Here follow steps 7, 8 & 9… 7. Don’t be greedy! Emotions drive irrational behavior – 2 of them are fear and greed. Don’t give in to either. If it sounds too good to be true it (probably) is! When considering the returns offered, measure them against inflation (aim for real returns – those which are in excess of inflation). Inflation is currntly (oficially) low and in a low inflationary environment, ...

Here follow the next 3 points in the series “fools and their money” – just good common sense advice! 4. Get an education about financial matters – no one will look after your money like you will so make it your business to find out about your business. There is no need to be ignorant – read the financial papers and financial magazines – you can even consider doing a course that will teach you...

“A fool and his money are soon parted!” There is no need for anyone to be foolish with their money, especially not today. With all the legislation we have in place around financial advice and with the wealth of information available to help you make sound financial decisions there are no more excuses for being foolish! Here are the first 3 of 13 steps to prevent you from being a fool! Trust no one! Trust is the basis of any ...

I guess there are times in life when a “thumb-suck” might be an appropriate answer but filling in an application for insurance is not one of them. Had 2 interesting cases recently which again highlight the importance of full disclosure when applying for any form of insurance. The first one emerged when we were reviewing an existing policy for a client that was done through a previous advisor. The issue revolved around her income and...

The article in Personal Finance this weekend re the high costs of investments (http://www.iol.co.za/business/personal-finance/financial-planning/investments/costs-are-wiping-out-real-returns-1.1036412) really got up my nose. And not for the reasons you might think. The article did not frustrate me because it “exposed” the truth about investment costs but rather because it is too easy to be negative about these things and it is my...

Ok, so maybe I am really slow or maybe Std Bank is really sneaky or both. But this morning I checked our business credit card statement and noticed that we had been charged interest. Seeing that we pay the amount in full every month (the bank debits the amount) it seemed like a mistake. So I called the credit card help line…the call centre agent went straight to the problem…”do you have a garage card?” she said....

Was doing provisional tax calculations for a client and was wondering about the effectiveness of her using an RA to reduce her tax liability. She does not belong to a pension fund and all her income is therefore “non-retirement funding”. As such she could put 15% of this into an RA before the end of February. Here are the figures: Taxable income: R250839 Tax on this (after rebates): R44142 If she put 15% of her taxable income...