More investment interest is needed in South Africa

Christopher Mills
March 10, 2023

I follow a lot of Instagram accounts and YouTuber creators, and if there's anything I've noticed, it's that there's a far bigger appetite for investing, financial knowledge, and the like in the United States. The United Kingdom's interest has picked up, I've noticed this over the years but when it comes to South Africa, I'm not seeing this and it troubles me.

South Africa is a volatile country, a country where there isn't proper state support, and a country where trying to plan for retirement is honestly almost impossible. You can read about 4% rules and all of that but when we actually have no idea what's going to happen next year to the economy or what someone in the Government will do or say, how on earth do we plan for 10, 20, 30 or 40 years from now? We literally can't. Well, that's not completely true but let's unpack that further down.

I've put some charts below that show us the interest in investing from a trend point of view. First up, we're looking at a worldwide chart which shows that the interest in investing has been increasing. It appears to be slowing down somewhat over the last couple of years and that may be due to economic pressures and therefore a strong decline in "disposable" income - in other words, people are spending to survive, not for their retirement.

Worldwide interest in investing

As you can see below, the interest in investing in the United States has an upward trend as well.

United States interest in investing

The interest in investing in the United Kingdom follows the same trend as may be seen below.

United Kingdom interest in investing

Finally, let's look at South Africa (below). We can see that interest has been growing since about a decade ago, or so, but it's far flatter and it's tapering off rather quickly.

South Africa interest in investing

I don't have the answers to this, we could argue that in a country with an unemployment rate of 35.6% according to the IMF would suggest that there are far fewer people in a position to invest. Perhaps it's linked to education, or perhaps it's linked to another macro factor but the fact remains, far too few people are showing an interest in investing and this is a problem. When I started 100MPM, all I wanted to do was inspire someone to take action. I know that I've achieved this and it was an incredible feeling. However, I want to take things further, I don't want to inspire a handful of people, I want to inspire thousands, tens of thousands, millions because I truly believe that one of the most fundamental requirements for a country is teaching people to invest and build wealth, and then to give back. If there is more money going where it should go (helping those in need), we'll start to see a change in our country. Look, this isn't just South Africa, this is a global problem but we're talking about South Africa so I'm focusing on that. Will it solve everything? No, unfortunately. But, it would make a huge difference.

Where do we even start? Good question.

I read a tweet by Dividend Seeker this morning which went as follows:

I couldn't agree more. I went to a great school in Cape Town, I was very blessed to be able to attend the school but when I think back, was I taught about money? I do recall something about simple and compound interest but it wasn't taught in a way that stuck, and I did take part in a fun share trading competition (which I won *yay*) but we weren't taught per se. So yes, there are memories of money-related topics but I believe they were very much few and far between. I did English, Afrikaans, Math, Science, Accounting, and Computer Science at school, all great subjects but it was only within Math that I believe we covered some personal finance topics and that's a great shame.

My son is young, he's only 7 and the school isn't going to teach him about personal finance and the like just yet. He's doing math which is a great start and they had a fun entrepreneurship bring, buy and sell type event which taught some lessons but I don't feel that it's enough. A couple of years ago, when he was 5, I gathered 3 items: a wallet and two jars. On one of the jars, I put a sticker that said "Bank" and on the other, I wrote, "Investment". I sat him down and showed him the 3 items and explained the purpose of each. I've reiterated this over the years and I'm proud to say that he grasps the concept and often puts some of the money he's received from birthdays, chores, and the like into the investment jar. This, to me, was a really big lesson and I'm quite proud of doing it if I may say so.

Something else I did was listen to a podcast, I think it was the Personal Finance podcast with Warren Ingram where he interviewed Gugu Sidaki who's written a series of books called My 3 Piggies:

I bought the series which sells for R450 and have read them. My son took interest in them but I've been lazy as I should have read them more than once, that's on me. (mental note: read the books to him again). The books teach some important lessons and they're presented in a relatable and fun way.

So what I've picked up from my journey thus far, if we're talking about education is that my wife and I need to play a key role in this and not expect that institutions to do it all. I most certainly feel that schools should have a subject on personal finance, where concepts around it are taught in a fun way and competitions/exercises challenge the kids in a fun way to learn the concepts. But, I think that right now, as parents we need to educate ourselves and then educate them. Nobody's suggesting you do a course or before a personal finance whizz, but the core principles of saving, compound interest, retirement, and the like need to be taught and this is one thing we actually have some control over!

The sorts of questions I've asked are:

  • Where are the webinars that teach the basics?
  • Who are the personalities flying the personal finance flag?
  • Where are the simple books? **
  • Is there a place I may ask questions easily and anonymously? ***

** Shout out to Sam BeckBessinger who wrote Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup.
*** Shout out to the Fat Wallet Community on Facebook.

Now, you must understand, I've been obsessed with personal finance, money management, budgeting, and investing for several years. I've studied the topic as if I was enrolled at UCT again with a huge student loan. I've tried to go from North to South and East to West learning everything I could and so my questions above aren't pie in the sky, I am truly curious as to where these things are here in South Africa? If you know of some resources, please leave a comment, and let's build up the resources.

Financial information needs to be made more readily available, it needs to be taught at schools, it needs to work its way into adults' and parents' lives, and it needs to be brought to the forefront. In fact, it needs to be brought to the forefront to stand alongside mental health. The world is changing, mental health needs more focus and financial awareness too.

What are you doing to create awareness? What are you doing to learn? How are you impacting your life, your family's life and the world at large in this regard?

Christopher Mills

I run a successful agency, my other passion is personal finance.

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