Cape Town, 20 July 2016: South Africans were glued to Cassper Nyovest, also known as Mr CEO, and Pearl Thusi’s social media pages during the month of July as these two normally conspicuous spenders showed another side of themselves – a side focused on saving. Thousands of fans debated why the duo were mending their own clothes, getting a roadside haircut, Airbnb-ing their house and opting for UberX over more expensive chauffeurs. Finally, after weeks they have revealed that they are not broke – and they also don’t want anyone else to be! In collaboration with the Sanlam Group for National Savings Month in July, their mutual goal is to set South Africans on the road to their best possible lives – a future that is low in debilitating debt and high on savings.
When the initiative dropped, it took only a few hours for the change in spending behaviour to grab the attention of the celebrities’ fans. Thousands started sharing how important saving is to them, with many thanking Cassper and Pearl for being open about how important it is to them:
- tha_ceez Really appreciate the move you’re taking towards being real about money and how it should be spent wisely, hope the masses are listening @casspernyovest #money #ballin #economical #keepinitreal #braai #goingout#educate
- khosi_mka Love the fact that you’re upcycling and buying second hand it’s also a sustainable way of living. It does not have to be brand new. It just needs to be fabulously you. Dope
- abbiconroyThank you for this @pearlthusi you are so real, stylish and beautiful. It’s about style not about the price tag
- phindiswa_meka Don’t you just love it when celebs show us we don’t have to live an expensive life……save, save, save, save, save, save!
Nyovest needed no convincing to collaborate with the Sanlam Group. At his core, he is a man who believes that hard work and ‘doing it for yourself’ is the way to go. He owns some pretty flashy items now, but he worked for them. “Don’t be silly, trying to look rich if you aren’t. Be real. Be honest about your situation. If you are in debt, cut back on your lifestyle and get out of debt. It’s not just about now, and it’s not about what anyone else thinks of you. Make your life happen for yourself,”Nyovest said.
Pearl Thusi remains a humble girl who has had her fair share of hard knocks and who believes strongly in setting up an amazing future for herself and her family. A lot of the ‘celebrity lifestyle’ she normally reflects to the public is for show. She is successful, but first and foremost she is a mother who is doing everything she does for her daughter, Thando.
Why did Cassper and Pearl do this though? Their mutual goal was clear: to raise the street cred associated with #ConspicuousSaving and to get us to think before we spend.
Says Cora Fernandez, chief executive of Sanlam Investments institutional business, “Someone once told me that poor people save and rich people invest. So perhaps we should start telling people to invest, so that it becomes aspirational and reignites their associationswith opulent lifestyles and wealth creation.
“Sadly, the financial services’annual savings drive competes with the retail industry and social media which are subconsciously and explicitly encouraging people to ‘buy stuff’. Every year we tell people to save, and the most obvious question is ‘what for?’. We say ‘a rainy day’, but in our world the rainy day is next week. Instead, let’s start dinner conversations about how much we have managed to invest rather than the latest sale,” says Fernandez. “We could even start competing online to see whose investment portfoliohas grown the fastest.”
Once again, Sanlam are using National Savings Month (July) to encourage South Africans to re-examine their complex relationships with money by taking a deeper look at the psychology behind their spending. Says Fernandez, “We want to fire up a nation of #ConspicuousSaving to set ourselves on a path of true wealth creation.”
For more about this National Savings Month social experiment visit http://www.ConspicuousSaving.co.za
