Heritage Day is about what we inherit.
The recipes. The languages. The stories. The traditions. The family jokes. And, of course, the strong opinions about the Springboks.
But there is another form of heritage that rarely gets discussed around the braai: money.
How families save. How they deal with debt. How they respond to financial setbacks. How they give. How they prepare for the unexpected.
These behaviours can become lessons for the next generation, even when nobody sits down to teach them.
“We tend to think of heritage as what we inherit,” says Niresh Gopichand, Risk Director at Atlas Finance. “But there is another kind of heritage – the habits and attitudes children pick up from watching how their parents handle debt, saving, giving and financial setbacks.”
And that raises an uncomfortable question.
What financial heritage are we creating for the next generation?
Gopichand says families need to become part of the money conversation. Otherwise, financial literacy risks being shaped increasingly by products and messages designed to influence behaviour.
This Heritage Day, he suggests families ask six questions that could turn an ordinary braai into a conversation with lasting value.
1. What is the most expensive lesson money has ever taught you?
Forget the lecture.
Start with a story.
Maybe it was the car that was bought too soon. Perhaps it was a policy that was allowed to lapse. Or maybe it was money lent to a friend that never came back.
These stories can teach more than a perfect financial plan because they are real.
Few young people respond well to being told what they did wrong before they have even made the mistake. But they may remember a story about someone they trust.
Families often protect their pride by keeping financial mistakes private. Yet those mistakes may contain some of the most valuable lessons worth passing on.
The lesson is simple: talk about what went wrong, not only what went right.
Stories are memorable. They can also be repeated across generations.
2. If we are not teaching them about money, who is?
This question may be more important than ever.
South Africans gambled R1.5 trillion in 2024/25, up roughly a third year on year and mostly online, according to the National Gambling Board.
The issue is not simply how much money is being wagered.
It is how normalised betting has become.
It can happen on a phone during a match, surrounded by familiar sportspersons and influencers.
But gambling is only one part of a much bigger shift.
Buy Now Pay Later options have moved from novelty to standard checkout features. They now include groceries. The experience can feel like budgeting, but it is credit.
Meanwhile, roughly 36% of credit-active South Africans, or more than 10 million people, have impaired credit records, according to the National Credit Regulator’s Credit Bureau Monitor.
The common thread is design.
Financial decisions once came with a pause. You had to visit somewhere, complete a form or speak to somebody.
That pause created an opportunity to think.
Technology has removed much of that friction.
Today, spending and borrowing can feel less like financial decisions and more like ordinary transactions.
That is why families need to talk about what they are seeing.
Ask how many betting adverts everyone remembers from the last match they watched.
Then ask a second question:
Does everyone know what each of their monthly debit orders is for?
It sounds simple. That is precisely the point.
Small conversations can expose how easily financial decisions become part of everyday life without us noticing.
Families should also pay attention to secrecy around gambling. An occasional loss is not necessarily the issue. The concern comes when someone starts hiding their betting, avoids the subject or becomes uncomfortable when asked about it.
If gambling has become difficult to control for someone in your family, the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation offers confidential support on 0800 006 008.
3. What are we carrying for other people?
And does anyone know the number?
For many South African families, supporting relatives is part of life.
One person may pay school fees. Another may support an elderly parent. A graduate may suddenly have several people depending on their first salary.
The challenge is not the giving.
The challenge is what happens when everyone depends on one person and nobody has discussed what happens if that income disappears.
We often talk about concentration risk when discussing investments.
Households can face the same problem.
What happens if the person carrying the financial responsibility can no longer do it?
That conversation may feel uncomfortable.
But knowing the answer before a crisis happens can make all the difference.
4. If something happened to me tomorrow, where would you look?
This may be the question families least want to ask.
It may also be one of the most important.
Where is the will?
Which policies are in place?
Who knows about the pension from a previous employer?
Which institution holds the important documents?
Most families discover these gaps only when they are forced to deal with them.
The Master of the High Court estimates that more than 70% of working South Africans have no will, a figure cited by Legal Aid South Africa.
There is another issue that can create serious complications: inherited property that was never transferred.
If the title deed for the family home is still in a grandparent’s name, it can become difficult to sell, insure or finance the property.
Dying without a will does not mean there is no process.
It means the law decides rather than the family.
That can take time, cost money and create disagreements when emotions are already high.
One practical solution is surprisingly simple.
Create a one-page document showing where important documents are kept, which institutions hold accounts and who should be contacted.
It does not need to be complicated.
It needs to be accessible.
5. Who taught you to save?
And how did they do it?
Not every financial lesson comes from a textbook.
Sometimes it comes from the community.
An estimated 800,000 stokvels move around R50 billion a year, involving more than 11 million people, according to the National Stokvel Association of South Africa (NASASA).
Stokvels work because members contribute, follow rules and hold one another accountable.
Across generations, they have helped pay school fees, build homes and cover funerals.
That is financial knowledge already sitting inside communities.
And that is heritage too.
The mistake is allowing that knowledge to be absorbed by accident instead of teaching it deliberately.
Ask older family members how their stokvel works.
Who keeps the records?
What happens when someone misses a payment?
Does the stokvel have a dedicated bank account?
Is there a second signatory?
These questions turn a familiar tradition into a financial lesson for the next generation.
6. What should we understand about the two-pot system?
There is also a timely money conversation to have this September.
The two-pot retirement system turns two on 1 September.
Repeat withdrawals are now common, while the average claim has fallen to about R9,290. Roughly seven in ten withdrawals are below R10,000, according to Momentum.
That suggests many withdrawals are being used to deal with regular household pressure rather than emergencies.
Two details are widely misunderstood.
Withdrawals are taxed at the member’s marginal rate, rather than the more favourable retirement lump-sum tables.
The South African Revenue Service may also deduct outstanding tax debt first.
The two-pot system was designed to provide access to retirement savings for genuine need.
The concern comes when it becomes the answer to every month-end squeeze.
That makes understanding the system, and discussing how it is being used, an important part of financial education.
Heritage is also what we teach
Heritage Day is usually about what we received.
This year, it may be worth asking a different question:
What are we passing on?
The answer is not only property, investments or money.
It is behaviour.
It is how children see adults respond when money gets tight.
It is whether debt is discussed openly.
It is whether saving is normal.
It is whether families prepare for death, emergencies and financial responsibility.
It is whether mistakes are hidden or turned into lessons.
Gopichand puts it simply:
“You will leave your children your assets, but you will also leave them your habits.”
And perhaps that is the financial heritage worth thinking about around the braai this Heritage Day.
Because an inheritance can eventually run out.
A financial mindset can last for generations.
