Empowering youth: the need for financial education in South Africa

 We teach our kids how to calculate the angles of a triangle and their way around tectonic plates, yet we don’t tell them how they’re expected to fund their lives, let alone the 40 years of life after they stop working one day. While most people won’t be able to retire comfortably before the age of 80, perhaps one of the most strategic shifts we can make is to teach financial decision-making and retirement planning in schools.

The data from the 2025 Sanlam Benchmark Survey has highlighted that we can’t fix South Africa’s retirement crisis overnight, but we can give the next generation a better shot at breaking the cycle of elderly people not being able to retire with ease. That starts in the classroom, with a subject that impacts everyone, but is currently not taught formally or part of the curriculum – Financial Decision Making & Retirement Planning.

It’s time to put financial literacy into the curriculum

At Sanlam Corporate, we are strong on solutions, and something that can’t be ignored is how we need to lobby for meaningful financial education to be integrated into the curriculum at schools. Our data shows that there’s strong support for this in the industry, with nearly 50% of employer funds and 40% of umbrella fund participants in favour, and 64% of total survey respondents saying financial education is ‘very important’.

When we say ‘adding financial literacy, especially robust financial foundations, decision making, and retirement planning, to the curriculum’, we don’t mean wedging yet another subject into an already packed school schedule. Instead, it means taking the time to reimagine the life skills and the kind of financial information that feels at home in the economy we live in, and including that in everyday learning. We’re preparing our youth for their first job, yes, but we must also prepare them for their last paycheque.

This kind of education needs to go beyond the basics – where it’s about maths and mindset. We need to normalise for the youth the idea that everyone grows old, which is hard for them to imagine, as they’re often stuck in ‘present bias’. At this age, they simply can’t imagine themselves as elderly retirees.

To instil long-term thinking, financial literacy, and a mindset shift should start in the early teens, so that once learners matriculate, they understand:

• Basic financial decision making;
• Budgeting as part of financial planning;
• How to manage credit and debt’
• How to do their taxes;
• How pension funds and the Two-Pot system work;
• Why preservation is key to planning for the future;
• Investing and the compounding impact of starting early;
• The tax implications of their decisions.

How do we equip the next generation?

The data shows that 68% of South Africans say they would contribute more to their retirement savings if they could, but that can’t happen without structured support that begins as a young person at school, rather than as a 50-year-old in a retirement workshop.

 We believe in meeting young people where they are – in schools and on digital platforms, by providing tailored, engaging, and culturally relevant tools and information they can access to take the ‘huh?’ out of how much they’ll need to live, and retire, with confidence. We know that’s not just about having money, it’s about the choices that having money brings, along with the knowledge, freedom, and the financial decision-making tools they need to make empowered choices.

Having the right knowledge gives you dignity, agency, and resilience, all things you’ll need as you age into your golden years. And when people know what’s possible, they plan differently. They feel more in control. They ask better questions.

An eye on the next generation

The jarring reality is that many South Africans will need to work until they’re 80 to afford retirement, so it’s clear that this isn’t a problem we can afford to leave for future generations of policymakers to solve, because by then, it’s far too late, and we’ve just perpetuated the cycle.

The current snapshot of our society, as reported in the 2025 Sanlam Benchmark Survey, shows that 43% of individuals don’t have an emergency fund, and 33% confirm using their Two-pot withdrawal benefits to cover debt or living expenses. Add to that how 44% of people have had to dip into emergency savings just to stay afloat, and only 42% believe they are on track to retire with enough savings. These statistics show that the line between surviving and saving is razor-thin.

Let’s be the generation that ends the crisis, and the one that ensures every learner knows how to fund a future they can look forward to.

* Shoniwa is the managing executive of Sanlam Umbrella Solutions at Sanlam Corporate.

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