WE MUST TALK MORE ABOUT MONEY

When I started dating my wife almost 19 years ago, we would discuss finances a lot. A few months before we got married we decided to buy houses individually (never buy a house with a person you are not married to) as our respective employers had housing finance assistance programs. One of our dates we went to Glen View Township in Harare to view the houses for sale.

We identified two houses, we applied for finance through different banks. My employer assisted through Founders Building Society. MaNyoni was working for CABS so she applied directly. Respective banks told us to identify other houses as those houses were substandard in the way they were constructed. We learnt a lesson in that a house is an investment however when you build it never use substandard materials. For example use the correct bricks, cement etc.

My wife then was working in the mortgage department doing arrears (clients who are behind on their installments), she told me the importance of always paying your installments before month end i.e before interest is calculated. Do you know how much interest you are paying on your debts. If you can please repay your debts ahead of time to save yourself a lot of money.

During December 2019 school holidays, I was talking to my workmate Mbali about how I dilute Oros for our boys and put in the fridge for them otherwise if I don’t do that the 2 litre Oros bottle will last only a day or two. Mbali was shocked 😯 😳 . Before you start investing money the first thing you do is you start by reducing your expenses. I ran my own general dealer shops in Zimbabwe for 7 years before I left for South Africa and from 2011 to 2012 I ran a profitable tuck shop at our home in Zimre Park. I know prices a lot.

Last Saturday I went into Pick and Pay wanting to buy amasi (lacto), the price for a 2 litre was around R32, I didn’t buy that instead I bought a 1 litre sachet for R12. I am not loyal to any supermarket brand or brands of products but I am loyal to cheap prices. Every day there specials on bread and I will buy that bread and after two weeks another brand of bread is on special and I will change my habits our biggest consumers at home will eat any type of bread🤷🏿‍♂️

Every few months you will get specials with discounts of almost 40% on toilet paper, washing machine liquid, dishwashing liquid,body lotions, refuse plastics, body soap, cereals, Oros etc, deodorants etc we will buy stock that can last us even for a year. That is how you save hundreds of Rands every months. Over 10 years ago we figured that somehow tomatoes from vendors in Pretoria CBD cost around 50% what is charged in supermarkets.

The point is that all of us can do more with a little more money, however you must save the little you have. How many of us go through our account statements every month with a pencil seeing where you can change our habits. If you are not upset, it means you are not paying attention.

Here is homework for you, do you know how much your bank charges for an unpaid debit order, I didn’t know that my bank was ripping me off until my friend Cherry Ngambi Mwansa told me last year. I am not advertising for Capitec, all I can wow you know the struggles of the working class🙏🏿We like to talk about imaginary things with our friends and not the stuff that impacts our lives everyday. One such imaginary thing is the English Premier league🙈

Your friends should tell you more about money matters, vacancies etc🙏🏿

SOMETIMES YOU MUST TAKE A CHANCE IN LIFE

In July 2007, I resigned from my job as the Bulawayo branch manager for Zimnat Lion Insurance company. In August 2007 we traveled to Harare to follow up on my work permit application at the South African embassy. My mother in law asked me, “Mhofu makatoshinga kusiya imba iya nemota?”( Are you sure about leaving that company house and the company car?”. We had been staying in a company house in Burnside and I was driving a 5 year old Toyota double cab Bakkie.

As a branch manager my salary was always hovering around R1 000 a month also with the cost of things in Zimbabwe, R1 000 is equivalent to R500. A farm worker in SA earned more than me. I had been traveling to Botswana and South Africa. I had seen waiters in Pretoria earning up to R4 000. I was going to come to Pretoria and work as a waiter if I did not get a work permit. I was blessed and I was granted a 5 year work visa. I collected my passport on 22 August and arrived in Pretoria the next day and started work with my current employer on 1 September 2007.

Being a foreigner is tough, however when I look at my kids, I know we did a good thing by leaving Zimbabwe. A few months before we left Zimbabwe I had gone to Francistown to buy stock for my shops in Mutoko and Macheke. I bought jean trousers and jean shirts for our two boys then. When I got home in Bulawayo I realised that for Isheanesu then only 2 I had bought clothes with flowers in error. He started crying demanding that we give him those clothes and MaNyoni had to remove those flowers. I was working very hard in Zimbabwe but it was always a struggle to make ends meet.

My thoughts are with the struggling families in Zimbabwe. Tough economic environment are more difficult for children. It is heartbreaking as a parent when you can’t provide for your children 😢