I have listened to so many staff members and people in general over the years explaining how when they next get an increase they will start saving and why they cannot at the moment. I started saving with my very first salary as a candidate attorney, although if truth being told, I started saving long before then.

I set aside 10% of my salary which was then R1 500,00, probably the equivalent of about R3 500,00 these days, and continued to do so and at times setting aside more than 10%. I think it comes down to discipline and that always hits home when one reads about the latest tax dramas of some or other pop star, including Michael Jackson’s estate, or actor or actress who suddenly got themselves into big tax problems because they have been spending all the money they earned and not paying tax. The reality of the matter is that it is not about earning more as these tsars do and who also can’t pay their bills, it is not about having a few more Rands before you can start saving, but it is about discipline. People without discipline will always find an excuse why that month’s salary has to be spent on essentials and the definition of essentials has stretched to include tickets to a major party, drugs for the party, cigarettes, alcohol, more and more time on the cell phone and considerable amounts of entertainment.

If that is the life you live, and many do live it, you will certainly have more fun while you are young than the rest of us, but one day when you pay the price in terms of a sudden emergency where you have no money, or even if it takes until retirement, you must remember that you always chose to indulge yourself, you always chose a short-term gain and you never saved. It is true of anything – including a business. Some business owners will take out all the profits and never reinvest in marketing, computer systems and improving the client experience and as a result they will over time fall by the wayside. They may think that others grow bigger than them because the others are lucky, the others had more opportunities and sometimes that is true, but more often than not it is about discipline. They asked the Mayor of New York recently about why he is more successful than other people and the answer from Michael Bloomberg, who is a billionaire, was essentially that he starts work earlier and he ends up working later than other people – in short, he works harder and longer than others. It all gets down to how much you put in and how much discipline you have. If you don’t have it, it is not the end of the world – just don’t complain!