Most parents want their children to be more financially secure than they were and to live their lives without financial stress. Many parents see their retirement fund as a way to leave their children an inheritance. The reality unfortunately, is...
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Cryptocurrencies and their revolutionary architecture
By Stéphane Monier, Chief Investment Officer, Lombard Odier Private Bank Investment experts have often sceptically dismissed cryptocurrencies as excessively volatile. Technologists have described them as revolutionary. Who is correct? Will...
Video: When it comes to retirement, time is literally money
The earlier you start to save, the less money you need to put away. Time is one of the most powerful forces when it comes to growing your money – all thanks to the power of compounding. If you start earlier, you need to save less: If you save R12...
The best place for your emergency fund
Every financial plan should start with an emergency fund. Even if you have debt, before you start focusing on accelerating those repayments, you need to first build up an emergency fund. An emergency fund is what will stop you going back into debt....
Video: What is an exchange-traded fund?
What is the difference between an exchange-traded fund and a unit trust? Both of these investments make it far easier to invest on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange because they give an investor exposure to a wide range of shares for as little as...
Provisional tax rules in for a shake-up
The current draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill, 2018, contains a number of changes to the administrative processes required of SARS and taxpayers. While there are certain proposals that have garnered quite a lot of attention, there are...
Video: How to improve your credit score
Sometimes we need to access credit for emergencies, student loans, or to buy a car. The key is to try and get the best possible interest rate ‒ which means you need a good credit score. Credit bureau Compuscan shared some insights into factors that...
Are we managing our money better?
South African households appear to have a better handle on debt levels, but this could be at the expense of savings, especially for emergencies. Despite headlines about the deteriorating state of consumer finances, the latest Old Mutual Savings and...
You either sleep well or you eat well
By Sherwin Govender, Business Development Manager at Glacier by Sanlam It's perfectly natural for clients to feel nervous about their investments, given the low-return environment over the past few years, and even more so when the client is nearing...
Shopping around for credit insurance
The pricing cap on credit insurance is good news for new loans, but many existing credit customers are still paying over the odds. In August last year, price caps were introduced on how much a credit provider could charge for credit insurance and...
Previous Articles
Build a fashionable share portfolio
Building a share portfolio is like building a capsule wardrobe. According to Susie Faux, the owner of a London boutique called "Wardrobe" a capsule wardrobe is a collection of a few essential items of clothing that don't go out of fashion, such as skirts, trousers and...
Video: What’s your money personality?
Managing our finances is harder for some people than others because of our personality types. There is a psychology behind the way we handle money which can be broken down into the four most common money personas – so which one are you? Personality Type #1: The...
Why you may not have a claim on your partner’s living annuity
Court case highlights the lack of rights for spousal claims when it comes to a living annuity. UPDATE (13 May 2020): The Supreme Court of Appeal has recently overturned a previously publicised ruling that a living annuity cannot be taken into account for the purposes...
Even financially sophisticated people fall for scams
About a year ago I was having coffee with an acquaintance who works in the financial industry. He is knowledgeable and well informed, so I was surprised when he told me about this amazing forex fund that he had invested in which was making him a lot of money. The...
Selling your car successfully
Selling your car can be a stressful experience, especially if you’re new to doing it. Follow these tips to sell your car without getting ripped off in the process. When it comes to selling a car, women in particular feel intimidated by the exercise ‒ and it’s not only...
Sneakers or saving?
A few weeks ago, a young man named Kuhle asked me a very simple question: “If I got a R3 000 windfall should I use it to party, to buy sneakers or to save?” My automatic, gut response is: “Save it all!” But that answer is not going to resonate with a 21-year-old who...
DebiCheck: putting an end to illegal debit orders
One of the more frequent complaints we receive from readers is around illegal debit orders. This is when bogus companies run debit orders of around R100 off people’s bank accounts in the hope that either the bank account holder won’t notice the transaction, or if they...
The knock-on effect of our squeezed pockets
As I have been travelling away from home a fair amount this month, I filled up my car for the first time since the two price increases. I am writing this column as therapy to recover from the shock! My tank now costs me in excess of R1 000 to fill. Admittedly my fuel...
What kind of access bond do you have?
Access bonds have different rules so it is important to understand how yours works. Last month Standard Bank customers received notification that they could choose between two different types of access bonds. While this caused some confusion, it highlighted that most...
Afraid to ask your adviser about fees? That’s weird.
By Emma Heap, Chief Growth Officer, 10X Investments Even if you feel a tinge of anxiety each time you see another news report about the damage high fees have done to someone’s retirement plans, you remind yourself that your financial adviser is an old family friend...