Professional financial advice: Your first priority or your last resort?

He spent almost four times more on his car-related expenses than he spent on his pension fund contributions. The One Rand Man is one of many professionals who don’t really know where their money goes, regardless of how much they earn.

 The One Rand Man was a social experiment by Sanlam for the savings month in July where an ordinary man lived entirely on R1 coins. In his list of his monthly expenses, the only form of savings which the One Rand Man noted was his pension fund contribution. But he allocated R3000 a month towards his social spending.

He conceded to have never thought about putting a portion of this or part of his excessive car repayments into savings. Consulting a financial adviser would have been a smart decision for the One Rand Man to ensure that his budget was geared for more savings.

Sonja says it’s interesting but not surprising that professionally qualified people like the One Rand Man, fail to consult professionals to help them with a plan towards their wealth creation. The experience the One Rand Man gained in his experiment prompted him to compare a financial planner with a personal trainer which people happily enlist their help to reach their fitness goals.

“We don’t hesitate to call on the help of professionals for medical advice, legal advice or psychological counselling, yet most people don’t consider financial advice in the same context,” says Sonja.

Sonja says because an advisor understand that to become financially capable of saving for your future, you need to sort your present first, he or she will help you on basic budgeting and debt reduction advice.