Tax Tip: Must-Do Top Ups in February
RAs: The big one Retirement Annuities (RAs) offer significant tax breaks as contributions to the investments are tax-deductible, and the growth within the funds is tax-free. (No income, dividends or capital gains tax applies.) You can contribute a maximum of 27.5% of your taxable income to retirement funding each year, up to a maximum of […]
How to Avoid Getting Burnt by the Next Investment Bubble in 2024
“We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.” (Aldous Huxley). The madness of crowds None of us are rational investors. We’re humans – fuelled by fear, overconfidence, and sometimes greed – to survive. Psychologists have long argued that we […]
Did 2017 Change the Way You Invest?
“What we believe is heavily influenced by what we think others believe.” (Thomas Gilovich) Do you remember 2017? It wasn’t that long ago, but few of us can probably recall what markets did that year. For the record, it was a great year for stock markets. The JSE All Share Index was up 21%. The […]
Think You’re a Rational Investor? Think Again
Chances are you think you make rational decisions – about investments and about life. But science has shown that this is not the case. Accepting that you are not a rational investor is one of the first steps to achieving investment success. B is for bias Broadly speaking, there are two types of bias. Cognitive […]
Should you be an Optimist or a Pessimist With Your Money?
“Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.” (George Bernard Shaw) Cast your mind back to the middle of March 2020, when fears around Covid-19 sent the JSE into a spiral. The All Share Index dropped more than 25% in just a few days. Pessimism about how […]
Why do People Invest in Property?
Wealth buckets Property is one of several asset classes, the others being equity (shares or unit trusts), cash-related products (like money market products), and bonds. Here are some of the most important benefits of investing in property: It can provide a passive income that requires relatively limited involvement on your part. What’s more, you can generate a […]
The Stock Market Indices to Watch When Monitoring Equity Performance
As old as the hills Since 1602, investors have been winning and losing their fortunes on the stock market – and today is no different, with many investors betting it all on the latest, greatest thing. In 2000, it was the dot.com bubble when tech shares reached stratospheric highs and fell off a cliff the […]
Should You Pay Off Your Home Loan?
Good reasons to pay off your home loan The most compelling reason to accelerate the payment of your home loan is the savings you’ll make on the interest component of the repayments. South African mortgage rates are currently high, with the average rate at approximately 10%. Depending on the value of your home, the interest […]
The Ins and Outs of Buying Offshore Property
Many South Africans are tempted by the prospect of investing in property overseas. Earning a rental income in foreign currency is seriously appealing. It may also be reassuring to know you’ve got somewhere else to live if it ever comes to that. But it’s essential to understand that you don’t immediately have residential rights in […]
How to Invest When There’s So Much Bad News
“Panic is highly contagious, especially in situations when nothing is known and everything is in flux.” (Stephen King) South African investors have every right to feel concerned. The local economy is facing a heap of problems, and growth has slowed to almost nothing. The recent weakness in the rand has only made things worse. The […]
