Every July is Savings Month in South Africa, and with the conversation around saving on people’s minds, it’s a good time to hear from someone who has these conversations for a living. Charlot Mokopane is a financial adviser at Metropolitan, and these are the six things she tells almost every client, and where and where she suggests they put what they find.
When people think about saving money, the advice is usually familiar: cut back on takeaways, cancel subscriptions, or skip your daily coffee.
While those strategies have their place, they all start from the same assumption: that saving means giving something up.
In reality, some of the most valuable savings habits aren’t about spending less at all. They’re about paying closer attention to what you’re already covered for and what you’re already paying for.
According to research from the Bureau of Market Research, more than a quarter of South African adults say they aren’t managing to save anything at all, and it’s rarely for lack of trying. It’s that every rand already has a job to do. Which is exactly why the answer isn’t always a stricter budget, but looking closer at what is already allocated.
Here are six ways to do that, and where it can go once you’ve found it.
1. Talk about it, on a schedule
Most South African households would rather not talk about money at all. Surveys consistently find that around two in three people feel uncomfortable with money conversations in general, and just over half feel uncomfortable raising the topic with the people closest to them. And yet, among those who do talk about it regularly, the large majority say it brings real peace of mind rather than conflict. Financial decisions in South African households are also increasingly made jointly rather than by one person alone.
A short, regular check-in (once a month, nothing formal required) does more work than it seems to. It’s usually where the other habits on this list actually happen: where overlapping cover gets noticed, where a forgotten policy gets remembered, where a family decides together what its emergency fund is actually for.
“The families who save best aren’t necessarily the ones earning the most,” says Mokopane . “They’re the ones who talk about money often enough that nothing gets missed: a policy nobody remembered, an emergency fund nobody noticed was running low. Once people are looking together, the money is usually already there.”
2. Read the fine print on what you’re already covered for
Many South Africans pay for benefits they never use simply because they don’t know they exist. Your bank account, credit card, insurance policy or employee benefits may already include roadside assistance, travel insurance, legal advice, shopping discounts or rewards programmes. Before paying for an additional service, check whether you’re already covered.
It’s worth widening the search beyond your own name, too. Families often end up covering the same thing twice without realising it: an adult child taking out funeral cover for a parent who’s also on a policy through her own employer, for instance, or two siblings each contributing to the same relative’s cover. An annual conversation about who’s covering whom and on what policy can reveal more overlap than anyone many expect.
3. Make saving automatic
Saving is hardest when it depends on remembering to do it, and on having the willpower to resist spending before you do. Treating it like a bill, paid to yourself automatically the moment your salary lands, removes the decision from the exact moment you’re most likely to spend instead. Consistency, not size, is what compounds.
It works even better as a shared habit. Partners or family members who set up their transfers on the same day, or check in on each other’s progress, tend to stick with it longer than those going it alone. “Saving is easier to sustain when someone else is paying attention to it too or is holding you accountable,” according to Mokopane.
4. Create a little distance between you and your savings
A separate savings account, or a plan with a built-in waiting period, creates enough friction to reduce impulse spending, while keeping your money accessible on the rare occasion you genuinely need it. The friction doesn’t need to be dramatic: a short notice period before you can withdraw is often enough to turn a moment of temptation into a moment of reconsideration.
It helps to give that account a name, too. Money set aside for something specific, like a child’s school fees, a wedding or a deposit on a home, is harder to justify spending on something else than money that’s just sitting there labelled “savings.”
5. Build the household’s emergency fund, not just your own
National surveys on retirement and savings consistently find that most South Africans have far less emergency savings than they need. A personal buffer matters, but a family’s biggest financial shocks, like a retrenchment, a medical bill or a funeral, rarely land on only one person’s budget.
A shared reserve, contributed to by more than one member of a household or extended family, spreads that risk further than any single notice account can.
“It doesn’t need to be formalised: even an informal agreement about who contributes what, and what counts as an emergency, can turn a personal safety net into a household one, and it means no one person is left carrying a shock alone,” says Mokopane.
6. Lean on systems that help you stay consistent
Whether it’s a stokvel, a burial society or a savings challenge with friends, systems remove some of the pressure from relying on willpower alone. According to internal research, an estimated 18 million South Africans already save this way: proof that discipline holds up better when it’s shared, and when someone else is expecting your contribution.
None of the above requires giving something up. It requires noticing what’s already there, deciding – ideally with the people who share your life and your goals – where it should go next, and letting it do more than sit still.
“None of this is about earning more,” says Mokopane. “It’s about deciding, together, where the money you already have is going to do the most for you, this year and years from now.”