One month before my 21st birthday, my grandfather told me he would be gifting me 21,000 South African rand (approximately $1,500 USD based on the exchange rate at the time). However, there was a catch: I had to visit a financial advisor with him and invest the money in stocks.
At the time, I valued the freedom that money gave me, but I had given little consideration to investing. I had been working a part-time bar job throughout university, I took on promoting gigs whenever possible, and I was just starting to get freelance writing gigs.
Most of my earned money went toward subsidizing my lifestyle in university (usually drunken nights out or greasy takeaways from the local pizza shop), or I saved the money for a specific occasion, like a road trip with my roommate across the country. That said, I welcomed the 21st birthday gift, and I knew that it was something I’d grow to appreciate.
I knew investing was responsible, but I also thought it was a future priority
In early 2019, six months after my 21st birthday, my grandpa set up an appointment for me to meet my new financial advisor with him.
We sat in a boardroom as my financial advisor explained stocks and the market, throwing around terms that went completely over my head, such as “repo rate,” “Capital Gains Tax,” and “volatility.” I nodded along, hoping it looked like I understood more than I did. My grandfather would occasionally ask my advisor to explain important concepts, such as highlighting the risks of withdrawing the money too soon, especially when the market was in a bad place.
After we set the investment up, I received quarterly updates via email. I rarely opened them, and I almost forgot all about the investment portfolio. However, during a family Easter holiday two years after setting up the portfolio, the topic of investments came up. My brother asked me how much my portfolio had grown (my grandfather had set up something similar for him, too). I opened my email to check: The balance was 28,138 ZAR. This was a 34% increase in just two years.
By this time, I had graduated from university, and I was starting to earn a decent amount of money in my PR business. I was still unsure about how taxes worked, so I was overestimating the amount of money to put aside for them each month. However, in 2022, after hiring a tax consultant and filing my annual tax returns, I discovered that I had a good chunk of money left in savings.
Courtesy of Alice Draper
Three years after starting the investment, I added to the portfolio myself
I remembered the investment my grandfather helped me set up, and I emailed my financial advisor, asking whether I could add an additional 80,000 South African rand to the portfolio. We set this up, and I also inquired about retirement, arranging a monthly debit order that would go to my tax-free retirement fund.
My grandfather did not merely gift me capital; he gave me the gift of financial literacy. He knew that the best way for me to understand the value of investing was to see my own money grow. I am lucky to still have him around as a mentor, and I often ask him for financial (and business) advice. His approach is never prescriptive; in fact, even at 21, he never told me that I had to keep my money with a financial advisor.
Instead, my grandfather has always believed that equipping people with options through knowledge, tools, or resources creates a different kind of security. Learning to invest at 21 gave me exactly that: the ability to make thoughtful choices with my money as my life and income changed.
