Dear Young Graduate

You might be one of the lucky ones that will be starting on an internship this year. Congratulations and do not forget that you are very lucky as there are very few jobs especially for people with no work experience. Remember that what you do with your first pay check  and all the checks afterwards has a big bearing on whether you are going to be financially successful in life or not.

I am very inspired when I see young graduates who know exactly what they want. As an example, I received an email from Rebone, a graduate town planner [see the copy of the email below]. I was amazed at her clarity about her financial plan and the responses to the risk profile form we sent her. She earns just over R16 000 per month. She wants to invest R2 750, the maximum monthly amount allowed, in a tax-free investment. She is busy slowly building her emergency fund. She wants to invest the money so she can have a decent deposit towards her first home. She does not have any children but is already saving and investing money now for her future family! She already took life cover and covered her family for funeral cover as she doesn’t want to end up depleting her savings and investments in case of an untimely death.

I don’t want to take too much credit for her plans but I am pleased to say she attended a talk I did for final year students at the University of Johannesburg [UJ] about 2 years ago. She says that the talk and reading my book helped her to put a plan in place before she even started working. So there you are young graduates, I wish that all of you would do what it takes to become financially wise so you would enjoy financial independence much sooner in your careers.

Below is the email I received from Rebone on the 15^th of November 2017
 Subject: Financial Advisor
Good Day,
I am 26 years and  currently working as a graduate Town planner. I am in the first year of a programme that will run for 3 years with a chance to be extended with 18 months.  I am earning gross income of  R16 470. I am interested on investing around 6000- 5000 each month in ETFs for about 5 – 10 years or more for my goal “creation of wealth” as i might work for myself after the end of the programme. I would like to have financial advice before I put my money in ETF such as PropTrax and Satrix 40. I am currently trying to get rid of all the bad debt and building the safety net. I have already saved R20 000 in the fixed deposits with Capitec and FNB. I would like to know how much are your consultation fees as I am determined to get the right financial advice before investing
Kind regards,
Rebone

It is always a pleasure to advise and guide someone who is proactive about their finances. So if you are a young graduate starting out, I would be happy to be your advisor. I would like you to read my book and articles on our Blog so that you have as much information as possible to help you make money smart decisions. I always tell youngsters that I wish I knew just half the staff that I have written about in the books when I started working as I would have made smarter decisions about my money from the very beginning.