Let’s talk $$$

South Africa is on lockdown and it has affected a lot of people’s ability to earn. I know people who have lost their only source of income, and people who still earn, but their expenses are higher. Today I want to talk about finances.

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I received my first money lesson from my mother at the age of eight. My mother has always worked, even when unemployed she started her own business. I was never going to be a lady of leisure because my mother didn’t just work because she had to – she also worked because she wanted to. [As I am writing this, she can’t work – because of the lockdown and is so bored and frustrated.] It is one of the traits I have learned from her and one I am most grateful for.

I have seen horrific stories on social media, about people not being able to cover their living expenses. Some people stand in line for hours to receive care packages. I have felt the pressure on my income with grocery prices climbing the ladder and my utility bills increasing because I am working from home.

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April is Financial Awareness Month in the United States of America and when I learned about if from The Broke Black Girl Instagram account, I wondered why South Africa didn’t have one. We live in a very unequal society, and I can’t discuss the complex causes of that here. (It could fill a book.)

But it is heartbreaking that in this digital age, most people are still very uneducated especially about their finances. This December I heard about, but haven’t watched, a show called, I blew it. It showed how uneducated people are about handling their finances.

But financial education is far off when taking into account how much of our nation is still illiterate. Not to mention how reserved we are when talking about money. I can’t remember how often I heard, at university mind you, that “the only people who talk about money, is those who don’t have it”.

This was especially said by a former sorority sister, who was so terrible at finances, that none of us should’ve taken anything she said to heart. But we did, and it took me a few more years to get rid of that notion than I’d like to admit.

In my next YouTube video, I talk about the money I’ve earned as a short story writer. This talk was, in part, inspired by the amazing Joss Wood, who talked about finances during a 2017 ROSA [Romance Writers’ Organisation of South Africa] Conference.

I have been earning money with my writing since 2015. 2016 was my most productive and profitable year – I published six short stories and earned about R6 000. I published six stories, but wrote 68 and submitted 32 short stories.

What do I do with my short stories’ earnings?

• Tax = 25%

Of the remaining 75% I do the following:

• Treat = 10% like Seattle Coffee or buying books
• Reinvesting in my writing career = 10%
• Save = 80%

I started my journey to financial freedom and awareness in October 2019, and during this pandemic when I feel overwhelmed, especially regarding my finances, I read or listen to these experts. They keep me sane:

• The Broke Black Girl: https://www.thebrokeblackgirl.com/
• Her First 100k: https://www.herfirst100k.com/
• The Financial Diet: https://thefinancialdiet.com/
• The Six Figure Chick: http://thesixfigurechick.co/