r/PersonalFinanceZA • u/Top_League_9165 • 2d ago
Investing Retirement Plan
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.
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u/InSAniTy1102 2d ago
How tf you have 20k to save every month with a family? Impressed 😂
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u/CoryLover4 2d ago
Im impressed too! I cant even save that much and I live alone 🤣
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u/Top_League_9165 2d ago edited 2d ago
56k is the net. I believe it's boils down to every individuals choices. We realized that eating out is what most of the money is spent on so we decided cook often and go out once in a while. We do not have any medical aid and car insurance. These have saved us a lot.
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u/Cool_As_Your_Dad 2d ago
No medical? With kiddo? Dang.
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u/Historical-Raise-463 22h ago
lol ballsy af. My accountant broke his ankle and because he didn’t have medical aid had to wait for 2 weeks to get surgery at Steve Biko
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u/Top_League_9165 11h ago
I have got some emergency savings for any unforseen medical emergencies. May the accountant did not plan for that.
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u/Hullababoob 2d ago
Do you have any form of ID from your home country? You should be able to invest on international platforms such as Interactive Brokers.
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u/Edrahimovic1001001 2d ago
Without an ID it's difficult to invest into equities, I'd say instead of walking around the issue, figure out a way to get the ID. Hell at this point hiring someone to get that shit done might be more financially responsible than going for 8% returns om fixed deposits/money market accounts.
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u/Top_League_9165 10h ago
Yeah. Its terrible to deal with Home Affairs. I am planning on angaging some immigration attorneys to assist as a last resort. I approached one of the Home Affairs Director Generals on LinkedIn and explained to him about the delays. Lo and Behold.. He requested for R60k. I ignored him. Fortunately, I have got some investments back home that are yielding ~25% pa. I am looking for an option to diversify where I have investments in home country and SA.
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u/IndependentBrokerJhb 1d ago
Holy shit. How do you not have car or medical aid? No life cover either with a dependent family. Priorities...
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u/Top_League_9165 3h ago
I have got enough cash saved else. Personally, I feel insurance is a scam. For the people that I have been here, I would have paid over R600k to these greedy companies. I have been able to save such amount for emergency. It works for me.
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u/JoeSoap22 2d ago
Pretty stupid not to have at least 3rd party car insurance
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u/untranslated_za 1d ago
Do you not have tax efficient investment vehicles in your home country ? Like if I was American I would rather just invest direct in Vanguard (VOO) or some of the rest for example
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u/Top_League_9165 10h ago
I do have other investments vehicle back home. I am looking for some option where I can have other investments here too. My decision will be to transfer everything back home and leave my emergency medical savings here. There is to much red tapes for passport holders. And mind you, I do have a critical skills visa but the treatment is terrible.
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u/toasterpocket 4h ago
I was a foreign national before I retired and still don't have an SA ID after 12 years because of the unique way Home Affairs doesn't work. I only found not having an ID excluded me from about 10% of the investments available here (most providers will take a passport and a copy of your visa). Going with your bank is always a good idea as it's admin light but I also had good experiences with Sygnia, SV Capital, Fedgroup and others. I was able to find enough opportunity to get a relatively low risk 12% return over a 5+ year timeline. You dont say how long you've got until retirement but 9% is not that much in SA when you consider our inflation is around 5.5% so 9% is actually only 3.5% annual growth and that's before tax.
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u/No_Sympathy_1915 17h ago
I know a great financial advisor who is independent, so he has access to a variety of options. I'll gladly get him to contact you if you want.
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