episode: Hearthstone (https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/) (don't you dare click that link). Rabble (https://joinrabble.com/) - for tricking adults in the UK into exercising. The Oatmeal (https://theoatmeal.com/) and Matthew's awesome games, including: Poetry for Neanderthals (https://www.explodingkittens.com/products/poetry-for-neanderthals). Honey Heist (https://gshowitt.itch.io/honey-heist) - be a goddamn bear. FU (https://www.perilplanet.com/freeform-universal/) - The Freeform Universal RPG system. Bouldering (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouldering). Go (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)) - games don't get much gamesier than that. Smallworld (https://www.daysofwonder.com/small-world-universe/small-world/) - especially the digital versions on Steam and elsewhere. The story of Monopoly and American capitalism (https://www.npr.org/2023/01/25/1151367036/story-monopoly-american-capitalism) The amazing Dr Nechama Brodie (https://nechamabrodie.com/) Microsoft Excel World Championship (https://fmworldcup.com/excel-esports/microsoft-excel-world-championship/) The Future (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/123163147) by Naomi Alderman Girls of Little Hope (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62825562-girls-of-little-hope?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_20) by Sam Beckbessinger and Dale Halvorsen Radiolab's mind-blowing podcast on The Interstitium (https://radiolab.org/podcast/interstitium) Acquired, Cautionary Tales, Search Engine, S-town, and other favourite podcasts of Simon's.

This is a live recording of an event that took place at Open Book Festival in September 2023. In this event, Sven Axelrad, Sam Beckbessinger and Busisekile Khumalo speak to Daniella Djan about complex friendships. This event was made possible by the support of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, the City of Cape Town and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

This is a live recording of an event that took place at Open Book Festival in September 2023. In this event, Sam Beckbessinger & Dale Halvorsen and Qarnita Loxton & Gail Schimmel speak to Kelly Smith about the ins and outs of collaborative writing. This event was made possible by the support of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, the City of Cape Town and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Guest: Sam Beckbessinger, Author Sara-Jayne Makwala King chats to author Sam Beckbessinger about her new book, `Moving to the UK'. It's been described as an `end-to-end guide to moving from South Africa to the land of tabloid, tweed and terrible weather'.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thinking of moving to the UK but don't know where to start? Overwhelmed by the information coming at you after a Google search? Baffled by visa requirements? Worried about how your kids and your beloved pet iguana would handle it? Fear not! Written by a seasoned mover who's been there, done that and even brought back the tea towel, Sam Beckbessinger will hold your hand in this end-to-end guide to moving from South Africa to the land of tabloids, tweed, and terrible weather. Inside, you'll find helpful tips, funny anecdotes and thorough to-do lists to keep you on track. This guide covers everything from the practicalities of finding a job and a place to live to the cultural quirks of British life (yes, they really are obsessed with tea), equipping you with everything you need to know about fitting in on this weird, adorable island. Sam Beckbessinger is the author of the bestselling Manage Your Money Like a F*cking Grownup and the novel Girls of Little Hope (co-authored with Dale Halvorsen). Her interactive story about climate change, Survive the Century, was featured in New Scientist and Gizmodo. She teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University, writes kids' TV and picture books, once wrote for Marvel and is weirdly obsessed with spreadsheets. She grew up on a farm near Durban with a pet donkey named Mr Magoo but now lives in London. In this episode, author of the book - Sam Beckbessenger chats with the hilarious Jenna Berkowitz - Content and Social Media Specialist and recent expat.

Hello book lovers.

Welcome to Pagecast, the book-centred podcast series presented by Jonathan Ball Publishers. In this episode, international best-selling South African author Lauren Beukes chats with Sam Beckbessinger and Dale Halvorsen, co-authors of Girls of Little Hope. Three girls went into the woods. Only two came back, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened. Or did they? Being fifteen is tough – tougher when you live in a boring-ass small town in 1996. Donna, Rae and Kat keep each other sane with the fervour of teen friendships, zine-making and some amateur sleuthing into the town's most enduring mysteries: a lost gold mine, and why little Ronnie Gaskins burned his parents alive a decade ago. Their hunt will lead them to a hidden cave from which only two of them return alive. As the police investigate, Rae and Donna will have to return to the cave where they discover a secret so shattering that no-one who encounters it will ever be the same. SAM BECKBESSINGER is the author of the bestselling Manage Your Money Like a F*cking Grownup Grownup (over 70 000 copies sold). She's also a cartoon scriptwriter, has published three picture books for young children, and wrote for Marvel's Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire on Realm. Sam gets way too excited about gross body fluids and spreadsheets. She lives in London. DALE HALVORSEN is a writer and internationally award-winning book cover designer for authors like Lauren Beukes and Nnedi Okorafo. He is the co-creator of the Vertigo original horror series Survivors' Club together with Lauren Beukes and artist Ryan Kelly. It is currently in development as a TV series. Dale lives in Cape Town.

Sam and Simon are together in a room, for a change, and discuss the impact of artificial intelligence, existential crises, and a range of other topics. Along the way they mention: The Cope Zine (https://simon.co.za/COPE.pdf) (instructions on how to fold it below) ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/chat?__cf_chl_tk=B07daYor4vLq8_6t4W8A9OJEqUNGVa2ZYBN1RpViGxI-1674117777-0-gaNycGzNFn0) again. Nick Cave's The Red Hand Files on ChatGPT (https://www.theredhandfiles.com/chat-gpt-what-do-you-think/) Francis Fukuyama (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Fukuyama) and his theories on the progress of civilisation. Irresistible (https://www.netflix.com/title/81249604) the movie (one of the many things Simon could not remember). Also Triangle of Sadness (https://www.triangleofsadness.film/). The incredible art of Fanie Buys (https://www.faniebuys.com/). Many games. Including World of Warcraft, Don't Starve Together, Mario Kart, Stardew Valley, League of Legends, and other candidates for Sam and Simon to play together. Wingspan (https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/). How to fold a zine: https://annabrones.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/make-a-one-page-zine.jpg?w=700&h=467

From trippy breath work to commanding a robot army, Sam and Simon are getting ready for a super weird future with its various perils. While discussing their battle strategy they mention: The Wim Hof breathing method (https://www.wimhofmethod.com/) ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/), of course. Clean: The New Science of Skin and the Beauty of Doing Less by James Hamblin (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52260482-clean) Building A Virtual Machine inside ChatGPT by Jonas Degrave (https://www.engraved.blog/building-a-virtual-machine-inside/) Midjourney (https://midjourney.com/) Botto (https://www.botto.com/) the autonomous artist. (Thanks for the album art, DALL·E 2 (https://openai.com/dall-e-2/))

Simon reads Sam a poem and our intrepid duo considers the best ways in which to treat our future selves, the tensions that keep life balanced, pros and cons of social media, and myriad other thingies. Along the way they mention: Swan by Mary Oliver (https://www.poetseers.org/contemporary-poets/mary-oliver/mary-oliver-poems/the-swan/) Twitter's impending doom (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1595207476936413187) No One Is Talking About This (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53733106-no-one-is-talking-about-this) by Patricia Lockwood Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58784475-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow) by Gabrielle Zevin Replay (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/341735.Replay?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=4B4rDz35fO&rank=1) by Ken Grimwood Stutz (https://www.netflix.com/za/title/81387962) Breath:The New Science of a Lost Art (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48890486-breath?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=vuoOEaNc2p&rank=5) by James Nestor

Sam and Simon explore identity, how we change ourselves for each other, and what it means to push for making things better while appreciating the way things are. It's complicated. Along the way they mention: Adventure Time! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Time) Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (https://www.netflix.com/watch/80209608) Morning Pages (https://juliacameronlive.com/basic-tools/morning-pages/) Ann Patchett (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Patchett) Clarkson's Farm (https://www.amazon.com/Clarksons-Farm-Season-1/dp/B095RHJ52R) Wilding (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38891828-wilding) by Isabella Tree The Jamison Valley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamison_Valley) How Wolves Change Rivers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&t=1s)

Sam's robotic brain and Simon's tin heart contemplate practices such as writing, running, meditating - or antyhing else that curiously calls you to do it for its own sake - and what these commitments mean and ask from us as they curiously make their way into the other parts of our lives. Along the way they mention: Return to Oz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Oz) Google Keep (https://keep.google.com/) Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/) Notion (https://www.notion.so/) Shoe Dog (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27220736-shoe-dog) by Phil Knight Jim Rogers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Rogers) Born to Run (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6289283-born-to-run) by Christopher McDougall Eat and Run (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13202092-eat-and-run) by Scott Jurek, Steve Friedman The Hardrock 100 (https://hardrock100.com/) The Dreamachine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamachine) DeepDream (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepDream) Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_%26_Andy:_The_Great_Beyond) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58784475-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow) by Gabrielle Zevin

We love it when a young INVSTR encourages people to save and invest. And our guest, Sven Meyer, is all about that at only 19 years of age at the time of recording.In the spirit of keeping things young and fresh, Sven and our host play a game of ‘Never Have I Ever' to kick-off the chat, highlighting a few of the early lessons our guest has learned in his own investment journey.From goal-based investing to giving insight into how he learned to navigate finance jargon, as well as the 4% Rule he learned, this episode is chockfull of gems. Sven also tells us about the mistakes he had made in his own approach, which everyone can learn from.He also gives a shoutout to veterans in the finance space, Simon Brown and Sam Beckbessinger, whom he learned heavily from when starting his journey.Give this episode a listen to find out why Sven is a big fan of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), which are an investment product that you can find out all about in this episode with Nerina Visser here. We take a sneak peek into Sven's own portfolio as he tells us about the shares and products he himself has invested in, and which ones are performing well and which aren't. Share the love with us on social media by letting us know what you think of the episode by tweeting @EasyEquities @FinanceEd_SA or tagging us on the gram.To sign up to EasyEquities: http://bit.ly/2EtcE85DISCLAIMER: EasyEquities is a product of First World Trader (Pty) Ltd t/a EasyEquities which is an authorised Financial Services Provider. FSP number: 22588. This material is not intended as and does not constitute financial advice or any other advice and is neither exhaustive nor prescriptive. The views expressed by the contributor are his or her own (as an independently registered financial services provider, financial adviser or other independent capacity), and not necessarily endorsed by EasyEquities (as a separate financial services provider).

In this episode of the NB Publishers podcast, Jen Thorpe helps us navigate the tricky terrain of adulthood and shares some great life hacks from her book Adulting 101. Sam Beckbessinger, author of Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup, leads the discussion. This episode was recorded during an Exclusive Books webinar launch. Get your copy of Adulting 101 here: https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9780795710445 Sometimes (often!) it is hard to be an adult. Yes, you can go to bed as late as you want, but you have to make decisions all the time. You have bills to pay and taxes to do. You need a place to live, and good people to live with, and you need a job. Then there is the government, crime, climate change and fake news. It's enough to make you want to scream – WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS? There is no roadmap that will take you through life without a few wrong turns, but there are a few tips and tricks that can make the journey easier. Adulting 101 will help you navigate the tricky terrain of adulthood. Jen Thorpe guides you through everything you need to know (including what you don't yet know you need to know) from relationships, sex, work, health and money to how government and the media work. Music: "Whatever" by HolznaCC0 (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/holiznacc0/lo-fi-and-chill/whatever-2/)

Lwando's little sister often turns into a monster! How can he help her? This is a short children's story written by Sam Beckbessinger at Book Dash. You can read along with this story at Storyberries.com by clicking here. The story is read by Jade Maitre.

Sam Beckbessinger and Simon Nicholson are the co-creators of the climate video game Survive the Century, a choose-your-own-adventure style game where you make decisions about how to cover the climate crisis as the editor in chief of the most influential newspaper in the world. The game's third co-creator, Christopher Trisos, unfortunately wasn't able to join us. I found this game to be really helpful for putting real climate scenarios into context, giving me a much better idea of the real implications of, say, a 1.5ºC warming scenario versus a 2ºC scenario. Plus, the headlines the game generates can be pretty hilarious. I hope you enjoy this discussion of Survive the Century. Survive the Century Website: https://survivethecentury.net/ Stories for Earth: Transcript: https://storiesforearth.com/2021/08/03/interview-survive-the-century/ Support us through Patreon or a one-time donation: https://storiesforearth.com/support-us/ Rewilding Our Stories Discord server: https://discord.gg/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGmH6FisTges9AzQlfbg-hg Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stories4earth Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storiesforearth/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

What gives things value, and how much should we be worried about that? Sam and Simon discover that everything is rubbish, and along the way mention: Veblen goods (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good) A lot of garbage things that don't deserve extra attention here Cryptotrunks (https://cryptotrunks.co/) Cryptokitties (https://www.cryptokitties.co/) Sir Digby (https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo1uZAJh47f/) Vaccines: A Measured Response (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BIcAZxFfrc) Google Keep (https://keep.google.com/) Semiphemeral (https://semiphemeral.com/)

Prolific heat-thieves Sam and Simon talk about keeping shit together on this sixtieth episode of Take Back the Day. Things mentioned in this episode: Radiolab's Kleptotherms podcast. (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/kleptotherms) The Overstory by Richard Powers. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40180098-the-overstory) Sam's crazy productivity system (https://www.likeafuckinggrownup.com/productivity-isnt-doing-all-the-things/) (subscribe to her newsletter too). Simon's silly ZARP website (https://www.zarp.cash/). Survive the Century (https://survivethecentury.net/) climate-change game. The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53968436-the-secret-to-superhuman-strength). Moss (https://moss.earth/en/home/) and their crypto carbon credits.

A conversation on our excellent community group had me wondering why we've never dedicated a whole Fat Wallet to finding passive income streams outside of investments. It took about ten minutes for the realisation to dawn on me: true passive income is a myth.  We often talk about side-hustles. “Hustle” is the operative word there, because we're describing a second job. The appeal of working in your free time is the diversification of income streams and the potential to eventually earn your monthly income doing something you enjoy instead of your day job. True passive income means you work at nothing but capital for the initial investment. It's important to remember capital can be physical or it can refer to your time. We discuss the potential of online businesses and the enormous amount of time required to get any sort of momentum. We talk about rental income, having an Uber fleet and selling products online and in each case talk about the work required to truly make it work. Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Win of the week: Kay I stumbled across your podcast Sep 2019, via Sam Beckbessinger's book. I binged listened to all the episodes in a rather short space of time. I got a much clearer understanding of TFSA, and opened one immediately. My fear of stocks (which was more a lack of understanding) disappeared. Took my ostrich head out of the ground, and looked at my liberty RA. Ouch.  That got shifted out, can't say immediately, but Liberty did eventually let me go.   I started pumping money into an emergency fund. Life had taken an interesting turn in early 2019, and my income was more than halved. Come 2020 I had an emergency fund, which has saved my ass (or more like my animal's asses....pet insurance is definitely a future consideration with younger animals ) more times than I thought I could possibly ever need to use an emergency fund. If I had not discovered your podcast before 2020, I shudder to think what may have been in 2020. Once again, thank you for all that the two of you have done. It really has been life changing. I have a feeling once I finally retire, and I am able to still drink a fairly decent whiskey, I will think back to the early days of The Fat Wallet Show, and think thank goodness I discovered the podcast. On a side note, does Simon get to keep all the future donations that will be sent once we all have it made? Inge  I currently hold Ashburton 1200 and Satrix top 40. Now, with SATRIX I am guessing I am not taxed on dividends as these are SA stocks and fall under SARS, so they can't shaft me here. But do I pay tax on dividends and gains in the Ashburton 1200? Is there any benefit to holding it in my TFSA or should it just be a discretionary investment? Should do a 50% , 50% split between these two? OR because I have a local RA, do I max my offshore in the TFSA and do a 70 ash / 30 satrix split? I am torn between putting extra into my bond to reduce the term (and amount of compound interest paid) vs putting money into my RA/TFSA for the future. Currently my bond is also my emergency and travel savings fund. My current strategy is-  RA: maintain and only do standard annual increase.  Bond: pay in an extra 50%,  I take about the same amount I put into my bond and put 2/3 into a TFSA and 1/3 into an FNB share account. Do I pump up that bond and get it done, or maintain the current strategy? Do you have any suggestions of what calculator to use to show someone the value of time in the market? Una  I began a new job in early December and had my daughter in early February. While I understand the value of getting medical when you have a child, I signed up for health insurance instead of medical aid because I was in a hurry. I'm not sure if I should cancel and get medical aid; could you please advise which of the two choices is the best?  Tim She owns her home and should downsize. She likes having 2.5 vacant bedrooms for myself and my brothers.. despite 2 of us being married.  In 2014, we started buying apartments in Joburg, she owns a 1/3 of the company that owns 4 units (1.5 still bonded). She is a member of the GEPF  She has minimal discretionary investments (Satrix etc.) and I started her on a TFSA last year. My stepdad lost all his pension funding assets in his divorce. He's a (retired) teacher with a (small) preservation fund (and a TFSA from this year).  My mom currently has R15k per month cash to invest. My thinking is smash R6k into their two TFSAs and convert the balance to USD through EE/Shyft and buy VT through EE or TD Ameritrade.  She will need to leave that money for at least 5 years. She has a large amount of property and Reg28 exposure relative to offshore/ETFs.  Is there anything else you would suggest looking into? I've heard you say a few times that dividends within an RA/preservation and a TFSA are tax free whilst in the vehicle. Apart from the total return ETF complication, how does the company paying the dividend know that it is going into one of these vehicles and, therefore, doesn't deduct the tax? Christiaan It might seem that we have some tax relief, but when electricity prices are going up 15% and the fuel levy is increasing by 27c/l, does it just not mean indirect taxes are just diminishing any perceived gains?  Are we being tricked into feeling good, but when you look at your personal cash-flow you realise there is not more left? When electricity and fuel go up, would it not mean we have increased food prices, inflation in the general economy and will pay more for goods and services in general? When that happens, are we also likely to see interest rates going up? Mo My goal over the last year was to get an apartment and pay it off quickly to avoid big interest payments. I have already set aside an emergency fund and I am now paying extra into the bond to get it paid off hopefully under seven years.  Having discovered the wonders of TFSAs, ETFs, etc. I am now torn as to how to go about spreading my money. I am struggling to find a good ratio between the additional bond payments and an investment account (ETF invested account, not TFSA). I like the idea of having the apartment paid off but I am worried that I am putting too much emphasis on reducing the time period of the bond and at the same time losing out of potential growth of ETFs. I was previously putting all extra cash into the bond account, but am now looking at putting 2/3rds into the bond and 1/3rd into investments. I am still young and doing what I can to live frugally and not stuff up being in a good position.

What we are going to do is get our finances in order!! Here are 4 books that I highly recommend. I really hope you will enjoy this one. Book titles: - Manage your Money Like a F*cking Grown Up by Sam Beckbessinger. - You're not Broke you're Pre-rich by Mapalo Makhu. - Think yourself Rich by Moroka Modiba. - Make your Money Work for you by Anthea Gardner.

Joining Pippa on the line is Sam BeckBessinger who is the author of Manage your Money like a Grown Up. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sam Beckbessinger is the bestselling author of Manage Your Money Like a Fu*king Grownup, sold in six countries. She writes weird horror stories and kids' tv shows, and helps people learn to adult better (she's still trying to figure it out herself). We deep dive into: - Budgeting for freelancers - Finances during COVID - Where to save money - Tools to help with financial planning - Investing Check out Sam's weekly Blog on: https://www.likeafuckinggrownup.com She was one of the writers on Serial Box’s and Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire serialized novel. She's also written several episodes for animated kids’ TV show, Team Jay, commissioned by the Juventus Soccer Club and produced and animated by Sunrise Productions, and the family-friendly comedy series Jungle Beat, which has been broadcast in over 180 countries on channels including Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Sam was a Mandela Washington Fellow for Young African Leaders at Yale University in 2014, and is a partner and co-founder of two financial technology businesses: Lettuce and Inves. She is co-writing Magpies, a mystery-suspense novel about missing girls who come back, changed, together with Dale Halvorsen. Let's turn this financial battle into party - join the Tribe and become the best version of yourself www.novieguide.com

Sam Beckbessinger is the bestselling author of Manage Your Money Like a Fu*king Grownup, sold in six countries. She writes weird horror stories and kids' tv shows, and helps people learn to adult better (she's still trying to figure it out herself). We deep dive into: - Budgeting for freelancers - Finances during COVID - Where to save money - Tools to help with financial planning - Investing Check out Sam's weekly Blog on: https://www.likeafuckinggrownup.com She was one of the writers on Serial Box's and Marvel's Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire serialized novel. She's also written several episodes for animated kids' TV show, Team Jay, commissioned by the Juventus Soccer Club and produced and animated by Sunrise Productions, and the family-friendly comedy series Jungle Beat, which has been broadcast in over 180 countries on channels including Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Sam was a Mandela Washington Fellow for Young African Leaders at Yale University in 2014, and is a partner and co-founder of two financial technology businesses: Lettuce and Inves. She is co-writing Magpies, a mystery-suspense novel about missing girls who come back, changed, together with Dale Halvorsen. Let's turn this financial battle into party - join the Tribe and become the best version of yourself www.novieguide.com

I've been avoiding talking about endowment policies, because what even are they? I haven't come across one in my own investment life. This week, a question from Sandile sent me down the endowment road. I had fun with it. I got the Tax Elves involved. They had fun with it. Fun was had by all. Endowments are the love child of insurance and investments. They have a five-year lock-in period, a tax rate of 30%, a life assured and a beneficiary. If you are in a higher tax bracket and looking for a long-term investment vehicle, endowments are worth investigating. They can also play a role in estate planning. It pays out directly to the beneficiary, which is great if you are leaving someone behind who is financially dependent on you. As De Wet de Villiers pointed out, the fact that they pay out tax-free doesn't mean they're not taxed in the estate. It simply means the estate is liable for the tax, not the beneficiary.  In addition to teaching me a thing or two about endowments, Sandile's question could serve as a template if you're hoping to add new holdings to your portfolio. His clear reasoning and systematic approach to adding this investment is worthy of emulation. Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Win of the week: Pru I've tried to break up with my advisor for the last year, but it has been difficult! Everytime I say to him, we need to talk and I want to move my investments, he takes me out on a nice date, listens to me and then goes on to scare me into staying with him. He tells me EasyEquities is not the right platform for me and I should be careful of companies like 10X. It does not help that he also butters me up and tells me how great I am, while also telling me about his life, so I end up feeling I can't leave him because he confides in me. My people-pleasing self feels bad for wanting to break up with him. It's the perfect emotionally manipulative relationship and I JUST CAN'T LEAVE!  How does one amicably break up with their financial advisor? More importantly, how do you leave them when you have a fear of managing your money independently?  I have listened to your podcast, and some episodes more than once. I read Sam Beckbessinger's book and Vicki Robin's book called Your Money or Your Life. I aspire to be a Patrick Mckay and I have a financial strategy to reach FIRE, but my greatest hurdle is letting my financial advisor go and trusting myself that I can manage my investments myself.  When he is not around I feel as though I can manage my money independently and I do not need him, but after meeting with him, I leave with a great sense of fear about moving my TFSA from Sanlam to Easy and moving my RA from Discovery to TenEx or Outvest. All the financial aspects that do not involve him I have managed relatively well, like my emergency fund. I know I can manage my money, I just fear that if I move my investments to the "big bad world of ETFs" (which is how he makes it sound), I will lose everything! I know he may be playing Jedi mind tricks on me, but how do I stop myself from being tricked! Also, he is not a bad person, he is a very nice guy, but I think this is part of my problem, I am making this whole relationship too personal! I feel defeated!  Sandile I stumbled on this product by Sygnia where you can get direct exposure to Berkshire Hathaway.   Here is why I'm looking into buying into this fund: I believe that Berkshire is going to have ample opportunity to buy really decent businesses at decent prices as Covid continues to decimate some much needed industries.  I believe Berkshire is one of those great businesses that one can buy at a decent price, thanks to Covid; I bought a few units in late Jan through EasyEquities and the costs to transfer funds and transact in USD was rather hefty, so I think I'll leave that to a local fund to handle that; I have looked at the S&P500 (which I hold) and in my view, the Berkshire allocation there is rather small and I'd like more exposure; Sygnia offers this fund for “discretionary savings into a 5-year endowment, a retirement annuity or a living annuity”. I would like to avoid setting up an RA with yet another service provider at the moment and I have no need for a living annuity, which leaves me with the endowment fund option. From the little that I could read up on endowment funds: I am fairly comfortable with the idea of leaving the cash invested for at least five years (if not more); My marginal income tax rate exceeds 41% so at 30% tax, the fund is saving me some element of tax; I have set up an emergency fund (around 6 months' salary) so I think the risk of cancelling the endowment before 5 years is low; TFSA has been maxed for 2021 year of assessment. I contribute far less than the allowed 27.5% into my RA (I am busy assessing contributing into an RA vs increasing my employer-pension fund contributions); I am just uncertain if I'm opening myself up to more unknown risks/complications/costs by using this structure. Kimberley  I am a shareholder for a company who has moved operations to Mauritius. If our company is lucky enough to declare dividends, this will now be paid in USD.  How does this affect my tax?   Is there a way I can get it in ZAR without losing so much to tax or is it better I keep it offshore ?  I like the idea of keeping it offshore for emergencies or as a “life insurance” for me when I pass away to leave to my daughter. Is this possible with only holding a SA passport?   Perhaps I could open an offshore trust and list her as the beneficiary and the dividends get paid into that?  Could I open a USD trading account on EE and get the dividends paid directly to that?  Is what I'm wanting to do by not bringing it into SA even legal?     I feel there are not enough bubbles, chuckles, coffee and chai tea to get me through the questions I have and the changes I need to implement to get my financial ducks in a row.  Right now these ducks have ADHD and when they seem to be in a row, they decide to go off on a fucking tangent.   Anton  I inherited a farm in 1994 and sold it in 2019. I have the value of it when I got it and when I sold it. I did not get a valuation in 2001 when CGT started. I would like to know how to work out the CGT on this transaction.  Download the calculator here.   Moore I am 27 and have a pension/provident plan with my employer. I would like to have an RA for a top up. I would also like to invest in shares. I don't know how to go about doing any of those. I have an EasyEquities account but I don't really know which shares to target, and for which amount every month. I have a R1000 that I can divide for those two financial goals. With that amount of money and my age, I am not even sure if that will be enough to contribute. I've only been exposed recently to this saving and investing movement. I was so ignorant.  Thanks to the Fat wallet Community on Facebook I have managed to put some savings for Emergencies with Tyme bank. Catherine I've tried the Interactive Brokers demo account and find it a little intimidating. I don't know what options or margins are, and I don't want to enact them by mistake by clicking the wrong button. I also imagine their customer service is not catered for noobs like me. Having said that, the platform is becoming less intimidating the more I play with the demo account. Another option is to buy the shares through a Standard Bank Webtrader account, which has broker fees of 0.345% and annual account fees of 0.26%, and then transfer the amount across to my EasyEquities USD account to avoid paying ongoing annual fees. Do you have any thoughts on each of these options, considering that my goal is to pay the lowest fees possible over the next 20 years, but also have a relatively user-friendly experience.  I don't have a credit card. The only time this has ever been a problem is when a hotel or car rental company requires a credit card for a booking or deposit. It is pretty frustrating being at an airport and unable to rent a car. And are there any ways to get around this booking/deposit problem without having a credit card? And do you know of any reasons to have a credit card aside from this (assuming I don't need the credit)? Are credit cards generally better than debit cards for general spending while travelling? Melisha I have two kids in grade 4 and grade 0. I usually save up the school fee money to pay once off and get a 5% discount in December of the previous year. I anticipate a 10% increase in school fees. So essentially I need to save R20k a month for both kids' school fees for the 2021 school year. We usually put the money into a savings account but now the interest rates are so low. At the moment the money is in a Tyme bank account goal save but i was wondering if there was something better out there? Something with low risk, short term and potentially to beat money market type accounts.  Our friend Walter made a site called Rate Compare https://www.ratecompare.co.za/.  Tristan Lately I have been seeing ads on YouTube for a financial service app called Franc. It has 4 stars on the Google Play Store but I was wondering if you had heard of it, seen it or tried it? Lastly, can we trust Franc? Ken  What is all the hype over Mexem Africa about? I have gone to their website but, quite frankly, it looks like a scamsters website (although I thought the same about Easy Equities' website too, before I started using it).  I don't see any info on tax free accounts, and they mention all sorts of foreign currencies but not much about how you convert your rands to Dollars/Euros/etc...  The little section on fees is as clear as mud.  As an ETF investor (tax free and discretionary) should I be looking into it in a bit more detail? Would really appreciate a chat between you and Simon on this. Brian I've been with etfSA since 2012. I am busy updating my etf portfolio and want to know if I should shift some funds or all to Easy Equities. I've already bought MSCI China through my Easy Equities account that I registered a few weeks ago. What is your suggestion? 

Sam Beckbessigner is back on the show to talk about her new book aimed at 11-15 year old readers, “Manage your money like a grown up for Teens.” Sam and Diana discuss allowances, earning money through safe side hustles, teaching children how to make choices and how to delay gratification. Sam has plenty of tips and tools for parents who want to help their children learn about money. Join us on twitter for real conversations about family finances:@FamFinanceShow@DianaGranouxWebsite: www.familyfinanceshow.com

People who can build book brands and inspire fans are rare and amazing, even more so when they write their books, too. One of those people is Sam Beckbessinger, the bestselling author of Manage Your Money Like a F—ing Grownup, which is a book, a website, and a growing brand in several countries. She also writes for hugely popular kids’ TV shows, and was one of the writers on Serial Box and Marvel’s serialized novel Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire. She is irrepressibly joyful and optimistic, which is something we all need a dose of right now.

In this episode Diana talks to Sam Beckbessigner about their favourite subject, compound growth. Sam uses three stories to simply explain what compound growth is and why you should care about it. Einstein famously said, “Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn't, pays it.” Take care to invest your money where it gets the best growth, and where you pay the lowest fees possible, and just let time work its magic. Stay motivated to save and invest by regularly listening to this podcast. Sam's book, “How to manage your money like a fucking grownup” contains everything you need to know about managing your money, explained in simple language and in an entertaining way. If you haven't read it, please do!Join us on twitter for real conversations about family finances:@FamFinanceShow@DianaGranouxWebsite: www.familyfinanceshow.com

Under normal circumstances we would strongly caution against withdrawing from your pension fund. The reason is quite simple: the tax will make your eyes water. One decision can slash your hard-earned net worth by hundreds of thousands of rands. That's not even factoring for opportunity cost. However, since we're currently living through the apocalypse, we might have to soften our stance on this. Some members of the financial services industry are lobbying for access to pension funds during this crisis. If you're no longer able to earn an income, you might have to make a smart decision about this.  In this week's episode, we give you a sense of the different factors you have to consider before withdrawing from your pension fund. Naturally, we start with tax. We also consider the opportunity cost of the withdrawal, as well as the opportunity cost of taking on debt instead of withdrawing.  We also spend some time making sense of the benefits of share incentive schemes. At the beginning of the episode, we mention emergency loans. These are the conditions you have to meet to qualify, and these are credit providers registered with the National Credit Regulator. Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Clara I am currently in my notice month. I've worked in local government for 13 years. I'm quite in a spin as to whether I should cash out my pension before 55, leave it or move to a provident fund.  After long deliberation and getting some financial advice, I have decided to take the plunge and withdraw the cash, pay the tax, cut my losses and move on.   Firstly I wanted to ensure that my pension will not be used to fund our government-owned companies, the possibility of junk status, the weakening rand after junk status and the management /administration fees that will be due to my portfolio manager for my provident fund if I choose to go that route.  I wanted to "do the right thing" - to give my 30days notice as required by employment act, but this honorable decision has bitten me in the back and I have lost R200,000 in my pension fund in the last 30 days.  I don't want to make hasty decisions in ‘'panic mode'' and withdraw as quickly as possible. The withdrawal will only happen in 2 -3 weeks, so I'll lose much more, pay taxes on the little I have left after our market dropped.  At this stage I am thinking of not withdrawing the funds, moving it to a provident fund, letting it recover as much as it can for a year or so, monitor the Rand/CAD$ exchange rate and take it from there. But I'm afraid all the current negative elements such as junk status etc will have a much more negative impact.  If I pay my pension fund into a provident fund it will still be affected by the markets, but maybe it will recover a bit before withdrawing the funds. I don't need the funds and thought to put it in a pension fund in Canada. Although I am aware that all markets are affected, growth will probably not be better in Canada. Win of the week: Kerry Also Serena You can do a transfer of the units held in your Allan Gray fund to an Allan Gray fund held on the  Sygnia platform. Sygnia offers a number of Allan Gray Funds on their alchemy platform.  I did a section 14 transfer in September 2019 of the units held in my Allan Gray Balanced fund. Allan Gray need to convert it from a Class A to a Class C first before transfer.  I did this for two reasons . I held this balanced fund in Allan Gray for over 15 years and did not want to lock in lack of performance of the last five years. I was also concerned about the volatility of the market during the time of the transfer process. Over the following 7 months, I've switched out of the Allan Gray Balanced fund on the Sygnia platform when the price was appropriate. I switched into a combination of ETFs and the Skeleton 70 fund, according to my Long term Asset allocation strategy. Now everything has gone to hell in a basket, but at least I am in the passive ETFs and a fund I want to be in for the next at least 10 years at a fraction of the cost . With regard to interest earned on cash kept in overseas brokerage accounts: I have a Degiro brokerage account and they don't hold the cash themselves. Euros are held in a Morgan Stanley money market fund and the interest rate is -0.54%.  Gary  I'm in my early 40s. Until two years ago I was a financial newbie. I made all the classic big mistakes. High fees, head in the ground investing. Between your podcast and Sam Beckbessinger's book I'm busy with a big turn-around. I moved everything to broad low fee ETFs, maxing RA and TFSA, I am aiming for a 50% save/investing rate. My question is on a potential TFSA hack : Putting the full R500K lifetime limit into your TFSA in one go, and accepting the 40% tax hit from SARS. I have a medical condition that will only allow me to work for another 10 years. I was thinking this would be a great way to max out my TFSA and give it the longest amount of time to grow.  Jon From 1966 for 25 years, the SP500 was ultimately flat.  From 1954 for 28 years, the SP500 was also flat. From 1969 for just over 10 years, the SP500 lost almost 2rds of its value. From 1929, over about 20 years, the SP500 lost about 2/3rds of its value. These are long enough periods that it brings into question how risky a long term equity investment actually is. I am diversified across regions, but it would be really interesting to hear you guys really engage with this on the pod. The black and white rules about average gains over long periods aren't really bulletproof.

Starting an exercise regimen is hard. No wonder: for most of human history, the idea of scheduling time to expend a bunch of energy for no reason would be laughable. But as our lifestyles have changed, more and more of us spend most of our lives on our butts... and it's literally killing us. So even though it's hard, building a long-term exercise habit is too important not to at least try. This week, host Sam Beckbessinger walks you through the fundamentals of exercising like a fucking adult.

In this week's episode the Like a Fucking Grownup team tackles a topic that not enough young people are talking about: investing. And more to the point, the basics of investing in the stock market. Sound boring? Well, if you think cheese burgers, Sex & the City throwbacks and figuring out how to secure your future in the easiest way known to man sound boring, then you're basically impossible to please. Sam Beckbessinger talks to The Financial Fitness Bunny, Nicolette Mashile, about how investing in shares - and in your future - is so much easier than you may think.

One of the few positive side effects of South Africa's high rate of HIV transmission is that South Africans have gotten very good at talking about sexual health. But despite this national obsession with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), most of us—adult humans who likely have sex at least sometimes—are still walking around with some pretty outrageous misconceptions about them. Sam Beckbessinger talks to Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, Dr Yashna Singh and "Tshepo", a South African 20-something, about how to deal with sex and STIs like a f*cking grown-up.

How much money would make you happy? What needs do you need to have met to feel like you financially had “enough”? What IS enough? Why is the topic of money so shameful and secretive? How do our values inform our spending habits? Is there a connection between emotions, spirituality, and money? And, the all-important question - do you manage your money like a f*cking grown up?! We dive deep into the world of money with author Sam Beckbessinger.   Sam Beckbessinger: https://sambeckbessinger.com/ Manage your money like a fucking grown up: https://www.likeafuckinggrownup.com/ Money - a love story: https://amzn.to/2YxE2Xy Open Up - the power of talking about money: https://amzn.to/2YzpYwz   Find Anna:http://annamarsh.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_marsh_nutrition/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annamarshnutrition/   Find Ché: https://www.chedyer.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indieyogalife/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chedyeryoga/

I grew up with the idea that you can lose “all your money” in the stock market. I'm sure many people did. Movies about the stock market don't do much to put us at ease - if it doesn't end with someone losing their last penny, it's not very entertaining. This week, Nadia got us thinking about what it really means for your portfolio when there's a stock market crash. Her anxiety was provoked by Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki, who stated in a recent interview that all money is fake and we should all buy gold and silver. Fat Wallet veterans can guess how we take this news. We talk about what we actually mean by a stock market crash and the different ways that could affect your portfolio. We also share some gems from our Twitter community. Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Nadia  I was wondering if you guys could help ease my mind a little.  I've been wanting to do a lump sum deposit into my TFSA and split it between the Satrix top 40 and the Satrix MSCI world. I have most of my TFSA in the Coreshares equally weighted but I think I've given up hope for that ETF and I'd like to cut it out once it's back in the green (if that happens).  When I was about to do my lump sum, I came across this article "Rich Dad Poor Dad' author warns South Africans of 'biggest financial bubble' ahead". This made me a little nervous and got me thinking about a market crash. I don't know if I understand exactly what happens to all your investments when the market crashes. What will happen to my TFSA investments, my RA, Unit trust etc if the day comes where the markets crash.  What do you do in that situation? Do you just wait a few years for it to restore itself? Should you buy while the price is low and hope for it to climb up the ladder again? For example, if I had 50k in a Top 40 ETF, does this mean I could potentially lose that 50k if all those top 40 companies fall flat? Could this happen in a market crash or would it only be a few companies who take the plunge?  I think having a better grasp on what situations could unfold in the future would help me feel more confident about where I'd like to put my money and it'd help me understand what to do or how to handle things if shit hits the fan. Thanks again for the amazing work you guys do. Honestly, I'd be completely lost without you. From Twitter @SammyJoeD Lol I don't know but I'd like to think it's a closed system (don't ask me to elaborate, it makes sense to me that way), the money goes into someone else's pocket, say someone who has placed a bet on the option that the market will crash.

Personal finance author Sam Beckbessinger opens up about her attitude to money (hopes and fears, successes and failures, etc.).

Education is a tough nut to crack. It's an investment, to be sure, but just like any other investment, the rewards need to outweigh the risks. Unlike other investments, however, risk and reward are extremely difficult to measure in education. Private school kids could be doing better later in life because of their education or because they come from wealthy families that have access to everything from better nutrition to more free time. Parents will spare no expense to give their kids whatever they can to ensure their future success. Does that mean private schooling should be the goal for every parent, no matter the cost? I'm not convinced. In this episode, Simon and I try to put our childlessness to good use to try and answer whether a single kid's education should cost more than R100,000 per year. Our discussion was prompted by this excellent question from Edwin: I have three wonderful children and very high expectations that they will have better opportunities in life than I did. This I suppose is a normal aspiration for any parent. Is it worth spending large sums of cash to get my children premium private school education? The most expensive boarding schools cost over R200k per year and the premium day education can set one back about R100k per year. All figures per child! In the public system one can get away with costs that range between 50-70% less than this per child. Is it worth throwing everything at getting the kids this premium experience? Or maybe just get them an education that's good enough with a focus on getting into a University rather? The opportunity cost vs saving and investment is high. I attended one of these premium establishments and having it on my CV means it has opened a lot of doors and served me well. However, some of my classmates are in jail. One became a bank robber. Just not sure. Is it worth it? Win of the week is Tshembi. I have been listening since September 2018 and you have inspired me to get started on my financial freedom journey.I've always wanted to be an investor, but it was hard to find the right information and I was always scared of losing money. Listening to your show has given me confidence and I have gained knowledge on different types of investments products. I like sharing the information with my younger brother, because I don't want him to be left behind. Thank you for making it easy for me to learn and to be able to teach others. The  OUTstanding money series of articles has really helped me. For my birthday last year I decided to buy myself assets (Ashburton top40 & Ashburton MidCap ETFs with FNB Tax free shares account) instead of a gift. I'm so proud of myself for taking the first step to my financial freedom. However I have an Easy Equities account and I'd like to move my FNB TFSA to EasyEquities because its cheaper and you always talk about it in the show. I also want to be able to buy Ashburton Global 1200 ETF to get the international market exposure and since i'm just starting out i think this is the best ETF to choose. Will I be taxed for Ashburton Global 1200 ETF on a TFSA since it gives the international market exposure? How do I go about transferring my TFSA from FNB to Easy Equities? Helen also wanted to know about moving her TFSA from Capitec to EE. Nico took out a policy to pay for his kids' education and made a terrible discovery regarding his fees. He took out a Classic Saver Endowment Plan with Clientéle. He received his annual fee increase notification. Now that I know what to look for (thanks to your podcast) I saw that my fees are around 5.5%. I bought this policy 12 years ago through IFA, but about a year ago asked them to remove the IFA franchise fee of R65 and deposit that amount into the account as well (now directly from Clientele). I would like to have your input on the following.       My son will be in GR 11 next year (2019). Is it wise to move the money to an ETF now or should I keep the policy running?       If I must move the money, which funds would you suggest, keeping in mind the short time span until I will need it.       If I move, will the fees I save make a noticeable impact on the end amount?       I have an account with Easy Equities. Should I rather deposit extra money in that and leave the police as is? Donal needs to make a decision about his kids' studies. I'm an Irish citizen who is now a Permanent Resident, married with kids and a homeowner (well actually I'm a bond owner!). I have a very decent job, a healthy pension plan and both my wife and I max out our TFSA allowances (thanks to you guys!). I'm approx 15-25 years from retirement depending on how patient I am and/or how rich I become in the meantime. I have concerns about my kids' future prospects, especially when it comes to tertiary education. I'm planning for the worst case scenario that they have to go overseas for University. That brings the possibility that my wife and I may decide to move with them. I have been looking at starting to send some cash to Ireland on a monthly basis for investment for the next 15+ years so that we have a nest-egg for that possibility. Of course it's also a handy way of diversifying my current investment portfolio. I still hold an Irish bank account so I can easily use that account as my base for such an investment. My wife recently resigned from her job and started working with a new company. Her provident fund has now become available. I did get one of those light bulb moments and thought to myself - what a wonderful instant Irish nest egg this would be!! How cool would it be to just whack this lump sum over to my Irish account and invest it in an ETF so I don't have to worry my little head about sending monthly amounts over to Ireland for the next shitload of months! Am I crazy to even consider this or is it a good idea? I know there are a million and one different variables at play here which makes it such a difficult decision. For starters we would lose approximately R100,000 to tax if we were to withdraw the fund now. I know I would also be liable to pay CGT to SARS on any foreign investment growth. But the possibility of having an instant emergency fund available overseas is a nagging temptation that I can't get out of my head. Nakedi is 25, just completed her degree and got a three-year internship. She's starting her career with some student debt in the bag. She needs help on planning her future. She has student debt from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). I did the math on my salary and expected expenses which leaves me in the red which is something I don't want.       NSFAS is quite reasonable when it comes to repayments and interest (at 80% of the repo rate), unlike a bank. Now should paying off my loan be top priority or start saving to build up my asset base?       The job requires that I have a car, which means more debt. I may do the work without a car for the first few months but as time goes by I will need it. In my current financial position it's highly unlikely that I would qualify for car finance, so how do I go about building a good credit record without drowning in debt?   Don't make the mistake I made here. Go second-hand immediately.         The job is in the corporate world which means formal wear, which means I have to go shopping.  Since my cash resources are limited I thought of getting a clothing account which means more debt, your thoughts?   Look up capsule wardrobes and put one together from second-hand clothes.           To avoid further costs I will staying at home but the house is in bad conditions so it will need major renovations which will require more money. Should I save up this or incur more debt?   A friend told me recently the best thing about staying in your own place is that you decide when you want to do things. Unless there's a structural issue like a leaky roof or a burst pipe, this can wait.         Both parents are unemployed which means I must chip in to help around the house.   Have a discussion with your folks about their expenses now and agree what you'll give them, instead of just giving money whenever. It makes it much easier to keep control of the money you have left. Since you live with them, just think of this as rent.         Lastly, every now and then everybody likes to go on a holiday, how do I save for this and still be able to invest for the long term. Any book recommendations on investing and personal finance, because there are thousands of books if not millions on the topic.   Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup, by Sam Beckbessinger   Brian wants to know how his advanced voluntary contributions will be taxed. Advanced voluntary contributions is when you make additional contributions to your pension fund at work. How will advanced voluntary contributions paid into my defined contribution pension fund be treated in my tax breakdown once I retire? I expect to retire in 24 months. About ¼ of his pension fund is made up of AV contributions. If I cash in the allowed one third at retirement in full, will the AVC (which was after tax contribution) be tax free in this allowance? Ben is turning 30. He thinks it's time to be a money ninja. I had an epiphany over the holiday in needing to take better charge of my finances. I came across your site and then the podcast which is amazing, thank you so much! I'm trying to work through about one episode per day properly with notes etc. but still have a loooooooong way to go. I've done the "normal" thing up until now, as I haven't had a clue how any of this works. I have two voluntary investments, one with PSG and one with STANLIB, an RA with STANLIB, and a joint company with high school friends where we contribute monthly and pool that into something or other at Allan Gray. I'm sitting with excess money in my savings account (over and above my emergency fund) that I need to decide what to do with. Of that I'll probably do the R33 000 into an easy equities TFSA and go with the Ashburton 1200 for now (one ETF only to monitor and figure out like you suggested in episode 91). I'll probably monitor that and when I'm more comfortable invest a similar amount elsewhere through easy equities. What's annoying me at this point are the fees on the managed investments. Do I keep either of these? As I see it I have four options: Keep both these investments and see how things are going forward, in terms of markets and my literacy, and take it from there; Move the PSG funds over to the STANLIB account for now where the fees aren't as much, and monitor as above; Move the PSG funds over to the easyEquities platform where I can manage them myself, or Drop both of these investments and reinvest elsewhere. Always Abundant has a great question about dividend ETFs. I have never taken the time to understand dividend-focused ETFs e.g. Coreshares Dividend Aristocrats ETF. However, since the dividends in a TFSA are not subject to DWT, I wonder if they would then have a greater impact on making a TFSA more profitable overall? If so, how much of it is too much i.e should it replace your General Equity ETF? He also wants to know how the rand depreciates against the dollar. I've heard people mention an accepted overall rate of depreciation of the ZAR against USD over x years in the future. I don't recall the details so if you know it please share? Is this known with certainty that is must happen? Or is there an equal chance that it could go the other way too? Nadia has a question about the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank. Could you please how investments would be affected? I have a RA and Unit Trust with 10x. I also have a Tax free savings with Easy Equity. If government takes over everything, what does this mean for these investments? Should we all be taking our money overseas instead or will it be safe?   I also have a fixed deposit at Capitec and savings at FNB and I know these will probably be vulnerable but I'm not too clued up on how things would go if the reserve bank was nationalized. Any clarity and advice from you guys would be super amazing! Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes.  

Time. It’s the most important factor, says Sam Beckbessinger, author of “Manage Your Money like a F*cking Grownup”.

Saving money on boring stuff such as a car can allow you to do really outrageous and courageous stuff, says Sam Beckbessinger.

Since my first investment in Mach 2014, the market has done nothing. Inflation, on the other hand, has done enough. My time in the market is making me progressively poorer. I don't care for it. In this episode, Simon and I discuss what we can do while the market does nothing. It's awful, but it does provide a bit of breathing room to pad that emergency fund, figure out how different asset classes behave in different market conditions and really delve into sector exposure in a portfolio. It's also a great time to accumulate units in the eternal hope that the market will one day find its will to live. PS. There's a Fat Wallet community page now. You can join here. Win of the week is Laurentius Wyngaard. He wins, because his name is epic. He also wins because he asked a very important question. How do I go about investing in the TFSA EFTs? I have a Satrix 40 ETF and had to invest through Satrix, but where do I access the ones you've listed? I also want to send a shout-out to Gideon, who is 26 and has all his ducks in a row. In his email he said something that struck me: "Being a CA I am familiar with most of the concepts, your podcasts and Sam's book has just given me a new perspective on how to implement the theory!" Vincent has great retirement questions. With life expectancy increasing, could you out-live the 2/3 annuity? This is where drawdown rates come in. In a living annuity you have control over how much you can draw down. What happens to that money when you pass away two years after retiring with regard to estate, beneficiaries and tax? Could you ever invest too much in an RA, should the focus be to first max out tax friendly investments [RA & TFSA] then trade? Our friend Herman from Pyfin is working on an algorithm that will help us eventually answer this question. There is a tipping point and once he knows the answer I hope it makes him very rich. He also wants to know our opinion on the rand in 40 years.  The drawback of the compulsory annuity after retirement is that you will never see the entire 2/3 value being utilized or have full access to it. Someone is keeping the money you worked very hard/smart for and there could be massive tax deductions with payout to beneficiaries or issues with access in the event of emergencies. Retirement annuities are there to help people who struggle to save. The tax incentives are there to encourage us. It this is the only saving you do, keep doing it. If you are a more sophisticated investor, you might want to look at a combination of options. Aiden has a suggestion for the rebalancing of the Listener Love index. How about on its anniversary we rebalance it by removing only one company and replacing it with another “loved” share. The reason for removal could be based on a hierarchy of what all the companies did over this last year. Something like : Committed a crime/ fraud and have been caught out There is a lot of smoke but no fire, yet. Impending merger / acquisition / delisting Poor performance / management over the past year Lost a LOT of money We've fallen out of love In most cases a company that commits number one will also have committed number 2, 4, 5 and 6 by the time we rebalance. I vote for Steinhoff to come out, and a vote for Tawana (lithium producers - i mean come on - Batteries hellloooo) to come in. Tim also has some suggestions. For one, he wants us to change the name to the JOLLI index, which stands for The index of love that is not jolly. He wants to include Foschini, Aspen and Bidvest and votes to remove Blue Label, Brait, Gemfields, Lewis and Steinhoff. Petrus in Germany is thinking about breaking into the German property market.  If it makes you feel any better, a small starter flat in Munich will set you back around 600k Euro!  Oh, and the banks want a 20% deposit! What vehicle are you using to save up for your deposit and why? I know you are a government retail bond fan, but what about ETFs? Apart from the risk of low, no or negative returns, is there any other reason why you would not invest in ETF for something more short term like a deposit for your first property?     Darryn is a vet who is starting to take a closer look at some of the products he got sold when he was a student. I've been sold a few products such as an endowment, RA (Liberty) and an income protection (by FMI) but I am still in the process of researching all these products. Any advice on these products from liberty and FMI? For now I'm just paying off my debt and plan to have this done but mid next year. Then look forward to investing after that. I've heard PPS have a profit share account and that Discovery has paybacks if you got medical aid with them (Which I do, and happy there). Does it really matter which one I'm on? Do you think it would be better to be on either PPS or Discovery because of those perks, taking into consideration if their monthly premiums all all the same? When your emergency fund is hefty enough, you can get rid of income protection. Our friend Charmaine alerted me to something horrifying. When you pay fees on a sliding scale (when they say you pay less for investments over a certain amount) you actually still pay the higher amount on the investments before you reach the threshold.  It's also worth noting that the fees you see on your table EXCLUDES the TER and VAT. On the first R500 000 0.65% On the amount from R500 001 — R1 000 000 0.50% On the amount over R1 000 000 0.35% We got feedback from Dr. Woof on the marriage thing. His situation inspired a series of articles I wrote for our OUTstanding Money feature. After the podcast, we had a straight talk about the whole wedding thing. We are already living together and are effectively married in terms of financial obligations, cooking and cleaning. We've decided to hold off on the wedding for now and save until we can both afford the wedding we want i.e. "Platinum wedding". I have finished reading Sam Beckbessinger's book and encouraged her to read it also. So we are starting our #couplegoal wedding. I am so grateful for your advice that one should be open and honest about money matters with your partner. We are much happier after the serious chat and it is all about managing one another's expectations. I have also downloaded the OUTvest app because you can request contributions on the app. Instead of Birthday and Christmas gifts, I am going to request contributions for the wedding fund. Instead of wedding gifts, people can contribute to the fund.  We already have most household items, so effectively we just require a wedding. Anonymous is worried about EasyEquities as part of Purple Group. Purple Group isn't doing so well because of GT247 and Emperor Asset Management. Emperor has had assets under management halved. How will the continued losses of GT247 and Emperor be contained so that the losses don't 'spill over' to EasyEquities, which was 'saved' by the investment from Sanlam.

Sam Beckbessinger, the author of “Manage Your Money like a F*cking Grownup,” has some tips, so you don’t have to live with regret.

Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Sign up here to receive an email every time a new show goes live. We spend so much time talking about bad financial products. Is there such a thing as a good financial product? If so, where would you find them? Listener Bronwyn got badly burned with financial products in the past. She's been paying 15% fees on an Old Mutual education policy and took out a Discovery retirement annuity that hasn't returned anything above her contributions for the past six years. Now her financial advisor wants her to invest in Body Corporate Bridging Solutions, which apparently guarantee a return of 17.5%. In this episode, we provide a checklist for buying financial products. When comparing similar financial products, think of the following: Fees Let this be your point of departure. As winner of books and life, Ronel, explained last week, “If I get 10% growth, and inflation is 6%, there is only 4% left for growth and compounding. If I pay 3% or 4% in fees, I will only get back what I put in, adjusted for inflation.” Guaranteed returns far above retail bond rates As Simon points out, the government is the only party that can realistically guarantee returns, because the government owns the printing press. You can check government retail bond rates website here. Counter-party risk Investments are for the long-haul. As winner of books and real life, Lesigisha, pointed out, the principles of compounding relies on time, not money. If there's not much information available about the company taking your money, be very careful. Counter-party risk should be considered alongside fees, though, in the case of older, bigger corporations who probably won't go bust but happily pocket your investment returns. Active or passive Simon and I spend a bit of time discussing this point. The SPIVA report indicates that actively-managed funds underperform the market year after year. However, if an actively-managed fund makes you feel more comfortable, don't forego it just because we say so. It's your money, after all. Win of the week: Sean worked out if you'll be better off at Absa or EasyEquities. He also worked out how many years it would take him to make back the penalty. ABSA's new inactivity cost is essentially R40.25 per every two months, but only charged five times as there would be a trade in the beginning of the year, This adds up to R201.25 per year for the next 14 years (R2 817.50 excluding compounding or about R6 780.98 at 15% growth adjusted back with 6% inflation). After that the fee is R241.50 per year until you remove the money, which assuming my daughter is financially savvy will be a long time as she is only 18 months old today. Anyway before getting myself worked up about ABSA essentially stealing a month's income from my daughter, I decided to objectively look at the numbers (boring Excel attached to check calcs) and do a comparison between EasyEquities and ABSA For my family it's cheaper to use the EE platform by quite a bit, We will pay off the moving of the two ETFs in just under two years. For someone using a monthly deposit it may be better to pay into ABSA until the TFSA allowance is maxed out and then only move to EasyEquities. Hope this helps some peeps. Click on the link below to download the spreadsheet. ABSA vs EE Shout-out to Lean, who recently started listening and seems to be going through the episodes front to back. They wrote about tax on whisky, from many moons ago. Claire wrote to say my newsletter editorial really hit her in the feels.  Your "editorial" this morning really struck a chord with me... Of course that's how they make their money. And the same goes for any of the other things we buy, oh so complicated: wine, perfume, cars, homes blah blah ~ have a great week! Chas wants to know if we have transcripts. I have listened to most of #96, then I was interrupted by a phone call so I lost the thread. I am 78 and a bit deaf so I battle to keep up with your rapid delivery. Do you provide a transcript that I can study in my own time or is there a way I can pause to digest what you just said and then go on again? I always want to learn more about investing. Thanks for a lively intelligent show. Transcripts are for one day when we grow up. It is our highest priority in terms of this show. Thinus has a question about structuring his pay cheque. When allocating your salary to different "pockets", should you use gross or nett salary? Alexander sent this great email about selling his house. When selling a primary residence does one pay CGT for the amount above R40,000 regardless of what you have spent on the house? We sold our house for R50,000 less than we bought it for about four years ago. We paid more than R500,000 towards our loan (which was mostly interest of course) We spent about R100,000 on renovations before we moved in. After the sale we end up with R70,000 in our pocket. Of the R500,000 (paid into the bond) R120,000 went to the principal amount. We sold for R50,000 less than the principal amount. In my book, it's a loss of R530,000 (500k + 100k -70k). Or may I only deduct the renovations? Which is still more than the 70k, but in principle can one only deduct physical improvements? Living there cost us a fuck-ton of money. Obviously we are getting very little out of this deal, but even if we made R600,000, I would be able to prove that it cost us much more to live there so there is no "gain". What can I deduct from the money we get from selling a primary residence? How does this compare to a buy-to-let property? If you can deduct a bunch more for a buy to let, would it be worth it to buy and let to yourself? We've had a few more emails from people who are upset about Absa's fee increases. John says this is not the first time. I bought a small amount of the Absa NewGold ETF years ago and had never done anything else with them. They sent me a letter (in the POST) about 18 months ago telling me about a new minimum admin fee, payable quarterly. On my pretty small account it amounted to an admin fee of something retarded like 10% a year! After querying it and getting a shrug of the shoulders, I thought FUCK THEM!! I did some research found EasyEquities, sold my ETF, was below my CGT threshold and reinvested two days later with my newly minted Easy Equities account at a newer, much higher base cost. With EasyEquities being such a user friendly, reasonably-priced platform, I've subsequently invested multiple times what I originally had with ABSA. Their, EasyEquities' gain. We foolishly forgot to pick a winner for Sam Beckbessinger's book Manage your money like a fucking grownup. Njabulo, who writes for us, snuck in his submission. Whatever your investment or savings plan is, it is important to consider inflation and fees. If the investment can't outperform inflation after fees, that investment is making you poorer. Jen was the Win of the Week in episode 90 for figuring out that people who don't earn a steady income can still structure their savings by doing it by invoice paid instead of by month. As a self-employed person without a fixed income, I can't structure a pay cheque because I don't get one. But I can apply the same methodology to each amount that I receive. Since my last email to you about this, it has been going well (although April has been a kak month so it has not been easy). On the odd occasion when I have been tempted to forget about my system in favour of instant gratification, I just listen to beginning of episode #90 again where you discuss my email. Straight away I am committed all over again, like I would be letting you down if I didn't stick to my guns. I know I should be motivated by how happy future me will be, but sometimes it is hard to think for two people at once. The second brain wrinkling fact, and this isn't mine but a repeat of what you said, is the idea that our total income over a lifetime is a finite amount. Every time you spend money on something,  there is something else you can't spend money on. Has that bit of information affected my spending habits! You are changing my life and I have turned into a bit of a fanatic about all this. I am constantly annoying the crap out of everyone I know because I am trying to convert them all to The Fat Wallet Show, for their own good. This, as well as iTunes reviews and mentioning us when you deal with any financial services provider really helps us. Thanks!

Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Sign up here to receive an email every time a new show goes live. This is another themed-by-serendipity episode. Last week Edwin mailed with a dilemma: how do you choose between being a good citizen or family member and having money? Whatever you spend on your family, kids or pets or donate to charity is money not going towards your savings goals. Does that mean you should forego those things altogether? Money and morality are closely linked, but so is money and health, as Christoff pointed out. Having a lot of money but never having any fun is completely pointless. A lot of money at the expense of having children is not going to make you happy (if you want children). Sitting on a mountain of money and never helping anyone else is going to bankrupt you morally. Spending your life trying to get rich but neglecting your health is going to lead to sickness in retirement. What's the point of that? We discuss strategies to navigate these questions and completely fail to choose a winner for Sam Beckbessinger's Manage Your Money Like a F*cking Grownup giveaway. Something to look forward to next week! Win of the week: Jacques Kasselman. He found us by accident on iTunes and immediately panicked. After reading his mail I realised that he actually didn't need to panic at all. Where to start to get on track? I think the best thing would be to get rid of my debt of over R1500 a month, excluding interest on my vehicle loan. I started paying off my debt by having a liberty investment I had for 6 years (R500/pm - 1.67% growth above what I put in) pay out and pay off my most expensive debt first. That's R700 that can go to the next card/account and then the next and so on. Is this the right strategy or should I rather look for somewhere else to invest that money, eg. TFSA, ETF and slowly pay off the debt over time? The way I understand from what I have learned from you guys so far is get rid of debt, then create an emergency fund while simultaneously slowly starting to save/invest and increasing the savings/investing part as the emergency fund gets closer to 3 months salary. TFSAs SARS gives us R23,800 tax free interest already. Is it still beneficial to contribute to an TFSA at possibly lower returns if we are still far from reaching that limit? Saving the R500,000 cap for when one day we pass the R23,000 limit? Reaching the R500,000 limit would take about 15 years if you contribute the max of R33,000. As I am 34, I still have 31 years left if I am unable to retire early. PENSION My employer requires 22.5% pension contribution monthly, deducted from my salary (me=7.5% company=15%). At the moment its split between Allan Gray and the company fund. I plan on increasing the percentage towards retirement to max as soon as I can get the rest in order, or at least a little better. Stefan responded to Frank, who wanted to know where to keep his Lazy system cash while he waited for entries. I have four EasyEquities accounts and I get interest on all cash in my accounts. There's a cash management fee, so it's not the best cash account, but it's not like I'm getting nothing. Fred has an interesting question about TERs. He is invested in an Allan Gray Balanced Fund through a financial planner. The TER of the fund is 1.44%. In addition to that, he pays an admin fee of 0.40, an advisor fee of 0.50% and a management company fee of 0.79%. Just for the privilege of buying the fund he's paying 1.69%. I looked up the fund costs on the Allan Gray website, and I have some bad news. The TER is 1.45%, but excludes “other expenses” of 0.02%, VAT of 0.15%, and transaction costs of 0.07%. 3.38% total cost. The problem is, you don't see the TER. It costs you money, but you don't see the money. Pieter is putting his emergency fund to work. He banks with FNB, and he's really made the most of that infrastructure. I have a cheque account that my salary gets paid in. I have a bit of extra money to cover the "shit I did not budget for". I move most of my expense money to my credit card so it is positive. This earns me a tiny bit of interest and I win back quite a lot in ebucks. I have a linked savings pocket with 1 months expenses in it. It earns interest, has no account fee and money is available immediately. I am building up 3 months living expenses in a 32 day notice account that also earns interest and has no account fee. So the plan is: for small unplanned things, you just use money in your account. If the paw paw hits the fan I can live a month with my savings pocket money. When I start touching that money I can request "next months salary" from the 32 day notice account without incurring costs. If I can build up > 3 months in my notice deposit, I will move that to bond ETF or something that gives better return. This way I have no fees and costs, acceptable interest and money available now. Gerhard needs help with life insurance. I love your war on fees. It's helped me a lot in making my decisions around investing. Is there a similar type of thing in the life insurance side of the world? My life insurance is with Liberty, and it is fully a grudge purchase, but I do have 100s of children so kind of have to have something. Are there new style life insurance companies that you guys are aware of, like a 10X but for life insurance? I asked the 10X team and they didn't know of anyone. However, I did get some suggestions. Have a look at brightrock.co.za. It looks like a new school type of business, but it's majority shareholder is Sanlam. The other suggestion was FMI. They're a division of Bidvest Life. Craig Gradidge from Gradidge-Mahura investments said: The insurers who are "traditional" and reasonably transparent are Sanlam, Old Mutual, Hollard, PPS.  The 2 that integrate are Discovery and Momentum. With Brightrock benefits structure is still something they need to work on...as always, the answer of which is best is usually determined by client requirements, their lifestyle and health conditions, etc etc Poor Josh is stuck between a rock and a hard place with his RA. I recently started working at a Big Four bank I come from a company that used 10X as a provider. I didn't know how lucky I was back then. I am 26, so I need an aggressive portfolio. The fund options we have are somehow administered/managed by Old Mutual and the options are: Allan Gray global balanced portfolio - 51% equity allocation, 1% fee on SA based assets, and performance related fees of between 0,5 and 2,5% for foreign assets. I'm staying fucking far away from this one. Assholes. Coronation global houseview portfolio - 49% equity allocation, looks like a fund of funds so fees on fees will apply here, but doesn't look that bad. Still shitty though. Investec balanced fund - 41% equity allocation, 23% bonds allocation. Fees are reasonable at 0.54% for local assets and 0.75% for international assets. I ended up choosing this one due to the lower fees, but it's so conservative, so shitty. Nedgroup core diversified fund - 50% equity allocation, 7% bonds. Fees are good at 0,58%. But again, lower equity exposure. Actually looking at this now, this option looks the best out of a shit bunch. The rest are so shit they aren't worth mentioning. Think old mutual, Tanquanta cash pooled fund (yes, seriously). So, my question is - do I bite the bullet and just throw as much as I can at the Investec/Nedgroup funds, or maybe lower contributions to the least I can and then open a portfolio with a better RA provider like a Sygnia/10x etc in my personal capacity? I'm leaning towards the latter. But this would probably mean some complications come tax return time? I don't suppose I can go to a massive corporate's benefits department and tell them that my options are terrible, give me better ones? Jorge wants to invest in a living and guaranteed annuity, but he wants to know how to make that decision. What are the practical implications and values considerations should be taken into account when opting for both a guaranteed and living annuity? We have an excellent article on justonelap.com/retire about the difference between these products. Entries to win Manage your money like a fucking grownup by Sam Beckbessinger. We asked you for the one fact that changed the way you thought about your finances. Christoff's point is about health. When you realise that you need to save up for a potentially very long retirement (30+ years these days!), we do all this planning to ensure that we're “taken care of” financially, but what about our physical health? If we're going to live for another 30+ years after retirement, we'd be enjoying those years a lot more if we're fit and healthy, right up to nearly the end. I'm 43 and take good care of myself, but I look around at my peers (school friends, cousins, colleagues, etc of the same age-group) and a LOT of them already suffer from heart problems, hypertension, cholesterol, various forms of cancer, diabetes, and what have you!  It's very depressing to think of having the benefit of living in the 21st century, with enough technology to keep us alive for so many more years, when most of those years are going to suck! Just as compounding works for/against your finances, it does the same with our health.  Poor daily habits will eventually catch up with you, so we need to keep our attention on this very important factor if we're going to enjoy our hard-earned and cleverly-invested wealth. Phemelo found The Fat Wallet Show in January and has made massive strides in his financial life. I'm not all over the show. I have a financial plan and taking on the challenge of keeping the lifestyle cost the same to avoid lifestyle creep. My huge eye-opener was there are no shortcuts to this thing - baby steps. I've closed my overdraft, I'm starting to slowly chow the credit card debt, and I started paying my student debt. The next step is starting to slowly build the emergency fund. Ronel had an a-ha moment about fees If I can lower my fees on my Retirement Annuity, I can have sooo much more money. It blew my mind that if I get 10% growth, and inflation is 6%, there is only 4% left for growth (compounding) and if I pay 3% of 4% in fees, I will only get back what I put in (adjusted for inflation).  That is not my idea of a comfortable retirement .... So I moved my Retirement Annuities from Sanlam and Old Mutual to 10X. I am now on a fee witch hunt to cut ALL fees to the bare minimum :) John Morrison (our retired unicorn) submitted a vote for Khuliso, I think. When people speak about money I have realized that I must first determine their anchor point and their biases. Then I can adapt this information to my anchor point and confront my biases. Someone investing for future retirement is at a different point to another living off investments in retirement. I am truly inspired by Khuliso and their kota. Such an understanding of compound interest, time and lowering the cost of living. Really amazing! You can't help it if your parents were poor and you start poor, but with compound interest in a single generation everything can change. Well done Khuliso! With ABSA's WTF new minimum brokerage fees in ETF accounts (which is by the way more than a kota) we need to get behind EasyEquities and give them huge support. Is EE the only company that understands not to rip off the poor? Links to be included in show notes: Adam sent a link about the three biggest lies about passive investments. They are: People can't make their own decisions about which products to buy Very few investors have the time, knowledge or skill to invest their own money. The fees aren't as low as they claim Passive products available to retail investors in South Africa are still relatively expensive and not that much lower than actively managed funds. You don't get market return It is easy to compare the JSE/FTSE All Share Index returns with active manager returns and conclude that active managers are not worth their fees. The comparison is flawed. It does not consider risk and it also does not take into account that most of the growth from that index has come from one share – Naspers. I'm not going to tell you what to think about this. If you understand how these products work, you can make up your own mind.

If you secretly hate us but haven't been able to find a different source of financial information, I have some great news! I found a Freakonomics Radio episode that summed up exactly the principles we champion on this show. In this episode, Simon and I take the financial literacy survey. It's only three questions, but understanding their answers will enable you to make great financial decisions. If this sounds vaguely familiar, you might be thinking of this podcast we did last year. Here are the questions: Suppose you have R100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2% per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow? More than R102 Exactly R102 Less than R102 Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 5% per year and inflation was 6% per year. After one year, how much would you be able to buy with the money in this account? More than today. Exactly the same as today. Less than today. Do you think the following statement is true or false: buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a collective investment scheme like an ETF or unit trust. Win of the week: Rob has been coming to our events for ages. He has some ETF investments, but he's been wanting to trade since the day I met him. This week, he sent this email: Yes I have done my first trade and  bought my first bunch of shares (7 shares in total - some bits and bobs) (as oppose to ETFs) I am not sure how I am supposed to feel! Its bit like sex for the first time - did not know what to expect! Frederick My world has been turned upside down! I started listening to your podcast a week or so ago, and fok... my google is broken!! From googling sport all day I now spend endless nights and have sleepless nights on where to put my money and avoid tax as much as possible! I use to think money is money and my RA is perfect and that life is sorted! I was wrong! I have an RA (diversified wealth builder) with Sanlam. Any thoughts here please? My FEES (to my knowledge) is 0.65%. It says “management fee at benchmark %”. I put some money in monthly with a 10% annual increase. By retirement I should be paid out R11,5m. Let's say you live another lifetime after your working life, how much will you need? It's possible to retire at 60 and live to 100. https://justonelap.com/podcast-much-money-need/ Frank is trading Simon's Lazy system and wants to know if he can park his money somewhere while he waits for entries. He's not earning interest on the money that he's allocated for this trade. Shamona wants to know if timeshare is worth it. What are the pros and cons? What should I look out for when buying? Entries to win Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup. We want you to share the financial fact that blew your mind. We'll be running this competition for one more week. I asked author Sam Beckbessinger hers and she said on R10k per month, you'll earn R19m in your  working life. Mine is that a low cost of living is basically the answer to all your problems. Lesigisha wrote back after we sent him a shout-out last week. Thank you so much for the great affirmation I received from the submission of my email, it really really went a long way in validating what I'm doing. It's hard to start on this journey, but after doing it for a while one does sometimes get despondent and wonder if this is worth it. Your affirmation has helped reinvigorate me and I go back to it every time someone says they're waiting until they have a bigger shoe size before they can start making “real money decisions”. Khuliso's mind-blowing fact is that you don't need huge amounts of money to invest. As a result of his mail I spent a lot of time thinking about kotas this morning. The most mind-blowing fact was finding out that if I can afford to buy a kota (R23.00) or street wise 2 I can afford to invest in the JSE and create wealth. Even though it's little money, over the long term it makes a difference. In my case the problem was lack of information rather than a lack of money to invest. I am now very conscious about my spending habits. Whenever I buy takeaways in the back of my mind I keep on thinking of ETFs that I could be buying. When I look back, I see missed opportunities where I could have invested and build wealth.

If you secretly hate us but haven't been able to find a different source of financial information, I have some great news! I found a Freakonomics Radio episode that summed up exactly the principles we champion on this show. In this episode, Simon and I take the financial literacy survey. It's only three questions, but understanding their answers will enable you to make great financial decisions. If this sounds vaguely familiar, you might be thinking of this podcast we did last year. Here are the questions: Suppose you have R100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2% per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow? More than R102 Exactly R102 Less than R102 Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 5% per year and inflation was 6% per year. After one year, how much would you be able to buy with the money in this account? More than today. Exactly the same as today. Less than today. Do you think the following statement is true or false: buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a collective investment scheme like an ETF or unit trust. Win of the week: Rob has been coming to our events for ages. He has some ETF investments, but he's been wanting to trade since the day I met him. This week, he sent this email: Yes I have done my first trade and  bought my first bunch of shares (7 shares in total - some bits and bobs) (as oppose to ETFs) I am not sure how I am supposed to feel! Its bit like sex for the first time - did not know what to expect! Frederick My world has been turned upside down! I started listening to your podcast a week or so ago, and fok... my google is broken!! From googling sport all day I now spend endless nights and have sleepless nights on where to put my money and avoid tax as much as possible! I use to think money is money and my RA is perfect and that life is sorted! I was wrong! I have an RA (diversified wealth builder) with Sanlam. Any thoughts here please? My FEES (to my knowledge) is 0.65%. It says “management fee at benchmark %”. I put some money in monthly with a 10% annual increase. By retirement I should be paid out R11,5m. Let's say you live another lifetime after your working life, how much will you need? It's possible to retire at 60 and live to 100. https://justonelap.com/podcast-much-money-need/ Frank is trading Simon's Lazy system and wants to know if he can park his money somewhere while he waits for entries. He's not earning interest on the money that he's allocated for this trade. Shamona wants to know if timeshare is worth it. What are the pros and cons? What should I look out for when buying? Entries to win Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup. We want you to share the financial fact that blew your mind. We'll be running this competition for one more week. I asked author Sam Beckbessinger hers and she said on R10k per month, you'll earn R19m in your  working life. Mine is that a low cost of living is basically the answer to all your problems. Lesigisha wrote back after we sent him a shout-out last week. Thank you so much for the great affirmation I received from the submission of my email, it really really went a long way in validating what I'm doing. It's hard to start on this journey, but after doing it for a while one does sometimes get despondent and wonder if this is worth it. Your affirmation has helped reinvigorate me and I go back to it every time someone says they're waiting until they have a bigger shoe size before they can start making “real money decisions”. Khuliso's mind-blowing fact is that you don't need huge amounts of money to invest. As a result of his mail I spent a lot of time thinking about kotas this morning. The most mind-blowing fact was finding out that if I can afford to buy a kota (R23.00) or street wise 2 I can afford to invest in the JSE and create wealth. Even though it's little money, over the long term it makes a difference. In my case the problem was lack of information rather than a lack of money to invest. I am now very conscious about my spending habits. Whenever I buy takeaways in the back of my mind I keep on thinking of ETFs that I could be buying. When I look back, I see missed opportunities where I could have invested and build wealth. Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Sign up here to receive an email every time a new show goes live.

It's becoming increasingly clear that access to money isn't always the best thing. In last week's episode, Pieter explained how access to a free house and investments didn't make him great at money. Fat Wallet bestie and newly appointed spy, Wilhelm, sent us news from the front line this week. Wilhelm started sorting out his money and sharing his journey with us when he was still a student. It's been such a pleasure witnessing his pre-income journey. If you can figure out your money situation before you actually have any, how much you earn becomes irrelevant. You'll be a financial success. Sadly, the opposite is also true. I certainly learned that the hard way getting into mountains of debt in my 20s. The difference between me and Wilhelm's new colleagues is that I earned a junior journalist's salary (basically just enough to make my engineering friends feel sorry for me). The amount of damage I could do to my financial life was artificially limited by the amount of money I earned. Thank goodness. This week we talk about the dangers lurking behind the piles of money of high-income earners. If you're a low-income earner, this is good news for you too. These are the traps to watch out for before the dineros start rolling in. We are giving away a prize for the first time ever. Sam Beckbessinger is the author of Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup. She donated a copy of her book to one lucky Fat Wallet listener. Find out how to win it in this week's show. You can find out more about the book here.  Kris Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Sign up here to receive an email every time a new show goes live. Wilhelm writes: The government takes really good care of its young doctors. We get a good salary, but the lack of financial education means that a lot of that money simply gets wasted. I know of three doctors living in my building who purchased expensive brand new cars (Mercedes Benz A class AMG, Audi RS3) before receiving their first salary (and without receiving any help from their parents). They bought cars on credit using only a contract from the department as collateral, where it has often happened that people do not get paid the first month due to the poor admin/payroll/HR abilities of the DoH. One is paying an interest of 13% over seven years. In PE we get the opportunity to live in the doctors' quarters. It's an old apartment building in an old and rather dodgy part of town, but it is centrally located with adequate security, a brilliant sea view. We get to live here for R1100 per month. My flatmate and I pay R2200 for a three-bedroom apartment. Many of the new doctors don't want to live in the flats. They are old, the outside looks a little dilapidated and the first two floors had a history of cockroach problems (which has been sorted out). They justify their choice with, “I'm only here for two years, I'd rather live close to the beach.” They pay between R6,000 and R8,000 per month for two- or three-bedroom apartments. This often excludes water and prepaid electricity or 24-hour security. That is 300-400% more than we are paying. The last thing I noticed is the absolute ignorance towards savings and investments. Of the 52 interns who started at Livingstone hospital, I've chatted to more than 40 of them and only two of us have TFSAs. One of them even said his financial advisor told him that TFSAs are “only for poor people”. People blindly follow the advice from advisors from companies like Sanlam (which gets sold to us under the Abacon brand), Old Mutual and Liberty with very few people even knowing that 10X, Sygnia and EasyEquities exist. People have private financial advisors that have them investing in Funds with TER > 3% with many hidden costs. When they asked them about TFSAs, they said “oh yes we can talk about those when you want to get serious about saving!” From a financial point of view I'm on target to have my TFSA topped up for 2018 within four months. My emergency fund is also growing nicely, already up to three months of living expenses. I've also done a bit of research and found that you can save quite a few rand every month on insurance if you increase your excess payments when you claim. You should only do this if your emergency fund is able to cover the amount of excess that you are taking on (maybe even two or three times over so that one single claim does not consume your entire emergency fund). Mary-Ann wants to know if her emergency fund can do better. I am currently keeping my emergency cash funds of about R100k in my OST account which currently earns me 5.638% - better than a Savings account. I've been trying to figure out if it is worth putting that cash into something like the Newfunds GOVI ETF or Newfunds or Satrix ILBI ETFs. It seems to me like I could earn closer to 8% there although would need to deduct the TER from that return. I realise that the capital could fluctuate slightly, but is there significant capital risk to make it not worthwhile? It could get liquidated if required in a few days. I would probably continue to keep a portion as cash for immediate emergencies that could not wait a few days. What are your thoughts on pros and cons of this strategy? Where might I do better? I hate having money laying around not earning its keep! Milan has an answer for Georgie regarding her bond insurance. I think he's going to save many of you a lot of money. Georgie mentioned having trouble trying to reduce her credit insurance premium. There's an easy way around this issue. The new credit life regulations state the credit provider must allow the bond holder to substitute the insurance cover as long as it provides the same level of benefits. In other words Georgie can look to other credit life insurance providers for insurance on her bond and get a quotation based on the outstanding balance of the loan. Antoine (who shared their thoughts on RA penalties being like debt) has another pearl of wisdom. They say, regarding when to spend and when to save I heard a good explanation for this on “Money Management Skills”, from the Great Courses series: Think of your past, current and future self. If you borrow money, your current self is taking from your future self. When it comes to a home or study loan, you can argue that future self will also benefit from the house or degree, so it is not that bad. When you save money, you are sending some money to future self. In this instance, it doesn't make sense that your 30-or 40 year-old current self can't do anything fun while you're still young and active and your future 90-year-old self lies in bed with millions in the bank. I recently bought a new bike. I am able to buy a very fancy bike cash, but at a certain price the marginal gains are not worth the money you spend at my level of cycling. Instead of spending thousands extra on a bike that's a bit lighter, I decided to get a good enough bike and shoot some of that cash to my future 70-year-old self, so that he can use that cash to go on a nice overseas trip. Last week Keith Mclachlan took issue with ETFs on Twitter. We gave him an opportunity to share his views on our website. Paul reckons he hit the nail on the head: Because we all wish to improve our knowledge and understanding of investments we should welcome Keith's view. I just don't see any misunderstanding; He uses ETFs when/if he doesn't know/understand a market and doesn't have the time to study/follow it. That's what we all do. That's the reason ETFs exist.   Glad to see my investment strategy mirrors his. Denzel just discovered fees. He's not happy. He has questions. I'm sorry to get back onto RAs again but the fees these f*ckers have been charging me is absurd. Now I know why my FA drives the car he does!! I have two RAs: One is with 10X (very happy, even though returns to date are average, market not great) The other is with Liberty through a FA. They invest in Allan Gray and Coronation. The fees are just crazy. See below image of the EAC I have just come across. I'm so angry I didn't look at this before. I've been with them for two years after moving from Discovery (another mess). Would it be best if i cancel the Liberty/ AG/ Coronation F*ck up and put it all into 10X? I know it seems obvious, but I have to ask! I have a Liberty Evolve investment with them too Again, crazy fees (like 8% it seems!) I'm thinking of cancelling this and placing this straight into Easy Equities, spread over a year or two of course. I have an emergency fund of just under three months that i'm building up to be six months where i'd be comfortable Would it be best to use the evolve investment to get this to six months worth and then put the rest into my Easy Equities TFSA/ Equities? The only debt I have is my wife's car, Still owe about R200k on this - Pay off first? Pieter wants to know how to find a cheap car. In one of your earlier shows Simon mentioned how he figured out the year price (or something) to help him to buy an underpriced second hand car. I can't remember which episode and I am having trouble figuring it out. Could you please be so kind as to give the formula again? Subtract the current milage from 150,000 (or whatever you suspect the Death Mileage is for a car). Divide your expected annual milage into the remaining milage for number years until you suspect the car might have no real economic value. Divide that number of years into the price. That gives you a ballpark of cost per year. Now you can compare cars! Flipi is living in Japan at the moment. They wrote us about RAs a while back, but this week sent pictures of the cherry trees in bloom. Since this show comes out on a public holiday, I'm including them in the show notes. Seeing the Japanese cherry blossoms are a bucket list item for me. Thanks for sending them, Flipi! [gallery ids="7483,7484,7485,7486"]

CliffCentral.com — Sam Beckbessinger is the co-founder of Phantom Design, a FinTech product design company that has helped to build bitcoin wallets, cryptocurrency exchanges, smart credit cards and more. She recently published her book 'Manage Your Money Like a F*cking Grownup'. Sam Beckbessinger chats to Arye as she tells it straight: everything you need to know about how to earn, save and invest your money.

On TalkCentral this week, Duncan McLeod and Regardt van der Berg preview what's expected at Mobile World Congress 2018, which kicks off on Monday. What new phones are coming, and what will be the talk of Barcelona next week? Also on the show, a discussion about the Cell C and Blue Label Telecoms results, smartphone sales decline for the first time ever, more thoughts on the wholesale open-access network and new iPads are coming. Listen to the show who's been named winner and loser of the week. Duncan's pick this week is Stars, while Regardt has picked the financial Excel sheet from Sam Beckbessinger, who has just published a new book on how to manage your money better. Podcast website

TechCentral — On TalkCentral this week, Duncan McLeod and Regardt van der Berg preview what's expected at Mobile World Congress 2018, which kicks off on Monday. What new phones are coming, and what will be the talk of Barcelona next week? Also on the show, a discussion about the Cell C and Blue Label Telecoms results, smartphone sales decline for the first time ever, more thoughts on the wholesale open-access network and new iPads are coming. Listen to the show who's been named winner and loser of the week. Duncan's pick this week is Stars, while Regardt has picked the financial Excel sheet from Sam Beckbessinger, who has just published a new book on how to manage your money better.

Deliberate practice, excercise and the sounds thereof. Sam Beckbessinger and Simon Dingle get better at stuff in this episode. By trying harder. And more.

Sam Beckbessinger and Simon Dingle explore the world of lists and how to use them to get shit done. Along the way they also explore medical science, movies made with atoms, cloud presentations and other stuff.