#133: Starting over The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap

Since talking about money is my day job, it’s easy to assume that I have no financial anxieties. That’s not the case. Money speaks to such a primal part of our humanity. I think everyone is susceptible to a degree of fear around their ability to meet the basic needs of themselves and their families.
Making big lifestyle changes always results in massive financial anxiety for me. Buying a house  - a lifestyle decision whose financial implications I always distrusted - had me on tenterhooks. Instead of throwing myself into the planning, I resorted to a small degree of avoidance during the stressful process of finalising the sale.
When I was finally ready to look the beast in the eye, I was greatly relieved. Forgetting my previous budget and starting from scratch was a way of reminding myself that I was actually in control of the process. I could make decisions to ensure my financial comfort because of good decisions that I made in the past. Good for me!
This episode is for those of you who recently underwent a big change that requires a new approach to your money. We talk about my own process and offer some ways for you to start over. Remember to let us know how it goes!
P.S. Don’t forget to join us for our Power Hour on 21 February at the JSE in Johannesburg. Register here.
Join our Fat Wallet community page here.
Win of the week: Peter, who simply wrote: Love your show and don't miss any new posting. Also Ben, for sending a question and then figuring out the answer himself.
Clean swearing bleeped out show is below.
https://justonelap.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TheFatWalletShow_133_20190204_bleeped.mp3
Lady Kabelo
Can you explain the relationship between world/US ETFs and the rand in village idiot terms.
If I buy the S&P500 and the rand weakens against the dollar, is this good for my investment? And vice versa.
I assume the same would apply to the world, global property and emerging market etfs. Is this correct?
From an investment perspective, when the rand weakens should I be happy or sad?
Because the S&P does its own thing and the rand does its own thing, I can never tell what's going on and why.
Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Kgosi discovered he was being overcharged for his dread and disability cover. His cover came to almost R3,000 and he’s only 26. That’s too much.
Brendan wanted to add to last week’s episode on getting your tax in order for the new year.
There is also a donation to an s18A public benefit organisation (PBO) that listeners can consider making. Up to 10% of our taxable income is deductible for this purpose. SARS is effectively paying a portion (by reducing our taxable income and therefore the tax we will pay) of a donation we make to a cause that we care about. There is a list of S18A PBO’s on the SARS website.
Hannes, who just turned 30, is feeling some anxiety over his finances.
I quit my s****y-paying, toxic software job in 2015, dipped my hand into business which never took off, after which I settled on international stock trading in the US markets for two years. The reason for US markets? I felt like SA was lacking liquid, affordable stocks for active day trading, and at R50 per trade at Standard Bank at the time I thought I might as well try my hand across the pond. Before this endeavour I've never dealt with the financial markets, local or international, and I had no knowledge, so I put on my big boy pants and started learning and obsessing about the financial industry.
I vastly underestimated the time and capital required to learn to be a consistently successful trader (especially in USD), and my money was slowly drained by education, "school fees", software costs, exchange fees and broker commissions over the two-year period.
I retired from the US markets in late 2017 and subsequently cut all ties to the financial world and returned to my original career path and "stability". At the ripe age of almost-31 I'm in a