Interactive brokers is often recommended on here for offshore investing in ETFs like VWRA to avoid US situs tax on death.

If you have an IBKR trading account as a South African citizen (and resident) and you die, your executor must send a Letter of Executorship, Death Certificate and court certified Will to Interactive Brokers to begin probate.

Is a South African will acceptable or is it better to have a valid US will (drafted by a US attorney)?

Must the US will comply with the laws of Delaware or Connecticut?

Hi everyone,

We were fortunate enough to purchase a property in the city bowl in Cape Town during the COVID “price correction”. Now 6 years later we have R2m debt against an asset worth around R12m. Pure dumb luck and timing.

This house would fetch about R80k per month in rental in the current market. Obviously there are maintenance, admin, tenant continuity, tax implications etc.

We understand that R80k per month isn’t a great return relative to the property market value, but it is relative to our equity that we put in to it. We are not looking to sell the property in the medium term due to personal reasons.

Our thinking is to extend our original bond to “free up” some capital to purchase a second property outright. We would increase the bond to about R5m (R3m loan and would add some cash from savings) and then live in the second property while using the rental of the first to cover, bond, rates etc.

The thinking is that we could come pretty close to breaking even on the two properties (risks notwithstanding) and continue to ride the capital growth wave in Cape Town.

What makes us a bit nervous is overexposure to the CT property market as this would be the bulk of our net worth. Also not sure if there is a better way to structure this.

Further context:
- couple in our 30’s, no kids
- monthly combined income of R200k gross
- second property just round the corner from first
- approx R3m invested/savings
- R300k emergency fund

Is our logic sound?

Edit for further context on current property:
- R2m debt current on home loan
- R2.5m on instalments and deposit
- R1.5m on renovation

I would like to register a US LLC for dealing with international consulting clients. Will be 100% owned by me and all income will be moved to my personal bank account and taxed in SA as PIT.

I just want the US LLC for a layer of legal protection as well as access to Stripe and easier payment for clients who prefer dealing with USD.

Has anyone opened up a US LLC recently and then banking (Mercury, Relay, etc) and what was the process like for South Africans specifically?

Good day all.

I will be working in the United States for the next 2 years. I am planning to save/invest about $1000 ( R 16 613.98) monthly. My plan is to max out my TFSA as soon as possible and maybe keep my money in a high yielding savings account, as my plan is to put a deposit down on a flat when I return.

I have opened an account with Sygnia for my TFSA- Sygnia Itrix MSCI Emerging Markets 50 ETF and Sygnia Itrix MSCI Emerging Markets 50 ETF Cash Account.

I am unsure what accounts I should be using for my TFSA and, maybe potentially using Easy Equities to buy some EFT's.

I please need some advise on which accounts to pick for my TFSA and other accounts to grow my remaining savings monthly.

I am open to answer any question as I want to maximise my money for when I return.

Thank you in advance.

Looking for some advice if anyone has some info!

I have been with discovery insure and have built up quite a big amount in my insure funder account. With the latest round of increases they are just totally unaffordable, and are now making it that you have to have a discovery account to keep earning fuel rewards.

Is there any penalty or any way I can be asked to repay any amount if I burn through my funder account right before cancelling? I want to go put tyres on my vehicle. I can't seem to find any information in their documentation except that I will forfeit any unused amount since I can't withdraw it as I havent been using the funder account for more than 3 years.

Anybody have any experience?

Thanks!

My wife was diagnosed with stage 4 Cancer almost a year ago, medical aid would only pay for chemo and outside costs amounted to about 12k cash every 3 weeks .

She is unemployed so i handle the full home bills, school fees, car and food.. I went into a lot of debt trying to stay afloat and pay for her medication..

I lost my job in June and by the grace of God i got a new job 2 months later.. It pays 10k less than the job i had

It has caught up with me, i am in 1.2m debt including everything unsecured loans, car loan and credit cards.

I managed fine all year and have never missed a payment all my adult life and this month for the first time my account is in the negative and not even all of them have been paid (debit orders) , have school fees, groceries and my wife's medication Pending

I considered debt review but the problem is that I am a being put registered as a Key Individual at work (i am an insurance manager) and i think you can't be in debt review in you are a K.I

I really don't know what to do help please.

Checking in:

So it’s been 5 months in this role after over a year of unemployment and no savings.

I earn 31275 CTC
Net around 20k

With such deductions
PHI
Provident fund
Funeral cover
Medical aid (2750 Discovery essential smart)*

*Ive highlighted this because im not sure if im overpaying (single no dependents) or it depends on one’s salary?

In terms of investments, I am still limping.

EF 20k (32 day notice at 7,5%)
Will start another account for immediate access next month.
TFSA 4K + 2k in ETF ZAR
I have an upcoming exam in Feb that costs 15k I only have 7,5k at the moment.

Other expenses
Rent 3,8k
Food 3k (I munch 🫣)
Transport 1,5k (commute 2-3/week- mostly e hailing)
Toiletries 1k
Hair/nails 1,2k (variable)
Gifts/donations 1k
Entertainment 500-1k( very variable as I’ve turned into a homebody when I’m not running/gym)
Airtime max 200
Vitality 159
No other subscriptions

I want to push to get around 6 months of EF
And start snowballing my TFSA next year

Am I on the right track? And what can I improve?

I'm an expat that would like to help a local friend budget and track expenses. In my home country there are reputable apps that compile all your transactions across bank accounts, categorize spending and automate budgeting but I'm not sure that exists here. If there are options what are people using? What's the level of security and how much personal data to the apps house? What's the cost?

Any tips for helping a friend who is a total novice and only has a cheque account to understand how to manage their money? Until recently they had family support and are now on their own and continually overestimating what they can afford on the salary they make.

Also any tips on finding budget housing or room shares in the helderberg areas (Strand/Somerset West, Gordon's Bay) ?

I appreciate any and all feedback!

​

Hi everyone, I came to ask about a medical aid package for myself.

I'm currently bringing in R10 000 a month, R8000 after rent since I'm splitting it with my sister. Grocery bill isn't large at only R1600. We've both agreed on getting our own individual packages.

I would need GP visits, medication and hospital visits.

Thanks in advance

Hi my father and i found certificates of shares from companies he invested in during the 90s. The companies are as written on the certificates “The Osprey gold mine limited”, “Ozz limited formerly Hugh parker limited” and “Eersteling gold mining company limited”.

Upon researching these companies they have either been acquired by other companies and as such are no longer listed on the JSE. What steps would I have to take to recover the amounts and how difficult would it be?

Any help would be appreciated immensely.

My mom passed about 18 months ago and her estate was finalized about a year ago. Given some bad advice/poor decision making at the time a property she owned internationally (in Greece) was not included in her estate. My sister and I m have since sorted out her affairs in Greece and think we need to reopen her estate to be certainty we not exposed to some aggressive penalties down the line.

Is this even possible?

It should give us minimal exposure now as it will only just take the estate value over the taxable threshold. As we had such a poor experience with our original estate practitioner in the first instance, we don’t want to go back to them. Any advice on how best to do this? And any recommendations on who may be able to help?

Hi All,

I recently moved to a perm job in SA where by gross salary is 125k. I am 33M married with a 1 yr old.

My employer said It’s optional to select PF and how much % I would like to choose. I am new to the country and trying to figure out what are my benefits and how do I select how much % of my gross salary should my PF be. And which bank to select for this.

Additionally I would also love recommendations for a savings account. My current account is in capitec but I want to use it for transactional purposes and keep bulk of the salary in a good savings account with less hassle.

Any help is hugely appreciated.

Pretty much title. This is the first time where I have done multiple trades in the tax year but not sure how to adjust the form wizard to allow correctly.

I’ve thought about this extensively but I wanted to put this out in the open to get everyone else’s advice.

I’m a 23 year old who just got their first permanent job this year straight out of university. I was fortunate to get a job at an international bank paying 34k Net a month.

The company is situated in Sandton and because I was not familiar with the area and wanted to be close to work for the late night grinds and early mornings (All Banking Guys and girls will know about the Analyst years), I decided to rent an apartment in near work.

It’s an Ithemba properties apartment which is very popular for young professionals, so is Africrest. Honestly can’t justify paying 8k a month on rent anymore now that I have become comfortable with the area and the company.

I’m lucky enough to be earning quite well at a young age and I’ve saved quite a lot, I’m thinking of buying an apartment in Joburg South, Stanley Studios in Oakdene seems the bond would be right up my financially alley or a similar complex.

My rent is more then even my parents current bond on their house.

Am I justified for feeling this way?

Hi all

Not looking for help, more to make people aware.

My mom fell for the "they are trying to steal from you bank account, and we need you to approve the cancellation of the transaction" scam.

And to make it worse, they are targeting the elderly.

Please make shure that your elders are aware, and if jn doubt call the bank on their legitimate numbers.

Please be vigilant.

Hey,

I recently had a standard Premium credit card with Absa with a limit of R22,500 (at 21% interest). 6 months in they called me to offer an upgrade to the Private Banking Visa Signature card (16%)

However, after picking up the card the app shows a drop from R22,500 down to R19,000 credit limit.

Does this make sense?

I asked in the past but didn’t really get any responses, so asking here.

Do expats here, on valid work visas get personal loans?

Anyone with any experience regarding those?

I’m 37, unmarried and live in Cape Town.

I was driving a 2015 Audi A1, and my parents always drilled into me: buy your car cash. If you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it.

I also acknowledge that I’ve been extremely privileged here. My parents bought me my first Polo when I was 21, which meant I could put what would otherwise have been a car payment into savings every month and eventually upgrade.

After the Polo I bought a Mini, then the Audi.

Every time I bought one of these cars, I had a maintenance plan and would extend it for as long as it made financial sense. I was spending around R10k a year extending the Audi maintenance plan.

This year Audi quoted me R36k to extend it.

That, combined with being thoroughly sick of having a two-door car, made me decide it was time to move on.

And for the first time ever, I genuinely considered financing a car.

I own a business, so I started thinking:
Maybe I shouldn’t tie up all my cash in a depreciating asset. Maybe I should keep the cash and “use the bank’s money”.
🤡

I went to Haval because I wanted a Jolion Pro Super Luxury, and obviously got the whole sales pitch:
“You deserve to drive a new car.”
And for a second I was like hey yes you do. 😂
They also offered the car to me at a super low rate of 6,85% but at a super inflated rate which decimated any interest saving.

Then completely separately, I found a woman selling a 2025 Jolion Pro Super Luxury privately for R340k. It was the same spec I was looking at and roughly R100k less than the new one I’d been considering.
She told me WeBuyCars had offered her R318k.
I offered R325k and she accepted.

Then I went looking for finance.
I have a paid-off house, a good credit record and a decent income, so I was interested to see what banks would actually offer me.

I received two approvals.
WesBank:
Cash price on the application: R339,000
Deposit: R131,192
Principal debt: R242,336
Term: 61 months
Linked rate: 11.84%
Monthly payment: R5,695.93
Total instalments over 61 months: approximately R347,452
Plus the deposit, that puts the total cash outlay at approximately R478,644
And the application includes various VAPs/add-ons totalling roughly R34.5k

They also couldn’t offer me the 36-month term I specifically wanted.

Then Absa came back with:
Total purchase price on their application: R375,130
Deposit: R160,000
Principal debt: R216,337.50
Term: 36 months
Linked rate: 10.60%
Monthly instalment: R7,124.05
Total instalments: approximately R256,466
Total including the deposit: approximately R416,466

The applications are based on different amounts, so they aren’t a perfect apples-to-apples comparison — and the final negotiated purchase price of my car was actually R325k.

But what really got me was being told by both institutions that there would also be around a R7k fee because it was a private sale.

That was the moment I could practically hear my mother.

So I rummaged around, pulled together the cash and, somewhat naughtily, took R50k from my emergency fund to make up the difference.

I’ll replenish that by January. I also have other, less-liquid assets available if something genuinely catastrophic happened, so I wasn’t leaving myself completely exposed.

But in the end I am paying cash for the car.

The woman is bringing it this morning and I have to make a fairly substantial EFT, which is going to hurt psychologically for a little while.

And now I’m sitting here looking at all the new cars on the road and thinking:
How many people are actually paying the advertised monthly payment without ever calculating what the car is costing them in total?

I genuinely don’t mean this as “cash is always better” or some smug post. There are absolutely situations where keeping cash available makes sense, particularly when you’re running a business.

I just hadn’t really appreciated how quickly the numbers become enormous once you combine:

interest + term + fees + VAPs + private-sale charges.

And I think the thing that has surprised me most is that I was actually tempted.

I’m still waiting on two other finance applications because I’m curious what they come back with, but I think I’ve made my decision.

Also, completely separately: Weelee offered me R13k more for my Audi than WeBuyCars did.

So my takeaway isn’t “never finance a car”.

It’s:
Shop around. Negotiate everything. Ask for the actual total cost, not just the monthly payment. And get competing finance offers before you walk into the dealership and let someone convince you that you “deserve” the shiny new thing.

I would be interested to hear what other South Africans are seeing on car finance rates at the moment, particularly for people with strong credit profiles.

How do you feel about personal finance facilities like overdraft and credit cards? I always accept offers to increase my credit limits. I'm currently sitting on over R800000 credit card limit and R250000 overdraft. I never go over R50000 in debt before paying things off. My credit rating is quite good.

I like the option should I need to have these credit facilities in case I lose my job or other unforeseen emergency expenses. Is this approach wise?

Hey, guys

I just got a new role that will allow me to afford apartment renting so I'm really looking for good options around Sandton. I tried asking on a Facebook group, but no responses so far so I thought to try on this reddit community.

I wanted to ask about iThemba properties and if it is a reliable and good residence for rent? Especially their properties in Sandton (Sunninghill)? What should I keep in mind and are there any unforeseen things I should know about (especially around water and electricity)?

Thanks

Hey folks, sorry if this is a repeat question - I realise I always pretty much ignored this table because most of my investments are running on a debit order. I never really wondered whether there was a material consideration to be made between buying a stock/ETF and selling it. In my mind, the value I'm displayed for my options is the value I get if I sell (allowing for an apparent 15-minute fluctuation tolerance). Is this a wrong assumption?

TIA

Hello all,

I have recently caught up on all my tax. Turned out I was owed money! I was paid out by SARS easily.

But the final return, 2026, is proving such a hassle. I have called SARS and they advised a video call, after video call, they advised I email support. I live overseas so I can't go in. I just want to see if anyone has had this issue:

My bank is VALID. Good.

When I go to submit my return the Branch Code is blank and greyed out.

When I submit it says cannot submit because of incorrect branch number.

We've tried to add the bank account again... we've tried most things. When I say "we" I mean SARS on the phone and video.

I have emailed support and I'm hoping they can press a button that allows me to submit... I have already been paid out for other returns so very confusing that this is blocking suddenly.

Any thoughts? Anyone recognise this issue?

Howzit,
I’ve been with Nedbank for years and collecting Greenbacks. I’m currently on Level 5, but I’ve only ever used my rewards to redeem cash for bank fees and airtime. I always forget there are other benefits 🙈

Last night, I tried to take advantage of the travel discounts because I want to book flights for this weekend… I was just not winning.

The Avo SuperShop app doesn’t reflect my Greenbacks at all. When I go to Avo Travel and select “Create new booking”, I get a pop-up telling me that I need to open a Nedbank account; I’ve banked with Nedbank for years.

When I check Account Information on Avo, it says “No linked account.”

I called Nedbank this morning. They couldn’t resolve it over the phone and escalated the issue to the Avo Travel team, but the business day has now ended without any feedback. Avo support also doesn’t operate over weekends, and I’m trying to book flights for this weekend while still getting my Greenbacks travel discount.

Has anyone experienced this before and managed to manually link/re-link their Nedbank account to Avo? Is there something I can do from my side without waiting for Avo support?

And, just to add to the fun, the Nedbank Money app has been down since around noon today 😭

Any advice would be appreciated!