Jay Pillay: Is there any value in having a twitching head?

Jeremy Seethal is a South African football talent scout based in Ghana, West Africa. I spent time with him just before Christmas, 2013. “Do you have any formal training in what to look for when you are trying to identify talent?” I asked.

“Not really,” he responded. “You work with professional scouts, and you learn by observing them, and observing players.”

I pondered over this for a while. “Okay,” I said, “But if you don’t know what to look for, your observation probably won’t be too effective.”

It was Jeremy’s turn to ponder now. Then his eyes lit up. “Here’s an example,” he said. “I look for the player who has… a twitching head.”

“A twitching head? What’s that?” I asked. I knew it couldn’t be a disease.

“Imagine a player running with the ball,” he explained, “He has his eyes on the goal posts, but he constantly looks from side to side, very rapidly. He’s checking out where his teammates are, where his opponents are, and where his opportunities are. He realises the goal posts are only a small part of the big picture. And he is always taking snapshots of the big picture. That’s the twitching head!”

I had a new respect for football talent scouts in general, and Jeremy in particular. I hope he goes a very long way!

Let’s bring this down to salary management now. May I venture a suggestion?

Your salary is like a football. The playing field is the whole financial landscape in which you live. The goal posts in front of you are your next payday.

Look only at the goal posts, and you will end up in trouble. Like the football player, your head has to twitch from left to right to absorb the big picture. Exactly what are you regularly looking for, over your shoulders?

• Retirement provision. You know that you will work for just 40 years, and then be retired for 20 years. You are responsible for creating your pension.

• Saving for year-end expenses. You know how this can poison your game for a whole year, if not more. So you calculate how much you need, divide the amount by 12, and save that amount each month.

• Provision for medical costs. This may be your monthly medical aid premium, or hospital insurance cover. And it’s not just the medical cost for you, but for your loved ones too.

• Saving to create a salary “cushion”. You want to do this, so that you have at least two times your salary, sitting right there in your salary account. You want the confidence that comes from knowing that your salary account does not go from (say) R5000 on payday, to zero on the day before the next payday. Besides, you want to have two month’s insurance if you happen to lose your job.

• Education costs. You have plans for paying for college or university education for your children. You pay monthly for these plans. (You know that education is not cheap, but you balance that against the cost of ignorance.)

• Life cover. A very serious one, this. You know that your death will end your game, but the games of your loved ones go on. And they will need money. So you provide for them.

• Repayment of debt. Certainly, if you have no debt, there’s less twitching of the head. But if there is debt, you make sure that you make your monthly payments. And you look forward to the time when your debt is cleared.

(There is manageable debt, possibly like your mortgage bond. That’s good debt, because it involves ownership of your house – and your house is an asset that increases in value. And then there is bad debt – debt you cannot afford to repay.)

As a salary manager, you are probably aware of other things you need to look out for. But most importantly, you know that the goal posts are only a part of a much bigger picture. You know that the game is not over when you reach payday. Over forty years, there will be 480 paydays (40 x 12); and after that you’ll become a pension manager.

That’s right – there is no end to this game of football.

But you can relax, because you know the value of having a twitching head. And, surprisingly, you’ll actually enjoy the game more.

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