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Personal Finance Feature · Drive with John Perlman

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  Speaker 1: You're with John Perlman on 702. John is on. 702 Drive,
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  Speaker 1: coming up for 10 minutes to 5. Later in the show,
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  Speaker 1: around 10 past 5, we're going to be talking to
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  Speaker 1: Ian Cameron. He's a DA, Member of Parliament. He also
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  Speaker 1: chairs Parliament's Portfolio Committee on the Police. He asked a
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  Speaker 1: question of Acting Police Minister Feroz Kachalia about the effectiveness
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  Speaker 1: of the 10-triple-1 call system. And apparently... around 1.8 million
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  Speaker 1: calls have actually been abandoned. I think it's over a
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  Speaker 1: five-year period. Some of them are calls that simply drop
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  Speaker 1: because the system is not holding up. In some instances,
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  Speaker 1: operators simply put the phone down. We need to get
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  Speaker 1: more details on exactly what an abandoned call means, and
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  Speaker 1: we'll do so when we chat to MP Cameron, Ian Cameron-Hill,
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  Speaker 1: a little bit later in the show, at about 10
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  Speaker 1: minutes past five. I'm just looking at the totals. Yeah, 2025, 2026.
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  Speaker 1: That was the total for that year alone. 1.79 million calls.
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  Speaker 1: It has been worse, by the way, in 2021-22, it
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  Speaker 1: was up as high as 3.25 million abandoned and dropped calls.
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  Speaker 1: But I'd like to know from you, I mean, have
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  Speaker 1: you rung 10-triple-1 and how did things turn out? Give
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  Speaker 1: me a call and let me know or drop me
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  Speaker 1: a voice note or text on 072-702-1702. I'd like to
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  Speaker 1: start getting a sense from the 702 family out there
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  Speaker 1: as to what your experience has been calling 10-triple-1 and
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  Speaker 1: that'll obviously feed into the questions I ask Ian Cameron
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  Speaker 1: and the conversation we have. That's coming up at 10
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  Speaker 1: past five. Drive home with John Perlman on 702.
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  Speaker 2: Let's walk the talk.
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  Speaker 1: Eight minutes to five. People are living longer. Have you
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  Speaker 1: planned for retirement or for a long retirement? Personal finance
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  Speaker 1: on 702 Drive with me, John Perlman, is brought to
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  Speaker 1: you by Discovery Invest. Retire strong. Many people plan for
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  Speaker 1: the lifestyle they want in retirement, but overlook the potential
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  Speaker 1: costs of health care, support, and long-term care as they age.
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  Speaker 1: These expenses can restrain retirement savings, particularly later in life
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  Speaker 1: when there may be fewer opportunities to make financial adjustments.
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  Speaker 1: discovery invest retire strong campaign highlights why a retirement plan
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  Speaker 1: needs to account for both everyday living expenses and the
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  Speaker 1: possibility of needing care. Michaela Giltrow is an actuary at
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  Speaker 1: invest technical marketing at discovery invest. She joins us now
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  Speaker 1: to unpack the cost of aging and how people can
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  Speaker 1: prepare for the care they may need later in life. Uh, Michaela,
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  Speaker 1: welcome back. It's good to have you on the show again. Um,
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  Speaker 1: What is the gap that people leave in regard to
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  Speaker 1: health care? Is it that they let medical aid policies
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  Speaker 1: lapse or they simply underestimate, even if they hold those policies,
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  Speaker 1: on what the true costs of aging might well turn
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  Speaker 1: out to be? Good afternoon to you.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, hi, John. Thanks for having me again today. It's
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  Speaker 2: nice to be back on the show. I think it's both.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, well, I guess, not everything is covered by
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  Speaker 2: medical aid. So it's important to remember that things like
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  Speaker 2: assisted living and certain pieces aren't covered by medical aid.
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  Speaker 2: And also the range of medical aid is very different, right?
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  Speaker 2: There's ranges of cover and not everyone has the same
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  Speaker 2: level of cover. So it is important to take this
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  Speaker 2: into account when doing your financial plan. And in addition
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  Speaker 2: to that, I think it's also something that people not
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  Speaker 2: necessarily think of when they're planning for retirement. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: when you think about retirement, you're thinking about holidays, travels,
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  Speaker 2: more time with family, you're not necessarily thinking about all
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  Speaker 2: these costs around getting sick, needing assisted living, needing care. So,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's twofold. It's partly understanding where
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  Speaker 2: you're covered and then also just thinking about this, creating
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  Speaker 2: awareness around this and understanding that this is something you
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  Speaker 2: need a plan for. You need to build flexibility into
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  Speaker 2: your plan for if this does happen later in life.
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  Speaker 1: It's so interesting what you say because, I mean, in
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  Speaker 1: my mind, they're two separate things. And that's probably because
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  Speaker 1: I'm still working and still hopefully putting money away that
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  Speaker 1: I can use when I'm no longer working. But you
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  Speaker 1: seem to be saying what? That you need in your
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  Speaker 1: retirement planning to set aside some of that money for
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  Speaker 1: possible healthcare costs. And as you say, care costs, because
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  Speaker 1: they're not necessarily, that care isn't necessarily delivered under the
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  Speaker 1: banner of a medical care system. It could be something else.
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  Speaker 1: Or are you saying you actually need a separate plan
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  Speaker 1: for that to take care of those needs?
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  Speaker 2: No, you're correct. It should be built into your plan.
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  Speaker 2: So yesterday we discussed around sort of withdrawing wisely and
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  Speaker 2: ensuring you have sufficient money to sort of that your
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  Speaker 2: savings outlast you. But this is also in the same sense,
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  Speaker 2: you should make sure you have sufficient savings so that
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  Speaker 2: if later in life you do require care like this,
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  Speaker 2: you do have the flexibility and the funding to to
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  Speaker 2: adjust your drawdown level so that you can cover these
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  Speaker 2: costs without putting undue pressure at a time where retirees
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  Speaker 2: don't typically have the means to start working again or
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  Speaker 2: find other alternative sources of income. So it's really around
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  Speaker 2: just structuring your plan. So at Discovery Invest, we provide
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  Speaker 2: clients with boosts, and these provide clients with extra income
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  Speaker 2: in retirement for withdrawing well and living healthy. And the
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  Speaker 2: reason we do this is so that because living healthy
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  Speaker 2: today means means that you have the chance of reducing
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  Speaker 2: your sick years in retirement later on. So both of
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  Speaker 2: these are intended to both reduce the cost of care
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  Speaker 2: and sickness later in retirement and also preserve your fund.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting thing. Do you prepare
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  Speaker 1: for the worst? Because, you know, people reach retirement and
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  Speaker 1: I would think generally they do so with a sense
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  Speaker 1: of optimism. Yes, there's you're not doing a job that
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  Speaker 1: you like, you're not going to be around people you've
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  Speaker 1: come to know and whose company you've over time enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: in the work or whatever it might be. But generally
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  Speaker 1: you're thinking, okay, you know, but then you've got to
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  Speaker 1: think to yourself, I mean, do you find that's, for example,
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  Speaker 1: quite a mental block for people that they're saying, no,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, Whenever I felt sick, it was because I
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  Speaker 1: was working, not because I was relaxing. But of course,
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  Speaker 1: aging will age you in ways that are well known.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, no, definitely. So the intention isn't to create the
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  Speaker 2: fear element or to show stress. The intention is just
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  Speaker 2: to open the planning conversation with an advisor to make
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  Speaker 2: sure that these things are accounted for in the plan
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  Speaker 2: later on in retirement. And I think understanding what things
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  Speaker 2: cost today, and there's obviously the impact of inflation, but
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  Speaker 2: just understanding that These are expensive and they would drain
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  Speaker 2: your savings if you did need costs like this. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: some of the research we've done is sort of your
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  Speaker 2: long-term care could cost anything from sort of 8,000 to
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  Speaker 2: 25,000 Rand a month. And going into really specialized care
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  Speaker 2: could go up to 75,000 Rand a month. So it
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  Speaker 2: really could drain your savings very quickly if it isn't
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  Speaker 2: planned for. So it's really not a fear element. It's
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  Speaker 2: more just around understanding that there is a risk of
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  Speaker 2: this and building it into your plan and allowing yourself
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  Speaker 2: the flexibility for this.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Michaela Giltrow is an actuary at Invest
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  Speaker 1: Technical Marketing at Discovery Invest. A longer life deserves an
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  Speaker 1: income strategy built to keep going. Drawing sustainably can help
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  Speaker 1: protect later income, and Discovery Invest is designed to reward
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  Speaker 1: that behavior. Ask your financial advisor whether what you draw
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: today supports what you may need later. Discovery Invest. Retire strong.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Vote at South Africa's best investment experience. 2026 Ask Africa
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Orange Index. Discovery Invest is an authorized financial services provider.
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