As your wheel of life turns, your financial needs, goals and focuses change. When you start working, you’re absorbed by accumulating assets. Later, as you near retirement, your focus shifts to wealth preservation. And eventually, when you’re settled and comfortable in your golden years, the transfer of wealth becomes your number one priority. It goes…
“There is no pebble so small that it won’t make ripples when tossed into a body of water.” (Charles Peck) In a recent blog post, financial writer Morgan Housel made an interesting observation. He wondered what would happen if people invited public scrutiny of the way they went about trying to find love: “Imagine if,…
“Change is not a gate we pass through; it is the definition of life.” (Millie Florence) The good Supporters of the change believe that introducing an accessible savings pot can provide salvation for those in financial crises, like the one caused by the Covid pandemic. It will help people to avoid debt and prevent people…
SA and US interest rate cuts on the cards in September If all goes well, SA and US borrowers can look forward to an at least 25-basis point (bp) reduction in interest rates, spelling the beginning of a declining interest rate cycle. There are hopes that one or both central banks will announce a bumper…
New beginnings After working for forty years, the time has come to make really important decisions about how you’ll manage your retirement funds to ensure that your golden years are all you’d hoped for. When you retire, you must transfer two-thirds of your retirement funds to a Life Annuity or Living Annuity. Your retirement funds…
South Africa is set to introduce a significant reform in its retirement funding system with the implementation of the ‘Two-Pot system’1. The Two-Pot system aims to address several key issues within the current retirement savings framework by balancing the need for long-term savings with the need for short-term financial flexibility, addressing both immediate financial pressures…
“If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything.” (Claude McKay) Case study 1: Family matters One financial advisor told us about a 68-year-old client who sold his business and worried his children would be ruined by inheriting too much wealth. The advisor created a Family Constitution outlining…
Magnificent Seven come tumbling down The Magnificent Seven stocks (Apple, Amazon, Google-parent Alphabet, Nvidia, Facebook-parent Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Tesla) have been responsible for the lion’s share of the US bull market in equities since late 2022. So much so that a new term has made its way into market parlance: “bad breadth”. It refers…
GNU 2.0 the best possible outcome for investors South Africa’s second Government of National Unity in three decades heralds good things to come for the country and investors. Financially speaking, it is the best outcome we can hope for in a challenging political environment. Dominated by the ANC and the Democratic Alliance, the GNU 2.0…
“One must learn to give up momentary, uncertain, and destructive pleasure for delayed, restrained, dependable pleasure.” (Sigmund Freud) What is the marshmallow test? The test was devised by Walter Mischel, a Stanford University psychology professor, in the 1960s. While the test has undergone many tweaks over the years, at its essence it is exceedingly simple.…