In June this year, we conducted a survey and asked South Africans how they spend their money, and what their financial aspirations and goals are. We had a great response with over 12700 of you responding. We asked a series of questions pertaining to current income, level of education, ownership of assets like vehicles and property, as well as financial priorities and long-term financial goals. Here are some highlight results from the survey.
Gross monthly income
South Africans are largely very ambitious, with 20% of the respondents to the survey aspiring to earn salaries of over R50 000 per month. 50% of participants reported that they currently earn a gross amount of less than R10 000 a month.
Important Monthly expenses
The two highest costs for survey respondents each month were housing and groceries. 31% of respondents consider paying their rent or home loan as their most important monthly expense, followed by paying for groceries at 26%. Only 12% indicated that they regard saving money as a top priority.
Education
58% of survey participants didn’t have any qualifications beyond high school education, with 39% of respondents saying financial constraints were the primary reason for not studying further.
Financial behaviour
Many of you indicated that you would like to adopt healthier financial habits, but are currently unable to do so due to financial constraints. 56% of participants said that they would like to pay off their debt if they had the money, and 48% said that they would like to put money into savings but cannot afford to save. In 2019, our survey showed that 16% of respondents considered putting money into savings, but this has fallen in 2022 down to just 12%.
Good Financial Practices
Our survey highlighted that many South Africans would benefit from putting good financial practices in place. Creating and maintaining a budget can help you manage your income and expenses and gives visibility on where your hard-earned money is being spent.
Getting into a habit of saving will ensure that you have an emergency fund for when the going gets tough and you run into unexpected expenses. If you haven’t started saving already, open a savings account and try to make a contribution each month, no matter how small. This will help get you into a steady rhythm of putting money away for a rainy day.
