Over the years, Bright Khumalo, an analyst and portfolio manager with Vestact Asset Management in Johannesburg, has gained a loyal following on Twitter with his savings challenges.
In 2019, he saved more than R7,000 by following a simple strategy: every day he just added 10c to the amount he saved the previous day.
On January 1st 2019, he woke up, took a 10c out of his wallet and set it aside. On the following day, Khumalo set 20c aside, and on day three of 2019, 30c. The biggest daily amount was R36.50, on 31 December 2019.
“When you wake up, you must remember what day it is and save that amount,” says Khumalo.
The challenge has proven to be a success with savers, as the routine of saving the money every day at the same time starts becoming a habit.
Last year, he launched a more ambitious savings strategy: instead of 10c, he started with R1 on January 1 2020, adding a rand every day, until he put away R366 on December 31st.
By the end of 2020, the total amount came to almost R70,000 (including interest) saved.
IT'S DAY 366! Today set aside R366????? R65 893?????#SaveWithBright #OneRandChallenge Your savings should resemble pic below.Note that we will no longer be using @tymebankza for our future savings challenges. Done doing free advertising! Stay tuned for new challenge ?? pic.twitter.com/L3xgZuG9ct
— The Dividend Papi (Wealthy)???? (@briteless) December 31, 2020
For this year, he wants to save more than R100,000 with a different strategy.
Named after his Twitter handle – Khumalo is a proponent of investing in dividend-yielding shares - the “Dividend Papi 52-Week Savings Challenge” involves setting aside an amount every week. And this time, the large amounts come first.
In the first week of January, he deposited R3,670. Every week, this amount falls by R70. By December 31st, he will only have to set R100 aside.
By saving the bigger amounts first, this will help with earning proper interest income on your savings, says Khumalo.
Compiled by Helena Wasserman
