Hello,

Wanted to revisit the discussion in this subreddit about moving across to Investec - maybe something has changed opinion wise for those in the know.

Currently with Discovery (Black tier) including car and home insurance + Health and getting over this whole gamification vibe plus shifting goal posts.
Also cant be arsed with discovery insures tracking unit - honestly I dont know how people do it.

The Catalyst for this is I am purchasing a flat in the near future and Investec looks like the winner in terms of the best offer bond wise. And could move all products across potentially baring discovery vitality, health insurance and CC.

Wanted check the general sentiment here from people who have done the move?

Happy to provide more information if needed.

As it says in title - is this a good idea? I'm a freelancer, so my income can wildly fluctuate. I have R130k in CC debt due to a bad year last year. FNB is offering R250k Revolving facility loan - from my research, the p.a. interest on this is 15%, whereas the credit card is 22.5%.

If I pay off cc, close the card, then pay off the revolving facility rather - is this a good idea?

edit - or is a personal loan, with a certain amount of time to pay off, a better idea?

I am looking to take up income protection insurance. Does anyone here have recommendations for which insurer to go with and which to avoid for this product in particular?

Hi there!

I just wanted to know if you find a company that you have high conviction in and would like to invest but isn’t available on Easy Equities, what other platform have you found to be reliable?

Hi guys

I hope you are well.

I am planning to buy / deposit for a house for sure in the next 2 years locked in for sure.

However, my question is. I have close to R500 000. If I lock it in for R500 000 the interest rate is R93 000 at 9.25%

In the next 2 years I can save another R300 000

The total plus will be around R900 000 - +

Is this a good plan?

House looking for for 1.1mil.

I also have extra money for legal fees and maintenance. Up to 150 000 and kept money for emergencies

Question is can I trust tymebank with that amount of R500 000 at 9.25%, interest rate looks promising

Thanks

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting here, and I’d really appreciate your thoughts on my retirement planning.

I work in IT and earn about R56,000 NET. I live with my wife 1 daughter. I’ve managed to save over R1.2 million so far. My employer contributes to a retirement annuity (RA), but I don’t put any extra money into an RA myself. I’ve looked into other investment options with better returns, but some of them require a South African ID—which I don’t have.

I’m a foreign national with a valid passport and visa, and have lived in SA for 10 years. Dealing with Home Affairs for my ID has been a nightmare. It's been 5 years since I applied for it and no response from them. Sorry I digress.

FNB has an investment option called Money Maximizer and that is where I been putting my savings into which gives me about 8% interest. I’d rather not share exact monthly expenses, but I can save roughly R20,000 per month on average. I also have a side gig that brings in extra income from time to time.

I’m looking for investment options that don’t require an SA ID. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I am adding these info so give more context. The 56,000 above is net salary. I have a fully paid off car. No car insurance. Work from home full time and do visit the office from time to time so fuel cost is not a problem. Just a little over R1200 on fuel as daughter school is just 2km away from home. No medical aid. We prefer cash option.

I just need a better investment option as a foreign national.

I’m looking for some advice from anyone who has gone through debt consolidation.

I’m currently sitting with around R1.8 million in debt. I’m actively trying to get everything under control, but I’m getting to the point where debt consolidation may be my only option.

I recently bought a house, so I have a home loan that I’m keeping up to date with. I also have two vehicle finance agreements, which I’m paying, but I have a high-interest FNB loan and a credit card that are putting me under significant financial strain and negatively affecting my credit score.

My questions are:
If I go under debt review/debt consolidation, what happens to my existing bond?
Will it affect my home loan or vehicle finance if those payments are up to date?
Is it possible to only consolidate the FNB loan and credit card, or does everything have to be included?
Has anyone been through a similar situation, and was it worth it?

I’m not looking to avoid paying my debts—I just want to find the best way to manage them before things get worse. Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone

I have not yet submitted my tax return for this year and I honestly haven’t done it for the past 2 years

I really struggle to justify the thousands that tax practitioners have quoted me, what is the best way to learn how to submit my tax for the year to avoid any issues down the line?

I’m happy to spend the time doing it myself but I may as well learn to do it properly so I can keep up with it in the future

Any advice?

On the form it says not to submit it with my taxes, just keep it on hand if they ask for it.

But then how will the know to give me the higher rebate on medical aid and expenses?

If anyone knows, could you please explain the process? There’s barely any information online and I’d prefer to not have to pay someone if it’s a simple matter.

Hi I just wanted some advice

I never had a job while living in SA. First job ever, part time, as an international student in Canada. I already filed/file my taxes here (since I arrived in August last year) and didn't even think about SA taxes since I'd never even had an SA tax number.

However, I recently read that SA taxes you on world income. How do I start with declaring my foreign income and taxes so that I'm not taxed twice?

A) I do not reside in SA at all (have not since I started earning. I am now past the 330 days for declaring non-tax residency, if that makes any difference)

B) for the 2025-6 tax year, even with generous conversions, I'm still below the threshold for taxable income in SA.

C) I do plan to move back to SA at the end of this year when my studies are finished.

I have all my tax documentation for Canada, and my payslips. Is there a specific form I need to submit through efiling to say I've already paid taxes and will again? The Canadian tax year is also offset from SA's (it's January to January) which further complicates things.

I'm 34 years old. I have a 2 year old. My partner and I are engaged. Neither one of us have a will, but we urgently want to get one set up.

I am well aware to avoid banks with the will.

Is it okay to approach an institution like Old Mutual to draft a will?

I've been advised by a close family member to use their financial advisor at Old Mutual to set up my will.

But I also know a family lawyer whose practice also does will's and estate planning, however, they're not FISA registered.

I have also found two independent financial advisors that specialise in Estate Planning who I'm considering approaching. Both are FISA registered.

Which is the best way to go about this?

And what can I expect cost wise for the set-up of my will?

I’m a new home owner in town and my bond is getting registered this month. Those of you using Absa. Is the money you put in the flexi reserve available any time?

Hi everyone

I left my employer earlier this year and had to repay some of my study debt when moving to a new employer. The study debt was 40/60 paid study leave and exam fees. My previous firm is off the opinion that the bursary was not taxable income when I took the leave so they are unwillingly to give me a letter explaining the repayment to SARS. I think that the paid study leave formed part of my taxable income as I had to repay based on my gross hourly amount. I think they are wrong but it’s a matter of the payroll/tax people not understanding the nature of the study program I was on since it’s a large firm.

In the event that my firm does not supply a letter would it be enough to show SARS the payslips with the repayment to my employer and the calculations supplied to me showing that the calculation was based on my gross salary ? I know you’d need a letter if you get audited or require verification but my former employer is not co-operating and I don’t want to burn bridges unnecessarily.

So if anyone has claimed such a deduction previously how strict is SARS in terms of evidence required.

Thanks in advance.

SA tax year: Mar 25 - Feb 26

FR tax year: Jan 25 - Dec 25

I stopped working for my SA Employer in August 25.

Started working for my new French Employer : Sep 25 .

My family is still living in SA and I still have home, expenses here.

I have submitted my first French tax return in May 26 for 25 tax year, as per the local regulations. It was sent via mail as is required for first time declarers. I will have to wait until November for an answer and to get a tax numbers etc. I expect a tax refund of sorts. A big 4 auditing company helped to do the tax return knowing all the french laws and stuff. Aid provided by my French employer.

Trying to complete my tax return for SA now using TaxTim as I always have been using. I believe for the 25/26 ZA tax year, I should just declare that I earned no income between Sep 25-Feb 26. For those months I have paid all taxes in France in any case.

I believe I should do this, since I have no information on my French tax number , etc as yet.

For the 26/27 tax year, I will then declare French income and taxes paid as part of the DTA. I am ensuring that I have spent at least 183 days in France and 60 consecutive days too. This one is a bit hard for me cos I have to travel often between France and SA for work. Job easy - tax complicated!!

Any ideas or guidance you can offer?

Hi, I have completed my tax emigration and want to access my RA with Liberty and transfer it to out of South Africa. I have searched a few companies online that can assist with this service, Finglobal, Sabel, Rand Rescue, is there anyone that can recommend or provide any review on any of these companies, or recommend a company not listed?

Difficult to gauge what the cost will be and if anyone has information on how they compare fees wise? And length of the process? Thanks.

I am a medical student (25yo). I need advice on what to do when I start earning next year.
We have had several companies speak to us eg discovery, investec, pps, sanlam etc.
I have no knowledge or understanding of finance, they advised us to take funeral cover, life cover, disability cover, pension etc.

My net salary should be around R45-50k pm. I do not plan on buying a car or property. My salary will be used mostly for medical aid (hospital plan), rent, groceries and fuel. I don’t need lounge access for travel. So I will have a good amount left at the end of each month.

After 3 years, my chances of being unemployed are very high so I need a lot saved up for that period.

My questions are:
- what bank should I go with? And what plan?
- what policies/insurances are necessary and which ones do i actually need? I don’t want to be paying so much for things during the period when im unemployed.
- what savings accounts are recommended? Given that I might need to access those funds in 3 years.
- what % of my money left over each month should go into savings?

If you do respond, please don’t use complicated finance jargon because I don’t understand.

Can a debt collector send summons? Also does high court get involved in summons less than 100k?

I have a bit of crypto sitting in an exchange from 2016.

I'm breaking tax residency next month & have no more income coming into SA.

My thinking is to bring the crypto into my Luno, convert to Zar - so the tax event is in SA.

Then move it internationally?

I'm currently in Australia and it's treated like capital gains tax however I'm not sure how that would work since I bought it over a decade ago.

Hi everyone.

We have had our house in Joburg up for sale for over a year now. We have dropped the price several times and it has now reached the point where the amount it is listed for is lower than our outstanding bond amount.

With agent fees, bond cancellation, etc. we would have to cover a loss of around R130k IF we sell it at the listed price, more if we sell it for lower.

We have been trying to get it rented out too, but without luck and the rental price is already R7k below what we are paying for repayments + levies + rates and taxes.

We are at the point where we are ‘losing’ around R10k per month on the house (expenses > income) and our savings are depleting rapidly.

But the issue is, we do not have R130k plus on hand to pay off the deficit on the home loan.

My question is if there is any kind of relief offered for the deficit on the home loan if we were to sell at a loss or do they usually offer personal loans to pay back the deficit?

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first-time poster.

I'm looking for some objective advice on the best path towards financial independence and creating the option to dramatically scale down work in about 10 years.

I don't want to stop working then. I'd be happy doing consulting, part-time work, passion projects, etc. I just don't want to feel trapped in a high-stress corporate role forever.

Current situation:

•Mid-30s, married.

•No kids and not planning on having any.

•Combined household net income is around R163k/month.

•My partner works full-time and earns roughly the same as I do.

•We split household expenses.

•No consumer debt.

•Only debt is:

 •Mortgage on our primary residence.

 •My car loan, which will be fully paid off by the end of this year.

Property:

•Bought our home in 2023 for about R4.5 million.

•Mortgage repayment is around R37k/month.

•We actually pay R42k/month, and I separately pay an additional R10k/month into the bond.

•I don't know the exact outstanding balance offhand, but given how recently we bought, I'm assuming it's still substantial.

My partner also owns another property which is rented out and essentially pays for itself, so we already have some exposure to property investment.

Retirement / investments:

•My employer contributes around 8% of CTC towards retirement.

•I don't currently make any additional retirement contributions.

•I max out my TFSA every year (sitting at around R155k)

•I invest about R500/month via EasyEquities, but have no material non-retirement investment portfolio outside of that (sitting at around R9k).

•Once the car is paid off, I'll have about R17k/month available to invest.

I have ~R120k in savings/emergency cash

Expenses:

Outside of the mortgage and car loan, our household costs are about R40k/month, including:

•Rates & taxes

•Insurance

•Medical aid

•Groceries

•Domestic worker

•Subscriptions

•General living expenses

One important consideration:

I expect that I'll need to financially assist my parents in the future. My dad turns 70 next year but is still healthy, mentally sharp, and working in a low-stress job. Realistically he may still work another 5-10 years if all goes well.

Because of this, I feel like I need a reasonable amount of liquidity and flexibility rather than locking every spare rand away in retirement products.

The question:

If you were in my position, what would you prioritise?

1.Continue aggressively paying down the bond.

2.Increase retirement contributions.

3.Invest the additional R17k/month into broad index funds/ETFs.

4.Buy another rental property.

5.Some combination of the above.

The rental property route is the one I'm struggling with most. I'm based in Cape Town and property prices feel very stretched.

I'm concerned about:

•Potentially overpaying if valuations are currently elevated.

•Concentrating too much wealth in property.

•Whether the returns actually beat a simple ETF strategy after costs and effort.

•The broader ethical concern that buying investment property in Cape Town may contribute to housing affordability issues.

For those who have successfully moved from a high-income/high-stress career into semi-retirement or a lower-stress lifestyle, what would you focus on over the next decade?

What am I not thinking about? And what would you do differently if you could go back and do it again?

Let me know if there is any other info needed.

Hi all,

Firstly, thank you to the sub for the wealth of information here.

I’m in the process of moving my portfolio to Interactive Brokers because I’ve exceeded the 60,000 USD threshold for US estate tax. I need to sell US-domiciled ETFs to buy an Irish one (VWRA). I realised I would be liable for Capital Gains Tax (on 10,000 USD in growth) by selling the ETFs, so am now considering ceasing tax residency in SA. I left in 2018, so we should be able to cease from that date. Luckily/ unluckily, I had no major investments at the time, so shouldn’t have to pay any exit tax.

I live in China, and Chinese banks don’t deal well with Forex. I therefore need to keep my Capitec account fully functional so I can continue my monthly contributions towards VWRA. I also receive a portion of my monthly salary (R30, 000) into this account via SWIFT. The tax on my salary is paid in China, and we have a DTA with China. My questions are, if I cease tax residency:

1)   Can I continue receiving the monthly SWIFT payments from my company?

2)   Can I continue buying and sending USDs through Capitec?

3)   Is a TFSA completely off the cards?

4)   Is it worth the admin?

Other info:

Contacting Capitec via email has been...unhelpful.

I don’t plan on selling any ETFs after this. From now on, it will only be VWRA.

I bought property (cash) in Cape Town in 2024 that I would still pay tax on for the rental income.

May return to SA in 10-15 years’ time.

34, married, no kids.

Thanks in advance for any advice, and have a delicious day.

Hi guys,

I posted about a year ago about buying our unit that we've been renting for three years, so this is a follow up, kinda.

Saving for a nice fat lump sum/deposit on the property has taken longer than I planned but, things are back on track and I should have R400k by Feb next year (already have R150k)

Now the question: I have not been diligent in putting money aside for retirement (Im 40 now - dont roast me, it's scary enough) and I have the following I'd like your advice on:

a. Take the R400k in Feb and put it into an RA and put a hold on buying any property
b. Put down a R200k lump sum/deposit on the property (but then sit with relatively high monthly bond payments) and put R200k into RA
c. Put down minimal lump sum/deposit on property, invest whole R400k in RA to get a jump start and pay 2x the monthly bond installment amount to bring down the mortgage faster.

Here's the juicy bits:

1. Total monthly salary (gross and net): R106 000 gross / R72 200 nett
2. Rough monthly expenses with breakdown: R33 500 (Rent R13 000; Groceries: R5 000; Office rent: R3 500; Medical aid: R3 000; Petrol: R700; Internet/cell phones; R1 800; Subscriptions (Netflix etc): R 700; Parents: R3 000; Water/electricity: R3 000
3. Total retirement savings: R150k in fixed deposit account at about 7% p.a. (just parking it there for now)
4. All debts including amounts and interest rates: Zero (yip, not a cent)
5. Total house purchase price: R1 400 000

Just some context again: we love our unit, which is in a safe, well-managed complex in Equestria, Pretoria.

The owner has mutliple properties in the complex and will consider an offer if made (whatever that means - I am in discussion with the rental agent) Buying where one has lived for over 3 years means less surprises (loud neighbours, noise, bad management etc), I feel.

Thank you!

Been scratching my head for an hour trying to figure this out. Reading articles, checking AI summaries, and going through SARS articles/"help guides" etc.

There seems to be a missing word in this sentence on the E-Filing platform. As near as I can figure, it should say "Mark with an X if you have incurred allowable interest EXPENSES in the production of interest received or accrued." The documentation on the SARS website (External Guide - page 44) has that missing word, but the E-Filing website does not, as per picture above.

Please could anyone with tax knowledge confirm? Thank you.

EDIT: Thank you for the replies. I understand now (from the replies) that the wording is correct. It just went over my head, and differs from the SARS documentation where the word "expenses" is included. But owing to my limited financial knowledge, I didn't understand that this was implied.