Let’s start with a simple question: What does it mean to build wealth? The fantasy scenario may vary from person to person, but we all share the same minimum expectation: we want our savings to grow over time and outpace inflation. In recent years, many of us have only just managed to achieve this basic […]
Investing in South Africa (SA) has resulted in a fair share of disappointments over the past few years. These days, however, what you don’t invest in has almost become more important than where you have chosen to invest. Few, if any, investment practitioners have been able to dodge Steinhoff, Resilient, MTN and other companies that […]
‘Stay the course’ is a phrase that has its origins in nautical metaphor and has been popularised by world leaders primarily in the context of war or battle. According to Stewart Alsop’s 1973 memoirs of a conversation with Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister contemplated towards the end of World War II: “America, it is […]
We might be able to do a mean spreadsheet, but that does not mean we are definitely going to make you money right now. That’s because the market does not know about our spreadsheets and often the value that we calculate for a company is very different from where a share trades – at least […]
The ‘50/30/20 Rule’ is a financial model which splits your budget into three groupings, and if applied correctly, really can lead to financial freedom. The credit for this model goes to Elizabeth Warren and her daughter Amelia Warren-Tyagi who penned ‘All Your Worth’ back in 2005. This powerful little book outlines a money management model […]
Every investor would have heard of equity and listed property referred to as ‘risk assets’. They would also have seen a graph which shows the relative risk of different asset classes, with cash at the bottom as the ‘lowest risk’ and equity at the top as ‘highest risk’. Intuitively, this also makes sense. Cash in […]
The last six months have been a rollercoaster ride for global and local equity markets After a good November, the local market was shaken by Steinhoff’s accounting scandal early December 2017. This was followed by numerous reports by Viceroy Research causing several shares to significantly drop in value. Luckily this was followed by positive news […]
“Money doesn’t grow on trees.” How often did you hear this or similar sentiments as a child when you wanted a treat or a shiny new toy? As a parent, how many times have you responded with this very phrase to your own child? Although such phrases are well known, they are not effective tools […]
By now, you’ve likely come across the growing minimalist movement in some form, whether you’ve binge-watched “Tiny House Hunters” or found yourself curiously thumbing through “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” The purported benefits? Owning less and living a simpler life, the theory goes, translates to a happier, less-stressful existence. The below article was […]
You are not your spending thoughts. Spending without thinking about the long-term consequences is a problem. And by the long term, I mean just 30 days from now when the credit-card statement arrives. Some people label this type of spending “impulsive.” Others use the word “urge” to describe the feeling that comes just before they […]