Stats SA announced South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product figures last week, and to the surprise of many – we are officially in recessionary territory. As a reminder for those not au fait with the term: A Recession “happens” when a country experiences two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. That’s quite a mouthful: let’s back [...]
As financial advisers, we must often scout for fund managers that we are most comfortable recommending to our clients. An important trait we look for in a fund manager is their ability to stick to their views and investment philosophy. This gives us confidence to know that these fund managers will not stray away from [...]
The one discussion which happily married, newly married and old married couples never anticipate taking place is the one around the Dreaded D-Word - Divorce.W e all know that life is full of surprises, not all of them particularly awful. But suddenly, there it is – the ugly truth that whatever the circumstances, divorce [...]
With thanks to Tiny Carroll The most basic definition of estate planning is – “getting your things in order”. The need to undertake an estate planning exercise is frequently triggered by, a personal-life-event, such as a marriage, the birth of a child, or the death of a partner. On another occasion the need to [...]
Saving for a house, saving for education and saving for retirement? How do I afford it? We are haunted by cost increases on food, electricity, water, petrol, education - you name it. How do we save when all these costs keep on impacting our monthly budgets? The first thing you need to do is understand [...]
Retired or retirement. Words one hears frequently. Bandied about by financial advisors. Used by shopkeepers with their pensioners' days. Written about endlessly in the press. Talked about with joy or regret by one’s peers. No doubt that as one grows older, a word or concept one cannot ignore nor deny. The reality of having to cease [...]
Your monthly payslip comes in, you see something along the lines of employee contribution or employer contribution and you might feel a sense of relief that you are in fact making provision for retirement. You forget about it, until the next month. In a stable work environment this cycle might go on for years, but [...]
“Guptas, Hawks, Gordhan, Junk Status, State capture”, terms with which you are now probably acquainted. Unfortunately, these terms do not only make their way to news headlines but also cause disruption in capital markets in the form of market noise in the short term. Case in point the “Nene Gate” of December 2015 which destroyed [...]
In part 1 we demonstrated the tax savings benefit of contributing towards a Retirement Annuity as opposed to a Discretionary Investment. In part 2, we illustrated the required investment growth required for a Discretionary Investment to keep track with a similar investment in a Retirement Annuity. Today, in our concluding part, we will compare the [...]
Real Estate Investment Trusts, commonly referred to as REIT’s, are listed companies that trade on an exchange (such as the Johannesburg Securities Exchange). These companies however only invest in income-producing real estate. This can be office parks, shopping malls and hotels or storage centres, apartment buildings and industrial facilities (there are many more). REIT’s are [...]
