I have watched how stokvels start contributing money from January of each year and come December, they spend it all on groceries and they start all over again in January of the following year. Many stokvels at this point are NOT aiming to grow their money, but the main objective is to save, at very little interest, and then spend it all in December. At ThuthukaSA, we are changing the game for stokvels. We already have a number of stokvels investing with us and we are inviting you to join our family of stokvels. Our objective is NOT to make stokvels SAVERs and SPENDERs which results in banks and major retailors benefitting more from their money than the stokvel members.

ThuthukaSA is here to make stokvels and their members to;

1. Invest their money so that they begin to earn better rates of return than the low rates of interest they are currently earning in bank savings accounts
2. We help them to invest in money market funds for their short term objectives but we also invest on their behalf in equities, bonds, listed property and even offshore investments
3. We also want to ensure that they do not pay tax unnecessarily by using Tax Free Investment vehicles, especially for medium to long term objectives
4. We make them aware that they can use their stokvel investments for the following;
   1. University fees for their children,
   2. Deposits and one-off costs when buying  homes,
   3. Deposits for their cars or to pay off balloon on their cars,
   4. To have funds available in case of a good BEE deal
   5. Invest with the intention of using the money to start their own business one day, etc…
5. Invest so that when they have emergencies or crisis, they do NOT go to a bank to apply for very expensive personal loans but rather they can now use their own funds in the event of an emergency, etc…

As an example, have you asked yourself why stokvel members are NOT given preference by banks when they apply for personal loans? Surely if a person is a member of a stokvel and assisting the banks to have money to lend out at a huge rate of interest through microloans and short term personal loans then the stokvel member should receive preferential treatment when they need a personal loan. 

Next time, I will share with you how our investment accounts for stokvels help stokvel members to easily deal with different objectives of members e.g.

• Some members want to withdraw the money in December for groceries
• Other members want to withdraw the funds in January for school / university fees
• Others want to invest for longer term objectives and would like to keep the money invested for at least 3 to 5 years or even longer
• Some can only afford a small amount e.g. R500 monthly and others can afford a lot more e.g. R2000 monthly, etc…

So look out for our next article on how we harmonise all of these differences and make each stokvel member happy

If you are a stokvel and you are saving money monthly and you want to know how you can invest in tax-free investments with us, drop us an email at info@thuthuka-sa.co.za