What happens when the 9-to-5 ends? With Mam'Vicky Masuku and Lynette Uys | Momentum Corporate Zenzele Series

For many, the word “retirement” sparks mixed emotions: excitement for freedom, but also uncertainty about the future. What happens when the 9-to-5 ends? Who do we become beyond our careers?
In this Zenzele Series episode,  legendary broadcaster Mam'Vicky Masuku and Lynette Uys from Momentum Corporate unpack these questions and remind us that retirement isn’t the end of productivity or purpose. It’s a season to redefine yourself, nurture passions, and enjoy the rewards of years of planning. Because truly, there is life after retirement.

The "Zenzele" series is a video series by Momentum Corporate that educates and entertains viewers about retirement planning and financial wellness. 
The Podcast has partnered with Momentum Corporate to bring you conversations that give insights to help you make the right decisions for you and your finances. 

The Podcast:
Camera: Mluleki Dlamini & Siyabonga Meyiwa
Sound: Sibusiso 'Dust' Nkosi
Editing: Mluleki Dlamini & Kwenza Trevor Masinga
Co-ordinator: Phumelele Khambule
Host: Nongcebo Vukile McKenzie

Contact: info@nvmckenzie.co.za
View episodes on YouTube : Link ➡️ https://youtube.com/@nvmckenzie?si=y8ZcaOQ0yYqjGhA8

Disclaimer:
Some content may include sensitive topics and discussions, listener discretion is advised. The intention is not to offend but to provide information. Proceed only if you are comfortable with potentially sensitive topics. The content on this podcast does not constitute financial, legal, medical, or any other professional advice. Users should consult with the relevant professionals for specific advice related to their situation.

The Podcast is not responsible and cannot be held liable for any damages resulting from reliance on the content provided through the channel's content. All content is provided without warranty.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

I am Nongayabo Vogela Mackenzie and this is the podcast Saubon. Every fortnight a guest joins us for a conversation or to share a story. It's a pleasure to share these with you and to have you with us. Welcome to another episode of Nongrebo Mackenzie, the podcast. been having this series of conversations with Momentum Corporate, really focusing on retirement planning so that you can live comfortably after retirement. But the picture that that brings up is that it all ends at retirement, but there is definitely, definitely life after retirement. And I think these conversations have really highlighted that, that you really need to plan to have a comfortable retirement. So obviously there is life after retirement. I'd like to welcome our guests on the podcast, on this episode of the podcast Lynette, you're joining us again. Hello, Lynette. Thank you for having me again. Oh, my mommy. Oh, my God. Hello, mommy. I'm nervous. I'm nervous. Because for me, and I always tell the story, Lynette, about Mumvii. So Mumvii was a broadcaster for many years, for just under 30 years. She was on Okozi FM. And I remember that I grew up in a very rural area, Kwa Mazal. And she hosted a show that I ordinarily wouldn't listen to because I would be at school, 9 to 12, the 9 to 12 mid-morning show. And it was a very rural area, so gravel road, and there'd been such heavy rains, such heavy rains that we couldn't leave the area because the roads had eroded. So cars couldn't pass through. So So that day I was at home and I happened to listen to the mid-morning show and she was doing a book reading. I think I was in standard 8. Never in my life did I think I would land up working with her. Never did I in my life think that I would be interviewing her. I've never interviewed her. We worked together, I think it was for 10 years before you retired, Ma? Maybe, yeah. And yeah, so this for me is a lot of excitement. But Ma, we are now in this conversation because you have retired. I was surprised when you said before we went on air that you've been retired for 10 years. How's that been? Well, you're theoretically retired. You aren't really retired. Yeah, it's nice. It's fun. It's relaxing. It's just everything that you can think of that is out of work. because I don't have to wake up early so that I can be awake by eight o'clock and stay in office until four, half past four. I'm doing things at my own pace, at my own time. But Umamviye was also, she commentated soccer, commentated rugby, commentated cricket, commentated swimming, commentated rugby, athletics also. She also did the choral music shows because she's an adjudicator for the national choral competitions. And she now sits on the language board and she still does all these things. This is not past ten. So this is continued post-retirement. And this is one of the things you talk about in it. webinars because you host webinars to help people plan for their retirement and you segment them according to time remaining to retirement. Yes. Well, I am very, very blessed to be here with you. Thank you, Lynette. And I feel sure that What an icon. How lucky are you? Definitely, definitely. But yes, coming back to me and the function that I, the role that I play, as a retirement benefit counsellor, we're very focused on making sure people have information in order for them to make informed decisions when they get to retirement age. So everything about what I do is about retirement. But the webinars that I started doing is we realize that there's a need for people to learn earlier on. about retirement. What does it mean? What can I do? So we started with a series. The first one is for people that are 10 years and less from retirement, so basically 5 to 10 years. And then the next group is 5 to 1 year, and then there's one for 1 year away from retirement. Now what we focus on, when we start at 10 years from retirement, there's still a lot you can do financially. And there's where we really focus on giving information, factual information, making sure that we put people into contact with certified financial advisors to assist them to make sound decisions and really maximize on their savings for the last 10 years. But we also start looking at talking to people about things like children still living at home, adult children. And you will not believe how many people have adult children living with them at home. So that's one of the things that you actually need to think about this. You have kids at home. What are you going to do if you retire? Because you will not necessarily have the same income at retirement. And then going through to the five years away from retirement, we actually start at 10 years. But at five years, we really focus on repurposing your skills. I read something in preparation. There was a guy that said something like, you're too young to retire. hire, but too old to be hired, what a terrible place to be. Because in most cases, retirements start, you know, either 60, mum says, oh, you said you retired at 63. 65 is basically the maximum where you can be employed in an employer's situation unless you get a contract. your retirement fund will basically stop at max 65. So you need to start thinking about repurposing your skills because you have to make sure that you have an income besides your retirement income if it's not enough. And if you love it as much as you do, I can see if you want to. But repurposing your skills means that you actually have to think about it. Think about what have you done? What do you have to give? How can you monetize that to get an income after retirement? And that is definitely life after retirement. We see there is, definitely. But Manvi, one of the things that I ask myself is, this is a conversation that we're having now. And I think we are so lucky, our generation and the generations coming after, that they can get this education and they can get help with this planning. Because I don't remember this happening. Because you are never told by anyone that this is what you should do in preparation for retirement, whether it's 10 years before or five years before or even one year before. It's best to consult your financial advisor because if you and I are retiring at the same time and I've got children that are going to look after me, I've got five children, they're all doing well some are overseas and they're all going to look after me and I'm sorted out I'm going to be like, I'm not worried I don't need money, I'll just take I won't take the lump sum, I'll just take my monthly pension, but maybe you on the other hand, you've got family members that you need to look after or whatever the case might be or whatever it is, maybe you just want to renovate your house, you're not going to ask your daughter to go renovate it for you So your needs are different. So you're going to ask me and then you're going to leave there feeling confused like, oh my goodness, she's not taking all her money. And then you're thinking, or maybe you talk to somebody who's got a lot of debt and they just say, oh no, I'm taking all my money. And then you're thinking. That's the unfortunate part. We don't consult financial advisors. Did you even know that you could, Ma, at that age? No, I didn't know. I don't want to lie. I didn't know. When somebody was talking about a financial advisor, I thought it was somebody who was going to talk to you about how are you going to save your money. And then I would say... There's no money to be saved. When I get my salary, I use all my money, so I don't have to talk to the financial advisor. That was what I thought at that time. It's very unfortunate, but I think the now generation is lucky to have a... such people that can talk to you about what to do before you even retire. There's just one thing that I had to consult a person about. It was about my car. You remember, I was driving an Audi. I had to go to Sboniso Mieni, who was doing the motoring. I said to him, Sboniso, I'm about to retire, and I think I can't keep the Audi now. And then he said, fine, I'm going to advise you what to do. When are you retiring? I told him, and then he said, no, don't worry. Just three or four months before you retire, we'll talk about changing your car. That's the only thing I have to consult a person about. And Lynette, there's way more than that to consult about. Definitely, definitely, way more. I'm so sorry that you didn't have us in your life before you retired. But I think, you know, with the legislation coming on board and all insurers being forced to have retirement benefit counsellors. So this is legislated? legislator in 2019 so I must be honest with you I wish I had a retirement benefit come from when you were younger 20 years ago I can just say out loud how many years ago. And I really do, because we are, for lack of a better word, weaponizing the pre-retirees to make informed decisions, giving them information. We are giving them knowledge. Knowledge is power. We all know that. And if you know what you have to do, the years coming up to your retirement and at retirement, you can make an informed decision. All insurers have retirement benefit counsellors now and I see you young You can talk. It's a good time to talk to somebody if you don't have a financial advisor. And our retirement benefit counselors can actually put you into contact with a certified financial planner to really help you to make these crucial decisions. And intentionally thinking about these things. You have to, at a stage, start intentionally planning for the day that you retire Intentionally. Intentionally. So intentionally think about savings. Intentionally winding down your work life, making sure that you leave a legacy. when you retire and I mean I can see your legacy is like huge and it's important I think you can probably teach me a lot because you have repurposed your skill and that's something that's very interesting for me I would like to know how did you get to the point that you knew you can monetize what you learned. That's the thing, because a lot of people when they retire, I mean, working for 40 plus years, you deserve a break. You deserve to rest. Like you're saying, you don't want to wake up every day and have to go somewhere. But the knowledge that people who have been in the workforce have A lot of the younger ones take for granted, and they come in and they say, but they forget that the experience and the institutional knowledge and just understanding human dynamics in the workplace is invaluable. And we unfortunately lose that when people retire and they exit the workplace. But you are still able to contribute that, because you're still carrying on working in various capacities, with language, with media, you're still working, you sit on boards and all of that. How did you even get to that point? Like Lynette's asking, how did you even think about it? Remember, you said something about taking decisions, I can't remember whether it was Lynette or you, Nungnabo, intentionally. It was Lynette. You even repeated intentionally. Mine was, and intentional. It was just that now I'm getting less than what I used to get. So if something comes up and it is monetary and incentive, then I had to grab it. But It's again, Lynette, what you were saying, that the repurposing of your skills, because for all intents and purposes, Mumvi, I was on air for a long time. But because of being on air, there were other things that you were doing on the side. And those things, one would have assumed that once you retire, you stop everything. You switch off the mic, you stop everything else. But you didn't. You're in as much as you're a retired broadcaster. All these other aspects that maybe you wouldn't have fulfilled as much then, because you had to be in the office every day, you were then able to fulfill. Exactly. But the main thing is that once you get a salary that is less than what you used to get, you start thinking, how am I going to augment what I'm getting now? Because you've got... responsibilities. You've got young adults living with you. I live with my son who is 49 years old. I live with my sister who has her own children. And my sister is now a pensioner. Then she was not working. So all those things do count when you have to sort of budget. your income. So that's why I'm saying the money that you get from other places sort of augment your salary and then you are able to budget correctly, you are able to live well within your means. Yes, within your means, true. But I would like to say With the experience that I had when I retired, I always talked to my nieces and nephews about saving. I always tell them, please, please, at least 50 rand a month, just save it. I'm not sure how much you get as your salary, but save at least 50 rand a month. Ma, you say that comes from your experience. at retirement, what was that experience? It's trying to make ends meet. Trying to make ends meet. Yeah. With the pension that you have. Because Lynette, you were saying in the other discussion that you're lucky if you're able to save enough to be at 75%. So it doesn't mean you were earning a little. It doesn't mean you were not living within your means. It just means that the reality of retiring is that if you are lucky, if you are in the 6% that can retire comfortably, you are sitting at potentially 75% or less. Expenses are going up. Everything is going up. Everything is going up. But your income now is much less. But Lynette, this speaks to your webinars that you do because you do do a webinar on repurposing your skills and you teach people how to then plan for that or rather plan for retirement intentionally incorporating that. And I'm just wondering, Mamavi, you had that benefit even in your 20s to say, you know what, if you project, okay, maybe 20s would have been early, in your 40s, if you project, if you're looking at your situation domestically now, is it likely to change? Is it not likely to change? If it does not change, this is how you need to save, this is how you need to plan. And if it does change, oh well, all well and good, you will have that little bit of an extra cushion, which obviously is a benefit that you did not have because it was not there in your time. But now, there's advice that's available, Lynette, in terms of RB sees being able to assist people, plan intentionally, but you're also now educating people on repurposing their skills. Let's talk about that specifically. Okay. So, I did a lot of research about it, and we tend to, if you look at what can you do next, you tend to think about what you're doing now. No. Say that again. What you tend to think is what you're doing next depends on what you're doing now. It doesn't take into consideration that you've been working for 30, 40 years. What are all the skills you have? Even from your first job to your second job, That's what I'm talking about when I talk about repurposing of your skills. I've never thought of it that way. I honestly thought of it in a way of the job that you have and how you can continue doing that job as opposed to the skills overall that you have. And things like communication skills. If you are very admin... Great with admin. Administrative skills might not be something that you're doing right now, but it's something that you have a skill. You have the skill. But intentionally, once again, if I talk about repurposing your skills, it's all about intentionally thinking about it, going to a quiet place, taking a pen and paper, not... some electronic device because we tend to think a little bit better when we're in a quiet place, you know a place that you like, like on the beach or whatever you like, and writing down your skills. Writing it. Visualising yourself doing something different. Do a marketing plan for yourself. Look at it as a product. But you need to market. How will you do that? And then put it into action. Because you need to monetize it. You don't have to continue doing what you're doing. You might have other skills. You might have something that you really... I mean, you are doing a lot more than what you did when you were working. a lot of different things because of the skills you had. And it wasn't the skills of the last year before you retired that got you there. Yeah, true. The thing is, the problem is, when you're still working, you don't think the way you are saying it now. You only think about the work that you are doing. I'm going to work tomorrow, I'm going to work the other day. There's no other thing that... makes you think about what's going to happen next, what's going to happen to me when I retire. You don't think about that. And I think Lynette is encouraging us to think about that. Think about that, yes. Please think about it. Please, please, please think about it. And so, Lynette, you are recommending that people then do what after the marketing plan? Because a person, if you've been working a nine to five and you're used to waking up and Going into that 9 to 5, you've built relationships, you've developed your route, you've got, you know, you've set up systems in place to make this 9 to 5 work. And a lot of people, by the time they retire, they've been at that place of employment for quite a while. People don't generally change jobs a lot towards, you know, their 20 years. And a person will say, where do I even start? I mean, where did you even start with that? with now thinking about what am I going to do when I retire. And then when you retired, actually putting that plan into action. As I said before, it was unintentional. You were lucky. No, what I'm trying to say is I did not sit down and think about it seriously. If you had had the benefit of having a retirement benefit counsellor, you would have thought about it. So it's not for lack of anything on your part. Exactly. It's just because of... Lack of knowledge. Yeah. If you had... Lynette been there at that time. I'm not blaming you. Just making an example. Had she been there at that time, then I know I would have made an informed decision. I would know why am I going there? What's going to do? How is it going to help me? But I did not think about that. Lynette, what Mamvi, I also said is that she now encourages from the knowledge base that she has, her thinking is Let me tell my nieces to save, right? Based on the knowledge base that she has and the information that she has and the experience that she has. Obviously, you stretch that a bit further as an RBC in terms of helping people to plan. So as we go to the end of the conversation, what are the key things, three, four, five key things that a person who is now sitting five years from retirement, repurposing their skills, or somebody who's still building their career, how do you build those skills so that it's$65 if they're still working for you. Okay. I want to say one little snippet about, because she was talking about her nieces, Monty and I. I have been doing webinars and meetings and everything, you know, from home, you know, COVID, and we all had to start suddenly working from home. So I have young adults living in my house and my daughter of 22 are completely concerned because she's behind in her retirement planning So in... I feel for her, but I am very strict with them, telling them, you have to, you have to. So keep on saying, the 50 Rand, the 50 Rand, I keep on saying that. But let's go back to your question, I'm so sorry, I see the hands, I get derailed. I think important things, if you sit down and you have this idea and you understand what you what your qualities are and your skills and what you can bring to the table, and you have an idea of what you can do after retirement, start with a plan. Start planning it. Start doing it. But don't leave your legacy. without intentionally making sure that you finalize everything in the workplace. Work what you now realize are your skills, you can actually work it into your current role and just developing that confidence. because you'll need confidence to do something on your own. But you can use it while you are intentionally planning and intentionally going the route. But important thing is, you know, use it. Use your knowledge, use your skills, use it up to the end and then continue. until you're ready to go. If I think about it, I mean, 60 is the new 40. Yes. Hello. But these 60-year-olds are putting us under a lot of pressure. They're living these Zen lives, meditating, looking after themselves. They're going on walks. They're hiking. They're putting us under a lot of pressure. And Mamvi, what would be your advice to somebody who is almost at retirement, retiring this year, retiring next year, and who, for them, they feel it's over. And for their children also, because sometimes it's us children that don't want you to go out and do things and live your life and go with your golden girls trips and go all of that, and we think you're going to sit at home and babysit our children. So what would be your advice? I would say... Going the financial advisory thing is a good way, just before you retire, so that you get information on what to do when you are retired, so that you get an information of knowing your skills in order to repurpose them when you are retired. You know, there's one thing that is hurting. When I retired, one of my colleagues said to me, I'm going to retire next year. Now that you've retired, what did you do? As I said to you, with SAPC, they just said, there are two options. He said, because they say there are two options, what did you do? Did you resign and take your money or... Did you retire and you're going to get your pension monthly? I said to him, I retired. I got my one-third. Nancy said, what if you die within three months of your retirement? Because we've seen people around here dying. Oh my goodness. Dying three or four months after retiring. I said, I won't die. Oh my goodness. I just said, no, I won't die. I'm going to enjoy my retirement until I'm 90. And he said, do you think you're going to live until you're 90? I think I asked the wrong person. I'm going to take my money. He saw you had too much life in you. I asked the wrong person. I'm going to take all my money. But Lynette, that's actually a very important note to end on because it emphasizes what you said earlier when you're making your choices with your annuity that you're physically passing away does not mean the end of your retirement fund if you've made that right decision. You have a spouse you have been fisheries that you can nominate so I hope we can go back and tell him can we phone him and say I'm still alive I'm still alive no he knows he knows he's still around he's still around and I am still around thank you MBI thank you so much you're welcome thank you Lynette thank you it's my pleasure thank you for inviting us thank you for being here next to me so I can touch you when I start getting a little bit nervous and I get this Thank you for joining us on this episode of the podcast. Remember, you can like the episode and share the podcast link as well as listen to more episodes on the channel. Subscribe to the channel for more. Thank you for listening.