{"id":335937,"date":"2026-03-18T15:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/335937\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T15:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:51:21","slug":"sa-households-dip-into-retirement-savings-as-withdrawals-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/335937\/","title":{"rendered":"SA households dip into retirement savings as withdrawals surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG – South African households are coming under increasing financial pressure, with many now turning to their retirement savings to stay afloat.<\/p>\n

Early data shows a sharp rise in withdrawals from the two-pot retirement system as the new tax year began in March.<\/p>\n

Financial journalist Maya Fisher-French has warned South Africans against rushing to access the savings component of their retirement funds.<\/p>\n

READ |Surge in two-pot withdrawals sparks Treasury\u2019s plan to allow access to locked savings<\/a><\/p>\n

Fisher-French says a concerning pattern is emerging, with around 60 percent of those accessing their savings doing so repeatedly.<\/p>\n

This raises questions about whether the funds are being used for genuine emergencies \u2014 or gradually becoming part of everyday spending.<\/p>\n

She also cautioned that the timing of recent withdrawals could not have been worse.<\/p>\n

Many applications were submitted in early March, coinciding with a downturn in global markets.<\/p>\n

READ | South Africans brace for rising living costs as fuel and power prices climb<\/a><\/p>\n

“Remember the attacks on Iran — oil prices spiked, and within that first week of March, the JSE was down about 10 percent,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This made it a particularly bad time to withdraw from your savings pot, because pension funds are invested in the stock market.”<\/p>\n

Fisher-French reiterated that withdrawing from retirement savings should be a last resort.<\/p>\n

“Generally, it\u2019s not a good idea unless it\u2019s a real emergency,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JOHANNESBURG – South African households are coming under increasing financial pressure, with many now turning to their retirement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":["post-335937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}