Diversification is not just an approach to adopt during market volatility; it’s generally good practice. And, if you want to create a portfolio that mitigates risk and beats inflation, diversification offers one of the best ways to increase your portfolio growth and amplify your savings. There’s no single “correct” way to diversify your investment portfolio. The overriding principle is to mix assets and classes in a way that helps minimise risk while achieving a higher rate […]
Continue readingMore TagCategory: MARKET
When the goalposts keep moving
“The only way to find permanent joy is by embracing the fact that nothing is permanent.” – Martha Beck. Over the last few decades, investment strategies have developed and evolved to move away from market-related benchmarks toward personal goals and outcomes. Modern investors are now creating plans that are more personalised and unique than ever before. The marketplace is innovating to provide models, funds and alternatives to whet even the most exclusive investment appetites. However, even […]
Continue readingMore Tag
Dollar-cost-averaging
People often joke about the weather in Cape Town, saying that you can experience all four seasons in one day. And, if you speak to a local, you’ll know that regardless of how warm it is, they’ll always pack a sweater in case the weather turns. Still, as a top tourist destination, the weather doesn’t deter intrepid travellers; they keep returning. Investing in the markets is exactly the same; despite the ups and downs, sometimes, in […]
Continue readingMore Tag
Saving vs investing
Financial planning is a complex and integrated activity that is often simplified in an attempt to make it more accessible. When we look at it as a lifestyle rather than an annual exercise, it’s easier to begin to engage with our financial plan in a more meaningful level. Saving and investing are two disciplines that are core to the foundations of a solid financial plan, and for simplicity sake, they are often seen as the same […]
Continue readingMore Tag
Become a better networker
As our world becomes increasingly digitised, personal skills will become more valuable. Many salespeople call these the soft-skills and realise that the old-school hard-sell-skills are no longer as effective. People are less likely to be blown away by some widget and far more likely to remember the way that you’ve made them feel. It doesn’t really matter if you’re in sales or not, or even in your own business. Networking is a skill that helps us […]
Continue readingMore Tag
Planning vs Coaching
Regardless of what words we want to put to our journey with our money, there are a few realities that we need to face. First – everything we do is linked to money, whether we pay for it ourselves or rely on a benefactor. Second – some of our wealth-generation depends on luck and circumstance, but most of it depends on our ability to intentionally earn an income and manage the money we have. Third – […]
Continue readingMore Tag
What a better financial plan could look like
It’s easy to think about a financial plan and consider the elements that typically go into it. For instance, we could picture a plan that consists of a retirement savings product, life and health insurance, investment portfolios, and maybe a few things like trusts, wills and estate plans. Or, we could think about what a financial plan can help us avoid, and help us achieve. When we think of our financial plan in terms of the […]
Continue readingMore Tag
Marketing yourself beyond 2022
In the next few years, we are likely to see a significant increase in small businesses, from home enterprises to startups. Many people have had to create sideline income or recover from losing their jobs in a shrinking job market. Jobs seeing the fastest decline are in production or administration support, primarily due to automation and digitisation of platforms and processes. With the meteoric growth of social media, personal marketing has become an attractive option for […]
Continue readingMore Tag
Just one more
They say that getting old happens slowly, and then all at once. Most of the change around us occurs so gradually that we barely notice it; ageing, losing or gaining our fitness, losing or gaining weight, intimacy in relationships, and debt and investing. These are some of the areas of incrementally-unnoticeable change with which we’re most familiar. Often, our experience begins with gaining or losing “Just one more”. Just one more day before we arrange that […]
Continue readingMore Tag
Feelings – thoughts – actions
‘Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought,’ Marcus Aurelius. How we engage with our money reflects what’s going on inside our heads, which is an extension of what’s going on inside our hearts. They’re all connected. Our feelings affect our thoughts, which in turn direct our actions – but we can also turn that around by changing our actions to create new patterns of thinking, which in turn can change […]
Continue readingMore Tag