2009, what a year! Markets have done what they always do – surprised us in the short term. We have seen the JSE ALSI run from just over 17500 in March to just under 28000 at the end of December. That’s more than 54% up since March when everyone thought we were facing the worst [...]
So it looks like the “fuss” is all over and the equity market is set to run even further…I guess it is at times like these that you need to make sure you are “in for the ride” and not sitting on the sidelines watching it all go by. But it is also important that [...]
I recently had a most disturbing (if not revealing) conversation with a board member of ASISA (the association for savings and investments in South Africa). But before I proceed, a bit of background and history on ASISA. The following is taken directly from the ASISA website www.asisa.co.za. (If you already know all of this then [...]
I came across a 76 year old lady this morning who was sold a 10 year endowment at the age of 71 (through Old Mutual Horizons) for R10000 per month (yes, ten thousand rand!). 5 years later her situation has changed, she cant afford the premium anymore and needs to make a change…surprise, surprise, she [...]
One of the things that I just cant get my head around is the price of residential property. If the experts are to be believed, then the average house price in SA is somewhere around R550000. In order to buy this property, you would need to put down a deposit of at least R110000 (20%) [...]
The latest developments in the Ovation Curatorship saga potentially have major ramifications for the entire unit trust and linked product industry and it is high time that the industry (ASISA and the FSB) woke up to that fact.
As I understand the development, the Fidentia Curators are wanting to block the application by the Ovation Curators [...]
Continue reading about The future of the entire unit trust industry hangs in the balance.
I met with a new client recently who proudly proclaimed that she was a “low risk investor” while passing me her unit trust statement. She has R1.1 million in a money market unit trust fund and it has been there for a few years.
While this might have been a good thing (from one perspective) over [...]
I admit that this is written with a lot of emotion but there have got to be few things that are worse for investors than life insurance savings products. Whether they are endowment policies or retirement annuities (new age or traditional) they have got to be the worst thing that an investor can buy!
I just [...]
Continue reading about Beware of life insurance savings products!
I cant help but think that with the markets having run as hard as they have since their lows in November last year and March this year (JSE is up >34% since then) that either we have been duped into believing there was a huge crisis which never actually existed and have now missed the [...]
Just a quick follow up on the post about Fundisa – I just received my transaction SMS from them…so far I have invested R1200 of my own money…the transaction statement reads as follows:
The balance at 04 May is R1,209.56 (investment) and R518.00 (grant). Nedgroup Investment…i.e. there is currently R1727 in the account that would [...]
