181. What is financial planning really for? | The Story That Will Change How You Think About Money

One minute you are training for the next big event, the next you cannot feel your legs. That is the reality behind neurological injury, and it is why we invited Justin into the studio. He is a biokineticist who works daily with people living with brain injuries, strokes, and spinal cord injuries, and he helps run the Trojans Neurological Trust (TNT), a South African charity focused on getting people proper rehab when medical aid is missing or runs out.

We talk through how TNT starts with a small commitment from a practice team and grows into something the public can see and feel at the 947 Cycle Challenge. Chariots, tandems, and the famous “TNT train” are not just a spectacle, they are a moving fundraiser that pays for therapy sessions and keeps hope alive. Justin shares why banter and normal conversation matter in rehab, how community changes outcomes, and why the phrase “the only disability in life is a bad attitude” can be both motivating and complicated.

Then we bring it back to money. We unpack why loss of income cover and the right protection planning can stop a medical crisis turning into a family financial disaster, and how guilt, stress, and conflict often follow when there is no safety net. If you want a grounded conversation about disability, mindset, and financial planning in South Africa, press play, then subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Justin

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Hello everybody, welcome to Know Your Money. I'm Bron Man Wainer.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

And I'm Craig Finch, and we are from Growth Financial Planning. We hope you enjoy our podcast. Welcome everybody to another episode of Know Your Money. Bron, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Good thanks. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:28

And Justin. Very well.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Thanks, Craig.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Thank you for joining us in the studio. My pleasure, thank you. Justin, I've known for over 30 years at least. We know the family ins and outs, we've been to the weddings. So good to have you here. You've got a very successful practice as a biokineticist, and you help people with head injuries and through an organization called TNT. I hope I say it correctly. It's Trojans Neurological Trust. 100%. It's really good. Now, if if people ride the 94.7 or the whatever the race is called now, the Joburg race, you'll see these chariots being pulled by very fit cyclists, and there are disabled people in these chariots, and also you have tandems that you ride there.

Why TNT Had To Exist

SPEAKER_01 1:15

So just why don't you just tell us a bit about how TNT started and what's the aim of TNT?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

So I guess if I go right back to the beginning, TNT started when I just finished studying and I decided to go overseas. And I landed up after a couple of years working at a brain injury outpatient unit. And while I was working in the UK, Southampton, I saw that we don't have this in South Africa. So if you have an injury in the UK, you're going to get covered. The government's going to cover you somehow or other. And uh I saw that maybe when I because I always intended to return to South Africa. I thought, flip, there's a there's a gap here, a tragic gap, where someone who hasn't taken out enough medical aid or cover could be getting better, but they're not going to get better. So what happened is I returned to South Africa, fell in love with neurological rehabilitation, started working on people who had sustained strokes or spinal cord injuries. And then we decided as a little group, there were only two or three of us working in my practice, and we're going to basically tithe 1% of our earnings, and we're going to donate that to one person and see if we can give them one session per week and try and help them. What happened is we we started helping people, and then I was like, well, how can we help more people? We need more money. So now we need to start raising money. And I saw the 947 cycle challenge as a great opportunity.

Using The 947 To Fundraise

SPEAKER_00 2:40

So originally there were a couple of us just rode together, we got the same t-shirts, and we said we're going to ride together for this course. And I think we raised, I don't know, maybe just on 2,000 Rand or something, which was lucky because back then it would get someone some therapy for a few months. And then the one September, a group of us were together and we said, How do we take that a step further? And we decided to, well, one, we pull one of our beneficiaries in on a chariot around the course of 947. And so we had two chariots built by someone who we were treating then. And a group of, I think there were 18 of us originally, pulled these two chariots. Back then we used to take turns and pulling the chariots. We made sure that the bike was of equal size for everyone, pulled the chariots around and um, excuse the pun, but it eventually gained momentum. And from then we had guys who used to be in chariots, were now, through the help of TNT, were getting therapy. And whereas they used to be wheelchair users now started walking and they could now start cycling. So we thought, okay, well, let's give them an opportunity to cycle. So they got onto the back of a tandem and an able-bodied person guided them through, but they got the idea that they were doing the work, which they were, and they would do the 947 like that, and then other people would get into the chariots. And now currently we're sitting with four chariots and probably four tandems and four hand cycles where people are self-propelling themselves around. And then last year we had a massive, probably

Chariots Tandems And The TNT Train

SPEAKER_00 4:07

160 riders supporting us. So we call it the TNT train. So where we used to trickle over after about six and a half hours. Now the organizers and the MCs all know the trains coming in, and literally the whole 160 riders of TNT come around uh these cyclists, and we we we get let in by the guys in the chariots and the tandems, and then we just come in to so I'm gonna get emotional here. We come in to you know, a big crowd supporting us, and yeah, so in an event itself, it's become quite a standout event because it's so emotional and so many guys pull together, and you've seen like some of the guys who get a medal, they literally will wear their medal the entire year. They're so excited that they did the 947 um guys um names that we know household at home, the the seers and stuff like that, who would never have got therapy if it wasn't for TNT. So they're not only getting therapy 52 days of the year once a week, they then get the opportunity to have a highlight and do the 947. So that's how the 947 and TNT's gone hand in hand.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Yeah, I think if you watch the the end when you guys come in in that big group, you'll not have a dry eye in this in the stands. It's just a very emotional. Yeah, you won't be human if you're not crying. But I think the banter also within the that group is amazing how you how you all treat them as normal people. I mean, you people sometimes you see a disabled person, you go, Oh my word, how do I talk to them? How do I see? And you guys are it's incredible the banter you all have with each other and how you speak to each other, but also how their lives have changed in an instant. Um I'm sure you've got many stories on our one minute they are normal walking down the road, next minute there's an accident or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

So you're

Treat Disabled People As People

SPEAKER_00 5:56

on some of those. So I'm gonna I want to cover two points there. One one is a disabled person is a person and they want to be treated as normal. And we've treated CEOs who, for lack of a better description, are Drew Linna, but they still want to be part of the crowd who went to play golf and discuss business deals in the golf course. And if their friends are got this feel sorry for me attitude, they feel like a bit of a burden and they don't want to be part of that. So it's something the empathy that we've learned with dealing with our clients is joke with them. Life is tough, and rather don't make fun of them, but joke with them about the situation. So that band is really important, even in the therapy situation. Um, our one point of difference is we ensure that we all have fun when we when we're practicing. So at my practice, where a lot of the TNT patients come through, we've got 100% able-bodied people as well as physically disabled people. And the interaction is key for the well-being of the physically disabled person. He says, Okay, I'm be treated in a normal atmosphere, just like everyone else is. And the able-bodied person says, Wow, I could, what am I complaining about today? Look how life could have been different. Yeah, the life changes in

When A Life Changes Overnight

SPEAKER_00 7:09

a moment. Oh, I've got plenty of stories. And and actually, straight off this podcast, the patients I'm seeing, she's she's a young athlete. Um, her life absolutely changed in a moment. She would be, I can sincerely say she probably would have been going to the next Olympics. She's a high jumper. She injury happened last year. She was age 16. Uh, at the age of 15, she had the houting under 17 record. Sure. When she partook in events, she would only jump when everyone else was finished because it wasn't high enough for her. So then they would just lift it to her height, and then she would obviously clear, try and break a record. If she didn't break a record, she won every event she jumped at. She was jumping one afternoon training, and uh just an ordinary afternoon training, went home, and then all of a sudden felt nauseous, uh, couldn't really feel her legs. Mum and dad rushed her to hospital, like any good parents' word. She was, I'm not going to tell you which hospital because she was doctors do make mistakes, but she was totally misdiagnosed. Um, so she was diagnosed with Gillian Barre syndrome. Uh that lasted the incorrect diagnosis for probably the first 13 months.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

And what does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 8:23

So Gillian Baret is a chest infection, but it affects you neurologically. So she lost the ability to move her legs. And uh because of I'm not too sure the intricacies of the disease, but I know that is a side effect, is that you become paralyzed.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Sometimes gillian bar A can last for a month and then you regain function and you're fine. Sometimes it's much more prolonged how long gillium bar A will last for, and sometimes it's forever. Um, she wasn't making any progress, and then they took her in for more x-rays, and they found that she actually had a spinal cord stroke. So uh a blood clot formed in her spinal cord, probably while she was doing high jump from the repeated bending of the back. And uh when she got home, that stroke had formed and rendered her paralyzed. Um dreams shut it in in an afternoon from the thing she loves.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Um, so yes, uh, we can speak of accidents uh and bizarre accidents, which I think is quite true because everyone thinks if you drive recklessly, that's going to be the main cause of an accident. I've had a boyfriend, girlfriend pushing the boyfriend pushing the girlfriend's bicycle back home, and he got the pedals caught in each other, and he slipped and hit his head on the pavement and was brain damaged for the rest of his life. A young engineer stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. We try to teach him to walk again, etc. etc. So life can literally change in an instant. It doesn't need to be an adrenaline sport or driving fast or being reckless, it just when it's a time, it's a time.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah.

The Attitude That Drives Recovery

SPEAKER_01 9:57

And you you've got a famous saying on the back of the shirts that I've seen in the and what is that?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Um, the only disability in life is a bad attitude. And I I think sometimes, well, for able-bodied people, they love that saying. They say, no, that's right. I've had one or two disabled people say, but you don't know what I'm going through. Um, and I do have an excuse.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

But overall, overarching is is your attitude makes a massive difference to your recovery. Um, I've got people who have sustained the same injuries. Um, person A, person B, person A has got an amazing attitude towards life. I'm gonna make, I'm either gonna make the situation work or I'm gonna get better. And person B is, why is life against me? Nothing goes my way, feel worries me. And if you take those two individuals over a 12-month period, person A, whether it's just psychologically, is far better, but generally physically as well. They've recovered in leaps and bounds, whereas person B is no better, probably a lot worse than the day that the injury occurred. So attitude makes a huge, huge difference. So that's hence the saying.

Money Cover And Family Pressure

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah, it's a brilliant saying. And the the TNT scenario is that you're trying to help these people who don't have cover, they have got no physical uh money to help them through the process of recovery. And if they did have money, it would be a different scenario. So that's what we try and do in our practices. One of the first key covers that you need to have is loss of income. We said this on many podcasts, but and I mean when you see it every day and the struggles those people have to try and have the money to do things, if they had that cover in place, it would make their life a lot different.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

But I also think like what you're saying is very aligned to what we are trying to say is that yes, you can have that cover, and some people do spend their money on that, but a lot of people struggle with the mental thoughts of, well, I don't really need to have that, I'm young. Or um, you know, those things won't happen to me. And it's all money and mindset are are one and the same. Money and health is one and the same. And I think what you're trying to do through your um charity is to help people not only heal physically, but to also heal their mindset, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Yeah, definitely, Ron. The the mindset is important. So to offer someone hope is incredible. Uh interaction with with people is incredible. So so the definitely the psychological I'm worth something, someone cares for me, someone's gonna help me is phenomenal. Uh and this is a classic case of the the person who gives gets more out of it. Uh this is definitely not a sweats I could see for me. I or for any of my staff, actually. The the amount we get out of seeing someone who couldn't walk walk, or someone whose life was dashed in front of them suddenly start smiling and laughing and wanting to do something, it's the reward is is so amazing. Coming back to Craig's comments is not only an individual, I've seen families who didn't take out cover. The devastation post-traumatic brain injury, post-spinal cord injury is limitless. I've seen families break up because there wasn't enough money. I've seen people blame each other for not taking cover out for, you know, there's so much stress now. Now, all of a sudden, maybe a breadwinner can't win bread or can't bring bread home. Now he he or she needs to be looked after, and the spouse needs to make money, and you can't afford the the carer, and you can't do this. I've seen families whose children were injured, and then a massive divorce happens in the family, and the family gets split because and and financially it compounds the whole situation. There's a lot of guilt when accidents happen. But I think in a perfect world, if everyone had therapy and therapy costs money, a lot of that guilt and trauma would be alleviated.

Donation Safeguards And National Growth

SPEAKER_00 14:07

And unfortunately, there's just one massive downhill spiral. And a lot of our trust beneficiaries, um, we we don't only go for people with incredibly low income. You need to prove that you don't have medical aid or you don't have that, or some people their medical aid runs out, and then we'll step in and help them a little bit. Um, this this answers two questions. One is the person needs to have the right attitude to benefit from our trust. The other thing that I was saying is once they offered hope, there is a change, and sometimes the family gets involved. But we've seen, we've seen, like when the RAF pays out, I've seen the guardians misuse the money horribly. All of a sudden dad becomes an alcoholic because he's got a lumps payout for his son's accidents and the son gets no therapy. So we're very careful on who we bring on board and is the guardian going to look after. And we don't pay any money to the family, all the money gets straight to the therapist. So we're trying to grow the trust, the footprints of the trust to be across the entire country. So we're looking for therapists that we can trust all around South Africa, and then we'll identify, let's say, someone in Clarkstorp has an injury. We know, okay, that there's a therapist in Clarkstorp that we trust. You can go see there because you can get a double fraud. You can have someone who applies who actually isn't injured. He says, I found a therapist who also pretends to be a therapist. They can show us their accreditations and they take money. So now I'm trying to increase the trust's footprint, but not with brick and mortar. We're trying to identify therapists around the country who would be fitting to help us. Um I went to on a tangent there, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

That's amazing that the trust is gonna be expanded beyond Joburg. Yeah. But in the next episode, I'd like to ask you about some of the success stories you've had in your practice. Yeah. Thanks, Justin. That was very good. Was that 10

Closing And How To Subscribe

SPEAKER_01 15:58

minutes already? Thank you for listening. If you have enjoyed this podcast, would like to subscribe, please visit our website www.growthfp.co.za. The information we have provided in this podcast is our personal opinion. For more detailed information, please discuss your financial situation with a financial planner.