Heritage Day is a time to
picture your money ‘scrapbook’

September is Heritage Month, and a good time to consider what our money journey has looked like until now. Has it been a successful journey, one with more ups than downs?

Ironically, the more technologically focused the world gets, the more we seem to crave the old ways of doing: Ground coffee and home cooking. A lot of people are also taking up handicrafts, for instance.

Some are using one of these crafts, scrapbooking, to chronicle their memories. They map out the stories of weddings, children growing up, educational milestones, and of special holidays. South Africa even has a scrapbooking convention, which takes place in May. It grows every year, says its website – people use collage, journalling and many art forms in a variety of mediums.

Imagine recording your money journey with mesh, handmade or textured paper, ribbons, stamps or lace. Or using shweshwe or tartan fabric to make bold statements on bold decisions.

Where would your journey start? With chores you did as a child, or taking cooldrink bottles to be swapped at a café? Holiday jobs? And then, when you started earning that first income, maybe taking up a financial product, and then not being able to afford it? Maybe that “photo” has disappeared from the album, and then, the four white corners yawn its absence. Or has your journey been one of steadfast progress? Do you have an entry on your first conversation with a financial adviser? And buying that first car or house – do you celebrate those inserts with lots of golden lace?

Maybe you think something like scrapbooking is sentimental. But, let’s call it a proverbial scrapbook then. Imagine how you and others will look back on your life one day. Will you leave behind a happy pathway, full of ribbons and confetti, or stark empty pages of dreams gone wrong?

Maybe we should spend 30 minutes on Heritage Day on how we want to be remembered in terms of how we dealt with money.

• Do you remember solid advice from a parent or grandparent?
• Do you ever share solid advice (and examples) with your children or nieces and nephews?

What are the stories I want to be told about me when I’m gone? That I had a great sense of humour, that I loved my family and took care of them, that I sacrificed to make sure they will be provided for?

I appreciate how determined my parents where to ensure that my brother and I didn’t grow up with a scarcity mindset. We were middle-class, but my parents never said, “we don’t have money for that”, although we knew there was not money for everything we yearned for. Instead, we were taught the value of saving and being resourceful with money.

Looking back at my money path, I have by no means “arrived” yet. I wish I could be debt-free, but at least I can appreciate how every small decision to pay off something and avoid unnecessary expenses have added up over time. It’s not about a gigantic leap, but about consistent steps, as I have learnt from my parents.

Without debt I wouldn’t have had a car and a home, but I try to operate within my means. And my emergency kitty, the “brown envelope” of my imaginary money scrapbook, has stood me in good stead to keep other savings intact.

I’m patient, persistent and intentional with my money – and my daughter sees that, even if she has a teenager’s healthy criticism on “how slow” things go.

Nevertheless, making sure her studies won’t be a debt-ridden exercise for her is one of my priorities. And with that milestone in the bag, I’m hoping my travel pictures will fill more and more pages.

For my daughter’s twenty-first birthday, I’ll share this sum: If you start saving R1 000 per month when you are 23, increasing the savings amount by 10% per year and assuming growth of 10% per year, you can save a healthy R135 000 by the time you turn 30. This can be a 10% deposit on any dream that costs R1,35 million. A home? A business? A post-graduate degree? A springboard to a year overseas? In the end the dream will cost her R333 000 less and the fees may cost her R17 200. That’s a lot of money she’ll be scoring.

Money decisions are hardly ever romantic, but I’m hoping that my sacrifices today, while still spoiling myself ever so often, will avoid aching regrets. And keep building my dreams.