Fin24 user Allastair Mitchell has shared his savings experience which started as a child:
I started saving when I was very young and living in the townships had its advantages, as there were no Joneses to keep up with. So I had to educate myself, I subscribed to Personal Finance and it became my financial adviser.
One of the methods of savings I've used was to pay all extra cash into my bond account, this would typically be when I received my annual increase.
With each annual increase I would make an assessment of whether my family could manage with our income prior to the increase and would then use the monthly net increase amount to reduce the bond. Similarly, the annual bonus in December was also paid into the bond.
After the bond was paid in full I decided to still keep the bond account, for the use of emergencies. While still maintained my savings plan by depositing money into a money market account.
From then on all family purchases was cash only, we've only purchased necessities. I am now two years away from retirement and my family is debt free. The next two years we will focus on growing our cash account.
Plans that worked
When I changed I changed jobs, I chose to invest my provident/pension fund into a preservation fund. A once off retirement annuity was purchased in 1999, which roughly doubled every 7 years.
READ: Why you shouldn't cash out when changing jobs
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