A road trip to financial freedom
Resources for the journey to financial freedom
Here are some of the best tools, calculators, infographics, blogs and courses that I’ve come across so far.
Buy vs let calculator
Great when you can’t decide whether to buy or rent a property. On top of that, this top-quality blog covers a whole range of investment topics.
Personal finance blog
A fellow traveller on the road to financial freedom.
Maya is a veteran in investigating money issues relevant to South Africans.
Tax-free savings tool
Use this to find out how much tax you save when you choose a tax-free unit trust instead of a standard one. If you want to invest in, say, any balanced fund (Allan gray, Satrix, etc) select the Prudential Balanced Fund in the drop-down box. The tax-saving result is similar for all SA balanced funds.
Retirement tool
In 2017 PPS launched an excellent tool to calculate whether you’ve saved enough for retirement. Sadly, this is no longer available to the public. Discovery is the 2nd best. Avoid previous-generation calculators, such as Old Mutual's, that assume you're aiming for 75-100% of your salary income in retirement, ignoring people who are living well below their means and may need only 50% of their salary level after retirement and want to retire before age 55.
Compound interest calculator
Just ignore the dollar sign. This works just as well for rands. ‘Principal’ is just another word for the capital you’ll be investing.
Unit trust fund comparison
Fee comparison of the SA unit trusts preferred by top financial advisers.
Everything ETFs
Kristia and Simon are doing a phenomenal job introducing exchange traded funds to the SA public.
RA and tax relief infographic
If you're paying SARS a large chunk of your income, you’ll be astounded by what a difference an RA makes.
Free online money management course
Some facts only apply in the US, but overall very useful. These guys make an effort to make a very dry topic come to life.
Financial life coaching
I did Mary's Money Mastery 6-month course and was amazed at how my money and energy started flowing towards my life purpose.
Kim is a financial planner and established life coach who can shed some light on the blind spots we have in our relationship with money.
MBA graduate graduate and yoga teacher Vangile looks at both the left- and right-brain activity needed to build a positive relationship with money. She can also help to heal ancestral money stories.