In her book Smart Woman, author Sylvia Walker writes about creating your "designer life." She explains that instead of being driven by consumerism, trying to look rich, we can make smart choices and start growing our wealth. For many people...
Scamsters are out in full force
There's been a concerning increase recently in the number of scamsters targeting South African consumers. This includes scamsters pretending to be representatives of your bank or your cellphone provider. There are SMS and email scams claiming your...
Listen: Cancelling out cancer
In this third podcast of our four-part series “Life behind the numbers”, in partnership with Discovery Life, we look at the importance of protecting ourselves against the risk of cancer. Cancer can affect anyone, at any age. The number of insurance...
Listen: Does the value of the rand really matter?
In this podcast Maya (@mayaonmoney) talks to Michael Kruger, Senior Investment Analyst at Morningstar, to unpack the strange emotional relationship we as South Africans seem to have with the value of the rand. Kruger points out that when the rand...
Financial planning for women
Why do we focus on financial planning for women? Isn't money gender neutral? After all, investing in a unit trust or opening a bank account is the same, whether you're male or female. So what's all the fuss about? Apart from issues like wage gaps...
Video: Scammers play on your emotions
In times of economic stress, we always see an increase in scams. Sadly, scammers are most likely to target financially vulnerable people. There are the loan scams, where the scammers promise loans to blacklisted consumers at low interest rates....
It takes more than ticking a box to cease tax residency
The process to cease tax residency requires that you submit extensive documentation to prove your claim that you are no longer a resident of South Africa. An ITR-12 checkbox, indicating that a taxpayer has ceased tax residency in South Africa, is...
The two-pot retirement system explained
On 29 July, National Treasury released its draft legislation on the so-called two-pot retirement system. It highlighted that “the proposal does not include allowing immediate access to retirement funds, but rather moves to a system that can more...
Reward programmes: get paid to spend
Reward programmes are becoming an integral part of our day-to-day financial management. It is no longer simply about getting a discount on your next purchase; these programmes have evolved so that you can now earn really meaningful rewards, which...
Getting your home off grid – what it would cost
After 14 years of loadshedding, most households have found some way to make do in the face of intermittent electricity outages, but the latest wave of outages has prompted many people to wonder if they can afford to get completely off grid. Stage 6...
Previous Articles
Does the CPI reflect the “real” inflation rate?
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is supposed to reflect the spending patterns of the average urban South African across various categories of goods and services. Each of these categories (food, fuel, education, rent, insurance etc.) has a fixed weight in the index. The...
What the rate increase means for your investments
On Thursday, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to increase the repo rate by another 75 basis points (bps). The increase will see the repo rate increase to 5.50% per year. The decision was made on the back of the South African inflation rate surging above the...
What to do in a bear market?
Victoria Reuvers, Managing Director at Morningstar Investment Management SA, explains that you need to sit tight and stay invested through a bear market (when the market is falling) in order to achieve successful long-term returns. What is the secret to successful...
Video: Financial priorities and how to set them
When it comes to our financial priorities, there are so many things we want to achieve, such as paying off debt, building emergency savings, investing for our children’s education, paying off the mortgage and still having enough to save for retirement. The pressure to...
Slow economic growth is the real issue
Rising prices and interest rates are relatively mild by historical standards, so why are we feeling so stressed? A lack of economic growth is why. While rising prices and interest rates may be draining our pockets, for middle- to upper-income earners, things are not...
Listen: Tax filing season is upon us again
It is tax filing season once more, and while some people look forward to tax season because they can get a rebate, for many others it can feel a bit overwhelming. The period to submit tax returns opened on 1 July 2022, and individual taxpayers who are not provisional...
SARS auto-assessment: what you need to know
Tax season has started, and while ordinary taxpayers have in theory until 24 October to file their returns, if you receive an auto-assessment, you only have 40 business days to verify and update the information. An auto-assessment is a pre-populated tax return based...
Use your medical tax credit to cover your medical expenses
Many South Africans are unaware that they qualify for a medical tax credit if they belong to a medical scheme. We have always had a tax benefit for contributions to a medical scheme. In 2012, SARS changed this benefit from a tax deduction to a medical scheme fee tax...
Video: Saving for your children’s education
There is one thing all parents have in common: a desire to give their children a better life, which means that saving for your children's education is crucial. We want our children to stand on our shoulders, and one of the best ways to do that is to give your child a...
Working remotely: what are the tax implications?
If you are working remotely for a foreign company, lawfully meeting your tax obligations can become complex. Martin Bezuidenhout, expatriate tax attorney at Tax Consulting SA, explains. The Covid pandemic brought about a lot of changes in terms of how we work. It...