South Africans are, according to the latest research by the World Bank, the most indebted in the world. The exact percent they arrived at in the research is 86 percent. That means that more than forty-two million of us are in debt in this country. That is shocking!

Or is it?

In a country where one of the most famous phrases is “pay back the money”, should I really be shocked by all this debt? Should I really be shocked when even our president is accused of owing millions of rands? Some would say there’s no reason to be shocked at all. But, then, again, we’re not really here to discuss whether or not I should be shocked by all this debt. What we are here to talk about are some of the reasons why people would get themselves into so much money trouble.

Growing up, I never had the luxury of taking out loans or borrowing big money from friends and family. When the little money I had saved up, ran out, I accepted that I was broke and waited for my older sister or anyone else in my family to get paid so they would hopefully give me enough pocket money. In fact, whenever they did eventually give me the pocket money or lunch money (depending on what you call it) my first thought was to take a part of it and put it away under a mattress or on top of the wardrobe or something, for when I would need it most. I was known as the “little banker” almost, because all my older sisters and brothers would spend their money and then steal from my “spaar-box” (money-box).

Now I’m not saying that you should save all your money and not even get to enjoy some treats or go watch a movie or something. I did eventually spend the money I saved up. Whenever we ran out of rice or maize meal, I would go buy it with whatever fifty rand I had stashed away somewhere in the house. At the local shop I was even known as the “battery kid” because I was always buying batteries and superglue to make and fix all my little gadgets. In grade 9 I was even called “the little scientist”, but that, of course, is a story for another day. Anyways, depending on just how much money I had left over, I would, then, spend the rest of it on the cheap lunchtime stuff they sold at my school like sweets and chips.

Fast-forward from those years to 2015 and I realise that my teenage nieces don’t take after me at all. They seem to prefer over-spending, instead of even trying to save. I never hear any of them being concerned about how their mothers made the money they want to spend on expensive clothes and lunches. And, if I’m being entirely honest, I don’t think they care. I think that as long they see money coming in, they don’t care if their mothers had to make ten debts in order to get it.

That, for me, is how we became the most indebted people in the world. And as long as people don’t spend the little money they have wisely, loan sharks and other money-lending places like banks, will sharpen their forks and knives and get ready for a debt feast. I know, of course, that some will say our country has a lot of poor people who need to borrow money just to buy a bag of maize meal or school shoes for their kids, so debt is hard to avoid. My answer to that is: DON’T borrow what you can’t pay back! Whenever my mother borrowed money to buy food for us, she knew that her customers would come pay her later in the month so she could go and settle her debts.

But it’s that time again, ladies and gentlemen, where we talk about what you do (or don’t do).

#ChatBack: Where do you get your money from and how do you spend it when you get it?

Do you ever try to save some of it?

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