Two of the three certainties in life are staring us in the face again. The one that is unavoidable happens on 28 February, the end of the 2026 tax year. You have one week left to make use of the tax-saving mechanisms like contributing R36 000 to your tax-free savings account; contributing up to R350 000 to your Retirement Annuity; or utilizing the R40 000 Capital Gains Tax exclusion. If you want to donate some money, you can also do so by donating up to R100 000 to anyone without paying the 20% donations tax. These tax-saving tools might seem like a drop in the bucket but over time they can add up to a healthy tax saving.
On the war front we are seeing a concerning military buildup by the Americans around Iran. The two countries are currently negotiating terms on the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, and hopefully the military buildup is only Trump’s way of pushing his agenda. We are seeing the oil price going up in anticipation of the potential conflict and other asset classes like equities, crypto and gold are not going anywhere. There has been a noticeable rotation out of the bigger growth companies in the US, like technology, into the smaller and medium-sized ones. This rotation is good for longer-term investors because it lowers the concentration risk in their portfolios. Unfortunately, we have seen the strengthening of the rand halted, and with the rising oil price we might see pressure returning to inflation which might delay further interest rate cuts.
Paraphrasing a quote I read the other day: if you are currently experiencing many concerns, you must be in good health; because if you are sick, you only have one concern.