Royal wedding doesn’t mean your prince will come, warns Veldtman

South African women enthralled by Britain’s royal wedding are in danger of absorbing the wrong message – that one day our prince will come and we can safely leave financial matters to Prince Charming.

The alert comes from Sunél Veldtman, author of ‘Manage your Money, Live your Dream’, a book intended to demystify financial planning for women while encouraging a more hands-on approach to saving, investment and provision for later life.

Unfortunately, she says, the task of achieving a financial awakening will be that much harder if the royal nuptials reinforce the Handsome Prince fairytale for thousands of little girls.

She adds: “The royal wedding is wonderful escapism at a time of austerity and there’s nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, the subliminal message for many women is that the hero in their lives will conquer all and provide for everything.

“The assumption is fatally flawed. Even royal couples suffer a break-up. What then?

“In our country, divorce rates are tragically high. Women would be less vulnerable if they took a hand in financial matters at a much earlier stage in their lives. Many don’t. The tragedy of divorce can then be aggravated by the tragedy of financial distress.”

Veldtman is a director of BJM Private Client Services, a leading financial services group, and presenter of the awareness-raising seminars, ‘A Feminine Touch on Finances’. In her financial planning career and educational work she comes across many examples of women who assumed husbands would provide and lived to regret it.

“Many divorced women find they are left with the main responsibility for raising the children while having to start a career in mid-life,” she says.

“Maintenance may stop even when the ex-husband is a wealthy man. The divorced wife is then desperate for a job but can’t find suitable work because she is a middle-aged mother who has had a long career break and requires a flexible working environment.”

A woman’s financial position may already be compromised because her instincts told her to make sacrifices for her children and keep peace in the home.

“Ideally, there should be an arrangement to ensure a woman’s financial future is as secure as a man’s,” says Veldtman. “There should be equal savings, equal investments and equal provision for the future. But we can’t wave a magic wand to make this happen. We have to make ourselves accountable for our own financial security.

“If we make the effort, we can curb frivolous credit card spending. We can make a budget, start saving, take a hand in financial affairs, itemise assets and so on.”

This assessment is not anti-man, she says, it’s anti-Cinderella and anti-Sleeping Beauty.

Veldtman adds: “You had better wake up, Sleeping Beauty. In life you will have to face some thorny financial issues and you’re naïve if you think your prince will come and cut through the thorns for you.”

§ ‘Manage your Money, Live your Dream’ by Sunél Veldtman is published by Tafelberg and available from good bookshops nationwide.