Manage Your Money Notes & References

Introduction

• Research shows that financial stress is a predictor of suicide attempts…
  • Roelfs, D.J. and Shor, E. (2023). Financial Stress, Unemployment, and Suicide – A Meta-Analysis. Crisis-the Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 44(6). https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000908.

Chapter 1: This Book is For You

• Our country’s low levels of financial literacy …
  • Poalses, J., van Tonder, J., van Aardt, C. and de Clercq, B. (2023). Household Finance Insights Report. Momentum & Unisa. https://sls-fresco.momentum.co.za/files/documents/campaigns/successisascience/household-financial-wellness-index-2023.pdf.
    • Roberts, B., Struwig, J., Gordon, S. and Radebe, T. (2021). Financial Literacy in South Africa: Results from the 2020 Baseline Survey. Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). https://hsrc.ac.za/outputs/13691/.
• A third of working South Africans gamble at least once a week…
  • 62% of gamblers in South Africa report gambling frequency of once a week or more, and 52% of working South Africans report that they gamble, so the inferred statistic is 32.34% of working South Africans gambling at least once a week. Another worrying statistic is that 40% of working South Africans acknowledge they gamble frequently hoping to cover their expenses and debt repayments.
    • Old Mutual Savings & Investments Monitor 2025. https://www.oldmutual.co.za/v3/assets/blt0554f48052bb4620/blt8c2210b79f311622/688b3c984495bcad6e45ac81/OMSIM_2025_Report.pdf.
• South Africans wagered a total of 1.5 trillion on legal gambling…
  • National Gambling Board Annual Report 2024/25. National Gambling Board. https://www.thedtic.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/Re-Revised-NGB-AR.pdf.
• South Africa has extremely low levels of social mobility…
  • Narayan, A., Van der Weide, R., Cojocaru, A., Lakner, C., Redaelli, S., Gerszon Mahler, D., Ramasubbaiah, R.G.N. and Thewissen, S. (2018). Fair Progress? Economic Mobility across Generations around the World. The World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/28428/9781464812101.pdf.
• In a country with 40% unemployment…
  • The strict unemployment rate was 31.9% by the end of 2025, but if you include people who want to work but are not actively seeking (LU3) it was 42.4%.
    • Stats SA. Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Quarter 3: 2025. https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02113rdQuarter2025.pdf.
    • Some have suggested that the official Stats SA employment and income stats make the picture look worse than it is because they undercount informal township entrepreneurship, but personally I’m with the statisticians on this one. Here’s a useful summary of the debate: Monzeglio, T. (2025). Informal economy overplayed, says UCT’s Prof Haroon Bhorat. Business Day. https://www.businessday.co.za/bt/business-and-economy/2025-09-21-informal-economy-overplayed-says-ucts-prof-haroon-bhorat/.
• Income Distribution in South Africa graph
  • My source for this is the 2022 BrandMapp survey, explained in Brandon de Kock’s helpful meta-analysis of the various income data sources in South Africa. de Kock, B. and Mahlaka, R. (2022). South Africa’s Middle Class: The Truth At Last. Daily Maverick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCYVc_Qobx8.
• More than nine million South Africans have an impaired credit record…
• For years, researchers thought that happiness plateaued once you earned about R65 000 a month…
  • Berger, M.W. (2023). Does more money correlate with greater happiness?Penn Today. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/does-more-money-correlate-greater-happiness-Penn-Princeton-research.
• People who research how human happiness works suggest that most people would be happier living in a tiny house…
  • Morin, A. (2014). Want To Be Happier? Change Your Commute or Change Your Attitude. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2014/12/07/want-to-be-happier-change-your-commute-or-change-your-attitude.
• There’s literally a website that’s like Property24 for private islands…
  • In fact there are several, but the one I spend a lot of time on is www.privateislandsonline.com. ENJOY.
• A 2010 study by economist Bhashkar Mazumder showed that incomes among brothers are more correlated than height…
  • Mazumder, B. (2011). Family and Community Influences on Health and Socioeconomic Status: Sibling Correlations Over the Life Course. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1682.2876.
    • This was cited in Morgan Housel’s fantastic book The Psychology of Money (2020), which I highly recommend.
• The 10% of wealthiest people in the world own 76% of the world’s wealth. The bottom half owns 2%...
  • Chancel, L. (2022). World Inequality Report. World Inequality Lab. https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2023/03/D_FINAL_WIL_RIM_RAPPORT_2303.pdf.
• The five richest men in the world are wealthier than the combined GDP of the 45 (out of 54) African countries…
  • I did the maths using the Forbes real-time billionaire tracker estimate from March 2025 combined with the IMF’s GDP data, which I accessed on Wikipedia.
    • Forbes Real Time Billionaires List. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#6fdf09143d78.
    • List of African countries by GDP (nominal). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listof_African_countries_by_GDP(nominal).
• These five men have more than doubled their wealth since 2020…
  • Riddell, R., Ahmed, N., Maitland, A., Lawson, M. and Taneja, A. (2024). Inequality Inc. Oxfam. https://oi-files-d8-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2024-01/Davos%202024%20Report-%20English.pdf.
• If you saved R1-million every day since the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza (about 4,500 years ago), you would still have less wealth than Elon Musk…
  • I did the maths on this using Elon’s Forbes real-time billionaire tracker estimate from March 2025. Forbes Real Time Billionaires List. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#6fdf09143d78.
• Every day, the world’s billionaires get R50-billion richer collectively – enough to build 200,000 RDP houses in South Africa.
  • I did the maths on this combining these two sources: Zintle Mahlati (2023). Government increases the money it spends on RDP, social housing. News24. https://www.news24.com/politics/government-increases-the-money-it-spends-on-rdp-social-housing-20230331.
    • Christensen, M.-B., Hallum, C., Maitland, A., Parrinello, Q. and Putaturo, C. (2023). Survival of the Richest. Oxfam. https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621477/bp-survival-of-the-richest-160123-summ-en.pdf.
• Where you were born is by far the biggest factor in how much you’ll earn in your lifetime…
  • Milanovic, Branko L. Global inequality of opportunity: how much of our income is determined by where we live? World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/712251468165866186.
• The average South African household earns R14,000 a month. The average Australian household earns the equivalent of R57,000 a month...
  • This refers to household net adjusted disposable income, which is the amount of money a household earns each year after taxes and transfers.
    • OECD (2022). OECD Better Life Index. https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/income/.
• South Africa un-proudly holds the title for the world’s most unequal country…
  • As alluded to in the footnote, there might technically be a more unequal country out there in the data void (looking at you, North Korea and Saudi Arabia), but among countries where we actually have reliable statistics, South Africa consistently tops the charts for inequality — measured by the Gini coefficient and other economic indicators. This is well cited across several sources; here’s just one.
    • UBS (2024). Global Wealth Report. https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/assets/wm/global/insights/doc/global-wealth-report.pdf.
• The top 0.01% of South Africans (3,500 people) own 15% of the country’s wealth, more than the bottom 90% as a whole…
  • Chatterjee, A., Czajka, L. and Gethin, A. (2020). Estimating the Distribution of Household Wealth in South Africa. Southern Centre for Inequality Studies & the World Inequality Lab. https://wid.world/document/estimating-the-distribution-of-household-wealth-in-south-africa-wid-world-working-paper-2020-06/.
• If you were born in a rich area in South Africa, you can expect to live 13 years longer than someone born into a poor one…
  • Bredenkamp, C., Burger, R., Jourdan, A. and Van Doorslaer, E. (2021). Changing Inequalities in Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy by Income and Race in South Africa. Health Systems & Reform, 7(2), p.e1909303. https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2021.1909303.
• Wealth inequality has worsened since democracy…
  • Chatterjee, A., Czajka, L. and Gethin, A. (2021). Can Redistribution Keep Up With Inequality? Evidence from South Africa, 1993-2019. World Inequality Lab. https://wid.world/document/can-redistribution-keep-up-with-inequality-evidence-from-south-africa-1993-2019-world-inequality-lab-wp2021-20/.
• In 1994, the top 10% of earners took home 46% of the country’s income. By 2024, it was 65%...
  • World Inequality Database (2024). South Africa. https://wid.world/country/south-africa/.
• From 2020 to 2024, inflation cut the value of our paycheques and few people’s salaries kept up …
  • The original source for this was the BankservAfrica Take-home Pay Index, but they've rebranded as PayInc and the report is no longer accessible on their website. (2025). Here it was reported on: Opperman, I. No Inflation-Related Salary Increases Over Past Two Years. The Citizen. https://www.citizen.co.za/business/personal-finance/no-inflation-related-salary-increases-over-past-two-years/.
• Research shows that financial stress has eased since the Covid peak…
  • Old Mutual Savings & Investments Monitor 2025. https://www.oldmutual.co.za/v3/assets/blt0554f48052bb4620/blt8c2210b79f311622/688b3c984495bcad6e45ac81/OMSIM_2025_Report.pdf.
• 13 million of them survive on less than R40 a day…
  • R40 is a rough conversion of the global ‘$2 a day’ poverty line.
    • Galal, S. (2025). South Africa: People in extreme poverty 2016-2025. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1263290/number-of-people-living-in-extreme-poverty-in-south-africa/.
• The unemployment rate for black South Africans is 37%, while for white South Africans, it’s 8%.
  • Saidafin, G. (2023). South Africa: unemployment rate by population group 2019-2020. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1129481/unemployment-rate-by-population-group-in-south-africa/.
• The median black household has just 5% of the wealth of a white household.
  • Grieve Chelwa, Mashekwa Maboshe and Hamilton, D. (2024). The Racial Wealth Gap in South Africa and the United States. Review of Political Economy, 36(2), pp.1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2024.2318962.
• Meanwhile, 66% of top management jobs are held by … you guessed it … white people. And mostly dudes…
  • Department of Employment and Labour. 23rd Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) Annual Report 2022-2023. https://www.labour.gov.za/DocumentCenter/Reports/Annual%20Reports/Employment%20Equity/2022-2023/23rd%20Annual%20CEE%20Report.pdf.
• Some call this ‘Black Tax’, some call it ‘family responsibility’, or just ubuntu.
  • Niq Mhlongo’s (ed.) wonderful book Black Tax: Burden or Ubuntu (2019) is a nuanced look at these emotional dynamics.
• The poor are not poor because they’re not working hard enough…
  • A fantastic resource on this is the book Portfolios of the Poor (2009), which examines the complex, careful money management strategies of people living below the international breadline. A lot of the research described in the book took place in South Africa. The authors are Daryl Collins, Orlanda Ruthven, Stuart Rutherford, Jonathan Morduch.
• On average, South African women earn nearly 30% less than South African men…
  • This report is the source for most of the statistics in this section.
    • Alarakhia, M., Petreski, M., Sheikh Ahmed, Z. and Tanima, T. (2023). Why Women Earn Less: Gender Pay Gap and Labour-Market Inequalities in South Africa. UN Women. https://africa.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/un_women_south_africa_gender_pay_gap_report.pdf.
• Even when women enter a previously male field, the pay often drops…
  • Levanon, A., England, P. and Allison, P. (2009). Occupational Feminization and Pay: Assessing Causal Dynamics Using 1950-2000 U.S. Census Data. Social Forces, 88(2), pp.865–891. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.0.0264.
• 72% of the country’s teachers are women, but only 37% of the school principals are…
  • Skosana, I. (2018). Women teach and men lead? Gender inequality in South African schools examined. Africa Check. https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/reports/women-teach-and-men-lead-gender-inequality-south-african-schools-examined.
• More children live with only their mothers (42%) than with both parents (33%)…
  • Stats SA (2021). Families and parents are key to well-being of children. https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=14388.
• Fewer than half of single mothers get any paternal support…
  • Old Mutual Savings & Investments Monitor 2023. https://www.oldmutual.co.za/v3/assets/blt0554f48052bb4620/blt5ee7cdd3f3cbb1fe/64b7b2adc1baf4a1e35b575d/OMSIM_2023_Report.pdf.
• Women live longer than men but enter retirement with only three-quarters of the retirement savings that men do…
  • Alexander Forbes Member Insights. (2021). https://issuu.com/alexanderforbescomms/docs/member_insights_issuu?fr=sMjA0OTQzMjEzNjU.
• Research shows that women have lower confidence about their financial skills than men, but make better investors...
  • Stewart, N. (2018). Are Women Better Investors than Men? Warwick Business School. https://www.wbs.ac.uk/news/are-women-better-investors-than-men/.
• There’s solid evidence that people with higher financial literacy build more wealth …
  • The Household Finance Insights Report cited earlier validated this in South Africa, but it’s supported by international research too.
    • Lusardi, A., Michaud, P. and Mitchell, O.S. (2017). Optimal Financial Knowledge and Wealth Inequality. Journal of Political Economy, [online] 125(2), pp.431–477. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26550400.
    • OECD (2023). OECD/INFE 2023 International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-infe-2023-international-survey-of-adult-financial-literacy_56003a32-en.html.
    • Matemane, M. R. (2018). Saving for Tomorrow: Does the Level of Financial Literacy in the South African Working Class Matter? South African Business Review, 22. https://doi.org/10.25159/1998-8125/4443.
• There’s a researcher named Brad Klontz…
  • You can take the test yourself, for free, on Brad’s website: https://www.bradklontz.com/moneyscriptstest
    • Klontz, B., Britt, S.L., Mentzer, J. and Klontz, T. (2011). Money Beliefs and Financial Behaviors: Development of the Klontz Money Script Inventory. Journal of Financial Therapy, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.4148/jft.v2i1.451.
• More than ten million South Africans have an impaired credit record...
  • National Credit Regulator Annual Report 2024/2025.
    • https://www.thedtic.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/NCR-Annual-Report-2024_2025.pdf.

Your brain wasn’t designed to deal with money…

• If you want to learn more about behavioural economics, these are my faves:
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
    • Meditations for Mortals – Oliver Burkeman
    • Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely
    • Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – Daniel H. Pink
    • Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness – Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein
    • Scarcity: Why Having Little Means So Much – Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir
    • Happy Money Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Nortan
    • The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel

Chapter 2: A Money Crash Course

• Studies show that more than half of us struggle with basic money concepts…
  • The Household Finance Insights Report cited earlier.
• A 2020 survey of affluent South Africans found that 70% of them have less than 3 months’ savings ...
  • This is from a Discovery Bank survey which collected data on 4 700 South Africans with an average annual income of around R630 000.
    • Brothwell, R. (2020). Here’s How Many Wealthy South Africans Are Living from Payday to Payday. BusinessTech. https://businesstech.co.za/news/banking/379339/heres-how-many-wealthy-south-africans-are-living-from-payday-to-payday.
• Nearly half of all Saffa salary earners are left with R1,000 or a negative balance by payday…
  • Libera, M. (2024). Alarm Bells for Middle-Class and Rich South Africans. BusinessTech. https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/796804/alarm-bells-for-middle-class-and-rich-south-africans-2/.
• 60-70% of their income goes directly to servicing their debt
  • Debtbusters. Q3 2025 Debt Index. https://www.debtbusters.co.za/debt-index/q3-2025-debt-index/.
• There are ten million South Africans who are more than three months behind on their debt repayments...
  • National Credit Regulator Annual Report 2024/2025 above.
• Price of an Original Spur Burger
  • Compiled from photographs of original Spur menus I found on social media sites, as well as this article.
    • Chiraag (2025). From 30 Cents to Over R360: What a Spur Burger Tells Us About South Africa’s Shrinking Rand. Joburg(etc). https://www.joburgetc.com/business/spur-burger-price-inflation-south-africa-2025/.
• In South Africa, inflation averages around 5.4% a year…
  • The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) targets an inflation range of 3% to 6%, but it fluctuates a lot within that range. 5.4% was the average between 2010-2020.
• In October 2001, you could have bought an iPod for $400 (about R7 000)…
  • The iPod was released on 23 October 2001 for an initial retail price of $399. The Apple share price on that date was $0.27 per share, so you could have bought 1,477 shares. On 30 June 2025 the Apple share price was $201.08 per share, so you’d now have $297 000, and the USD to ZAR mid-market rate was roughly R17.78 per USD at time of writing.
• Growth of R1 over 94 years in real terms…
  • Old Mutual Long Term Perspectives Report 2025. https://www.oldmutual.co.za/campaign/ereaders/longtermperspectives2025/index.html.

Chapter 3: Get Your Shit Together

• 90% of South Africans who earn between R20k-R40k per month don’t have R10k saved for a financial emergency.
  • Old Mutual Savings & Investments Monitor 2019. https://www.oldmutual.co.za/v3/assets/blt0554f48052bb4620/bltce1a53b220710006/60e85bfaa8962b1d5fb0a451/old-mutual-savings-and-investment-full-report-2019.pdf.

Chapter 4: Figure Out Which Game You’re Playing

• It’s like giving yourself an immediate 21% raise...
  • Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor 2024, cited earlier.
• Here’s how long it took the US stock market to fully recover from some of the big crashes in history...
  • This refers to real returns counted from the peak value to the time the cumulative value recovers to the previous peak. Kaplan, P. (2022). 6 Things to Know About Stock Market Crashes and Downturns. Morningstar. https://www.morningstar.com/portfolios/6-things-know-about-stock-market-crashes-downturns.
• If you’re investing R2,000 a month, it will take you 18 years to reach your first million…
  • This assumes a real growth rate of 8% per year. I’m deeply indebted to the brilliant Warren Ingram who first introduced me to a version of this example in How to Make Your First Million (2016), a great book to read once you’re done with this one.
• You might have seen simplified retirement savings goals…
  • These are all over the internet, honestly, but this is a fairly thoughtful version (although not tailored for South Africa).
    • Fidelity Investments (2024). Retirement Savings Guidelines. https://retirement.fidelityinternational.com/research-and-insights/retirement-savings-guidelines/.
• Only 1 in 10 South Africans will be able maintain their lifestyle after retirement…
  • National Treasury (2014). Statement on the Impact of the Proposed Retirement Reforms. https://www.treasury.gov.za/comm_media/press/2014/2014070901%20-%20Statement%20on%20the%20Impact%20of%20the%20Proposed%20Retirement%20Reforms.pdf.
• A 2024 survey found that 40% of retired people were forced to retire before they wanted to…
  • 10X (2024). Retirement Reality Report. https://www.10x.co.za/library/10x-retirement-reality-report.
• The world’s average life expectancy is 74, but you can expect to spend the last 11 of those years living with a disability or serious disease…
  • Our World in Data (2023). Healthy life expectancy and years lived with disability or disease, World. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/healthy-life-expectancy-and-years-lived-with-disability.
• 'It is not realistic to finance a 30-year retirement...'
  • Quoted in Money Master the Game by Tony Robbins, a book I don't generally recommend, but I do like this quote.

Chapter 5: Wrangle Your Spending

• ‘You don’t save what’s left after spending. You spend what’s left after saving.’ ...
  • I’m afraid I couldn’t find the original source for this, but it’s widely quoted (and a banger).
• If you’re one of the half of employed South Africans who have a side-hustle…
  • 57% of working South Africans are ‘poly-jobbers’, according to the Old Mutual Savings and Investments Monitor 2025 (cited earlier).
• Save more tomorrow…
  • Thaler, Richard H. and Benartzi, S. (2004). Save More Tomorrow: Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee Saving. Journal of Political Economy, 112(S1), pp.S164–S187. https://doi.org/10.1086/380085.
• The average South African spends two-thirds of their money on just three things: food, housing and transport…
  • By their definition, housing costs include water, electricity, gas and other fuels too.
    • Stats SA. Income & Expenditure Survey 2022/2023. https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0100/P01002022.pdf.
• The average age of a first-time buyer is now 37…
  • Majola, G. (2025). Crisis: Young South Africans can’t Afford Homes as first-time Buyer Age Soars to 37. IOL. https://iol.co.za/property/residential/2025-04-01-crisis-young-south-africans-cant-afford-homes-as-first-time-buyer-age-soars-to-37/.
• South Africa’s house price annual change…
  • Underlying data from the First National Bank House Price Index.
    • Delmendo, L. (2019). South Africa’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2025. Global Property Guide. https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Africa/South-Africa/Price-History.
• If you’d bought the average small house back in 1995, using cash, it would have cost you R132 113…
  • The calculations assume the value of the property in 2015 was 867 014 (as per this article) and the average annual nominal growth between 2015 and 2025 was 6% per year.
    • BusinessTech. (2016). Average House Prices in South Africa: 1995 – 2015. https://businesstech.co.za/news/trending/120187/average-house-prices-in-south-africa-1995-2015/.
• The composition of assets by wealth group…
  • ‘Business assets’ refers to unincorporated businesses, that is, businesses that haven’t been registered as a separate legal entity to the business owner. If it has been registered as a separate legal entity, it counts as ‘stock’.
    • Chatterjee, A., Czajka, L. and Gethin, A. (2020a). Estimating the Distribution of Household Wealth in South Africa. World Inequality Database. https://wid.world/document/estimating-the-distribution-of-household-wealth-in-south-africa-wid-world-working-paper-2020-06.
• Sale price versus property asking price on Property24…
  • Property24. Property Trends. https://www.property24.com/property-trends.

Chapter 6: Pump Up Your Income

• The average electrician earns R19k…
  • I found all of these income averages on Payscale, a very useful website for comparing salaries across careers. www.payscale.com.
• The fact that Trevor Noah…
  • I’d take any estimate like this with a BIG pinch of salt, since Trevor’s not exactly flashing his paycheques, but you get the point.
    • Leidy, L. (2024). Trevor Noah’s Net Worth From ‘The Daily Show’ and What He Got Paid for Hosting the Grammys. Parade. https://parade.com/celebrities/trevor-noah-net-worth.
• If the majority of people who do a job are women, that job will be systematically underpaid...
  • See the paper by Levanon, A., England, P. and Allison, P. cited earlier.
• There are hundreds of unemployed junior doctors in South Africa…
• **Moving is absurdly hard and absurdly costly, but it is also one of the most powerful income levers…**
  • Location has a major impact on income within South Africa, as well as globally.
    • Biyase, M. and Zwane, T. (2018). An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Poverty and Household Welfare in South Africa. The Journal of Developing Areas, 52(1), pp.115–130. https://doi.org/10.1353/jda.2018.0008.
    • Milanovic, B. (2015). Global Inequality of Opportunity: How Much of Our Income Is Determined by Where We Live? Review of Economics and Statistics 97 (2): 452- 460. https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00432.
• Nearly half of 15-34-year olds are not in employment, education or training...
  • The exact figure is 45%. Stats SA. Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Quarter 1: 2025. https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02111stQuarter2025.pdf.
• The unemployment rate for graduates is 12%...
  • Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey cited earlier.
• The university dropout rate in South Africa is really high ...
  • Mokhantso, B. (2024). Do 40% of South Africa’s university students fail to complete their degrees? threestreamsmedia. https://threestreamsmedia.com/do-40-of-south-africas-university-students-fail-to-complete-their-degrees/.
• Young people with prior work experience are four times more likely to transition into employment than those without…
  • Stats SA (2024). Unemployment in South Africa: A youth perspective. https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=17266.
• Various studies find that employees expect 30-60% of their current skills to become obsolete within the next five years…
  • I’m not sure how much stock I’d put in statements like this, because they are mostly just based on vibes, but here are two.
    • World Economic Forum (2025). Future of Jobs Report. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_Report_2025.pdf.
    • Global Labor Market Conference Report. (2023). https://www.glmc.com/pdf/glmc23-final-report.pdf.
• **Data about first-generation dollar millionaires…**
  • A fascinating book about this is The Millionaire Next Door (1996) by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. It’s quite old now, but I haven’t seen anyone disprove the fundamental claims.
• Look for a way of life…
  • Hunter S. Thompson used this phrase in a letter to a friend who was confused about his career. You can find the whole letter online – it’s marvellous.
• There are hundreds of unemployed doctors in South Africa...
  • Sukdeo, S. (2024). I’m a medical doctor who graduated cum laude and I can’t get a government job. Daily Maverick. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2024-01-21-im-a-medical-doctor-who-graduated-cum-laude-and-i-cant-get-a-government-job/
• Amy Wrzesniewski. 
  • I'm relying on the personal notes I took in that lecture, which I attended at Yale University in 2016, but here's a transcript of a similar discussion.
    • Wrzesniewski, A. (2022). Crafting Your Job Into a Calling. Yale Talk. https://salovey.yale.edu/sites/default/files/yale_talk_episode_25_amy_wrzesniewski_transcript.pdf.

Chapter 7: Get the Right Accounts

• Only 11% of South African credit card holders benefit from the interest free grace period at least twice a year…
  • Standard Bank (2024). Most consumers are not using interest-free periods on credit cards despite high interest rates. https://www.standardbank.co.za/southafrica/news-and-media/newsroom/how-to-use-a-credit-card-to-beat-tough-times.
• Funds that don’t perform well get closed or merged…
• Passive funds outperform active funds about 90% of the time…
  • SPIVA publishes a scorecard every year showing what proportion of active funds outperform passive funds. In the 10-year period to 2024, 92% of South African equity active funds underperformed the benchmark. Over the same time period, the full 100% of global equity fund managers in South Africa underperformed the benchmark. Around 40% of South African equities funds are closed every 10-year period.
    • Edwards, T., Voros, B., Di Gioia, D, Didio, D. (2025). SPIVA® South Africa Scorecard, mid-year 2025. S&P Dow Jones Indices. https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/documents/spiva/spiva-south-africa-mid-year-2025.pdf.
• Fidelity once did this in-depth study…
  • Udland, M. (2014). Forgetful Investors Performed Best. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/forgetful-investors-performed-best-2014-9.
• If, like 85% of South Africans, you can’t afford private care…
  • Cokayne, R. (2024). SA Sees Sharp Decline in Medical Aid Coverage. Moneyweb. https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/south-africa/sa-sees-sharp-decline-in-medical-aid-coverage/.

Chapter 8: Money and your Family

• Economists say that women spend much less on themselves out of pooled family pots...
• Women are usually the ones pushing for some money to be kept separate...
  • Lott, Y. (2016). When My Money Becomes Our Money: Changes in Couples' Money Management.Social Policy and Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746415000688.
• Pooling money typically leads to higher relationship satisfaction...
  • Addo, F. (2016). Financial Integration and Relationship Transitions of Young Adult Cohabiters. Journal of Family and Economic Issues. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-016-9490-7.
• Kids can grasp basic concepts like value, exchange and delayed gratification as young as age 3…
  • Holden, K., Kalish, C., Scheinholtz, L., Dietrich, D. and Novak, B. (2024). Financial Literacy Programs Targeted on Pre-School Children: Development and Evaluation. https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/financialseries/files/2013/10/CUNA-Report-full-draft.pdf.
• The data’s very clear that giving an allowance is a good idea…
  • Abramovitch, R., Freedman, J.L. and Pliner, P. (1991). Children and money: Getting an allowance, Credit versus cash, and Knowledge of Pricing. Journal of Economic Psychology, 12(1), pp.27–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-4870(91)90042-R.
• 73% of us believe we have a duty to help our family members financially...
  • The report by Roberts, B., Struwig, J., Gordon, S. and Radebe cited earlier.
• More than half of over-85-year-olds live with a disability...
  • Stats SA. Profile of Persons with Disabilities in South Africa. https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/Report-03-01-59/Report-03-01-592011.pdf.
• The Association for the Aged estimates that only 6% of South Africans can retire independently...
  • This number is widely cited online although I have not been able to track down an original report by the Association of the Aged. I suspect the true source of the statistic might be either the National Treasury or 10X.
    • Van Niekerk, R. (2025). Only 6% of South Africans can Retire Comfortably - are you one of them? Moneyweb. https://www.moneyweb.co.za/in-depth/10x-investments/only-6-of-south-africans-can-retire-comfortably-are-you-one-of-them/.
• If you do have people who rely on you financially, or you’ve got secret gold buried under the shed, you need a will…
  • I’m indebted to Kenny Meiring for these points. In general, his column ‘The Financial Wellness Coach’ in Daily Maverick is fantastic.
    • Meiring, K. (2024). Wills: Two Really Good Reasons to Have One Drawn Up. Daily Maverick. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-09-29-wills-two-really-good-reasons-to-have-one-drawn-up/.

Links were checked in April 2026. If you spot anything incorrect, missing or broken, please let me know! I'd love to fix it.