There are several personal finance books available to South Africans. This aligns with global trends: people like to read about how to make money. They see it as part of some kind of financial investment in themselves, their future, and the livelihoods of their families.
But things are different down in South Africa. Popular get-rich books like Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad and Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money often provide advice that does not reflect the intricacies of the South African present.
And this shouldn’t be a surprise. Most financial self-help books aim for as broad an audience as possible and base their models on major Western economies like the United States. I think that it is more valuable to read books that best reflect a person’s real surroundings.
The blog section on my website was made to reflect my personal interests in South African literature. It might be embarrassing to admit as a literary student, but I do enjoy reading books about making money and general self-improvement. While my post about My Favourite Aldous Huxley Book might have shown this, this blog hopes to expand my interests further.
Reading Books About Money
Reading books about money offers insights into what might be a successful way to boost personal financial well-being. But they should never be seen as a roadmap to economic success. All the people who have read The Richest Man in Babylon since its publication back in 1926 have not become the richest man in their neighbourhood. But I’d bet that many have benefited from its lessons.
My enjoyment of finance books is much like the joy I get from watching documentaries of historic figures. I like to see how their situations, actions, thoughts, and ideas make them who they are. When reading books about money, I prefer to see models for success. I’m not really interested in following them, nor do I expect to make millions like them. I’m merely reading for a trick or two on how to have some extra cash and be a better capitalist subject.
Some also contain mildly interesting rhetorical models. The e/illusive rich dad in Kiyosaki’s popular book is the perfect mentor figure for the text’s de facto protagonist. This figure becomes someone that we, as readers, learn from, too. Similarly, the poor dad is a stand-in for our own – often paternal – familial money maker who we tend to follow without thought. We need the mentor to show us a new path beyond what we’ve grown up knowing and are comfortable with.
I guess that I’m making some kind of literary claim. Even the most trite and overtly optimised writing can possess literary merit regardless of whether it was written to make money for the author and possibly provide guidance for the reader.
The Secret to Learning Financial Success
The secret to learning financial success from financial books is that you need to personalise the reading and see how the lessons can be applied in your own life. No one who reads Warren Buffet’s letters to shareholders should think that they can copy everything that he does in order to become as rich as he is. But there is value in learning how he thinks through reading his writing.
The problem with most financial self-help books is that they pretend like they are a roadmap to success. But this cannot be true. Good books across all genres of literature improve a human’s thinking and cognitive abilities. Just like there is no real value in reading Samuel Richardson’s Pamela to learn a moral code, there is no use reading Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich and expecting anything other than someone else’s often skewed ideas on what the right thing to do is.
The point is: you need to think for yourself. While learning to think for yourself often starts by reading the thoughts and ideas of others, success begins when the ideas are your own and are applied to your immediate surroundings, situation, and future.
Books about Making Money in South Africa
Making money in South Africa requires an understanding of the inherent complexities of the economy. It’s also unfortunate that political turmoil both locally and internationally, corruption, and its history of colonisation, apartheid, and neo-imperialist practices have continued to stunt its growth.
I’m a fan of reading South African books that help to explore many of its aspects. This is no different regarding books about improving your financial well-being as a South African citizen.
I’ve compiled a list of some of the most popular personal finance books by South Africans. I don’t talk about books that I haven’t read, so I’ve included a short bit below that explores how I feel about the book as someone with little interest in making tonnes of rands.
You’re not Broke You’re pre-rich – Mapalo Makhu
You’re Not Broke You’re Pre-Rich by Mapalo Makhu is great for young South African millennials who want to rethink their relationships with money and build a more stable financial future. It has the simple, relatable, story-like style found in most financial self-help books.
Makhu also unpacks the concept of “black tax”, a financial term that originated in South Africa and refers to the burden that successful, young, often ‘born-free’ South Africans must bear. This is an additional ‘tax’ that South Africans of colour usually need to pay in order to provide for their family members who are still excluded from the largely white-centred economy.
SmartWoman – Sylvia Walker
SmartWoman by Sylvia Walker hopes to equip women with the financial knowledge necessary to set themselves up in a secure position. But it does so while engaging with the specific challenges that women might face, such as smart investments while having children.
Walker’s life experiences play into her text. She is an active freelance writer, financial planner, and a single mother. Like The Psychology of Money, she examines why our personal lives and our own relationships with money might hinder our ability to make smart financial decisions.
Making Money Out of Property in South Africa – Jason Lee
Making Money Out of Property in South Africa by Jason Lee provides insights into how to become a successful landlord and property investor within the South African market. Given the importance of land in this economy, it is a book with helpful advice.
Lee’s engagement with the property market can extend to general advice on how to function as a better business person. For instance, his advice when he talks about how to get a loan for building your own property portfolio can be applied to general businesses seeking outside financial guidance.
90 Rules for Entrepreneurs – Marnus Broodryk
90 Rules for Entrepreneurs by Marnus Broodryk is a great book for any aspiring South African entrepreneur who wants to build their business and financial knowledge. His advice covers leadership, marketing, and financial management.
Like most financial self-help books, 90 Rules for Entrepreneurs extends beyond the aspiring business mogul. His advice applies to anyone who wants to become a more professional and savvy worker. Additionally, his advice on how to build lasting businesses translates to building stable systems within your own life.
What’s Your Money Personality? – Vangile Makwakwa
What’s Your Money Personality? by Vangile Makwakwa follows the trend of recent books on finance that seek to help individuals understand their own relationships with money. These types of books see humans as having unique engagement with how to make money.
The difference Makwakwa provides is that she sets her book within the black South African context. She provides a variety of money archetypes that prevail in these communities. The hope is that the reader can see themselves and those around them in order to better understand their own attitudes.
How to Become a Millionaire at 22 – Albert Van Wyk
How to Become a Millionaire at 22 by Albert Van Wyk utilises some of the tropes common in older finance books. Its primary purpose is to do what the title suggests: become a millionaire young, just like he did.
This means that it does fall into some of the stereotypes commonly associated with the genre, such as not really addressing the luck needed to gain wealth. However, the use of his own personal life stories does provide a solid roadmap for how success can work. It’s great if you want to get inspired by someone else’s success.
From Debt to Riches – Phumelele Ndumo
From Debt to Riches by Phumelele Ndumo is more personal than other books. Ndumo is at pains to paint themselves as an ordinary South African. And just like them, you too can become rich from following their advice.
Most of the advice is solid. The book provides step-by-step strategies for managing debt, creating a budget, and investing for the future. Her advice is tailored to the unique financial challenges faced by South Africans, making it a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their financial situation.
Make Your Money Work For You – Anthea Gardner
Make Your Money Work For You by Anthea Gardner advises how to grow your wealth through common investing strategies. They recommend starting small by investing in stocks, bonds, and other easily accessible tools.
Its title is taken from a lesson in Rich Dad Poor Dad where it is said that the rich do not work for their money but instead have it work for them. While this might seem like the bleakest form of late capitalism around, it is also a helpful tool to reassess how to make your money grow and ‘do its part’ in your financial life.
How to Get a SARS Refund – Daniel Baines
How To Get A SARS Refund by Daniel Baines is a concise, readable, and easily accessible tool for anyone wanting to better understand the South African Revenue Services and general income taxes in South Africa.
But it is even helpful to those like me who leave these tasks up to an accountant. While the primary aim is taxation advice, its general messages can be extended towards a better understanding of the financial systems one was born into. Death and taxes are humanity’s only certainty, so knowing where you fit in is invaluable.
How to Invest Like Warren Buffett – Alec Hogg
How to Invest Like Warren Buffett by Alex Hogg unpacks the life and success of compound interest’s greatest success story and tries to explain it to the common reader. The hope, I think, is that we all share in Buffett’s success.
I’m always sceptical of books in the South African market that use US models as a means for financial success. There is definitely a lot to be learnt from this book, but the success of Buffett is not his mind alone. He was also born in the United States as its economy cemented its world dominance. This factor should not be ignored regardless of the lessons that one might gain.
You CAN Own Your Own Home – Tania Weich
You CAN Own Your Own Home by Tania Weich provides a step-by-step process for financing and purchasing a property in South Africa. Homeownership is a goal of almost everyone, so it’s a vogue topic to write about.
Weich’s engagement with the complexities of the South African property market is admirable. There is much to take from it. But the entire country’s complexities – particularly those ‘outside’ of the economic sphere – are left alone. While this is a finance book, and Weich cannot touch on everything – homeownership is the ideal that the text promises. Failing to address this might set up readers for failure.
Financial Freedom Through Property – Laurens Boel
Financial Freedom Through Property by Laurens Boel promises the dual desires of many South African citizens: wealth and property ownership. It provides great advice on achieving both in a relatively simple manner.
The actual feasibility of his advice is as questionable as every other book. Financial success favours the diligent, smart, and bold, but there’s an undeniable element of luck that, unfortunately, doesn’t lend well to book sales. That being said, Boel’s text is full of helpful information. He also provides frequent property tips and tricks on his YouTube channel.
The Wealth Chef – Ann Wilson
The Wealth Chef by Ann Wilson is one of the most popular financial success books in South Africa. I put this down to its style. Wilson provides ‘recipes’ that help with saving, investing, and other wealth-building strategies.
But her success has not come without a price. While Wilson’s book is helpful to the South African reader, its audience is somewhat global. This makes sense since most people who write books about finance want to make a profit from book sales, and the bigger the audience, the better. But this does mean that some of her suggestions might remain vaguely applicable.
Choosing The Right Book
Finance and business books can help people achieve the money, dreams, and aspirations that they long for. But it’s no secret that they’re top sellers. All of the major publishers have their own superstars. This is because these books make money in a way that even the latest Deon Meyer book cannot.
When it comes to choosing the right book, I’d recommend finding what works best for you. I like reading, so I don’t mind slogging through the endless cliche scenarios and other generally unimaginable situations. I don’t imagine knowing how to buy a R10 000 000 building cash would ever come in handy in my life, but I like to know that it’s a skill I possess.
The literacy side of me wants to recommend fiction to enhance your life. But fiction rarely turns a profit. Yet, I still view South African personal finance books as textual constructions in their own right. They have tropes and quirks that speak to a larger societal obsession with amassing goods for the life these constructions are simultaneously creating, building, promoting, and promising.
I would like to thank none of these authors or publishers for their sponsorships of the arts.
Interested in reading more? Consider the following:
Kris Van der Bijl 
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