Newsletters

Put Stocks, Rather Than Socks, Under the Tree This Christmas The end of the year, and the time for giving are rapidly approaching. If you are fortunate enough to be receiving a 13th cheque, perhaps it’s worth thinking about doing something meaningful with some of that money. Gifting an investment or making a donation to…

Get Rich & Stay Rich: Eight Mistakes Wealthy People Never Make Getting rich isn’t as hard as it sounds. Years of consistent, calculated investing are almost guaranteed to fill up your coffers. For many, the trickier challenge is maintaining their wealth. Luckily, it’s not rocket science – all it takes is self-discipline and the ability…

The “Two Bucket” Retirement Savings System: What is it and Why is it Important? The government has said that it is going ahead with plans to introduce a ‘two bucket’ retirement savings system. The intention is to increase the amounts that South Africans are preserving. But what does retirement preservation mean? And why it is…

Women’s Month: Three Ways You Can Improve Your Money Health More and more people are becoming aware of the importance of financial wellbeing. Just like it’s necessary to look after your physical health, it is critical to be proactive about taking care of your financial health as well. In Women’s Month, it’s worth considering why…

Why Inflation is the Most Important Investment Benchmark Inflation is “enemy number one” for every investor. A lot of the time we don’t notice it, but over the years it has a huge impact on the value of our money. By experience, we know that R1 000 today will buy us less than the same…

With the Limits Raised, How Much Should You Invest Offshore? One of the biggest changes announced in this year’s budget was that pension funds and retirement annuities can now invest as much as 45% offshore. This was a big jump from the previous limit of 30%. There had also been an extra 10% allowed for…

Stay Calm When the Bear Prowls John Bogle, the founder of the US investment company Vanguard, calculated that the average equity unit trust investment gained 173% between 1997 and 2011. In the same period, the average investor in equity funds gained only 110%! This is mainly because investors end up selling when the bear prowls…

What Amazon and Ford Can Tell Us About Diversification There are a few pieces of financial advice that are repeated more than any others: stay invested for the long term; don’t try to time the market; and diversify. But what exactly does diversification mean, and why is it important? If you are able to identify…

Why You Need Building Insurance and How to Switch From Your Bank If you own a home with the help of a bond, then you are legally bound by the bank to have building insurance in place to protect their investment. But besides being able to pay back your bond should your home be destroyed in a…

Investing: Men and Women See Things Differently As the famous book title by relationship counsellor John Gray put it: men are from Mars, women are from Venus. In some instances, their minds really do work differently, an important factor to be aware of when making investment decisions. Money is one of those. Academic research has…