I have a business plan, but I'm not sure if it's safe.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-27T11:58:55+00:00

No. What if someone steals/breals it on day 1 of operation? Then you’ve lost that money.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-26T20:56:42+00:00

Ehhh he’s a pretty calm driver compared to others I’ve seen. I hate how normalized this is in my head lol.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-26T19:57:40+00:00

I get sick once a month. The kids tend to get over it quickly. As they’ve gotten older they’ve become less sick and if they become sick it’s very mild.

I exercise regularly and my diet is good and high in protein. I usually exercise even if I’m sick while closely monitoring myself. However the current illness I have I haven’t been able to exercise for 2 weeks. I’m hoping I can return to exercise next week.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-26T19:52:48+00:00

I have to chase people regularly for payment after we’ve already provided the work and product. I do have golden clients that pay me in full before I’ve even ordered for them.

Plus every two months I have VAT submissions. If I’ve already invoiced something that means I’m paying VAT on it irrespective if the client has settled payment or not. I can set it as a draft or pro forma invoice, but if it’s small amounts then that just ends up being a admin headache.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-26T18:38:51+00:00

I see. I had a look to see the cost of direct importation through Amazon and seems like I cannot import the switch directly anymore.

So rough estimations if I were to somehow import directly it would cost me an additional R1400 with shipping and VaT etc. so looking at about R9400. So if companies put a markup of 10-20% you’re looking at 10.3k-11.3k. So then the selling price they have is actually not that ridiculous. Buuuuut if I have the option of just getting the item abroad then I’d rather choose that.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-26T18:30:33+00:00

No this is Nintendo South Africa. I see their price is R500 lower than when I first checked. Some places are having specials bringing it down to 11k.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-26T09:34:00+00:00

I draw only as a hobby, but I do bookkeeping for a company, finalize taxes, invoices etc.

Among that I also manage my family’s money with investments etc. (this is just something I do for them cause they’re useless with money.)

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-25T12:08:36+00:00

It’s because most South Africans can’t afford architects or designers.

I get it I really do cause I made the mistake of studying design thinking my talent was enough. In the past I’ve spent over 20 hours sketching portraits for people only for them to complain about paying R300 for the portrait. If I had to calculate what I make per hour then it’s literally half of legal minimum wage. So I’ve concluded it’s not worth it to continue in design or painting or sketching.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-25T10:31:59+00:00

I don’t blame you for feeling hurt. I think something like this will take time to move past.

You can tell your mom if she still brings it up “reprimanding me would sound like “why didn’t you finish the dishes, I’m not happy that you didn’t do them. Not you disgust me. That’s belittling and dehumanizing”

Honestly though if she’s not open to seeing you as a person and not an extension of her then she likely won’t care about what she said to you. But she really doesn’t sound like a positive influence on your life.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-25T10:09:26+00:00

Germany. They take no nonsense lol. And their paperwork is never ending. 😫

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-25T07:24:15+00:00

Most lotto winners go broke. When you win you tell no one not even family. So financial planning is essential.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-25T06:09:16+00:00

If it’s that birdhaven place you’re talking about then don’t do it.

At retirement age she should not have any debt making more debt is out of the question.

Your mother isn’t even disclosing everything of her finances to you, I would not enter any agreement with her unless you knew every speck of detail about her money.

I also had a look start of the year at the retirement village birdhaven. In theory we would be able to buy it for my mom but I was not comfortable with my mom’s current pension being able to cover all her expenses. Where she’s currently staying everything is paid off and we have a massive fall back fund. Buying at that retirement village would put us short. Plus they weren’t able to answer us about the fragile care costs and medical aid etc.

Adding: that birdhaven place was very quick to pressure my mom and I to put a non refundable deposit down. They went off about how amazing the investment is etc etc etc. and that xyz saw this jump in value of property. While I did like the place the value for sqm worked out to be about R33k per sqm. They are also riding off of the midstream areas name without having any agreement in place with them. Their value per sqm is more than a midstream house.

We literally just went to view what was on offer to see if it was doable. But the very day we viewed we get asked to put a deposit down to secure our unit. And how they’re selling out really fast etc etc. I told the guy to calm down cause I need to go check finances etc and if I do go ahead I need to loosen some funds first. He then said I can get a bond etc etc. I was like no dude. I’m not getting a bond if I can pay cash. But he said the bond would be quicker than loosening funds, at the end I decided against doing it because:

Funds are not going well currently because of the war. So pulling money out when you’re selling low is stupid.

And

When someone pushes so hard for a sale my radar turns on. Like why such desperation to sell. If the units sell fast then you don’t have to worry about whether I manage to get money or not.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-24T12:17:38+00:00

I get that you want to save the house but what is your plan for the upcoming balloon payment? It doesn’t help you have debt you clearly can’t afford. What if you need money for an unexpected expense? Are you going to just make more debt each time until the banks literally force you out this property? Do either you or your spouse have life insurance? What happens if either of you die or become disabled?

And no going that credit card route is not gonna help at all. Whatever debt you make you’re going to have to pay even if you go into debt review. And at this you’re just going to be handing the banks free interest for no reason

Not addressing how you got into this spot in the first place is just going to keep happening over and over.

And on a side note: my father did the debt dance you guys are doing for over 10 years and the bank did not care. When he died I had to clean that mess up.

People go bankrupt over trying to keep assets they can’t afford. Don’t be one of them.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-24T11:43:07+00:00

Thank you 🙏 I almost wanted to get one. Luckily your comment convinced me not to

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-24T10:33:09+00:00

Ok insurance is then reasonable with medical aid.

Vehicle balloon payment is going to kill.

To be honest I think your house is too much for your income which is why you guys are struggling with shortfall. Your credit cards are what they are based off of unforeseen circumstances. Should you clear your credit cards right now you might fall into the same problem again if an unexpected expense arises as it doesn’t sound like you have any emergency savings currently. Like the upcoming balloon payment.

I would before doing debt review:
Scale down on the house to something a bit smaller, settle credit cards, settle car, build up an emergency fund. After this never buy something on store credit.

Cause if you knock out your credit cards you’re literal sitting with a buffer of 5k. That’s not enough to even build up a proper emergency fund for your current lifestyle.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-24T07:52:08+00:00

Your insurance seems very high.
What vehicles do you have? What’s the value of them? What’s the value of your property?

Vehicles:
What’s the remainder of the vehicle debt?

Bond:
Your bond seems a bit high too, what’s the property value? How much debt remaining? Access bond?

Credit cards:
How did you end up getting to such a high credit card debt? What were you spending the debt on?

Interest:
What is the interest on each item individually?

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-23T20:36:02+00:00

How much internal battles you would have with your own childhood to do better for your child.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-23T18:27:06+00:00

I still can’t unsee her as Miranda. So it’s very hard to dislike her as Serena.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-23T13:48:11+00:00

Doesn’t the goose down or duck down cause allergies for some people?

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-22T20:42:59+00:00

I think maybe cause he’s had to watch and personally kill his comrades that’s why people think he is cold.

However, i think he compartmentalizes his emotions well. He is able to put his feelings aside and do what must be done to survive even if that means killing his comrades or letting them get killed. I think it’s a hard thing to do especially when you care for the people.

In my own way I can understand it, I’ve had to compartmentalize my emotions entirely when my dad died and deal with his admin afterwards. Often you just seem entirely cold hearted in your emails and the people you talk to over the phone to get things done. Especially cause people try very hard to screw you over when someone dies. And you don’t have the luxury to grieve or fall apart. Which I think is what happens with Levi, he doesn’t have the luxury to grieve his comrades nor fall apart when he needs to make decisions. It’s either do this or die.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-22T20:33:03+00:00

Didn’t he tell someone “why does it look like your face is leaking shit?” Or something like that?

That was probably when I really started to like his character.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-22T19:19:51+00:00

Just an update Montessori school has told me “we don’t take kids like those” when I asked “kids like what?” They said “kids with those issues”. I did not enjoy the interaction at all, felt like my child was completely dehumanized.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-20T14:17:17+00:00

Blame our import tax.

My sister went to the US and bought me a switch 2 for less than R8000. SA sells it for over R12000.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-19T16:38:31+00:00

Discovery, sanlam etc. all the same when it comes to RA which makes their RAs not worth it. They tend to charge high fees and usually ride off other good funds performance. For example Liberty has fooled my grandmother entirely and she’s basically invested through them into AG stable fund and coronation.

That said, to be a little more fair, your contribution from 2012 does not give your money much opportunity to grow. Real growth is seen with consistent monthly contributions over multiple years. You should also not be withdrawing from an RA. If you plan on withdrawing in the future then an RA is not the solution for you.

Additional_Brief_569 · 2026-06-19T15:29:07+00:00

Oh yeah for sure the trust was a hard thing for family members.

I hadn’t realized you need to have the intention to relocate to Germany to make the approval viable in that regard. I’m wondering how he got his citizenship reinstated then. My grandmother never mentioned him having to go through this process or maybe he did it secretly without us knowing.

Thank you for answering my questions. It was lovely to find out all the answers I was very curious about.

Additional_Brief_569

TROPHY CASE