1. Developing better spending and saving habits
To build a lot of wealth and achieve a solid financial future, you’ll need to plan ahead and develop spending and saving habits. Here are a few good habits you should develop before you can build a lot of wealth starting from zero:
Habit 1: Settle your debt
“You cannot get rich if you have short term debts such as credit cards, clothing accounts and overdrafts,” explains Ingram. He continues to say that if you really want to become wealthy, you’ll need to pay off these bad types of debt as quickly as possible. After that you can keep your good debts such as home loan and car debt. Unless you’ve inherited a large amount of money, you will most likely need a loan to buy your first car or house. This isn’t a bad thing.
“Debt can be a wonderful tool for wealth creation if you’re using it to buy assets that will appreciate in value at good growth rate,” reveals Ingram.
Habit 2: Have emergency funds at hand
Once you’ve eliminated all of your bad debit, you should start building up a cash account that is accessible at short notice, for when disaster strikes. “Try to keep 3-6 months’ worth of your monthly expenses in this account. It’s not an investment and should only be used to pay for emergencies such as a car breakdown or insurance claim,” explains Ingram.
This account will enable you to still pay for emergencies without having to sell investments at the wrong time.
Habit 3: Start saving
The earlier you start saving the better, but even if you’ve left it until later in your life, you can still benefit from compound interest. The longer your savings has access to a good interest rate, the larger the final amount will be. Starting early enables you to accrue compound interest but starting right now can also impact your financial future.
“Few people in their 20s realise how drastic the impact will be of only starting to save in their 30s. Starting to save at age 35, as opposed to 25, can chop a massive 40% off an investor’s potential retirement benefits. In fact, our research has shown that your first 10 years of investing are even more important than your last 10 years,” explains Jeanette Marais, Director of Retail Distribution and Client Service at Allan Gray.
For example
If you saved R1 000 a month for 10 years (i.e. a total contribution of R120 000), then stopped contributing but continued to invest the money for 30 years, you’d achieve the same total as someone who started 10 years later by contributed R1 000 a month for 30 years (i.e. total contributions of R360 000).
“Younger people can invest all their savings in shares because they have the time to let these investments grow,” explains Ingram. However, if you’re starting to save later in life, you haven’t missed the boat, there is still time to accumulate savings. You’ll most likely need to save a larger amount every month, as well as choosing more aggressive investment options, but the faster you start saving the brighter your future will look.
“In your lifetime as an investor,” advises Ingram, “you’re going to see many stock market crashes and recoveries, your job is to simply keep saving through all of them. Ignore all the people and pundits who will try to scare you out of saving, just keep your head down and stick to the plan. Ideally you should save as much as possible in the beginning.”
Once you have these spending habits under control you can use the money you’re saving every month to invest in your future. Here are some investment options for you to choose from.