By Ryno Oosthuizen, Business Development Manager at Glacier by Sanlam When investing in a unit trust or share portfolio there are generally two types of returns an investor can expect to earn: income and capital growth. Income earned can be...
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Savings: it’s about a change in mindset
Open up your bank statement and calculate how much of your monthly salary goes to repaying debt. Imagine if, apart from your mortgage, you had no debt repayments – think of all that money now available for savings. The reality is that we have...
Sectional title market remains stronger than full title
The sectional title segment of the housing market continues to outperform the full title segment, in line with the "smaller is better" theme. But is it about home price affordability, or more about home running cost affordability? John Loos,...
How to win the lotto
There are ways to score without playing the odds. Our family has a game where we write down what we would do with our money if we won the lotto. This is not just a fruitless exercise of “what if” because what it does is show us what is important to...
How to avoid buying into hype
When looking at investment opportunities, it isn't always that easy to separate out the sizzle from the steak. What do Bernie Madoff, Barry Tannenbaum and Sharemax have in common? They started as credible organisations run by known people – people...
How to buy a car on auction
Auctions are typically associated with property or fine art, however, you can also pick up a good second-hand car at an auction. The first thing you need to know when buying a car on auction is that it is sold “voetstoots”, which means that you buy...
Is value investing dead?
By Jan van Niekerk, CIO of RECM Investors and market participants have lately been asking us whether value investing is dead. While we firmly believe that value investing is alive and well and we are as committed to it as ever, we have seen some...
Time to question that garnishee order
If you have an emolument attachment order (garnishee order), contact the Credit Ombud to find out whether or not it is legal. Recently, a landmark ruling raised questions about the legality of many emolument attachment orders (EAOs), commonly known...
Financial Therapy
The developing field of "financial therapy" can help us understand the complex dynamics that inform our financial decision-making. Americans love their psychological analysis approach to life. A cursory look at Amazon’s list of top-selling...
Investing in South Africa is still a good plan
By Bruce Williamson, Chief Investment Officer at Imara Asset Management South Africa. Bad news around power outages, the rand, public sector shortcomings and the industrial relations climate is drowning out an important message for local investors:...
Previous Articles
High fees, poor disclosure plaguing SA investment industry
The recently published Morningstar Global Fund Investor Experience 2015 study, which analyses 25 countries that offer investment funds, highlights high fees, poor disclosure levels and advisers’ lack of fiduciary duty as some of the key issues plaguing South Africa’s...
Tax-free savings accounts are not ideal for an education fund
Using your child’s tax-free savings account is not necessarily the best vehicle for their education fund. Since the launch of the tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) there have been suggestions that this would be an ideal way to save for your child’s education. But is...
What to consider when investing internationally
By Tracy Muller, Head: Fiduciary at Nedbank Private Wealth Individuals are often driven to invest internationally for the wrong reasons, as emotions override financial acumen. They often only consider investing internationally when the rand starts depreciating against...
The cost of bad habits
People often argue that the reason they don’t have any savings, or why they cannot pay off their debts, is because they simply don’t have enough money. Yet little do we realise how much our bad habits are really costing us. The real cost of smoking If you smoke a pack...
Retirement annuity tax loophole to be closed
By Tanya Lochner, fiduciary specialist at Glacier by Sanlam In the foreseeable future retirement annuities will no longer fall outside of your estate for estate duty purposes, so bear that in mind when you do your estate planning. Since 2007, a retirement annuity (RA)...
SA obsession with home ownership needs to be “dumbed down” a little
By John Loos, Household and Property Sector Strategist at First National Bank The 5% FNB House Price Index inflation rate suggests no apparent need for “first-time buyer panic” at present. But there is a need for first-time buyer caution, and perhaps a little less...
Bank smart, pay less
You’ve finally graduated and landed yourself a job, and you’re loving the flexibility that comes with earning your own money. But before you know it, the money has run out and you’ve been hit with a whopping amount of bank fees. We took a look at some of the best bank...
Interest rate increase could make consumers more vulnerable
By Sanisha Packirisamy, economist at Momentum Asset Management. It is clear that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) remains aware of the potential negative local effect of a rise in US rates should the US decide to hike rates this year. In the event that global...
Are you insured against power surge damages?
If you haven’t specifically taken out cover for power surges you will receive a nasty shock when your electronic goods are fried during load shedding, as one of my readers discovered. “I have faced a huge financial setback with my gate motor, alarm system and three...
Interpreting REITs
Abrie Joubert, Client Services Specialist at Glacier by Sanlam, looks at the finer details of a real estate investment trust (REIT) and how it affects your finances. What is a REIT? You may have noticed an entry on your investment statements and IT3b tax certificate...