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It's My Money with Leslie Greyling · Strictly Business

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  You're listening to Strictly Business Podcast with Lindsay Williams.
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  This edition of It's My Money is brought to you by Brenthurst Wealth, your partner
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  for global wealth creation.
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  Welcome to It's My Money.
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  It's My Money is brought to you by Brenthurst Wealth, South Africa's
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  multi-award winning boutique wealth manager.
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  Today I'm speaking to Lesley Hraling from Brenthurst in four ways.
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  Now, the article that I was sent by Lesley says the following, seven ways to fight
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  the rising cost of living.
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  And that is particularly pertinent at the moment, Leslie, because of the oil price,
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  which, as we speak,
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  is above $100 a barrel.
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  Who knows where it'll be?
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  But the point is that will have an effect on everyone's budgets.
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  But you look at it in a very analytical way.
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  What made you write this article?
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  Hi, Lindsay.
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  I think the biggest thing that, you know, each person battles with.
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  you know, on a monthly basis is to stretch their money as far as possible and to
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  cover all their
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  costs, which just, you know, keep on rising.
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  And as you said now, with the fuel price increases, you know, we don't know how
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  long that's going to continue.
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  And that will definitely have an effect on transport costs, which will be higher, you
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  know, going forward.
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  And that will mean that that all goods will also, the prices will also increase.
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  So, you know, check for specials where you can, you know, at different retailers.
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  Maybe, you know, look at stocking up on some essentials while the prices are still
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  lower.
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  But definitely the fuel increase will have a ripple effect down the line.
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  And of course, the governor of the South African Reserve Bank will be looking at
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  this as well and saying, well,
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  maybe we can't cut interest rates as people have been expecting.
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  because inflation may tick up with the oil price and so it goes on.
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  So we're going to be under pressure.
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  You go through it, as I said in my introduction, quite methodically, and you
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  say, number one, know your real monthly number.
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  Now, I'm not a person who dips into reality very often, so I don't know what
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  my real monthly number is,
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  and I don't really know what you mean by real monthly number.
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  So maybe you could explain.
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  Yeah, so what one should do is have like a...
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  a summary or a spreadsheet of all your monthly expenses, you know,
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  which includes especially debit orders, you know, what you're spending on, you
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  know, groceries,
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  on entertainment, on things like coffee, you know, cappuccinos, all these, you
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  know,
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  some of, especially some of the luxury items.
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  So a lot of the banking apps will actually...
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  give you a summary or break it down into how much is your debit orders,
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  what are you spending on groceries and things like that.
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  So have a look at that,
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  especially on your monthly subscriptions like the gym or your Netflix and
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  Disney and Prime and all of those.
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  So you're not duplicating any costs.
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  A lot of people have more than one bank account at different banks and you might
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  be duplicating.
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  you know banking bank fees which can also add up so it's good to have a have a
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  spreadsheet of all your you
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  know costs and make sure that you know you you're keeping a handle on it and it's not
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  increasing too much
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  so if you do that on a i know everyone can't do it on a monthly basis but let's
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  say once every quarter
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  just have a look if you're still on track
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  if you're overspending on on certain stuff and try to cut down something like...
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  where you could maybe cut expenses is something like your short-term insurance
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  you know review that on an annual
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  basis shop around see if you can maybe get a cheaper short-term insurance you're
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  making a lot of good points
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  about and number two you've already mentioned groceries twice by the way which
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  interests me because you say number two you say take a hard
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  look at your grocery strategy i won't tell you what my grocery strategy is yeah mine
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  too because it's very haphazard,
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  but you've already said it.
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  I mean, look out for specials.
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  and stop buying the luxury stuff.
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  Yes, yes, we all tend to, you know, while going into the shop,
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  just wanting to go and buy some meat and bread and milk and things like that, we
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  all add, you know,
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  unnecessary things to the basket, and when you get to the till, it's a horrific
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  amount.
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  So try to stick to a list or to, you know,
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  a set amount that you want to go and spend that specific day,
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  and look at something small like, you know,
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  People go and buy a cappuccino on the way to work every morning.
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  You know, that's something that's 45 or 50 rand a day, you know, times a week.
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  You know, that could cost you up to 1,200 rand a month.
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  If you cut that down to maybe spoiling yourself to a cappuccino once a week
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  instead of every day.
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  You know, they're saving a thousand rand a month, which is 12,000 rand for the year.
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  That's a lot of coffee.
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  And I see you're favoring the cappuccino.
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  You're being biased against the double espresso in the morning.
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  Cappuccino in the morning, unacceptable.
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  Number three, manage electricity like it's part of your investment plan.
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  Now, electricity prices in South Africa.
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  are managed essentially by the authorities.
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  I mean, they go up a certain amount because they're playing catch up.
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  But let's not get into that.
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  But also the oil price, which I mentioned earlier on, does affect electricity.
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  So you've got to keep an eye on this thing because it will be rising above the rate
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  of normal inflation, I think.
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  Exactly, exactly.
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  I mean, NERSA approved the revised average increase for ESCOM.
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  You know, after they made some previous errors.
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  So we're looking at for this year an increase of 8.7%, you know,
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  for the 2026 year.
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  And then next year, it will probably, it's around 8.8%.
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  So that's not something we have control over.
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  You know, it is what it is.
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  But we have to be more, you know,
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  vigilant and aware of what electricity bills are, you know.
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  Something like a tumble dryer, you know, running if the sun is shining outside, you
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  know.
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  Yeah, some people don't want to hang out their washing in public though, but I know
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  exactly what you mean.
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  You're talking about getting serious about expensive debt as well.
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  And I know what you mean.
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  You mean credit cards, don't you?
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  Yes, yes.
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  So most of it is credit card or your short term debt.
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  Things like clothing accounts or at a curry craft for furniture or something
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  like that.
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  Non-necessities.
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  Yes, we all have, or most of us have bonds that we have to repay or a motor vehicle.
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  But short term, higher interest rate, like your credit card.
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  be very vigilant buying things on credit that you know,
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  is like groceries or clothing or things like that, rather buy cash.
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  Review every debit order.
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  Now, this is an interesting one, because about a month ago, I was looking through
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  things, you know, as I do occasionally,
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  I can be quite diligent sometimes.
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  And I saw something for Prime Video.
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  I'm not saying anything against Prime Video, because it's a really good service.
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  But I didn't even know.
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  I know what I did.
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  It was for one particular football match, I'd subscribed and then it said, Don't
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  worry,
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  we'll send you something so you can cancel your subscription.
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  That obviously slipped through my filter because I didn't cancel it.
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  And I've been paying every month since then and not using the thing.
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  You have to keep on top of these things, Leslie.
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  Yes, yes, yes.
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  No, you have to.
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  Sometimes you sign up for something, you know, just to try it out or whatever.
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  You know, a Pilates app or, you know,
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  you pay for a lot of these apps or for the streaming service, things like that.
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  So.
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  Make sure that you are only paying for the channels or the streaming service or the
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  gym or the whatever
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  that you actually use.
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  The things you don't use, rather cancel that.
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  You can always subscribe at a later stage again,
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  but rather cut it down because quickly it can add up and be a huge expense for you
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  every
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  month.
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  You talk about an emergency fund as well.
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  Now, people have an emergency fund for, as it says, emergencies.
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  But it's not really an emergency after you splurged at Christmas and you haven't got
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  quite enough money to maintain your lifestyle.
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  So you dip into the emergency fund or your credit card in January or February.
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  You've got to protect that.
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  You mustn't get into those bad habits, I don't think.
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  Yes, definitely.
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  Definitely.
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  That emergency fund is what it is for, you know, an emergency fund.
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  Your car breaks down or the...
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  You know, you've got a personal emergency where you have to go to hospital,
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  there's additional expenses or whatever, you can't work for, you know, a while.
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  That emergency fund must be kept for real emergencies, not because, you know,
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  I'm overspending over December or January is, you know, 50 days long.
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  So I have to get into the emergency fund or into credit card.
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  So, yeah, I try to be, to keep that.
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  you know, for real emergencies.
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  We've been talking about spending, but what about income?
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  What about getting more stuff in so you can spend more, looking for ways to grow
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  your income?
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  What do you mean?
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  Do you mean ask your boss for a rise or do you mean just work harder if you're
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  self-employed?
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  Give me an example.
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  Yeah, so something like, you know, if you were on a fixed income, you know, and
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  you're getting...
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  You haven't had an increase in the last two, three years, you know, approach your
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  employer and ask,
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  you know, you can only say no, but ask for an increase.
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  Self-employed people, yes, you know, might be able to work a bit harder or overtime
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  or whatever,
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  get some extra money in.
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  Just be careful that you don't now fall into a different tax bracket and actually
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  have to pay more tax and get
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  out less money.
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  I find that a lot of clients are actually doing something on the sideline, you know,
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  either tutoring or, you know,
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  using something like a hobby to generate or sit at a flea market,
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  sell some jams or homemade, you know, things, bracelets that you make,
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  something that's a hobby that you can actually, you know,
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  use as an income or an additional income or additional spending money.
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  If it's cash, it's even better.
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  You sum all this up very beautifully.
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  You say, my advice is that your financial progress doesn't have to stall just
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  because the cost of living is rising, you say.
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  With clarity, structure and deliberate action, you can continue moving forward
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  steadily and confidently.
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  The other thing to do as well, if you can't do all that because you're not
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  disciplined,
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  is get on to your financial advisor and sit down for an hour and work it out with
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  him or her.
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  Definitely, definitely.
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  You know, there's a lot of...
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  Your financial advisor can assist you.
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  There's also a lot of online tools where you can actually draw up your budget
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  and just have a look.
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  Even if it's once every quarter, twice a year,
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  just make sure that you are not overspending on certain things that are
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  unnecessary.
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  There are things we have control over.
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  Others, we don't.
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  So try and cut where you can.
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  we've got some wiggle room.
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  Leslie, thanks so much for your wisdom.
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  Leslie Hraling is from Brenthurst in four ways.
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  And that was It's My Money.
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  It's My Money was brought to you by Brenthurst Wealth, an award-winning
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  boutique wealth management company.