Our recent Smart Money poll showed that the majority of our readers are either saving for a spending goal or are resisting spending altogether.
This has to be the most disciplined bunch of readers in South Africa; most of you could clearly teach me a thing or two.
Personally I voted that I am tired of sticking to a budget. Right now I would love to be completely reckless and book an extravagant holiday. I keep going on to websites and looking at holidays I would love to do. Will it be cycling around France, a cruise to St Petersburg or a trip to Mauritius with the family?
I also want to spend lots of money on clothes — just go wild and have a whole new wardrobe. I have seen the most gorgeous skirt. I have no idea when I would wear it (Cape Town is a lot less formal than Jo’burg) and I won’t even go into how much it cost, but it was SO PRETTY.
The idea of entering the lotto has seriously entered my mind and when I get one of those unsolicited mails offering me loans I do muse over what I would spend the money on. (I seem to be getting more than usual so I think they know my will power is waning).
I don’t want to spend two years saving for my dreams, I want it now, and if I couldn’t calculate negative compound interest who knows where I would be.
When the willpower is wilting there are only two ways to protect your money against the ravages of retail therapy:
Save via debit order: Make sure you are saving enough and that those savings leave your account before you have time to spend them. Also make sure your bills go off as soon as your salary hits the account. What you have left is yours to blow, even if it means not eating for the last week of the month — that is your choice.
Don’t have access to credit: If you don’t have credit freely available, by the time you have gone to the hassle of taking out a loan in these post-National Credit Act days, the urge to spend will have long gone. It is important that when the account is empty, it is empty — suffer the consequences of your splurge in the same month, not the next five years.
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