Both my children are only earning R2 000 a month — they are 25 years old and 22 years old respectively. They have no pension benefits at their current jobs. Is this sufficient for them to start an annuity at this stage to act as a pension one day, asks Manie.
Maya replies:
Because your children are earning less than R57 000 a year, they would not be paying tax, which means there is no income tax benefit to saving in a retirement annuity (RA).
Investment tax
An investment in an RA is also exempt from capital gains tax and tax on interest income, but considering their tax situation and relatively small savings at this stage the benefit may not outweigh the additional costs and lack of flexibility within an RA.
Saving into a retirement vehicle should be something they consider once they are paying tax, but in the meantime it is important for them to start saving something which could form part of their pension fund one day.
Growth investment
If they saved 15% of their salary, that would give them R300 a month to invest. The rules of long-term savings are that young people in their 20s should invest for maximum growth as inflation, not market movements, is their biggest risk over time.
Therefore your children should consider a unit trust or exchange traded fund, which invests into equities (companies that are listed on the stock market).
Protection
While trying to save and survive on R2 000 a month is a challenge, another aspect your children should consider is disability cover. While they do not necessarily need life cover as they have no dependants, their biggest risk is that something happens to them and they are no longer able to work.
Fortunately, because they are young this type of cover is not expensive. For example, a quick search on www.instantlife.co.za offered R1-million of disability cover for just R76 per month. It may even be worth you taking the cover on their lives because in all likelihood you would be the one paying the medical bills and supporting them if something ever happened to them.
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