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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…

Red-Carding the Myth of The Rational Investor Most people like to think that they can make rational decisions. When it comes to their money, they believe that they can make choices based only on the facts. But the human mind is so complex, and able to take in so much information, that often we aren’t…

Three Things to Consider When Insuring Your Home Insurance is always a grudge purchase. Homeowners insurance is particularly so, because the chance of you losing your house and all of its contents is really very small. The risk, however, is not in the probability of it happening, but the scale of the loss if it…

What’s The Biggest Lesson You Can Learn from Warren Buffett? Warren Buffett’s net worth is over R1 trillion. And that is even after he has given away assets worth over R600 billion. He has been so phenomenally successful as an investor that thousands of people have studied his track record to try to find clues…

What Exactly is Sasria, and Are You Covered? The violent unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng during July caused an estimated R50bn worth of damage. However, most insurance policies would not cover any of these losses. That is because insurers do not themselves cover against special risks such as strikes, riots and terrorism. These are specifically…

Four Steps to Get the Most Out of Your Tax-Free Savings Account It is not often that you get a free lunch. Tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs), however, offer exactly that. When you invest in one of these products, you pay no tax on the growth of your money. Over the short-term, this may not seem…

May You Live Long… But Not Too Long The Vulcan salutation “live long and prosper” was made famous by Star Trek in the 1960s. These days, we are certainly living longer. However, making sure that we prosper will always take some work. Longevity risk, or the risk that you will outlive your savings, should be…

Do You Give Your Financial Health as Much Focus as Your Physical Wellbeing? Around the world, people are eating healthier, exercising more and doing things like yoga and meditation to reduce their stress. Many people in their 40s report feeling fitter and more health conscious now than they were in their 20s. However, few of…