Since the beginning of September I have received more than 60 phising emails from ABSA, FNB and Standard Bank. Most of them are the same old drivel about needing to verify account info or reset a “one-time pin” or some variation of that. However, this morning I received one that is new and really clever and is bound to catch more than a few people. It is a notice from Standard Bank confirming the addition of a new private...

Busy reading a fascinating book at the moment about “the curious science of everyday lives”. It’s called Quirkology and quite a bit of it is about human behaviour and how much of our behaviour is irrational…take for example the curious fact that most people would choose to wear a jersey that had been dropped in dog poo (and was still covered in it) than a jersey that had been dry cleaned but which was once worn by a...

Dear Sir Part of the service offering of our financial planning business involves assisting people with their tax returns (we submit over 140 each year as well as 80 provisional tax returns). Tax is not really something that we enjoy doing nor is it a profitable aspect of our business. However, it is an essential part of the service offering as more and more people become intimidated by or disillusioned with their dealings with SARS. Do you...

Now this is a mine field…and as a father of young children it is starting to become topical. How do you teach your children about money? Do you pay them pocket money and if so, how much? If they get pocket money, what is it for? Or should they work for the money? Should they have their own bank accounts (and which bank)? At what age do you start? In the interests of doing the “right thing” I would love to know what other...

Got an email from friend this week which went something like this…”Just got a mail from Nedbank to say I have 300 000 odd ‘Greenbacks’, their loyalty programme. I can exchange them for until trust investments. Wanted to know your opinion?  I’ll have to put R5000 cash to open an account but can get around R11 000 or so more through the Greenbacks I got sitting in an account.” What a great idea…I...