savings accounts

Well I was stressing about not being able to save for bubs at the moment. But what we decided to do was, and it may not sound like much-BUT believe me it adds up. He was given 2 piggy banks(the coin ones) and we decided that both DH and I would not spend R5 coins at all. If we got it as change (eg, when we paid for parking and got R45 in R5 coins) it had to go in Jordyns piggy bank. You wont believe how easy it is and also you dont even feel it.) Then with the second piggy, you know all that annoying small bronze change that weighs down your wallet from time to time? Well we add all this to his second piggy bank. Sometimes when we empty the coins into the respective piggys we get generous and put 1s and 2s and sometimes even notes. The first time we did it, we totalled R450 which is a lot of money and that was just in his first 2 months. What I did was I opened a Standard Bank Kids savings account and there are no monthly charges. So I got money bags which I keep at home, and possibly every two months I tally up and deposit into his account. What I would like to do is everytime I reach R1000 I want to take out Unit Trusts, where you still have access but where the money can earn a decent interest.

It is just a simple way where you can save without feeling like you cant afford R300 debit order of policy deductions a month. And DH and I often come home and will say I have 10 R5's and he will try top it etc, its quite fun.

So maybe it seems dumb, but Jordyn is now almost 5 months and I think in total he has saved R1200, and remember birthday monies, and Christmas monies can also go in there

I have a ..................................wait for it.....................................post bank account, next to capitec, the best interest. Absa money market actually earns more interest than FNB.

What we do, we are crap with counting coins we only pay with paper, so all the coins go into a piggy bank and that we put in the post office account, when it reaches a certain amount we put it away for a year or two on a 'fixed deposit' rate until the interest is again enough for another nice fixed deposit. It's on my name at the moment, but I have to change that because I'm very soon going to go past the amount of interest you can earn without having to pay tax on it.

Over and above that I'm going to (when I get my lazy ass in gear) open B an account at Capitec and give her a lump sum and a monthly amount.

Then for us next up would be playing with stocks and bonds. We don't have a bond on our house but that would be a good idea.

Hi Claudia,
You would do much better to put James' money in a ling term medium equity Prudential unit trust. Both Allan Gray and Investec have good products. Have a look on their websites rather than phoning and speaking to an advisor as otherwise you risk paying added advisory fees. Savings account or a bit of a waste of time. After inflation and interest tax you don't get much out.

I am perso ally anti education policies (or any investment policy that dictates what I do with my savings. Your son may want to be an artist or something and want to money for a flat or a culinary tour around France or something and then you're fekked.

As RM says, from a strictly financial point of view over the short teem it would probably be better to plough the money into your bond (or any other debt) however over the long term a managed balances porfolio has historical always outperformed property and debt savings rates.

Regarding satrix, be careful. This is basically a passive portfolio )I.e. Not managed) that replicates various stock market indices. This means you buy the bad with the good. In our stock market almost 40% is off shore linked. Anglos, Telkom, SAB they all move with international markets. Not really something you necessary want to willynilly place all your savings in. Oartcularly when you look at how poorly international markets did in the last crisis vs. South African markets. You would do much better to put your money in reputable equity, fixes income or balanced funds that are managed by qualified reputable firms and people who know what they are doing and charge a small fee. You can research all available funds and compare fees on www.equinox.co.za

I have over 10 years of experience in investments and financial markets as well as 6 years of postgrd investment study so yah. I know a bit about what i'm talking about

Yip, the reason why the bond option works so well is because the interest on your bond account is higher than anywhere else.

Unit trusts are also a good option if you don't have a bond, so that's what we are doing at the moment. But, if you have a bond, that's the better option because of the high interest rate and also less risk than unit trusts.

RM - that is exactly what I was told iro education policies very good idea about the bond...

Bearing in mind we have three children and I have fantasies that involve tertiary education for all of them .... so we might need to sell our house and rent a one bedroom flat in Parow to make that a reality ...... but I am a bit into the cross that bridge when I get there right now.

Lilly has an FNB FlexiFixed account.

www.fnb.co.za/invest/flexi-fixed-deposit.html

I must be honest I didn't do a lot of research but the T&A of this one convinced me and so far I'm happy with it. That's just my account for her, DH has his own savings account for her with ABSA and then she has a German one where all the grandparents and aunties are paying in. Spoiled brat

Oh ja, and we have an endowment for her on our life plan with Discovery. She'll get that money when she's 18 or we use it for her studies when the time comes.