Teach your children well

It is time to revisit the importance of educating your children in the art of financial literacy. As with most other things in life, the secret to successful wealth creation is to start early and apply sound principles. We all know that the earlier you start your financial planning, the simpler you can keep the […]

Grey-listing and the BRICS currency

In an attempt to head off grey-listing, the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act, 2022, was passed late last year and came into effect on 1 April 2023. The impact of this Act is starting to affect various aspects of your life and most people have received requests from licensed service […]

Pay attention to your investments

We are often told that when you buy a share, or some other investment that invests in shares, you have to just forget about it and let it grow over time. There is a lot of truth in this advice because shares as an asset class do increase in value over a longer period of […]

Halfway through 2023

Six months have passed and we can do a small recap of what has happened. Most equity markets had a strong start to the year but then the South African and Chinese markets fizzled out a bit. On the JSE the biggest underperformers were the Resources stocks, especially the platinum miners. The two worst performing […]

Threat of National Grid Failure: Is Your Cover Sufficient?

The recent news of an expected increase in frequency and severity of load-shedding is not a pleasant outlook, and it seems like South Africa is heading for a gloomy winter. Nevertheless, South Africans have a reputation for their adaptability, resilience and humour, and this same approach is helping us all cope. Even driving through intersections […]

Returns over the past five years

We so often ask ourselves “What if?” What if I had chosen a different career? What if I moved to Aus? What if I had never gotten this puppy? And sometimes we ask ourselves “What if I invested in something else?” So let us look at the 5-year returns for a random list of investments […]

Will history repeat itself?

“Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance”. If you have ever read the fine print on the performance section of a unit trust fact sheet, this statement will ring a bell.  If we look at investment markets currently, we see a healthy recovery from the June lows and we all hope things […]

Corrections in markets are mirrored in nature

We prune roses to maintain the shape of the bush, to keep the main branches to a manageable height, and to eliminate unsightly, superfluous deadwood. Pruning encourages strong new growth and reduces the number of flowering stems, resulting in an increase in eventual flower size. Similarly, in nature most fynbos species are fire-dependent, in that they […]

Understand how the investment pendulum swings

Investment markets are dynamic and can be compared to a swinging pendulum. Your portfolio valuation will continuously change from being undervalued to being overvalued. There will be a time when it is just right and that is when the pendulum is at the six o’clock position. As the valuation changes from one extreme to the […]

Feedback on first quarter of 2022

I think we are all feeling rather negative after the first quarter of 2022. The negativity around Covid has been replaced by the same sentiment about the war between Russia and the Ukraine, as well as the constant stream of warnings about hyperinflation and rising interest rates. We have also felt the negativity in our […]