Student finance advice

[tristen116]

Hi all, I have a few questions regarding my personal finance.

I'm currently a student living off of an allowance of about R5 000. I have a Tax Free Savings and Trusave account with ABSA.

For the last 12 months or so I have been putting R250 into the TFS each month, and then whatever funds I have left at the end of the month goes to the TS account. I do some side jobs from time to time, most of the money I make from that goes straight to the TFS.

The TFS is obviously for long term savings, but I use the TS to save for short term expenses such as birthdays. Me and my gf live together and we follow a fairly strict budget every month.

My question is am I doing enough, and should I be doing things differently? I get about 8% pa on the TFS and 5.2% pa on the TS.

I have been thinking of getting into unit trusts but I have not really done enough research to the point where I am comfortable enough to start.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ttowngirl]

@tristen116 You’re doing great.

At your age the only change I’d make is rather investing the money in the TFSA into an ETF like STXWDM or GLOBAL. These are two ETFs with international exposure, and will outperform your 8% interest by a long shot over decades. If your current TFSA doesn’t allow for investing in ETFs, look at moving it to a platform like Sygnia or Easy Equities (I prefer the former - but others swear by the latter).

 

[tristen116]

@ttowngirl Thank you, I will look into both Sygnoa and Easy Equities and read up on ETFs.

 

[christian1991]

@tristen116 Save at least 15% of your take home pay...you'll style during retirement.