Entertainers such as Somizi Mhlongo and PJ Powers might seem to be living the dream, but their success came at the heavy price of learning to change their money habits, as revealed in the recently released web-series, Nedbank Money Secrets.
Somizi grew up in a family with poor attitudes towards money.
“I grew up not respecting money,” he says. “Although I made my first million by the time I was 25, I wasted my money on expensive clothes and cars. I wanted to show that I was successful and to fit in with other successful people, but I had no investments. I’ve learnt my lesson and now I live within my means.”
PJ Powers says she had to learn to fend for herself financially when she told her parents that she would be a singer. “People expect you to live a life you can't afford,” she says, “but in our world we don't have the luxury of a regular monthly salary. I’ve learnt that if you respect money, it will respect you back.
"Money is the by-product of passion, not the other way around. We need to make people conscious of what money is, and what it isn't; how important it is, and how important it isn't,” she says.
On the back of the bank's recently released short film, Secrets, created to help people forge better relationships with money, Nedbank has launched a web-series in which five well-known actors and entertainers share their money secrets and the money lessons they have learnt in the course of their careers.
“We believe that if you want to change something and develop more positive habits, you need to look at your connection with money and the psychology behind your relationship with money. Once you understand your attitude towards money it can really drive the decisions you make,” says Khensani Nobanda, group executive marketing and corporate affairs for Nedbank.
Lindiwe Dim and Brett Williams, who both play characters in Secrets, also feature in the web-series where they each share their personal money secrets and how their emotional connection with money influenced the choices they made when spending and saving money.
Radio personality Nick Hamman says his attitude towards money was influenced by the fact that his family never spoke about it and that the expectations from society can have a crippling effect on one's financial well-being.
“I really hate celebrity culture because it encourages you to live at a certain level. If you want to be poor, act rich,” Hamman says.
According to Nobanda, statistics show that many South Africans struggle to find financial stability owing to poor financial decision-making.
“Many people are not critically aware of the repercussions of how they spend. So, with the help of a psychologist, we developed eight money archetypes, based on psychology and common behaviours. By taking a simple quiz, people will be able to understand their own money type and hopefully by understanding your archetype you can understand what your good behaviours are but also understand your bad behaviours and, as a result, make a positive change.”