Post-Covid Financial Spring-Cleaning

Many South Africans’ financial affairs are under far more strain than a year ago. Experts provide some tips on how to manage those big expenses in the wake of the lockdown’s severe impact on household incomes.

- Timothy Rangongo

Spring has sprung and so has a virus that has not only permeated people’s health but personal finances too. An online survey of 1 000 adults from different regions in South Africa, conducted between 31 July to 3 August 2020 by TransUnion, indicates that the financial impact of the Covid-19 crisis on local consumers remains high.

The number of consumers saying their household income has been negatively impacted dropped to its lowest level (77%) since the first round of surveys in April, and much lower than the 84% peak observed in June. The respondents reported that job losses continue to increase, with 21% of financially-impacted consumers reporting that they have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, up from 10% in April.

The pandemic has affected and will most likely continue to affect household finances beyond 2020. As we embark on a much required financial spring-cleaning process, we look at how various financial priorities – from vehicle financing to the mortgage market, insurance and saving for retirement and emergencies – differ this time around.

Vehicles

Vehicle sales in the first half of 2020 were severely impacted by the restrictions on operations due to the government-imposed lockdown. The halt to dealer sales in March and April impacted sales tremendously, says Lebogang Gaoaketse, WesBank’s head of marketing and communication.

“As a result, year-to-date sales for the first half of 2020 were 36.9% down on the same period last year,” he tells finweek.