South Africans Want Risk Again
The Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor 2026 found that 51% of working South Africans are willing to take above-average or substantial investment risk in pursuit of higher returns.
The appetite is sharpening fastest in two specific groups:
- Gen Y risk appetite rose from 51% to 58% in one year
- Among people earning R30,000 or more a month, it rose from 49% to 58%
- Appetite for cryptocurrencies grew from 27% to 34%
When the report asked why people had become more willing to take risk, the answers were: wanting higher returns, a "don't want to regret not trying" mindset, family and retirement motivation, and growing confidence from experience.
None of that is irrational. Over long horizons, higher-risk assets have delivered higher returns, and a 30-year-old holding only cash is taking a different and arguably larger risk. The appetite is fine.
The question is where you take it.
The Point Almost Everyone Misses
Here is the argument that changes how you should think about your TFSA.
A tax shelter is worth the most on your highest-growth assets, because that is where the tax you're avoiding is largest.
Consider two people. Both have R100,000 in a TFSA and R100,000 in a taxable account. One holds cash in the TFSA and an equity ETF in the taxable account. The other does the reverse.
Over twenty years at 10%, an equity ETF turns R100,000 into roughly R673,000 — growth of R573,000. Shelter that and you pay no capital gains tax, no dividend withholding tax, nothing. Leave it exposed and CGT alone, at an effective 14.4% for someone on a 36% marginal rate, takes roughly R82,500, with dividend withholding tax eroding the base every year on top.
Cash over the same period generates far less growth, so sheltering it saves comparatively little. Person one has wasted most of their tax-free allowance. Person two has used it fully.
Same assets, same total money, materially different outcome, entirely because of which account held which asset.
So if you have genuine risk appetite, the TFSA is exactly where it belongs. Not the place to be cautious. The place to hold the growth assets you're comfortable owning for a decade or more, precisely because the shelter is worth most there.
This is also why a TFSA holding only a money market fund, which is how a lot of South Africans use it, quietly wastes the account's main benefit. The name encourages it. The maths argues against it.
Now the Part About Crypto
Given all that, the obvious question from anyone in the 34% is: can I put crypto in my TFSA?
No.
Tax-free investments in South Africa are defined by the regulations issued under section 12T of the Income Tax Act, which set out which instruments qualify. In practice that means approved collective investment schemes, qualifying JSE-listed exchange-traded funds, certain bank deposit products, and specified long-term insurance policies.
Crypto assets are not on that list. No South African TFSA provider offers direct cryptocurrency exposure inside the tax-free wrapper, and this isn't a gap in the market that a provider might fill next year. It's a regulatory boundary.
What that means in practice
Crypto held outside a TFSA is fully taxable. SARS treats crypto asset gains as either revenue or capital depending on your intention and trading pattern:
- Trading frequently? Gains are likely treated as revenue and taxed at your marginal rate, up to 45%.
- Holding long-term? Gains are more likely capital in nature, subject to CGT at a 40% inclusion rate, so an effective rate up to 18%.
So the person who puts R46,000 into crypto and R46,000 into a TFSA money market fund has it precisely backwards. They've placed their highest-growth, highest-volatility asset in the fully taxable environment and their lowest-growth asset in the tax-free one.
The commodity ETF nuance
You can hold certain JSE-listed commodity ETFs in a TFSA, and this is where people sometimes get confused, because a gold ETF looks superficially like the same kind of "alternative" bet.
Be careful with these. Commodity ETFs are eligible where they meet the section 12T requirements, but eligibility varies by instrument and providers do restrict what's available in the tax-free wrapper. Before assuming any specific ETF qualifies, confirm it with your platform. Do not assume that JSE-listed automatically means TFSA-eligible.
Taking Risk Well Inside a TFSA
If you want above-average returns and you want them sheltered, here's what that actually looks like.
Diversified equity, not concentrated bets. A globally diversified equity ETF has meaningfully higher expected returns than cash or bonds, with volatility you can live through over ten years. That is "above-average risk" in the sense that produces wealth. A single stock or a thematic fund is a different kind of risk, one that isn't reliably compensated.
Global exposure matters. South Africa is roughly 1% of global market capitalisation. A TFSA holding only JSE-listed South African equity is a concentrated country bet. Feeder funds tracking global indices, available from Satrix, Sygnia, 10X and others, give you the rest of the world inside the tax-free wrapper.
Watch the TER. Fees compound against you exactly as returns compound for you. A 0.35% total expense ratio versus 1.2% doesn't sound like much and costs you a great deal over thirty years. This is the one place where being cautious genuinely pays.
Don't churn. Since there's no CGT inside a TFSA, there's no tax cost to switching, which tempts people to trade. The cost shows up elsewhere: brokerage, spreads, and the well-documented tendency to sell after falls and buy after rises. The wrapper removes the tax penalty for churning. It doesn't remove the behavioural one.
Match the horizon to the asset. Above-average risk is appropriate for money you won't touch for ten years. It is not appropriate for money you might need in eighteen months. If your TFSA is doubling as your emergency fund, it should not be in equities — and it probably shouldn't be your emergency fund at all, since withdrawals permanently consume contribution room.
The Over-50 Counter-Trend
While younger and higher-earning South Africans took on more risk, the over-50s went the other way: those taking average or no risk rose from 61% to 71% in a single year.
Some of that is appropriate. Some of it is a reflex that costs money, because a 50-year-old may still have thirty-plus years of investment horizon when you count the retirement drawdown period. Cash at 5.5% inflation loses roughly half its purchasing power over thirteen years. That's a guaranteed loss taken to avoid a temporary one.
Risk should taper as you approach the point of spending the money, not on a birthday.
The Bottom Line
The rise in risk appetite is not the problem. Over a long horizon, taking sensible risk is how ordinary salaries turn into real capital, and the 51% are broadly right.
The problem is placement. South Africans are increasingly willing to take risk in the one environment where every gain is taxable, while leaving the tax-free account holding cash.
Crypto cannot go in a TFSA. Diversified global equity can. If you want the growth, the wrapper that makes the growth tax-free is available right now, and most people are using it for the wrong asset.
Your Next Step
- Check what your TFSA is actually holding. If it's a money market or cash fund and your horizon is ten years or more, you're wasting most of the shelter.
- Put your highest-expected-growth assets inside the TFSA and hold lower-growth or short-term money outside it.
- Get global exposure through a JSE-listed feeder or global ETF rather than concentrating in South African equity alone.
- Compare TERs before you choose. Cheaper is close to a free lunch over long horizons.
- If you want crypto exposure, understand it will be taxed, keep it to a portion you can genuinely afford to lose, and don't let it displace your tax-free allowance.
- Confirm eligibility with your provider before assuming any specific ETF can be held in the tax-free wrapper.
Statistics in this article are from the Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor 2026, an annual survey of 1,519 employed South Africans aged 18 to 65 earning R8,000 or more per month, with fieldwork conducted in April 2026. Tax treatment described is general and depends on individual circumstances. This article is general information and not personal financial advice.