The agreement that governs your use of the Lifestyle Calculator website, account, software and services.
Legal document status — draft
The legal documents available on this website are currently draft documents prepared for the initial operation of Lifestyle Calculator. They are provided as an interim framework and are subject to review, amendment and approval by a South African attorney and/or suitably qualified compliance professional.
These documents will be updated once the legal and compliance review has been completed. The final versions may contain additional provisions, amendments or changes required to ensure that the website's terms, privacy practices, consumer disclosures and financial-services positioning are appropriately aligned with applicable South African legislation.
The publication of these draft documents does not constitute a representation that Lifestyle Calculator is currently compliant with every law, regulation, licence requirement, registration requirement or regulatory obligation that may potentially apply to the website or its activities.
Users should refer to the latest published version of each document once the legal review has been completed.
By creating an account or using the Lifestyle Calculator you agree to these Terms & Conditions, the Website Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy and the disclaimers linked from this site. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.
You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a contract. The service is designed for South African users and uses South African rands, tax context and financial norms.
You must give accurate registration details, keep your password confidential, and take responsibility for activity on your account. Tell us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access.
The calculator works entirely from the information you enter or import. You are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of that information. Incorrect, outdated or incomplete figures produce incorrect results.
The service is an educational financial modelling and planning tool and does not provide financial advice as contemplated in the FAIS Act. It produces estimates, benchmarks, scenarios and projections based on your figures and on assumptions built into the model. It is not a bank statement, tax return, credit application, valuation or financial plan.
You may upload a budget as a spreadsheet, photograph, screenshot or PDF. Bank statements are not accepted. You confirm that you are entitled to upload the document. It is processed to read budget lines, using automated rules and, for images and PDFs, an AI document-reading service. Every line is shown to you for review and nothing is saved until you confirm it.
Automated classification is a suggestion only. You must review the results on the review screen before importing. See the AI & Automated Calculations Disclosure.
We rely on third parties for hosting, authentication, AI document reading and communications. Their availability and performance are outside our direct control.
The website, software, calculation engine, benchmarks, wording and design are owned by us or our licensors. You may use the service for your own personal financial planning. You may not copy, scrape, resell, reverse engineer or build a competing product from it without our written permission. The figures you enter remain yours.
We aim to keep the service available but it may be interrupted for maintenance, upgrades or reasons beyond our control. We may add, change, or discontinue features, calculation assumptions and benchmarks. Material changes to how calculations work will be communicated where practical.
You may not use the service unlawfully; upload another person's financial documents without their permission; attempt to gain unauthorised access; interfere with the service; use automated scraping; or present the output as regulated financial advice to third parties.
You may close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access where these terms are breached, where required by law, or where necessary to protect the service or other users. We will act reasonably and, where practical, give notice.
To the maximum extent permitted by South African law, and subject always to the Consumer Protection Act and other laws that cannot be excluded, we are not liable for financial loss arising from decisions you take based on the estimates, projections or benchmarks produced by the calculator, or from information you entered incorrectly.
Nothing in these terms excludes liability for gross negligence, wilful misconduct, death or personal injury, or any liability that may not lawfully be excluded or limited. We do not use blanket exclusions of responsibility.
To the extent permitted by law, you indemnify us against claims arising from your unlawful use of the service or from documents you uploaded without the necessary permission. This indemnity does not apply where the loss was caused by us.
These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. We would like the chance to resolve any dispute directly — please use the Complaints page first. If a dispute cannot be resolved, it may be referred to mediation or to a South African court of competent jurisdiction. Your statutory rights, including any right to approach the National Consumer Commission or a relevant ombud, are not affected.
Updated terms are published on this page with a new version number and effective date. Where the change is material we will ask you to accept the new version.
Questions about this document? Visit Contact us, or raise a formal issue on the Complaints page.