Are South Africans living way beyond their means?

Have you noticed that many more employees are grumbling about “paying all the bills and living on what's left due to the interest rate increase?” Then, laughing (in despair), that they ALWAYS run out of money by the third week of the month.

This clearly affects their productivity and company profits. With petrol going up to unprecedented highs, the knock-on effect has only just begun. We know that with the threat of more interest rate increases in the pipeline, companies are looking for ways to help staff maintain their job focus. When employees have money problems, it affects all areas of their life, not just at home. Job-hopping occurs and some people leave their jobs just to get their hands on their pension or provident money. This is a huge mistake BUT when one's back is against the wall, there is not much room for choice.

Indeed it will cost you to replace an employee, whether we like it or not, there is an education problem that will not disappear without direct life-skills intervention.

With household debts around 77.6% of take-home pay, and in the light of the very real threat of more interest rate hikes, this huge corporate problem is set to become much worse. The frightening increase in bureau listings, judgments, garnishee orders and repossessions are affecting many of your highly valued staff.

Of course, financial distress is not a topic that people like to talk about but, increasingly, journalists are reporting ever-larger problems. Some statistics talk about house repossessions up by 400% over the past three months. There are also, on average 1 200 cars being repossessed each month. This seems insane as many of those people are earning enough to build a stable future - if only they knew how!

People have to deal with severe legal stress and costs because their debts have run out of control. Strangely, however, while most companies have an HIV awareness initiative they have never seriously considered a Money Management and Wealth Planning initiative, even though it is widely accepted that financial problems often lead to divorce, corporate theft, lower productivity - and sometimes suicide.

Financial Fitness is the market leader in helping many large, medium and small SA companies teach their staff how to live within their income, rapidly eliminate all their debts and steadily build wealth.

We have educated over 27 000 people during the past 12 years, providing them with the skills to truly get ahead. The tens of thousands of attitude changes we have witnessed are truly spectacular and deeply gratifying.

Our programmes cover the A-Z of personal financial planning - from Fixing Credit Problems to Money Management and Debt Elimination through Wealth Planning, Retrenchment and Retirement Training - so, we CAN address any and all personal financial issues.

Many people do not realise there's a much more effective way to use the same cash flow, and they will truly thank YOU - and your company - for helping them obtain these critical life skills.

Join us at the Financial Literacy for the Workplace Seminar on the 31st July and learn how you can educate your workforce to become more financial literate and where to get reliable information and how to watch out for potential scams and fraudulent schemes.

Come and hear...

• Lifestyle Financial Planning, Ian Beere, Lead Financial Planner, Netto Financial Services
  
• The role of debt counselor, Laurien Kemp, Head of Debt Rehabilitation, Nedbank
  
• Influence of financial stress in the workplace, Christelle van der Westhuisen, Purple Apple
  
• Credit and over-indebtedness, Mpho Thekiso, National Credit Regulator (NCR)
  
• Financial Literacy and Debt Rehabilitation, Wezi Khoza, Group Wellness Specialist, Absa and Barclays Africa
  
• Is Financial Literacy Really Enough? Sian Buckley, Financial Planner (AFP)
  
• Enhance employee productivity through financial skills training, Joe Camino, Financial Fitness

Learn how to...

• increase your work forces' financial literacy levels,
  
• identify best practices,
  
• hear current trends in financial education,
  
• understand the grassroots to financial literacy,
  
• learn how to implement financial literacy into your life-skills/adult based education

For more information please contact - Lauren Matthee at (011) 880-8540 or .