Can I become a millionaire on an average South African salary?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How long will it take?

Answer: A little over six years with bitcoin.Investing in the JSE you would be well on your way (R410k) but not there yet.

The chart below tells the story.

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We started the exercise at the beginning of 2018 when the average South African salary was R21,989.  To get to our goal of being a millionaire, you have to start saving, even if things are desperately tight.

We assumed that you managed to save 10% of your salary every month and put this into either BTC or the JSEAll Share index (with dividends reinvested). 2015 was a good year for the JSE, with the market up nearly 20% overall.

But it’s nowhere near as good as bitcoin. With 10% of our average monthly salary going into bitcoin, and that salary increasing each year (as measured by Stats SA) we could have hit the millionaire mark after six years and a few months.

You could quibble and say starting in 2018 – at the bottom of a bear market – unfairly favours bitcoin, but had we taken the 2017 market peak, it would have delayed our millioniare target by just a few months. Remember, we are “rand cost averaging” here –investing regular amounts into either the JSE or BTC. So we will catch the peaks and the troughs regardless.

The results are pretty impressive be any measure, and a solid endorsement for saving 10% of your salary. The average South African salary in 2025 was R29,290 according to StatsSA.

Another point to note is that bitcoin is down 28% from its peak at $124,000 earlier this year. And still we are shooting the lights out.

What should I do? Start saving.