Compiling a financial plan before you earn an income or when you have very little is ideal. You can’t afford any bad financial habits yet and your cost of living is probably as low as you can get it. As it happens, those are the two most important ingredients to rocking your finances.

Generally, our umbrella financial plan, the one-size-fits-all beginning to financial life, goes as follows:

• Pay off your debts Set up an emergency fund of between three and six months’ living expenses Protect your assets with dread and disability cover and insurance Invest in ETFs using tax-free savings accounts Have a retirement annuity

In this episode we use this framework in the context of unemployment or low income. This one’s for you if you’ve never worked, if you worked and then lost your employment and if you have less than R500 per month to invest.

P.S. Remember to mail us if you want to help us sell Just One Lap.

Win of the week: Margharita

Since discovering Just One Lap three months ago, my finances have undergone a HUGE spring cleaning. I'm saving 50% of my earnings; am maxing out my RA; have opened a TFSA; started investing in the stock market through EasyEquities; changed banks (to Capitec); reviewed all my policies and got rid of those that overlapped; started using 22Seven to track my spending and last but not least, did the homework on (and then eliminated) costly financial advisor fees. Thanks for providing a great resource, as well as the encouragement to manage my finances "like a grown up!"

My questions: 1. You both love the Ashburton 1200 ETF. Why do you prefer this to the Satrix MSCI World ETF, when the TER on the latter is slightly lower? 2. If I invest in the Ashburton 1200 ETF, is it best to do this within my TFSA, or in my general investment account? Or both?

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Santosh

Capital Legacy stated that if someone dies in a hospital, the hospital reports it using the person’s ID and an online system and immediately the bank accounts freeze.

No time to "go to the ATM" as the death will be reported even before the family knows

Desmond

My mum has been waiting five months to receive her pension. We've been to the GEPF and have only been shunted from pillar to post and promises. There has been no assistance from them whatsoever.

Aman

I've just completed a cash out of my EE USD account to my FNB Global account. I'm assuming this would work the same to the similar global-type accounts offered by the other SA banks.

There was no charge on the EE side for the withdrawal. The only fee was the cost of the receiving bank (mine being R55 for the amount of $33/R465).

This gives me peace of mind as EE isn't clear on the cash out process in their FAQ section.

Anton

In the offshore investing with Candice Paine, investors are cautioned to have a will(s) in place that properly deals with any offshore assets.

If memory serves me correctly, in another podcast Kristia mentioned a company well versed in preparing offshore wills. However, for the life of me I cannot find this podcast and it would be quite a challenge to trawl through all the likely podcasts (I have attempted some but without success!).

Do you perhaps recall the relevant podcast and the name of the company?

ZAQfin

Kieran

I have grown to be an advocate for low-cost, index-tracking long-term investing. I have begun to advise my younger sister financially in this regard, as she has recently started earning. Personally, my investments are simply split between:

- S&P500 (Sygnia), MSCI World and Emerging Markets (both Satrix) ETFs in TFSA (27% of total); - 10X High Equity RA (41% - aiming for lower but contributed a big lump-sum a few years ago); - Cash balance in Capitec account (32%).

I’ve advised my sister to first and foremost use her full TFSA allocation and buy S&P and MSCI World. Thereafter, to purchase the same ETFs in her standard non-TFSA brokerage account. In addition, an emergency fund of somewhere between 5 and 10 months of expenses, obviously in a savings account with high interest (Capitec/Tyme).

Assuming she still has additional funds to invest, is an RA the right way to go? I like 10X because it maximises Reg28 allocations and mirrors the low-cost, index-fund strategy of just buying ETFs, the major benefit of course being the tax-deductible contributions.

But the money is 'locked away' for much longer, and potentially shielded from the full returns of its underlying indices (S&P, MSCI World, etc), because of the Reg28 limitations. Would love to hear your thoughts on when and why one might or might not begin contributing to an RA