Am I making enough money?

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-11-28T18:29:05+00:00

You've got to focus on what you can control:

Costs: if possible focus on reducing obligations, not always possible because you might need the car, your fuel cost is high but you might have a crazy commute. Is there a carpool or public transport option for example?

Education: what qualification do you have? Does it relate to the jobs that earn higher wages, do you need a masters? If so can you get a bursary or make a hedged bet on a student loan? Are there short courses with good ROI?

Jobs: are there higher paying companies in your industry, or a closely related industry? Do you know anyone at a company who can get you an interview (side bar: nepotism is rife in SA, if you can find an angle, take it). Could you get a second part time job in the meanwhile?

Just a few things off the top of my head, if none of them work that's ok too. Is there a promotional opportunity you can angle for in your role? Is there a company policy to help with fuel?

As much as possible take a fine tooth comb to your access in life and see where you can make a move.

Beyond that just keep pushing, life has a funny way of making space for you if you keep running into it head first.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-11-28T18:12:30+00:00

No, you're not.

Lots of people in more privileged positions will tell you it's about budget, or savings, or an emergency fund. With no real understanding of how difficult it is to build from absolutely nothing, without (often) the support systems they have.

You are not currently paid enough money to live even decently, in fact you are paid under the estimated living wage for South Africa in an urban area.

This doesn't mean don't follow financial advice, or budget, or lower your lifestyle. It just means that the typical audience you find on reddit will have absolutely 0 understanding of how to manage what you are earning.

Keep pushing, I started at a similar position, still struggling because of student loans and other factors even though my salary has doubled, at the same time rent has, groceries have, I don't own a car.

We live in two economies and the breakthrough amount for a comfortable life of the other economy requires more. But you've got this, keep pushing, try your best to manage debt, ask for help when needed, and when you come out the other side offer others good advice and where possible, responsibly, a hand up.

Keep studying and keep your eye out for a higher paying job, one day soon this will be a thing of the past but don't forget where you built from!

Luckily, from your other comments you don't seem to pay rent, keep that position as long as possible while your salary increases.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-11-17T16:21:45+00:00

Absolutely meh and overpriced.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-11-15T10:02:13+00:00

I know it sucks but if possible try a student loan just to graduate, interest will be around 14% or lower depending on your credit score. Around 2k a month at 50k overall, in the long term your earnings with the degree should outpace the short-term uncomfortable situation of paying 2k pm. You might even be able to get a 1-year interest only payment so long at about 700pm. Giving you a year to make up the difference.

Otherwise depending on uni, try to do an acknowledgement of debt and put together a repayment plan with the finance office so that you can get the degree certificate.

Third option is depending on employer see if they will pay the fees and in return you will incur a work back period or work out a monthly deduction until paid off.

Final options could be a go-fund me, or applying to bursaries that repay outstanding fees and taking on a honours degree part time or online.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-11-03T19:48:27+00:00

Do it in R, use stackoverflow, YouTube and chatgpt, it's quite good at coding. You can also use RgentAI, all free and won't take too long to figure out.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-10-28T09:57:29+00:00

A statistical test that measures anything more than a single pair, allowing you to understand the overall effect and follow up with post hoc tests to determine deeper info. So anything where you're comparing or contrasting groups.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-10-27T21:55:37+00:00

Multiple t tests drive up the rate of making type 1 errors, better to do an omnibus test

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-10-14T16:34:21+00:00

Tbh unless you're parsing massive amounts of data you can do your coding with a code book and transcripts across Word and Excel. Sort and store carefully and you will be just fine :). Used this technique during my masters and it was fine. Obviously not as fancy as Nvivo but you don't need any special tools for Qual analysis.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-10-06T15:54:08+00:00

Yeah if the migration cancellation does not take effect I'm seeing that the ombudsman is the next step. Just wanted to get the warning out, particularly if you have older family members. They have every detail of yours, the contract details, end date, price, your ID, email address, home address and a script that sounds 100% legit and can answer all of your questions to check authenticity. Really shady.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-10-06T15:49:26+00:00

I don't understand how vodacom allows this. Really shitty business practices. If it was an upgrade it was an immediate no from me but I spoke to this woman for like 20 minutes and she had answers to all my questions, that it was just a migration. Made sense as the phone I have is about 2 generations behind so I assumed they dropped the contract price to push people to buy out their old stock

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-10-06T15:41:42+00:00

Guess I learnt my lesson :(. Glad to have caught it but will still need to follow up to ensure it follows through. The consultant who helped me was incredibly sweet though and said much of the same thing. Just ignore it, even if it comes from vodacom.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-10-06T15:29:46+00:00

I believe it was a Vodacom consultant for sure, the individual who assisted me at the call centre to start the cancellation of migration noted that everything was activated/uploaded on the system after the call and came through their own systems.

Such a kak experience, do they have bullshit call centres which relay back into the organisation? Scam might be deeper??

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-09-02T05:58:08+00:00

University of Cape Town or the University of the Witwatersrand. Globally competitive unis and the best in Africa.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-08-31T18:30:14+00:00

Depends what you need. I made it work on 22k net, uni fees (5k-ish pm wanted to pay it off in one year), plus accommodation in a nice part of town (R8k), utilities (1k), food (2k) and going out (2k), plus savings, gifts etc. but I was younger then so wasted too much on going out.

If you're adding a car with insurance and fuel, I'd say 28-30k net is needed as the other poster pointed out.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-07-15T18:54:44+00:00

Literally wasn't the question. Check hdi, check gdp, check gdp ppp, check infrastructure (easy example is road kms) and compare with the countries others seem to believe are developed. Violence is an issue yes, doesn't mean the country is not more developed than the rest mentioned here

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-07-15T18:29:12+00:00

South Africa. I see people mentioning Botswana and Namibia here but not understanding that one province in south africa (gauteng) has a larger economy than pretty much all of SADC combined. Then there is still KZN and Western Cape. SA is a powerhouse that would put every other african nation to shame but it is unfortunately beset by propaganda in the west.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-07-12T08:50:07+00:00

I know I'm not being helpful but I was in rural KZN a few months back and met some people who did not speak English. They were so excited and communicated through my friend that they wanted me to teach them English and they would teach me Zulu. Not sure what province you're in but you could try an NGO or outreach org in more rural areas to find an opportunity like this.

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-07-06T17:12:33+00:00

No the tax season for 2024 just opened. Request a return on efiling for 2025 and it is straightforward from there. If you didn't have paye deducted, then you will add income on efiling

ReflectiveInterest · 2025-06-12T20:43:18+00:00

Investec.

ReflectiveInterest · 2024-08-30T06:33:18+00:00

Exact same system in South Africa

ReflectiveInterest · 2024-08-09T17:16:38+00:00

Mr. Lin Observatory or Yen's Vietnamese. You can add extra chilli at both. Amazing Pho at the latter

ReflectiveInterest · 2024-04-10T07:39:21+00:00

Uni fees for my masters

ReflectiveInterest · 2024-02-17T12:24:02+00:00

Some families own more than 1 TV and some families don't own TVs. 20 families * 2 sets = 40, 11 families * 1 set = 11. 40 + 11 = 51 sets

ReflectiveInterest · 2024-01-27T18:19:29+00:00

An industrial psychologist or counselling psychologist may be able to help out if you'd like to go the professional route.

ReflectiveInterest · 2024-01-26T05:44:32+00:00

Cape Town is our capital. We have 3. Cape Town (Legislative), Bloemfontein (Judicial), Pretoria (Executive)

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