Your life assurance policy, endowment, retirement annuity including your benefits provided by your company all have the facility to nominate a beneficiary. This is an import consideration in your financial planning as you want to ensure that the right person ends up...
A year end bonus, 13th cheque and or any other extra cash that you might be lucky enough to have at this time of the year creates opportunities if you are aware of them. What does money mean to you?Wealthy people have an understanding of how money makes money. They...
Retailers over decades have used discounts to incentivise sales. R99 sounds so much less than R100. Offering a 30% discount on Black Friday still gets you to spend 70%. Where did Black Friday start…… As the story goes, stores in the US operating at a loss (“in the...
Pink Tax is a phenomenon often attributed as a form of gender-based price discrimination, with the name stemming from the observation that there is a broad tendency for products marketed specifically toward women to be more expensive than those marketed for...
Gold has always been a storage of wealth. The lustre of gold has attracted investors for centuries. Over the best part of the last decade, however, it seems to have lost its shine. Peaking at levels around $1900 a few years ago down to $1100 and back up to R1900 of...
Many Matriculants will be considering loan options for next year to fund their varsity fees. Student loans come with T’s and C’s which you should be very aware of. Recently I came across a very disillusioned sponsor of a student loan who had been paying interest and...
We have just ended National Wills Week and hopefully achieved a much needed awareness of the importance of having a will in place. Even more importantly, to ensure that your will is valid…… An invalid will can lead to unnecessary delays and costs when it comes to...
New draft legislation aims to give SARS the power to put you in jail if you make a mistake with your tax return. The draft bill seeks to remove the concept of “intent” which in criminal law needs to be proven that you wilfully broke the law. Removing this from...
Filing Season for 2020 has opened so its time to prepare that tax return again. For the average salary earner in South Africa, there isn’t much left to deduct on your return. Car allowance and retirement annuities are just about all that is left to consider. Travel...
DebtBusters quarterly analysis for Q2 2020 clearly shows how consumers’ exposure to debt has significantly deteriorated over lock down with higher-income earners in particular under debt pressure. This is borne out by the increase in unsecured debt, which on average...
A linked investment service provider (LISP) is probably one of the lessor understood investment vehicles. Most investment houses have them and have been around for a while. What are they?They are investment platforms which offer access to a universe of investment...
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) cut interest rates by another ,25% on Thursday which is brings the total reduction in interest to 3% for 2020. The repo rate which is applied to banks is now 3,5% and prime lending rate applied to consumers is now 7%. The lowest...
In depressed economy returns on various investments are weak if not negative. The South African Stock Market year to date is -2,3% with a total return of 0,6%. Fees become more noticeable when returns are low as they appear to reduce your returns leaving less for...
A retirement annuity is an investment for your long term financial future. It is the vehicle which will provide an income for you once you retire. South Africans do not have a safety net to fall into. You are on your own despite the number of years you have paid your...
Warren Edward Buffett is an American investor, business tycoon, and philanthropist, who is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is considered one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net worth of US$88.9 billion as of December 2019, making...
This has been a strategy applied by investors in the stock market over the years. It is a classic market adage which is also known as the Halloween Theory as the time to re-enter the market is after Halloween. (End of October). The saying dates back to old...
Changes were gazetted on the 1st June governing conditions regulating living annuities. This is an attempt to help retirees more access to their funds if they have been affected financially by the lockdown through COVID 19. What is a living annuity?When you retire you...
After more than 60 days in lockdown we have had a long time to think about many things, including money. We’ve seen how important it is to have enough to get by. Those who lost some or all of their income had to learn how to stretch their provisions to meet with their...
The traditional approach to sound financial planning is to buy a property as soon as you can instead of renting. The rationale is that you will be better off paying for your property as soon as you can with the rent you are paying to your landlord. However, the COVID...
RSA Retail Bonds are an option for those seeking that little extra interest from their strained savings. Effectively, you are lending the government money on a short term basis of 2, 3 and 5 year options where the interest is fixed and you are guaranteed your money...