BEING an adult is nice. You make your own money and you decide how to use it.
It appears that the desire to travel and see the world is spreading to many more in their twenties and thirties but our worsening exchange rate makes overseas trips a pretty big financial burden that is increasingly difficult to justify.
Catharina Crous, foreign exchange executive for Nedbank, told SunMoney that if you dream to see the world, the best thing you can do is to start saving today.
And she said you must save in the currency of the place you want to visit to benefit more.
She said anyone can save money in a leading global currency, simply by opening a foreign currency account. “While the South African Reserve Bank offers a generous R1 million offshore investment allowance, you certainly don’t need to be a millionaire to benefit from these types of offshore currency investments.”
“If you’re going to be making a trip to the USA, Europe or the UK, you’ll be spending money in their currency, it just makes sense to try and stall your exchange rate losses as much as possible.”
Crous points to Nedbank’s foreign currency account as an example of how easy it is to take advantage of a weak rand to grow your overseas spending money.
The account allows you to invest funds in any of the three major foreign currencies: the US dollar, British pound sterling, or Euro and, thanks to a low minimum balance requirement and no account maintenance fees, it is an ideal way to get any short-term savings plan off the ground.
“Anyone over the age of 18 with a South African identity number can open a foreign currency account with an initial deposit of just 100 US dollars, pounds or euros, depending on the currency they want to save in and they can add to their savings at any time, and as often as they like.”
Local withdrawals from the fund require 48 hours’ notice and have to be in rands and in an account at the same bank.
However, it is easy to transfer your funds to an overseas bank account if you have one, which means you have access to the local currency of your destination country when you arrive there.