Feedback from the Youth Up-liftment and Skills Programme held in June – July

The Biggest Deal project organized by the Theewaterskloof Municipality

Meyer de Waal contributed his skills as a mentor for the Biggest Deal youth project staged at Theewaterskloof during the months of June and July this year.

Jade, who you may know from her stint on the MasterChef South Africa series, and also the daughter of Meyer, participated as a mentor with her team placing third – out of the initial 26 teams – in the challenge.

The teams had to overcome various challenges, including the heartbreak reality of a family member passing, and a drug addict who stole the hard earned money of one of the teams.

The Biggest Deal Challenge is aimed at exposing the youth to the business-world and providing them with a taste of starting their own business. In this project, teams varying in size and age, were called on to participate in the hopes of winning the cash prize of R 10 000.00 (ten thousand rand) and building their entrepreneurial skills.

A total of 26 teams signed up with only five teams making it to the final stages. The top five teams provided an array of business ideas ranging from baking and confectionery to performing arts and “upcycling”.

The first team based their business idea on providing baked goods and confectionery sweets to the local community with the intention of gaining access to the local markets to vend their products. They raised a large profit of R 1 245.00 from a mere R 178.00 start-up capital.

The second team concentrated their efforts in offering a spa-like service to both males and females. This business proposal focused primarily on providing manicure and pedicures but the team showed much enthusiasm and belief in their proposal which moved the expert panel. The team produced a profit of R 1 409.81 after paying their start-up loan.

The third team undertook a different route and focused their business plans on creating new products from undesirable objects. The team ended off with a profit of R 323.00.

The fourth team centralised their concepts on delivering a social and more artistic medium in which to create a business. They saw a growing desire to provide other young adults in the area with the opportunity to see cinematic pictures at a price which was reasonable to their pockets. The team made a profit of R 800.00 but catastrophe struck when the entire profit was stolen before the final cash-up.

The fifth team were unfortunate to lose one of its members during the challenge and were subsequently unable to complete the project. However, mention should be made on their performance and ability to overcome the obstacles that were thrown their way. They chose to create a business in which products could be “upcycled” to created newer goods.

We are proud to have been associated with this fantastic project and the Municipality have already received requests to expand the concept to other municipalities.

 

Whose Bond Are You Paying? Get Your Own Home Loan!

In association with Credit Health (www.credithealth.co.za), Meyer de Waal of My Budget Fitness and director of Oosthuizen and Co Meyer de Waal launched a new initiative: Whose Bond Are You Paying?  Nowadays, too many people are trapped to rent, because they are unable to obtain a home loan.  The main reason for this is that home loan applicants have too much debt and/or have bad credit profiles.

Having a roof over your head is one of the basic needs of any human being, whether a one-bedroom/studio apartment or a 7-bedroom mansion.

Many South Africans aspire to owning their own home. In fact 60% of South Africans own, or are paying towards owning, their own home (Business Report, 26 June 2012).

That makes home ownership rates in South Africa higher than in Germany, the UK and the USA.

Remember that owning more than one home allows you to tap into the rental sector to service the 40% of the population that cannot, for any number of reasons, purchase their own home.

The important question is: are you paying off someone else’s bond or are you paying towards a home that you will eventually own?

As most homeowners know, the road to purchasing their own home wasn’t easy. If searching for the perfect home in the perfect area wasn’t hard enough, obtaining finance for the purchase made it even more stressful.

If you decided to build your own home, you had to have at least 30% deposit as most banks have a policy of only financing 70% of the home to be built.

In context, a home that would cost R750 000 would mean that you would have to be able to produce a R225 000 deposit.

Most developers have now pre-approved their developments for 100% bonds as long as purchasers meet the minimum requirements for the bond approval.

If you were purchasing a home from another homeowner, you could probably obtain a 90% to 100% bond approval, but would need additional cash for transfer fees, as well as for fees payable to the attorneys and bond registration costs.

However, all this is incidental. You would still need to have a good credit score. Few banks will even look at your application if your credit rating is below required standards.

Furthermore, banks need to ensure that you can afford the repayments on the bond as per the National Credit Act.

Therefore a good credit record and a reasonable disposable income (income remaining after you’ve paid all your expenses) are the “foundation” for your loan application to be approved.

Building a good credit record is essential in order to be able to purchase a home. This is fortunately one of the factors within your power.

Banks need to ensure that you’re able to service your debt on time and that you don’t have any accounts that are in distress due to late or non-payment. This information is gathered from your payment profile on your credit report.

All your creditors report your payments (or non-payments) to the bureaus on a regular basis and this information is also used in calculating your credit score. Note that the information may not always be correct and that the bureaus rely on the credit providers to provide the correct information on your payments.

You have the right to dispute any information on your credit report that you believe is incorrect. If you’re considering buying a home or if you have found your dream home, consider reviewing your credit report prior to applying for finance.

It will give you an opportunity to ensure your information is correctly stated and also give you sufficient time to dispute any incorrect information.

Knowing your credit status also empowers you with regard to being able to negotiate with banks on the proposed interest rates and finance terms.

By completing the following survey, we can assist you in advancing from tenant to purchaser!  Click on the link below to access our quick and simple survey:

http://budgetfitness.maxrover.co.za

 

Hidden wealth in your debt.

The current debt industry surprises with astonishing statistics. Present records indicate that there are about 19.5 million active debtors, of whom 47% have debt impairments on their credit profile.

In short, having a debt impairment means that the debtor is between 3 – 6 months behind schedule in the repayment of his/her debt(s).

We teamed up with Blue Oaks Systems to investigate if there can be a solution.

Now is therefore the ideal time to ask yourself: “Is there hidden wealth in my debt?” Theuns Hanekom of Blue Oak Systems believes so. To help debt-ridden consumers find out if there is wealth in their unsecured debt, his company has just launched a unique online tool called RESET. RESET strives to assist debtors by starting to analyse their debt. In a recent survey, in which 64 individuals participated, the following was found: 4 of the 64 individuals did not have any debt impairments, while the remaining 60 (94%) had. By analysing these 60 individuals’ debt, RESET found that it could save these people a total of R 990 000, i.e. R 16 500 per person per year!

With over 8 million South Africans over-indebted and debt consolidation solutions failing, it seems a little hollow to talk about encouraging a savings habit.

But Hanekom believes that, until we can show consumers how to unlock savings from debt, we cannot begin to develop a savings culture in South Africa.

He feels financial advisers are trained to operate on one side of the personal balance sheet only, whereas the problem and opportunity often sits on the debt side.

“Consumers are not aware that a monthly savings may exist in their current debt. However with RESET, the first online debt consolidation calculator, anyone may review their debt in the privacy and environment of their own home.”

Hanekom says with the average savings of R2 300 per month per consumer reviewed, everyone’s debt should be reviewed.

“We have thousands of highly qualified financial planners in South Africa all selling retirement, investment or life products, which is right.

“But if they looked at the debt side of their clients’ personal balance sheets, you’d find that they could potentially improve their clients’ personal cash flow and either increase savings or as a minimum, reduce the need for clients to borrow more,” he says.

The traditional thinking to consolidate debt through taking a maximum loan doesn’t always result in achieving maximum monthly savings, says Hanekom.

“The problem is that if you don’t enjoy a monthly cash flow improvement that makes a difference, sooner or later you’re going to be borrowing again until such time as you just cannot access any more loans.”

Hanekom says that before looking at blanket consolidation and raising optimal loans, the first option must be to find maximum savings by taking the minimum loan.

Using debt consolidation effectively, and earlier in the debt spiral, could eliminate the need to advance to debt mediation or debt arbitration.

“But first you have to determine if there is wealth in your debt. All you have to do is look at both sides of your balance sheet.”

We concluded and secured a unique service level agreement with Blue Oaks Systems.

If you are interested in finding out how much wealth is locked up in your debt, contact Meyer de Waal to start the process of unlocking that value and wealth you didn’t know existed until now.

(meyer@oostco.co.za / 021 461 0065)