Old Mutual On The Money
Old Mutual On The Money
Tumisho Masha Shares his Life & Money Lessons
One of SA’s most prolific actors, Tumisho Masha, has conquered everything from stage and screen to working behind the scenes. Despite his success, Tumisho has experienced his fair share of ups and downs – and that’s why he doesn’t define himself by his bank balance. Our Head of Financial Education, John Manyike, caught up with Tumisho for a fascinating chat that’s full of eye-opening insights and life lessons. This is one of our most impactful interviews yet – don’t miss it.
Thanks for listening! Interested in getting more financial education? Visit our website for free resources. You can follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Old Mutual 00:00
Welcome to the On The Money Podcast with John Manyike.
John Manyike 00:04
Bra Tums, how's it?
Tumisho Masha 00:05
I'm all right. How yourself, John?
John Manyike 00:06
I’m well. I’m well. Thanks, man. You've got some very interesting perspectives. And I think for somebody watching this, I promise you, they will not regret this.
Tumisho Masha 00:16
Well, I certainly hope so. I certainly hope that I can share something with my experience and what I've gone through that can hopefully help somebody and if not help, just give them some sort of perspective you know.
John Manyike 00:25
Yeah. Walk us through your family background, where you're brought up and your family values and all that?
Tumisho Masha 00:31
So, I was born in Mamelodi. I'm totally, I would say, I'm a totally Pretoria guy, born in Mamelodi. Then at a very early age, I moved to Ga-rankuwa I lived there for a while, then we moved to Soshanguve, I lived there for a while. And in between Mamelodi, Soshanguve and Mabopane, Atteridgeville, family spread out. So, I grew up in that part of the world. Both my parents are from Mamelodi. So when people ask me, like, where are you from? I'm like, Mamelodi. And they always want to know what province like? And I'm like, “No, that's my grandparents are from there.” My parents are from there. My parents come from a very humble background. All my maternal grandparents were basically people who worked in other people's houses. So, they will either someone's maid, someone's gardener, cleaner, that sort of thing. And my father from a very early age was one of those self-made people. Like, I'm talking before he was even 10 years old. He was working and putting himself through school and putting his siblings through school. And he realized that the only way he could get out of this poverty was through education. He met my mom when he was in his late 20s. And she was quite young herself just around about metric and she was very, very intelligent. And her dream was to become a doctor. And he put her through medical school. And they just built each other, you know, there were just two people who, who saw a long term vision and work towards it, they basically rescued us out of that poverty situation. And then from there, it was just a matter of being very wise with their money. Growing up, my parents were the kind of people who were more about investment, first of all in education, so they invested in my education as well. At a time when there were no Model C schools, you know, the only option growing up was either I went to school in Ga-rankuwa neither Bounty school, or I went to a very expensive private school. And fortunately, from a very early age, they chose to send me to a very expensive private school, that I don't even know how they could afford it. Because when I look at the fees now, I'm like, “I don't know if I could afford it”. But that really changed the trajectory of my life. I discovered that I had a talent from a very early age from being in a place like that, which was to perform. So, it's those little things where you realize, put your money to work, and make it work for you in any way that you can. There's no one formula, but the most important thing is whatever you earn, whatever you have put it to work and it will work for you.
John Manyike 02:54
Yeah, you started in theater, though?
Tumisho Masha 02:56
Yes.
John Manyike 02:57
Is there a difference between theater and acting for television?
Tumisho Masha 03:01
Most definitely. So, I'll tell you an interesting story. The reason why I ended up getting a BA in Drama, was I came out of school. And I knew that I wanted this to be entertainment, either I was going to be a musician or I was going to be in television, film, theater, that sort of thing. And my parents said to me, there's no way you're going to do any of those things without studying for it first. So, I knew I was probably going to have to get a degree in music or a degree in drama. And the deal was, look, we'll pay for your education, but you have to get educated, then you can do whatever you like. At first, they really were more keen on me doing, I suppose the more orthodox type of career paths, like becoming a lawyer or doctor or accountant or something like that. Also, I think it's because the background of everyone we knew who was successful at the time was somebody who has studied one or being a professional, one of those fields. I kind of convinced them that if I find my own bursary to go to varsity, then I can study whatever I want. And I did that. I did that by working for IBM, my dad used to work for IBM. So, I got in somehow, and I worked for them for about a year after school. Through that I kind of convinced my employers there that they need to give me a bursary to study drama. Maybe I'll come back and work in their marketing team. And that's how I got my university education. But to answer your question, there is a very big difference between doing theater and doing film.
John Manyike 04:23
Okay. So, you're a guy who wear many hats. You are an actor, a voice artist, you are an emcee, you know, motivational speaker. How do you juggle all this? For me, that's a classic example of multiple streams of income. How do you juggle all of that?
Tumisho Masha 04:39
In our industry, it's very easy to sit back and wait for someone like your agent or somebody to give you a call and give you a job. But if you're not proactive, you're always going to struggle. So by being proactive is by taking all your talents, and using them to their full capacity. You know, I studied for this thing, I shouldn't be able, because I did theater to MC because that's an aspect of doing something live something on the fly, having a script, and then being able to improvise around the script. I should be good at being a voice artists because we had voice adversity, you know, I should be good at conceptualizing a script being a producer, because that's also what I studied. I should be good at writing, because I did African literature and things like that. So if I shouldn't be good at these things, I can only do a find out if I really am by testing by doing that. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes it takes a little longer to realize the things that we want. But ultimately, one must try. So I always just thought, I'm just going to try everything, man. And if I do well, if I succeed, that's great. If I fail, well, it wasn't meant for me and that's how I do things. Because I do definitely believe that one can't rely on one thing, I have to try and do everything based on what I think I'm good at.
John Manyike 05:55
There was a time where Covid affected a lot of people financially. How did you overcome that?
Tumisho Masha 05:59
So, one thing I realized was, if I can't go somewhere and work, how can I work from where I am? And I realized that one will always need marketing, even during Covid, we needed to send messages out about COVID. So as a voice artist, I could work from home. And that's how we got by. I was still doing a lot of recordings for Covid messaging, either government Covid messaging, or private sector. And we were still advertising and marketing. They needed my voice and that's exactly what I did. The other thing that I realized was, you know, I can write this and that, I can do a few things I can, I can send scripts out for commercials, I can still do proposals, I can do so many other things that don't require me to go anywhere.
John Manyike 06:43
You graced our TV screens for many years ago. What were some of your top achievements and maybe some of the top highlights in that area?
Tumisho Masha 06:50
Yeah, wow. Some of my top achievements, and I'd say highlights was being able to take what I do and make it a global thing. One of my greatest highlights was being able to go to the Golden Globe Awards in 2005. I was in Los Angeles at the time doing a screen test for a movie called “Catch a Fire”. That came out about two years later. And the director had asked me to come out there was Phillip Noyce, and he invited me out to LA and there was you know, and he said, “Let's go out to the Golden Globe Awards, we were there.” Getting to see real Hollywood, for me was an achievement. Because Hollywood, you think of it as this amazing place that you go to and all your dreams come true. But I think more than anything, I realized it's a state of mind. It's just a couple of really brilliant people who have come together and collaborated, some are directors summarizes some are producers, some are actors and some are obviously in the crew. And they're all great at what they do. But they've come together and said, “We're going to make an agreement, maybe it's not even a written agreement. But we're all going to work together for each other and try to do something amazing.” And that's something that I learned. And I thought, when I come back home, that's something that I'd like to really instill in us in our industry, that is not a matter of, are we good enough or not? We definitely are. It's a matter of can we collaborate in love? Can we try and create something together? That might be for the greater good, even if right now, it might not benefit us immediately. And I think that's how all civilizations are built, right. You have to be able to collaborate with one another. You have to be able to say, “I'm gonna give up my wants and needs for now, for something that's going to come in the future and be of greater good.”
John Manyike 08:35
Yeah. As they say about life, sometimes it throws you curveballs. Life has not always been that smooth. I mean, you've had some unfortunate situations, you went through a traumatic divorce, walk us through some of the lowest points in your life and how you dealt with that?
Tumisho Masha 08:51
Oh, life is about being able to take the good and the bad. Maturity is realizing that not everything is going to be rosy. But even when bad things happen, it's a good thing. And it's not a good thing at the time, it's always a good thing later. I didn't just go through one dramatic divorce I went through two. And both times I pretty much felt like I lost everything. In my second divorce. I even ended up going to live back home with my mom and dad, you know, at 41 years of age. But what I learned about something like that that was so important for me that I couldn't have learned any other way I think was that money is not something that defines me. Money is just something that I use as a tool. Because my biggest fear before that was what if I lose it or what if I end up living my parent’s house again. And what I realized was a lot of the things that we're chasing material things that are about what other people think of us, and usually not people who like us. But just I want people to think that I'm rich without actually being rich, whatever that means, or being financially successful. So the decisions that we make are defined by how do I look when I buy this car that is going to be very expensive when I buy it up front, but that's going to depreciate terribly. So by the time I bring it back and a couple of years’ time, and I say how much you're going to give me for this, this, they say you've lost a couple of million on it, by the clothes that I wear. Now, I don't care how expensive an item of clothing is. In five years’ time, it's probably going to be out of stock, it's probably not going to be in a position where you can wear it out. So why spend that much money on something that is not going to actually appreciate. And a lot of what we're doing now as, especially as a young black people is what brand of alcohol to drink. And we're defined by something so silly, because you go out one night, and you spend 10s of 1000s, on something that you're literally going to excrete in the morning. And yet you're not building legacy, you're not building a future for yourself. But when you lose all that, when you lose the ability to get financing for a car, when you no longer have the money to buy the most in brand, you realize that money and what you think people think about you is not whatever should define. And I'd like to say this because a lot of young men, especially when they lose everything financially, they commit suicide because they think I'm done. “No, you're not, your money is done.” Well, you can come back, yeah, you just have to make different decisions. And once you let go of the sense of people must think that I'm rich because of what they see, then you start making better financial decisions, you start realizing it's important to have life cover. Because when you die, you don't want your children to live with your debt. So there's three ways of becoming wealthy. One, is to make money from your job. This is bottom level, this is the basic stuff, and whatever you make from your job will never really make you rich. But you can use that money to one, first of all, cover your bases, I say, protect your money. A lot of people are driving expensive cars that haven't even insured them, a lot of people have expensive phones, and they haven't even insured them. So when the phone falls and breaks, you literally lost 20,000 Rand, insurance is very important. Because you are making sure that what you have, you can keep. Then the third layer, the one that's the ultimate layer is now when you take your disposable income and instead of going and buying a 10,000 Rand bottle of, I don't know champagne, or whiskey, take that money and put it away. Put it. I don't care what you put it because, you know, sometimes we get caught up in what type of investment vehicle, am I buying shares? Am I investing in a business? Am I putting it in savings? I'm saying it, that doesn't even matter. But just put it away, don't even think about it. Because that is disposable income. That's money you don't need. You've already paid for the basics, your bond or your rent your car, your living expenses, you've protected it by getting insurance. And now the extra step put as much of it away as you possibly can. And the little that you have after that, now that's the money you can splash out. Once you've done that, you'll find that in time, you will have the financial security that you need to leave something behind for your children and for yourself when you get older.
John Manyike 13:07
Are you sure you're not a part time financial advisor?
Tumisho Masha 13:11
[Laughs] This lesson that I've learned, I think the hard way that I'm hoping that I can impart to people that they don't have to go through what I went through. Because funny enough, these are the lessons that I grew up with. These are the basic lessons that my parents told me. But sometimes when we grow up and we see our parents doing this, we think, “Ah, they're so boring man, you know, they're not exciting.” My father was never a very flashy person. You never bought the most expensive car. He just bought the car that he can afford after he's done the basic things. My mom's same thing. But what I've learned is as I got older, they have stuff, I don't have to pay what we call black tax, I don't have to buy my mother and father a house now. I don't have to worry that as they're getting older, I have to like send them money every month, because they did the right thing. And they're still the ones who when we need money, or when I'm like, “Oh mom, you know, I'd like to invest in this. Can you help me? I'm doing this movie.” And she's like, “Sure, I can loan you some money.” And isn't that what we want for our children so that I can live my dream? Well, my children can live their dreams. And they say I want to start this business and I can say here's a million bucks go started. If you bring it back, that's great. If you don't, that's also fine.
John Manyike 14:14
There was a time you were going through some serious challenges particularly, I think in one of your divorces where public that they actually had to rely on alcohol. I guess I think drugs at some point as a, you know, coping mechanism, how did you overcome that?
Tumisho Masha 14:32
I think the first thing one has to realize is, I am using substances to mask the pain that I'm going through, put them aside for a second and say, “Okay, shower me, because it's a shower of pain, let me just go through it.” Because the thing that I think Modern society has done to us is, we think of pain as such a bad thing that we don't want to feel it at all. But if you don't go through the pain, you can’t get to the other side, and feel the joy as well. What a lot of people don't realize is when you're masking the pain with substances, you actually end up isolating yourself. Because let's be honest, you can't do drugs at a family event, right. You can't like drink until you fall over. So you end up then not going to the family events, you always just want to be by yourself, but you're in a place where you're isolated, and you're probably not going to heal. And the only way to really heal is to be with those people that are with you that love you. And you realize that actually, the life that is important is around people, you know, when you build life around people, and actually, I don't need this stuff. And that's what I realized, I don't actually need this stuff. Because I don't have to mask my pain. I can be in pain. And then people can give me what I really need love affection. And over time, you overcome and you look back and you go, wow, that was That was wild and a little bit crazy. But like I said it was really good. Because now I can talk to you about it. And hopefully someone who's listening that right now I can say hey, you know what, you don't need that stuff. Put it down.
John Manyike 16:05
So, the alcohol, the drugs, how was this affecting your bank balance?
Tumisho Masha 16:10
Oh, wow. That is always gonna affect your bank balance. You're taking all that disposed of. So the three things that you spoke about, and I just like to say is, I want to talk to some men, especially some young, the three things that are definitely going to put you in the dust when it comes to your finances, alcohol, drugs, women, right. None of these are compatible.
John Manyike 16:30
And we're not saying women are bad, we're just saying.
Tumisho Masha 16:33
I'm saying womanizing, let's call it that.
John Manyike 16:35
I think it's safer than.
Tumisho Masha 16:36
Someone once said, I spend my money on wine, women and song and the rest are wasted. So when I say women, I don't mean like, being in a relationship with a woman, that's probably the best thing you can do. In fact, to really put into perspective, I say to any young man out there, find a great woman, and let her handle the finances, you'll probably find she's good with. She's good with finances, that's why I said five. First, the caveat is find a good woman. And then you'll find that you'll do well. But if you're going to be out there, womanizing, doing drugs, spending money on alcohol, you're definitely going to be broke. And the reason for that is that it always brings other things, you find that you end up now having a group of people that you go out with, that are always telling you to make bad decisions. But you cut out those three things, you'll find that you're either in a group of people that are helping you make better decisions, or you're just by yourself, literally see that you can make better decisions when it comes to your money. Because those things are things that you consume, they bring nothing back in return. So you're spending, spending, spending, spending, spending, and it's going, going, going, it's literally like taking your money and using it to start a fire for a bride. It never comes back to you. And it's always wasted. Because the following morning, you're like, what was the point of that?
John Manyike 17:53
You know, you said something profound earlier on that money or material stuff doesn't define you. So, what is your definition of success?
Tumisho Masha 18:04
My definition of success is doing something that you love every single day and doing it well. Now, a lot of schemes out there that say do you hate your job, come and spend money on this. And in two years, you can be retired. And then you have all these videos of people saying, you know, I hated my job and at 30 I was retired. Retired to do what? You're gonna sit at home or you're going to be on the beach drinking cocktails with umbrellas every day. That's not real life. That's something that you do after you retired, right. So I say success for me is waking up every day. And just being joyful that I'm going to do something that I love because I have to do something, that's number one. That's the first tier of success. The next tier of success is whatever that I do that I love actually is able to pay me the money that is going to give me the lifestyle that I want. And then the third tier of success for me is the money that I have. I'm able to use it to do things for the people, I love my family, I can do things for them that are amazing. I can send them to great schools, I can give those experiences, because part of wealth is actually great experiences, right? I can send them on great trips overseas, so that they can see the world and realize that the country they live in South Africa is an amazing place. Because a lot of the times we don't realize how amazing this country is until we go to these other places that we think of as amazing. And then I can spend it on building a legacy that when they get to an age where they want to do something for themselves, they don't necessarily always have to go and borrow from someone. If they want to go to university, they don't have to worry about, I don't have time to spend four years at university, just studying my passion. And maybe I have to study something that is not my passion so that I can pay the bills. I want them to have the kind of legacy that one day they don't have to worry about acquiring certain assets. They start with that in their life, because they have to know how important it is to work. But that work also is not something that you do, because that defines you.
John Manyike 20:13
So, you went through two divorces.
Tumisho Masha 20:17
Yeah.
John Manyike 20:17
Can you still believe in that?
Tumisho Masha 20:19
Oh, definitely. I'm married again, by the way. So, I definitely do, right. I think that love is the most amazing of all human expressions. Everything else is empty without love, like anybody's ever achieved anything that people will live on the highest floor, somebody's penthouses, they can tell you that if they're just living there all by themselves without any love, it's the worst and most empty experience they could ever have. Finding the right person in your life and creating a fantastic partnership is the greatest wealth that you can acquire, because everything else works.
John Manyike 20:53
You said something about, you know, when you're going through a divorce, and you are fighting for these assets, because they define you, you end up being the loser. But you also said something very profound that marriage is not about gaining, but it's about losing,
Tumisho Masha 21:08
I think a lot of people go through a divorce. And they think I just want to save as much as I can. I want to hold on to as much as I can. And you know, going through a divorce means lawyers are going to be involved. And as soon as you have that attitude, the only people that are going to win are the lawyers, both of you are going to lose everything. So, it's sometimes better to just say, “Take what you want.” And even if I'm left with nothing, I'll gain it back. But at least I won't be in the red. Marriage, in its truest sense is about losing yourself losing what you prefer, what you like, what you want, and also giving your life to someone else to something that is greater than yourself, which is this marriage, right. It's two people who come in and they build this marriage. So, all the stuff that won't work for this marriage, I gotta leave it out there, that's what I'm going to have to lose, I'm probably going to have to lose some friends, I might have to lose some family members that are not going to make this marriage work. And I might have to lose some ideas about life, some principles that I'm holding on to that definitely won't make this work. And once you are not afraid of losing that, and you're about I'm here to build, beautiful things happen. But when two people are in there going, I'm here to get something, you know, I'm here to either make or to get money, or get this person's name, or just whatever it is that I can take, this thing is definitely going to break and you're going to lose everything.
John Manyike 22:31
I think it's powerful there. Because what I'm also hearing from what you're saying is that as you lose yourself to someone by giving, you actually gaining. I mean, you know, sometimes we think losing is losing, but losing could be gaining because you're investing in somebody. And if you were to give advice to young people who want to get into your industry, when it comes to issues of money. I said to you earlier on offline that, you know, in your career as actors, you don't necessarily have a normal retirement age. I mean, you can be acting at the age of 110, you know, as the grand, grand, grand, grand grandfather, but still the gig. How should you handle money? And how should you prepare for the moments in your life where you're studying to wind out?
Tumisho Masha 23:13
I think the biggest thing is don't get caught up in the social media lies. You don't have to be the person who's pretending to have money because the thing about fame in this country doesn't always bring fortune. And that's okay. It brings enough money as a career for you to do amazing things in terms of investments, and that sort of thing, and to build something, always diversify. Don't just be an actor. Try and do much more than that. We've seen examples of people out there doing amazing things. I look at someone like Floyd Mayweather was a fantastic boxer. And he realized that don't just be a boxer. Why not also be a promoter? And that's how Floyd Mayweather became the richest boxer to have ever walked this earth. Yeah. So, always think outside of what I do and think of how do I make what I do bigger than me? How do I make it work for me? And then from there, don't worry about what other people think how much you have, because of your consumerism and materialism. Worry about what you really have, consolidate what you really have, even something like medical aid is so important. And a lot of actors don't even spend money on that. So, now when you get sick, you can't even go to a good doctor, you can't go to a good pharmacist and get the medication that you need. So, your process of getting back to work is longer. And this is the basics. This is the basic-basic. You're buying an expensive phone or a laptop just to impress someone not buy an expensive phone or laptop because it will help you in your work. And then when you making all that money, make sure that you investing.
John Manyike 24:51
Thank you so much. I really appreciate you joining us.
Tumisho Masha 24:55
Thanks so much, John.
John Manyike 24:56
Subscribe to the Old Mutual On The Money YouTube channel and become a master with your finances.
Old Mutual 25:01
Old Mutual: do great things every day. Old Mutual Life Assurance Company Limited is a licensed FSP and life insurer.