Sacrifices today, options tomorrow
Christopher Ramsamy follows an old rule of personal finance, pay yourself first, which means that saving for old age is one of the first payments made from his earnings every month.
The 27-year-old from Centurion also keeps it simple by making the payments automatic. “It makes life easier,” he says, “you don’t really have to think about it.”
“That way, when your salary arrives, your investment is made,” he adds. This principle might sound easy to follow, but ask anyone who is trying to save something from what is left at the end of the month and you will start to see the sense in Warren Buffett’s advice: “Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving”.
Christopher married recently and is the father of a young baby so he has enough to worry about. Saving for retirement, which he has been doing since he started working at the age of 21, feels like a “safe haven” to him.
“I don’t want to rely on my children, or other family … that is one of my biggest fears,” he says.
Another thing that Christopher has taken off the list of things that keep him up at night is stock market volatility. In the beginning, he admits, he was surprised about the markets’ ups and downs, but then he reminded himself that retirement saving is a long-term project, and one should not panic about short-term volatility.
