Cashing in on the U.S of A at a discount

For Augustine Kubalo saving was a habit he adopted from a young age when he used to get pocket money daily for school. “I’d save the R2 coins and ask for a note at the end of the week from my mother,” he remembers. But while saving can bail you out of an emergency or afford you some spoils in the short term – like a holiday or a new pair of kicks, it’s not quite the wealth creation tool that investing can be. “Investing is for the long term; it allows you to capitalize on compounded interest.” 

Augustine is quite the fan of USD investing. He keeps his eye on international news about the markets and takes points from what is spoken about. His strategy also involves investing in shares that pay dividends. So when the Capitec widget landed and made investing in American stocks that much easier, he was all over it. “What has appealed to me about using the EasyEquities widget on the Capitec app is the ease of transacting between the ZAR/USD tabs and also the discount when doing transactions,” he says. 

Anyone who links there EasyEquities account, or creates one, via the widget on the Capitec App automatically gets a 20% discount on the commission charged on each transaction made – which leaves more room for your money to grow.   

“The first investment I made in my ZAR account was in Pick and Pay. I usually do my grocery shopping there on a monthly basis and they have existed for as long as I have lived,” Augustine says. “I’ve since gone on to invest in a few more other South African companies, including Capitec. I bank with them and I believe their growing popularity comes from the simplicity of their banking systems, and better interest with fixed savings.”  

After exploring his ZAR account Augustine explains that he wanted to diversify his portfolio; “The USD account provides exposure to US markets plus we all know that the Dollar is stronger than the ZAR.” Curious about which US stocks he has his eye on? Tesla is one of them. “I believe Elon Musk is onto something big with his company (Space X).” 

Augustine has learned a lot throughout his investing journey. He wishes he could have started sooner (don’t we all?) and has learnt not to pay attention to the short-term highs and lows of the market. He has an important end game that he’s working towards: “I am investing to support myself when I retire. I currently do not believe most corporate companies take much interest in ensuring that our monthly contributions grow exponentially so that we can go on pension comfortably.” 

Keen on investing in US stocks? Visit our research portal for the latest analysis on American listed companies here:

The contents of this blog post are for information purposes to help our users make better investment decisions. The user sharing their story is a genuine opinion and actual experience of the investor – not financial advice. Nomsa Ntentesa doesn’t have any financial interest or relationship to us other than being a client.