For 16 weeks now we’ve discussed this topic.  We began with the big picture, as shown in the table/calendar above.  This grey/green/red grid has been our logo, our brand.  Each time we saw it, we heard its message:  “Plan as if you’ll die today.  Plan as if you’ll retire at just over 60.  Plan as if you’ll live to be over 80.   Plan as if you’ll die with dependants.”

ALSO READ : My Money, My Business, My Life: The Big Picture

Very early in the series, we pointed out the importance of providing for retirement, and planning for something that could occur as you read this.  Yes, wise management of money begins with planning for those we love and leave behind, when we die.

We emphasised that we have to keep our spending to NO MORE than our income.  So if we earn R6,000, that’s the limit of what we can spend. To help us do this, we took time to calculate a written, working budget.  And to help you understand the budget more deeply we gave you a unique drawing: how can you ever forget Ribbon/Bucket/Tap?

Keeping out of debt is not our only goal.  Another goal should be to grow our wealth.  The everyday things we use (we called this stuff) does not increase in value. 

Stuff is essential for life, but it’s frighteningly easy to overspend on stuff – usually for the wrong reasons.  We compared stuff to assets.  Assets are things that increase in value over time, making us wealthier.  Unlike stuff, the list of assets is quite short.  Fixed property like the house you live in, nearly always grows in value.  Savings and investments, nearly always, grow in value.  We noted how important time is when we save and invest.

And always, we related all our spending back to our budget.  We can spend only from our available salary.  Over and over again we said this – and we repeat it now: We can spend only from our available salary.

Then we offered a troubleshooting (or diagnostic) budget that you remember as MASTER.  This budget told you whether you covered ALL the spending categories.  The E in MASTER is priceless: I hope you remember the reason…!

Have we been proposing a get-rich-quick-scheme?  Yes, in a way, that’s what we’ve done.  Rich means that you manage your money so well, that you rarely stress about running out of money.  And quick means that you would do this for all of the 42 years you are likely to have as a worker and another 21 as a pensioner.

We have not said anything about wealth that comes from peace of mind, from contentment, from good health, and from great social relationships. 

But – and this is a huge BUT – if you have worries over managing your money, this is very likely to cast a dark shadow over every other area of your life.  So, indirectly, My money, my business, my life has been more than about just money.

Perhaps you can best judge the value of My money, my business, my life only after you retire from work.  Perhaps only then you’d be able to say, “Yes, I certainly don’t regret managing my money with the big picture in mind!”  And if the unthinkable happens before retirement, perhaps your heirs will say, “Yes, he/she managed his/her money with the big picture in mind!”

Jay Pillay’s first two critical decades were spent where his first decade began – in Pietermaritzburg. After studying at ML Sultan Technikon in Durban (anyone remember that place?), he then joined the sugar industry, working in Tongaat, Durban, and Xinavane – a sugar mill village 120km north of Maputo. Oh yes – there was a brief period of unfaithfulness, when he flirted with aluminium in Richard’s Bay. Upon retirement, he and his wife Dorothy – settled in Southport.

Jay began writing about salary management (for ordinary people living on a salary) in the early 2000s. Many of his articles were published by The Ripple Effect, a Durban-based corporate newsletter. In all his writing, Jay says he attempts to emphasise the big picture in salary management: it’s not just about making it to your next payday – it’s about making it to the end of your working life. It’s not just about your working life – it’s about your retirement too. It’s not just about the cost of living – it’s about the cost of dying too. It’s not just about you as a salary manager – it’s about your dependants too.

This 16-part series is being published here for the first time. It would be invaluable for salary managers in the early years of their lives – who realize that salary management is a lifetime business. Finally, it’s not just about reading stuff on salary management – it’s about careful thought (that means time, well invested), and then taking appropriate action.

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