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How to Stay on Top of Your Finances

October 1, 2021

Studies show that some people are more concerned about money than their own physical health. For most us this worry stems from a fear over losing our jobs, not having a savings account that you can fall back on and not having money for retirement.

But there are ways that we can get on top of our financial worries – here are some helpful tips:

Understand your spending habits

Knowing when you are spending and on what is an important part of preparing for stressful financial situations. You don’t need fancy apps to do this, your own mobile banking app can give you this information.

Analyse which payments are being processed, perhaps there are subscriptions that you can cancel. If not, assess all purchases that you have made, you’ll be surprised by how many you’ve forgotten about.

Next, decide where you can improve next month by reducing unnecessary purchases. Lastly, set aside disposable income that you are allowed to use to buy the items you want but don’t need (and don’t go beyond that budget!).

Protect your family

Worrying about what could happen to your family if something happened to you and your earning capability, is a horrible feeling. It’s important to know that your family is protected financially should something like this happen.

Insurance policies that payout in situations like these to provide protection and some comfort to you.

Make a ‘money worries appointment’

Worrying about money is difficult work, so set aside a time that you can go over all financial documentation and create realistic steps towards your money goals.

Make a plan for what you want to cover during this ‘appointment’. Once you’ve done it, stop thinking about money as much as possible until your next ‘appointment’ rather than letting it spoil your days.

Create an emergency fund

We know we’ve spoken about this specific tip many times before and this certainly won’t be the last time, this is because of how important it is.

You can never know when unexpected expenses are going to arise and these expenses could potentially derail your finances completely. To stop bad luck derailing your budget, try to put together a fund for emergencies. Try to put aside enough cash for 6 months of expenditure. 

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Financial Well-Being in the Workplace

October 1, 2021

Money concerns is not a topic that employees like to discuss at work, so it may not be apparent to an employer when their employees experience financial distress.

Employers can take the time and effort to identify when money concerns affect their employees, so that they can offer resources to help.

Signs of Financial Distress

Even though employees seldomly disclose when they are in financial distress, below are signs that could indicate that an employee could use assistance:

  • Requesting an advance on a paycheck
  • Being mentally distracted during work
  • Spending more time on phone calls
  • Showing up late or other attendance issues
  • Avoiding social occasions with co-workers, such as going out to lunch
  • Choosing not to participate in a retirement plan

Four Elements of Financial Well-Being

Financial well-being comes when people feel secure about their money and that they have the freedom to spend their money how they’d like. Individuals should review their financial well-being from four different perspectives:

1. Feeling In Control of Daily and Monthly Finances

A key aspect to feeling financially secure having enough financial resources to meet your day-to-day and month-to-month expenses. The focus here is on meeting your present expenses. This keeps you in control of your expenses, rather than expenses being in control of you.

2. Capacity To Absorb a Financial Shock

Life is full of unforeseen circumstances and part of your financial well-being is having enough financial resources to absorb the costs of such circumstances. 

With this element the focus of financial well-being shifts from being able to control your present expenses to focusing on the future and emphasizes the ability to cover emergencies. 

Emergencies pose great threat to a person’s financial stability and therefore needs to be adequately planned for.

3. On Track to Meet Financial Goals

Another important aspect of financial well-being is to be on track to meet your financial goals. Achieving financial wellness means you do not derail from the goals and targets that you set for yourself. 

Once you have achieved your short-term goals, like establishing a budget or creating an emergency fund, you should start working toward mid-term financial goals such as, paying off student loans. Lastly you want to concentrate on achieving long-term financial goals such as striving for homeownership or increasing your retirement savings.

You probably won’t make perfect, linear progress toward achieving any of your goals, but the important thing is not to be perfect but to be consistent.

4. Financial Freedom to Make Choices to Enjoy Life

The final aspect of financial well-being is having the freedom to make choices regarding the use of your financial resources to enjoy life. Amanda of Dream beyond Debt, captured this fact by defining financial security as “the ability to spend money on what I want, and not on what’s available or what I can get the lowest price because that’s all I can afford”.

Financial Freedom is about living within your means, being a bit frugal, and making sure that money is spent on things you really need like food, shelter, and even vacations (relaxation is important too).

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Financial Wellness Programs

October 1, 2021

Being aware of the signals when an employee is in financial distress and knowing what the different elements of financial well-being are, is not enough to support your employees.

There are measures that you can put in place to achieve this, namely, creating an employee financial wellness program. This is a program to help employees better manage their finances and reduce financial worries. In any financial wellness program offered to your employees (of all income levels) there are 5 key areas to focus on:

Budgeting and Spending 

Stress the importance to your employees of tracking, spending and planning what you will spend via a budget. It is important for them to remember that their projected and actual spending may not match exactly, but they should have a goal and monitor where their money is going.

Emergency Funds

You can help your employees understand that besides ordinary expenses, there are always emergencies that pop up here and there, some major some small. They should be disciplined in saving for such unexpected events. Recommend to your employees that they should save the equivalent of three to six months of your typical salary.

Financial Counselling

When it comes to buying a car, house, or any major purchase (especially one that requires going into debt), it is wise for your employees to get expert advice. They should preferably get 2 or 3 experienced opinions before making a final decision.

Investment Strategies 

Further, explain to your employees if they already have their day-to-day finances under control and have a sufficient amount of money saved, they can do well by investing any surplus funds. You can offer recommendations on how to invest for instance, it’s best to choose stable, low-risk investments rather than risk a big chunk of your “life savings”. They should look for investments that are almost sure to pay a respectable dividend, even that means waiting longer to receive it.

Improving the financial well-being of your employees’ matters not only because it will decrease employee absenteeism, presenteeism and increase their productivity but also improve the overall quality of life for your employees.

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SmartAdvance implements Tru-Id’s innovative Collect Platform

September 9, 2021

SmartAdvance implements Tru-Id’s innovative Collect Platform

January 2021 saw smartadvance successfully complete the implementation of TruId’s Collect platform that promises to change the way customers interact with nifty, the direct to consumer lending platform

 TruID’s innovative platform enables consumers to safely and rapidly share their banking information with nifty during the loan application process in a manner that not only promises privacy for the consumer but serves to reduce time spent on the loan application process, meaning that customers received their funds even quicker than before.

Nifty, the direct-to-consumer brand of smartadvance, a registered credit provider strives to provide safe, accessible online credit quickly and easily using its innovative technology platform.

“We integrate into anything you’re creating; whether you’re a lender, aggregator, PFM tool or an aspiring fintech, TruID has developed a trusted & secure financial data sharing ecosystem for you, says Paris Valakelis of TruId.

Our ongoing commitment is to be the leading provider of API’s, one that enables financial innovation but also promotes the digital transformation of the financial industry.” Concludes Paris

The Collect Platform emphasises on maximising user adoption by creating a trusted user environment.

“Nifty’s vision is to deliver relevant, accessible financial solutions, safely and easily using innovative technology. Giving our customers the ability to apply for credit quickly is our promise; creating a secure online environment in which they interact with our brand improves customers experience and trust for our users which is what will build our brand for the long term. TruID helps us take another step forward in realising this objective.” Concludes Mark Young, CEO of smartadvance.

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SmartAdvance launches low-cost lending alternative for employee wellness partners

January 19, 2021

Smartadvance, a registered credit provider and online lender recently launched their new wage streaming product which aims to assist employees of their current wellness program with emergency funds at a much lower cost than a personal loan, in a safe and secure environment.

Wage streaming is a service that allows employees to access a portion of their salary owed to them for the month but that has not yet been paid. Employees can access a percentage of their salary paid directly into their personal bank account at any point in the salary cycle, for a low, affordable fixed fee.

Wage streaming has become a more widespread trend as the cost of personal loans have become more expensive to many consumers. Today, there are an estimated 22.5 million credit active users in South Africa, and about 41% of these are considered to be high-risk borrowers, and possibly overindebted, unable to meet monthly commitments.

“Our financial wellness programme, run through smartadvance enables us to assist employees of our payroll partners with the funds they need for everyday emergencies without compromising their financial wellbeing and at a cost of less than 10% of a traditional pay-day loan.” Says Mark Young, CEO of smartadvance South Africa.

Employees can stream their chosen amount with the option to be paid in tranches or in full at a flat fee charged per transaction.

Due to the diversity of consumers within the payroll partners, smartadvance have considered accessibility for their customers making the wage streaming service available via USSD, online or via the smartadvance app.

“We understand and listen to our customer concerns or difficulties which is why we have launched this product. It provides access to affordable emergency finance to a range of consumers that might not have been able to access as cost-effective solution from the mainstream market,” concludes Young.

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SmartAdvance rehabilitation product provides financial relief for low income earners

January 19, 2021

SmartAdvance have introduced a rehabilitation product for our employer partners that will provide much needed financial relief to hundreds of employees.

According to the Debt Counselling Association as of December 2019 approximately 10 million credit consumers were classified as impaired, having an average of 8 loans agreements at a time.

With 44% of households (combined) earning between R1500 – R7000 per month and with a very low discretionary savings level, it is no wonder that families need to resort to credit as a means to survive each month. Although this may assist as a short-term solution, many find themselves unable to meet monthly commitments, often resulting in over indebtedness.

SmartAdvance, the credit provider that helps customers manage their money better identified the problem within one of our key employer partners, finding that the employees had an average of R28 000 worth of debt, struggling to manage their personal financial portfolio.  

It was for this reason that SmartAdvance established a rehabilitation product that would provide financial relief to these employees, reducing the number of debtors, allowing them to pay one lower monthly installment and often saving the customers between R800 – R1000 per month.

“Although the rehabilitation product is newly launched with in the company, we have already seen the positive results with customers that were previously struggling, saving money monthly and managing their debt more efficiently.” Says Mark Young, CEO of SmartAdvance South Africa

A loyal customer of SmartAdvance, after being in debt review and struggling financially for the past 8 years, is finally able to manage his personal finances more efficiently, make it through the month and meet his financial commitments.

“I never thought SmartAdvance could help me with my debt. When they told me about the rehabilitation product, I could not believe it but wanted it to try it. I am truly happy with their service and how they have helped me in the past years. I will always comeback to them when I need help. Thank you SmartAdvance, I am so relieved.” Says Fanisile

SmartAdvance is a registered and regulated credit provider that uses customized credit scoring technology combined with artificial intelligence to not only extend credit to our customers when and where they need it, but strive to help our customers make financially sound decisions for the long term.

“It is our goal to empower consumers to achieve financial health. By providing our clients with educational tools and extending credit responsibly, SmartAdvance aims to enable clients to make financially sound decisions for the long term,” Concludes Young

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