Recent Posts - page 2
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The new generation RA
As with anything requiring your signature, it is absolutely imperative that you understand what you are committing to when investing in a retirement annuity. In essence, there are two vastly different types of retirement annuities available to investors. Knowing and… Read More ›
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10 tried-and-tested retirement tips
Although the investment arena may appear complicated, highly regulated and jam-packed with jargon, there are a set of underlying fundamentals when it comes to preparing for one’s retirement that are universally true and indisputably sound. With only 6% of South… Read More ›
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When you can’t speak for yourself
While you are healthy, mentally stable and physically mobile, it may be difficult to conceive a time when you will not be able to speak for yourself. Whether through injury, degenerative disease or the sudden onset of illness, many people,… Read More ›
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10 things all children should know about money
Teaching our children how to budget, handle money and save is but a small part of making our children financially astute. Before children can grasp the more technical aspects of finance, there are some underlying principles that are well worth… Read More ›
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Your will, your way
Having a Will is not the privilege of the impossibly wealthy. It is the right of every South African who wishes to plan their legacy while they are still alive. Anyone who has assets and/or minor children, and who wishes… Read More ›
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The financial planning evolution
Like YouTube, Crocs and global warming, financial planning as we know it today simply did not exist twenty years ago. Today’s highly regulated profession – which is governed by a series of stringent legislation, governed by the Financial Services Board… Read More ›
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The unseen enemies
Whilst many investors consider the most ominous threats to their retirement savings to be unpredictable market forces and failing economies, the truth is that some of the greatest threats to one’s retirement can be latent and unassuming. Even the most bullet-proof… Read More ›
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All that glitters is not gold
In the immediate aftermath of the exposure of any Ponzi scheme, the overwhelming response from the world of investing is general disbelief that any rational being could fall for such seemingly obvious trickery. Once the exposé is laid bare and… Read More ›
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The cost of convenience
Being vociferously vocal on the poverty agenda, Pope Francis has once again been urging financiers and economists to help reverse the current “throw away” culture by putting people at the centre of monetary strategies. In our market-driven economy, too many… Read More ›
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Unpack and re-stack
Like an annual dental check-up or a long overdue vehicle service, taking stock of one’s financial position is an activity which is at best tedious, and at worst depressingly alarming. Tedious because, no doubt, sorting through benefit statements, policy documents… Read More ›
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8 financial gifts to give your children
If we were for a moment to consider all the gifts we long to bestow upon our children, we’d probably be quite surprised to discover how many of them are material. Raising children in a global online shopping mall where… Read More ›
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Mind over money
For many South Africans, budgeting is nothing more than a painful, penny-pinching process that sucks the joy out of life. Over and above the hard facts often revealed at the bottom of the balance-sheet, most of us are left, post-budgeting,… Read More ›
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Understanding retirement annuities
In the not-so-distant past, retirement annuities fell exclusively in the domain of South Africa’s life insurance companies who sold very expensive retirement annuities that paid insurance brokers massive upfront commissions. In many instances, the actual investment portfolios of the RA… Read More ›
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Back to basics
As the season of excess approaches and before we fall madly into mayhem in the mall, let’s gift ourselves a moment to plan how to survive the season without entering 2015 debt-laden and depressed. It all starts with going back to basics.
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No need for greed
Whilst it’s true that modern psychology is founded on the assumption that, in general, humans tend to think and behave rationally, this assumption has become somewhat of a misnomer in the realm of investing. Enter the relatively new field of… Read More ›
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A plan for all seasons
Living in this beautiful city that can at times deliver four seasons in a single day, it’s not hard to spot the analogy between our four climactic seasons and the four stages of financial planning. A fuller understanding of the… Read More ›
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Severing the cycle
As noble as the intention of teaching financial literacy to the impoverished may be, it remains somewhat challenging to teach those without money just how to manage it. And yet, in the absence of money management skills, those without money… Read More ›
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The facts of life
In some cases, quite deservedly, life insurance products have been given a bad rap. An upshot of an industry plagued by over-zealous and oft-times perversely incentivised brokers flogging and churning policies despite the absence of proven financial need, the words… Read More ›
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The state of your estate
One certainly wouldn’t be wrong for assuming that estate planning involves the drafting of a Will and indicating one’s preference between burial and cremation. The reality, however, is that the winding up of a deceased estate can take anywhere between… Read More ›
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You’ve got to be in it to win it
One would think that, with over 75 years of reliable stock market data, there would be fewer investors out there hell-bent on trying to hone the art of timing stock markets and more long-term investors adopting the tried and tested… Read More ›
