The office vending machine
Have you ever calculated how much you spend on the vending machine at the office? Start now by logging how much you’re spending each day. If you spend just R20 a day, it’s costing you around R440 a month. If you rather invested that money in a tax-free savings account which delivered the long-term average return of the stock market (around 12% per annum), then you could have R435 000 in 20 years – along with a smaller waistline and healthier heart.
Speeding
For every 10km/h you exceed the speed limit, you could receive a fine of R250. By being more vigilant on the road, you could take the R250 saved each month and add it to your tax-free savings account. Combine this with your vending machine savings and, in 20 years’ time, you could have a nest egg of R682 000.
DStv
Analyse how much time you are actually watching TV. If you’re stuck in front of the set every evening and weekend then maybe it’s time to cut back and read a book or get some exercise. If you find you’re hardly ever watching, then you’re already wasting money. If you migrated from DStv Premium to DStv Extra, you would save R274 per month. Add this to the other savings in your tax-free savings account and you could have accumulated R954 000 in 20 years. That’s nearly R1-million that you’re currently wasting.
Smoking
If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, you’re spending around R1 113 a month on the habit. If you quit smoking and rather paid that amount into your tax-free savings account, along with your other savings, you could have a massive R2-million saved within 20 years.
Procrastination
The biggest money waster is waiting to save. If, for example, you started today by cutting back on the vending machine, received fewer traffic fines, reduced your DStv package and gave up smoking, you could have R2-million within 20 years. If, however, you procrastinated and only started in five years’ time, you could only have R1-million – your procrastination would have cost you an extra R1-million. |
