Category: MARKET

Saving money doesn’t have to send us on a price-smashing frenzy that leaves broken trolleys and disgruntled shoppers in our wake. In fact, panic buying is probably worse for our budget than doing a daily grocery run. With the right approach, buying in bulk can be a smart way to save money on everyday items. […]

Money can be both a master and a servant in our lives, depending on how we choose to approach it. As P.T. Barnum once said, “Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant.” Let’s explore what this means and how we can ensure that money serves us rather than the other way around. Money […]

“Financial security and independence are like a three-legged stool resting on savings, insurance and investments.” – Brian Tracy. When it comes to financial planning, many people focus on investing as the key to financial security and independence. However, as Brian Tracy points out, financial security and freedom require a three-legged stool resting on savings, insurance, […]

Thinking, feeling, and acting are interrelated processes that shape our behaviour, and they often become so habitual in our busy lives that we are no longer mindful of them. We lose control of being intentional about the direction our lives are taking – and this often shows up in our finances. Therefore, it is important […]

People have a wide range of feelings and perspectives regarding investing. Some view investing as a way to grow wealth and secure a financial future, while others may view it as too risky or complex. Some of us are confident in our investment knowledge and feel comfortable making decisions independently, while others prefer to seek […]

Vincent van Gogh is quoted as saying: “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” This quote highlights the idea that even the smallest actions or details can contribute to the creation of something significant. Focusing on and taking care of the small things can achieve big results over time. Essentially, […]

In recent years there has been a considerable amount of economic uncertainty. Many people are unsure of their financial future, concerned that they won’t be able to retire because of financial setbacks related to the pandemic and other global events. Saving for retirement often aligns closely with benefiting from tax advantages, tax-free investing and tax […]

For years, people have said that insurance is sold and not bought. The stigma surrounding the industry and those representing it still hangs thick in our social memory, with old stories of brokers peddling policies purely to earn commission instead of seeking the best needs of their clients. However, in the last decade or so, […]

“A deep life is a good life.” – Cal Newport, Author of “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.” Have you heard of deep work? A term coined by Cal Newport, deep work is a state of distraction-free concentration when your brain works at its maximum potential. As you read this, you […]

There are times in the year when we see and engage with more people than usual – through end-of-year functions, annual celebrations, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, funerals and the like. It can be wonderful – but it can also be stressful. We are quickly reminded that these old friends, colleagues and distant family from far-off shores […]

Religion, politics and money are all connected – and probably always have been! This is because they’re all currency for influence, power and status. These three topics can become highly volatile when we’re in social settings as they’re super subjective. The markets, politics and religion all give us a sense of belonging, purpose and stories […]

Holidays should be a time of restoration and relaxation. But for savvy investors, who are seldom able to switch off or turn down the volume on their analytical brain activity, it can be a time of stress and panic. Whether you’re entering your annual time of leave or it’s a sneaky mid-year break, if you’re […]

In the previous blog, we looked at how we can help our children with their retirement, or financial independence, as many in our profession are starting to frame it. But the reality is, as the sandwich generation, we can’t only be thinking about our own and our kids’ financial futures; we also need to be […]

We spend most of our time having conversations with people who are 40+ about saving for retirement. However, the language and expectations are slowly starting to shift in a powerful and exciting direction. Instead of only talking about retirement, we’re starting to use words like financial independence. And rather than focusing on traditional milestones, like […]

In a recent podcast on the Allan Gray Podcast with Dan Brocklemank, head of Orbis UK, he reflected on how humans are NOT designed to be good investors. Our natural instincts very often pull us in the exact opposite direction to what we need to be doing in order to be good at investing. Our […]

So many things have changed in the last four decades, and yet so much has stayed the same. Financial planning has become an entire profession and is no longer just a bunch of salespeople selling insurance. It’s evolved into a profoundly nuanced practice, and those of us who are continually advancing our professional development are […]

As 22seven recently published on medium.com, “Always think twice before you buy something on credit or take out a loan.” Here’s the thing to remember with credit – it’s just a nicer way of saying that you’re spending money you don’t have. In other words, you’re using someone else’s money to fund your current lifestyle. […]

A balloon payment (also called a residual value) is quite simply an amount of money that is still due after you’ve finished paying your monthly instalments. The goal of structuring a loan with a balloon payment is to make it more affordable on your current cash flow, making it very attractive.  They are ideal for […]

Typically, inflation and interest rates are in an “inverse” relationship: When rates are low, inflation tends to rise. And when rates are high, inflation tends to fall. Moneyweb recently wrote “increasing the cost of credit will reduce the demand for it and therefore slow down the pace of ‘new money’ entering the economy via credit […]

At the end of any retirement planning conversation, we should always end with how our plan is unique to our own situations. But at the beginning, during the exploratory stage, it’s helpful to have some basic guidelines for where we can begin, or how we can craft our own benchmarks. In the same way that […]