Car jamming is by no means a new trick – the tactic has been reported on for a number of years now and it’s still being used. Essentially, car jamming is a practice whereby thieves use a signal-jamming device to interfere with your car remote....
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Learning to say “no”
When I met Glenda at a women’s day function, I was struck by her confidence and how empowered she was around money. But to become the woman she is today, she had to undertake a journey of self-discovery about the power of money and how destructive...
We are only human after all
The Chinese are not the savers we think they are. If you find that you overspent this festive season, you are not alone. Despite being touted as the biggest savings nation in the world, even the Chinese are proving to be as in love with spending as...
Get fit and pay for your child’s university fees
Discovery Life has launched a Global Education Protector policy which could help fund your children’s education costs. Education is expensive. Currently, average tuition fees across public primary schools sits at around R20,000 per annum while the...
Driving your way to a lower premium
A sobering thought before we all climb behind the wheel of our cars this holiday: South Africa’s roads are among the most dangerous in the world! According to the World Health Organisation, the number of road deaths in South Africa per 100 000...
We have no policy to delay refunds, says SARS
After publishing an article about increased tax audits and delays in refunds by SARS, and telling the story of a taxpayer who was hounded by SARS for 49c, City Press was inundated by responses from readers adding to the complaints against SARS....
Remember its 40 days to the next paycheque!
Use an early salary to pay your bills ahead of time. If you were fortunate enough to get paid early this December, before you start spending that salary remember it needs to last until the next payday which can be up to 40 days away! Listen to Maya...
How to ensure your home loan pre-qualification stays valid
There is a growing trend in South Africa towards home loan pre-qualification, with both buyers and sellers in real estate transactions putting more value now on financial preparedness. So says Shaun Rademeyer, CEO of BetterBond, SA’s biggest bond...
Will fintech make life cover cheaper?
New financial services companies are starting to challenge the status quo through technology that enables them to engage with customers directly and use data collected through the use of smartphones, rewards programmes and social media to improve...
Beware the potential tax pitfalls of earnings through Airbnb
A brief search on Airbnb reveals over 10 000 property listings in Cape Town alone. If you're not already doing it yourself, you probably know of someone who has hit on the golden solution of renting out their property through this internationally...
Previous Articles
What is FLISP and how do you qualify?
If your household income is between R3 501 and R15 000 per month, you could benefit from a government programme that could help you put a foot on the property ladder. As a first-time home buyer in South Africa, it’s not easy getting your foot onto the property ladder....
How safe is our personal information?
Recently we wrote about what to do if you believe your data or personal information has been hacked. The question we now ask is whether or not companies are doing enough to secure our data, especially after an estimated 70 million identity numbers held by an estate...
GEPF changes benefits for children and divorcees
Children of GEPF members are the biggest winners in the improvement to benefits. One of the more frequent questions we receive from members of the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) relates to the treatment of their pension fund on divorce. This issue has been...
Can a robot give you good advice?
One of the more common questions I receive is “where should I invest?” The answer is not a simple one as proper financial planning requires a few questions to ascertain the correct investment objective and therefore the most appropriate product. For example, the first...
What to do if you’re running late submitting your tax? Tax deadline: 24 November
24 November 2017 is the most important date on the calendar for taxpayers, as this is the deadline for most taxpayers to file their annual tax returns. Each year, more than two million taxpayers leave filing their tax returns to the last minute and hope to get them...
Make Black Friday work for you, not against you
On Friday 24 November, retailers will be offering discounts in a major sale ahead of the festive season. This “Black Friday” concept has been taken from the United States where the discounts are so enormous people queue overnight to be the first in-store to grab the...
What to do if you think you have been hacked
Last week a major South African domain service provider, Hetzner, was hacked, allegedly compromising personal information. My own website is hosted by Hetzner and on the same day I received an urgent email asking me to immediately pay and renew my domain name or my...
The value of bitcoin
By Jacques Plaut, portfolio manager at Allan Gray The total market value of all bitcoins is US$80bn, which is more than the value of Richemont and triple the value of Anglo American. It is the topic on which we currently receive the most questions from clients. Before...
Staying on track for a good score in a high-risk low-return environment
As the need for capital preservation and cautious portfolio positioning becomes more apparent, Head of Business Development at Foord Asset Management, Nick Curtin, unpacks the strategic stance Foord’s portfolio managers have adopted given the prevailing high-risk...
How social media affects your insurance claims
Anything you post on social media can be used by insurers, within reason. Can an insurer use information collected from your social media posts to assess your risk profile and verify claims? This was the question posed by Maria Philippides, director at law firm Norton...