I was recently interviewed on radio about the new tax-free savings accounts (TFSA) that are being introduced on 1 March 2015. Any attempts to encourage savings in a country where household debt levels hover around 80% needs to be applauded and encour
Traditionally February is our busiest month because it is the end of the tax year – this means it is the month to do the 2nd Provisional tax return (and payment) and also RA top-ups. Over the years RA’s have received a bad rap – this is mostly a f
Shame on you Personal Finance for the sensationalist and (very) misleading headline that appeared on lampposts over the weekend… I know that it referred to the so-called Raging Bull awards that are supposed to celebrate the “best” fund managers bu
Predicting stock market corrections is a little like playing the lotto – if you do it often enough you are bound to get it right eventually. Problem is that by then you would have spent so much time trying that no one would be listening anymore. So I
It all started when I got an SMS from my credit card provider informing me of a transaction that had taken place and that I still had R19000 as my “available balance”. R19000, mmm, that sounded good, at least until I remembered that my total credit l
There is an old saying about throwing the baby out with the bathwater and while the exact origin of the phrase is uncertain, the meaning is clear in that it suggests an avoidable error where something good is tossed out in haste to get rid of somethi
Came across another case of what I think is one of the worst examples of “bad practice” in our industry…a retirement annuity through a life insurance company with a term beyond age 55 and with a 20% escalation on the premium. While I accept that the
Some years back the government and National Treasury made an impassioned plea to the life insurance industry to clean up its act. As far as they were concerned there were too many bad products with too many confiscatory penalties and high costs where
For some reason I have had a lot of enquiries in the past few weeks about the minimum amounts that one can invest on a monthly and/or lump sum basis. The enquiries all seem to be of the view that investing is out of the range of the “little guy” and
I was recently asked by the editor of Finweek what I thought of Sanlam's "new" RA. Here is my response: “On a level, Sanlam could be applauded for trying to encourage saving for retirement in SA. However, it is my belief that anyone that can offer
•Asset Allocation Strategy
•Investment Research and Selection
•Local and Offshore Investing
•Tax Efficient Planning
