what that was, but what are some of the things that surprised you specifically about the research and what it has revealed?

Yeah, it's interesting what you said, you know, when the pressure is on, you'll be interested to see how people are actually behaving and what the true nature of it is.

So if we look at some of the actual detail that informed how this change has happened.

I just want to toggle between screens because some of it's very data rich and I don't want to miss out on that.

But, you know, traditionally we've always assumed, and I mean, heuristics are helpful, right? Because they help us sort of create order when there's chaos in terms of the way we think.

And heuristics have guided how we've structured financial planning.

But we thought millennials, for example, and Gen Z, so those are people born 1985 and later.

it

so is the reality that people are not saving enough or they're not earning enough

I think it's a bit of both, right? We are having a lot of people.

We have a very difficult, challenging job market.

There are a lot of people who are not gainfully employed or not being able to earn at the potential that they've maybe studied for.

So that creates a problem.

On the other hand as well, we have a poor savings culture and that correlates to not having enough disposable income as well as not necessarily having enough financial education and awareness.

to know how you can go about it, what are the minimums that you can start with, because often saving and investing seem like something that you can only do once you've acquired enough money, once you are financially free.

So final thoughts for everybody on just finding their way back to saving.

Uh, how damaging can these seemingly minor but, uh, frequent, frequent behaviors become over time?

They actually become embedded, right? And then they perpetuate a cycle.

So already, if you are struggling with financial pressures and you're making these decisions based on a habit that is reactive and you're repeating that, the opportunity to ever outgrow that situation becomes slim.

You're perpetuating a cycle where you're constantly in debt, you're constantly losing money, 'cause I mean, when you're gambling, it's exactly that, right? Um, so you more often than not lose more than you win, and so you're still ending up with a budget deficit-

Uh, with 32% of respondents, uh, reporting that gambling has contributed to financial stress, uh, what warning signs should households and policymakers be paying attention to at this time?

You know, one of the interesting things that came out in a- another set of, of stats was the Sanlam Risk and Savings claim stats, and we found that there's a very high amount of psychological claims that people are experiencing, um, in this particular space.

And a lot of it is because of the financial pressures, and it's the same cohort that are finding themselves using a lot of their, their money for gambling.

So there's a strong correlation between the way in which they're managing their money, the ability to manage the stress as a result of their money, and then the physiological outcomes that are happening in that particular space.