Our 2008 VW Polo, and other big life updates from me

I know it’s been a while since I last wrote to you, but that’s because there have been some big things happening behind the scenes! In February, I launched the first Money With Carla 5-week investing course, and it exceeded all expectations. We had participants from 21 countries, and the feedback has been incredible—so far, every single person has rated it 5 stars.

There’s so much in the pipeline for this year that just thinking about it exhausts me. But today, I want to share two key things with you:

1️⃣ My personal finances—some big financial decisions I’ve been making.
2️⃣ Lessons I learned from presenting my 5-week investing course, which ended today (a bittersweet day).

My Personal Finances

We’ve been spending a lot of time in South Africa lately, which has led to two major financial decisions:

• Deciding whether to buy a car

• Deciding whether to buy a property

If you’ve watched my YouTube video on Buying vs. Renting, you’ll know I’m not a huge fan of buying property. But I’ve realized that South Africa is very different from Zurich and London, where we lived before. In Zurich, it’s common for people to rent the same apartment for 10–20 years. In South Africa, once you start looking at bigger properties (houses rather than apartments), it’s much harder to find long-term rental security. Many landlords can (and do) decide to sell or move back in after a year. And with an almost 2-year-old son, we need some stability.

Should We Buy a Home?

Committing to a property purchase in your 30s can have a major impact on your financial situation—often not in a good way. Here’s why:

• Getting a mortgage often tempts young professionals to overspend on a home.

• Tying up too much cash in property can mean missing out on stock market investments in your early years—the prime time for getting started on compounding growth.

Buying a home is a lifestyle choice, not necessarily an investment. This might be a contrarian view, but when you run the numbers, you might agree. So, we’ve decided to pause and rent for a little longer while being mindful of how much cash flow we want to commit to housing. Once kids are in the picture, moving around becomes even more complicated and the digital nomad life we imagined seems like a farfetched idea. If you want to read more about the buy or rent debate: Here’s a blog I wrote on the topic.

Buying a Car (…Or Not)

Right now, we’re staying with my parents while we look for a place to settle, which means we need a car—public transport in South Africa is nothing like Zurich’s. At the moment, we’re driving around in my sister’s old 2008 VW Polo (her student car!).

I cannot bring myself to sell any investments to buy a car because, financially, it’s one of the worst purchases you can make. Cars lose value the moment you put the keys in the ignitiontake the keys, whether it’s new or second-hand. Although I am a proponent for buying second hand rather than new.

That said, I know I need a more balanced approach. Safety matters. Enjoying your money matters. So, I started putting aside cash for a car… but then the stock market dropped (S&P 500 down 10% over the past month), and that money found its way into my brokerage account instead. It was just such a golden opportunity 😅 So, for now, we’ll be sticking with the 2008 VW a little longer.

The Real Cost of Buying a Car

Let’s say we spend $20,000 (R370,000) on a car today. If we invested that amount instead, it could grow to $350,000+ ( or R30 million - yes, that’s right considering S&P 500 10yr returns in ZAR!) in 30 years at historical S&P 500 returns.

This is why I don’t see it as just spending $20k / R370k - I see it as potentially giving up millions in future value. It’s not just about what you spend today, but what that money could become.

My Investment Portfolio Update

My portfolio took a bit of a hit over the last month—no surprise since I’m heavily weighted in U.S. stocks. (Not necessarily what I’d recommend; a globally diversified ETF is likely the safer choice for most investors.)

On Feb 17, my all-time return was 92.45%. A month later, it dropped to 63.46%. That’s a big swing, but when you zoom out, my portfolio is still averaging about 20% per year over the last three years. I’ll take that.

If you’re panicking about the recent market dip, I highly recommend reading my blog post from last year on stock market volatility. Volatility is the price you pay for superior returns in the stock market.

What’s more important than short-term returns? How much I’m investing.

Nick Maggiulli, in Just Keep Buying, talks about focusing on where you get the highest return on effort. For most people, investing an extra $500 (~R10,000) per month consistently will have a much bigger long-term impact than trying to squeeze an extra 2–5% return from your portfolio.

Lessons from My Investing Course

After teaching investing to people from 21 countries, here’s what stood out the most:

• People are so eager to learn how to manage their own money and investments.

• DIY investors are the wealth management industry’s biggest nightmare.

• Despite different tax systems and brokers, investor challenges are shockingly similar across the world.

• Most people have no idea how much they’re paying in investment fees and struggle to identify it - even I do, sometimes, despite having looked at hundreds of different fee structures over the last year.

• Just giving people tools—like calculators and demo videos—makes a massive difference. My course included 9 financial calculators and demo videos. I had doctors, lawyers and accountants take the course and most of them have never seen or used a compounding calculator!

• Investing is a family affair, but it usually takes one person to take the lead.

• Confidence is the biggest barrier, once given enough knowledge and tools, everyone’s risk appetite increases and they are eager to take action themselves.

I loved running this course, and I’m so excited to keep helping people take control of their money. You can sign up for the next round here!

I’ll take the opportunity to brag a bit, here is one of the reviews from the current cohort:

“I started the course with very little understanding of the stock market and how to make good investments, relying fully on a financial advisor for guidance. Investing felt like speaking a different language. This course walked me through every step, from getting started, to taking ownership of my portfolio, investing and managing it with confidence. I love how Carla simplifies financial concepts that have been designed to sound big and overwhelming. And that I'm equipped through the worksheets and spreadsheet resources to do my own calculations, and take action. I wish this course existed in my twenties - it's a must for financial literacy and setting yourself (and future generations) up for success.”