"R11 to £1 is not as good as two years ago, but the odds are still in your favour to kill off your biggest enemy- dbpt," says Maike Currie, acting personal finance editor of the oldest investment magazine in the world, Investors Chronicle.

Regardless of whether you’re planning to head back to sunny skies, high inflation and interest rates or plant roots in the pricey UK, your best route towards financial independence is to kill off any debt and get your books balanced.

This might be a no brainer, but there is no point in saving when you have short term debt hovering over you.  Interest rates on credit always - yes always - exceed the rate which you get on your savings. So draw up a realistic plan to pay off your student debt, credit card overdraft or car loan, and stick to it.

Only when you are in the clear, can you start saving your pounds.  Remember that interest rates (the rate at which banks lend you money) back home are far higher than in the UK – which means that you are paying less in interest in the UK than in SA. So get your SA debt sorted first, but ultimately you need to kill that credit, whether it’s in the UK or SA.

Once you have achieved this, the golden rule is save, save and save. It’s all good and well spending your money on snake bites, travels and alluring British pastries, but bear in mind that the real word is lurking just around the corner and inevitably you will have to face it and the unexpected costs it can (and will) throw at you. The best buffer to nasty electricity bills in London or having to buy a new car when you hit SA soil is having some cash stashed away.  A tax-efficient way of saving while in the UK is individual savings accounts – Isas in short.

Most banks and building societies offer these to anyone resident in the UK – which includes most Saffas on work permits, tier one or spousal visas.  You get two types of Isas – a cash Isa – which is purely for saving cash in, and a stocks and shares Isa which allows you to invest money into shares or funds.  While the latter might seem a bit complex, you can earn much higher returns on a stocks and shares Isa – especially now that companies are seeing a turnaround from last year’s market fall-out. However, with higher reward comes higher risk, and you could also – if the markets go belly-up – lose all your money.

The current Isa limit per person is £5,100 for a cash Isa, and £5,100 for a stocks and shares Isa, which means within the current tax year you are allowed to save £10,200 in total. The beauty of an Isa is that any interest you make on your saving is tax free. Isas aren’t complex to understand – think of a bank savings account with tax free interest. But be aware of what you buy, some Isas can only be managed online, while others are fixed for a certain time period, meaning you will only get the interest rate promised if you leave your money untouched for that period of time.

Use a money comparison site to find the Isas with the most attractive savings rate offers.