Make serious, responsible investments when in 30s

When you turn 30, your financial responsibilities suddenly increase, at least they seem to. This is because 30 is the age most people start taking money seriously. When you are in your 30s, you are settled in your job, married and have children. Your financial obligations increase and you have various goals like children’s education, buying property and saving for retirement. As expenses shoot up, simply saving money in your bank account or making random investments will not help you in achieving your financial goals.

The following are some essential steps to be followed when you plan your investments while you are in your 30s.

Raise monthly investments as much as you can

Investing the bare minimum is a mistake most investors make. Even a small increase in your monthly investments results in a huge difference in the amount you accumulate over the long term. This is due to the compounding effect on money.

Let’s say there are two individuals A and B, who earn R60,000 per month. They both invest in the same set of mutual funds that give returns of 12% per annum over a same time period of 10 years. The only difference is the amount of investment made every month. While A spends 70% of his monthly income and invests R18,000 every month, B spends only 60% of his income and invests R24,000 per month. The total corpus, assuming constant monthly investments and

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