“Returns matter a lot. It’s your capital.” (Abigail Johnson) Let’s start at the beginning – Annualised returns The annualised rate of return on investment represents the average yearly return you would have received over a specified period. It expresses an investment’s performance as if it had grown steadily each year, taking compounding into account, even though…
What happened in April? For the first time this year, investors got nervous about whether the stock market rally that began in October last year was at risk. Stock market volatility increased, a sure sign of increasing investor concerns. The so-called global fear gauge, the VIX Index, rose to almost 20 in mid-April before retracing…
In this article, we will describe 4 common scenarios where having life cover is important and how best to structure it. Death can be an expensive affair and in this regard, here are few very important tax and legal fee considerations: Estate Duty The first R3,5 million of your net estate is free of Estate…
All it takes to excel at something – whether it’s mastering the ukulele, poaching the perfect egg or learning to solve the Rubik’s Cube – is consistent practice and dedication. John Maynard Keynes, one of the greatest economists and risk-taking investors around, took it a step further. He strongly advised putting financial planning and investing…
“A resilient spirit, coupled with financial knowledge, is an unstoppable force.” (Anonymous) There’s more to this material world than meets the eye. As human beings we are all trying to gain self-awareness and instinctively value compassion, empathy, and open heartedness. You may ask, “How on earth does this have anything to do with financial planning?”…
“Invest for the long haul. Don’t get too greedy and don’t get too scared.” (Shelby M.C. Davis) In 2021, South African investors could have made a return of 36.9% if they’d been invested in the local property index. That same year they could have made 33.1% in rands if they were invested in global property.…
Light at the end of the tunnel for borrowers – and investors The interest rate hikes central banks implemented over the past two years have been so aggressive that economists have consistently warned central bankers against overdoing it and running the risk of driving economies into recessions that would be exceptionally hard to turn around.…
“Our bigger challenge… is that our pie is not growing fast enough and this limits our ability to generate sufficient revenues to distribute among our priority areas.” (Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana – Budget 2024) Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s third Budget Speech in an election year contained few surprises, but also little in the form of…
“Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing.” (Warren Buffett) This is all very well, Warren, but we can’t all afford excessive risk. For this reason, Harry Markowitz coined the phrase that diversification is the only free lunch in investing. The concept is that owning a…
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” (Yogi Berra) A sound financial plan is invaluable. It looks ahead to what you want from your money and gives you a way of measuring how well you are doing in getting there. It gives you a lot of confidence to be…