Your retirement plan

Four tools, one picture: the income you have locked in, what compounding can build, what their education will cost, and the tax breaks that pay you to save.

Will your retirement money last?

A quick check in today's money. Move the sliders or type exact amounts. The headline answer is the monthly income your current path has locked in, against the income you will actually need, plus the saving that closes any gap.

Assumptions (tap to adjust)

Monthly saving is assumed to increase with inflation each year, so results are shown in today's money.

Income you have locked in, today's money
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Capital you need
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Capital you're on track for
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Shortfall
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Monthly saving needed to be on track
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All values in today's buying power. This is a simplified illustration, not advice. Book a meeting for a full retirement plan.

The power of compound growth

Small amounts, started early, do the heavy lifting. Pick an investment style and see what steady monthly investing can build.

More options
Future value
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You put in
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Growth earned
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Returns are illustrative and not guaranteed. Values before inflation and fees.

Plan for their education

Education costs rise faster than normal inflation, around 9% a year. Pick the study path, set your child's age, and see what to put away monthly so the fees are covered when they turn 18.

Assumptions (tap to adjust)
Required monthly saving
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First year's fees at 18
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Full qualification cost
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Fees shown in future rands at 9% education inflation. Savings keep earning returns during the study years.

Tax and retirement annuities

A retirement annuity is one of the few places SARS actively pays you to save. Work out exactly what your contribution gives back, then see the rules it rests on.

Include everything going to a pension, provident fund or retirement annuity. Contributions are deductible up to 27.5% of your income, capped at R430,000 a year.

Tax you save this year
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Your marginal rate
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What R0 a month really costs you
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Unused allowance still available
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If you used all of it, you would save
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The rules behind it

Deduct up to 27.5% of your income

Contributions to retirement funds are tax deductible up to 27.5% of your taxable income or remuneration, capped at R430,000 a year for the 2027 tax year. Anything above the cap rolls over to future years, so nothing is lost.

Growth is completely tax free

Inside the fund you pay no income tax, no dividends tax and no capital gains tax. Your money compounds without the drag that taxable investments carry.

R550,000 tax free at retirement

From age 55 you may take up to one third as a cash lump sum. The first R550,000 of retirement lump sums over your lifetime is taxed at 0%. The rest buys an income for life.

Protected and outside your estate

Retirement fund benefits fall outside your estate, so they are not eaten by executor's fees, and they are protected from creditors. They pass to your dependants under the fund's rules.

The two pot system

Since September 2024 one third of your new contributions goes to a savings pot you can access once per tax year in an emergency (taxed at your marginal rate), and two thirds goes to a retirement pot that stays preserved for retirement.

Live well, get rewarded. As a Discovery client you can pair your plan with Vitality and earn rewards for healthy living.

What is Vitality?