16 July 2023
MONEYBOX FRIDAYS
Strange to be asking myself where my intelligence has been a disservice to me. But this is the question on my mind this morning….
Having a professional qualification in the financial field definitely got me to become complacent on learning new wisdom on money matters. I realise this now. Even though I have strong financial discipline, there is still always something new to learn in this area. Whilst old school tried and tested advice still applies, I wish I knew years ago some of the principles I teach now….
Saving money is more than just having cash for a rainy day or cash to purchase whatever we are saving for. By building the discipline of saving, we send out a message to the universe that we appreciate money. What we appreciate appreciates in value. And so we start a never ending chain reaction of getting more money to manage as we save our money. It is just how the universe works. Money goes to where it is managed wisely. This is the power of saving. The opposite also applies: the more we give our money away to consumerism, the more we are giving it to others that are managing their money wisely and hence they are getting our money from us.
In times like we are in now, with high interest rates, so many want to toss out saving and rather put all their cash against their bond access facility to keep interest expenses low. It seems logical, yet I feel different towards this now. I was recently advising a business owner on cash management to keep bond interest expenses low. I gave him different advice than I would have in the past. I realise now the growth in my own awareness on this topic. We established a value that could be saved by the business every month without a dent on the business. A small value, yet meaningful enough if consistently saved monthly. The rest of the cash we agreed could be kept in the bond access facility until needed. In this way the business owner is keeping interest expenses low yet still keeping the savings discipline going. The business owner did not require much convincing. He already knew this and welcomed my reminder on this. The habit of saving is worthy of investing in more than the reduced interest that could be enjoyed by not saving this small value. And as we all know, sometimes you got to spend money to make money. This applied to this case as well. An unusual twist to the norm of just wanting to keep the bond interest expenses as low as possible.
There are some things in life we have to look at a bit deeper than face value. This is one of them. To save means we are paying ourself. The savings send out a message to the universe that we matter, we are important, we are of value and worthy of being paid. The more we pay ourself (save) the more others will pay us. What we put out is what we get back. Once we break the habit of saving, it is not easy to get back the momentum we have built by saving consistently. This is the psychological aspect to money management that plays the most important role in our financial wealth management. The habit of saving.
By the business saving whilst the business has a bond to payoff means that when the bond is paid off the business will continue the habit of saving. Watching money grow is powerful. No matter how small the value is, the benefits of knowing you have some cash stashed away is more empowering than what we generally give it credit for.
I am grateful to have had parents who instilled a strong financial discipline of saving. Every Friday from the day I can remember, my father gave me a R1 coin to put in my money box. It was always exciting to hear the sound of the coin as it fell into the money box. My sister and I religiously did this every Friday evening of our childhood lives. We got the money boxes from the bank who gave it to us as gifts. It was Allied bank back then, now I think part of ABSA. Years later when travelling with my mom in the UK, she bought me a souvenir money box. Despite saving in big banks now, to this day I put a coin in my money box every Friday. I don’t really care about the money in it. It is more just the habit that is a reminder to me to save.
Lots of love,
Rajes