Personal Finance Magazine

According to the Debtbuster’s Debt Index for the fourth quarter 2021, more and more South Africans are turning to debt to cover their ever-increasing daily expenses, and as a result are getting into deeper and deeper financial trouble. Blame the coronavirus and the struggling economy, but also blame our irrational regard of debt as instant cash, with a total disregard for the consequences. Well, you can use debt to finance your spending only up to a point. In the end, it will catch up with you, and the retribution is savage. High finance costs, debt collection costs, legal costs, not to mention the impairment of your credit record. If you have reached that point, or if you want to turn the situation around before you reach it, there are a number of…

Demystifying Trusts in South Africa Trusts in Practice – a Reference Guide (Second Edition) Author: Phia van der Spuy Publisher: Phia van der Spuy Retail price: R1 295 (order from Red Pepper Online) Also available as an e-book (Amazon) Through her own efforts to find out everything she could about trusts after a client going through a divorce asked her for help, Phia van der Spuy has become one of the leading authorities on trusts in South Africa. Her reference guide, first published in 2017, has become a bible for financial planners, fiduciary practitioners, trust owners/founders and trust beneficiaries, because it answers just about any question anyone would have on this complex and often misunderstood subject. Van der Spuy is a chartered accountant with an MCom degree in local and international tax. A member of the Fiduciary Institute…

WHEN TO CHANGE MY PORTFOLIO? I am a novice investor who recently started investing in unit trusts and exchange-traded funds. I’m finding it very challenging to stick to my strategy in the current market environment. How do I know when to make changes to my investment portfolio? Name withheld Anet Ahern, chief executive of PSG Asset Management, responds: Investors often do the most damage to their long-term wealth when they allow market volatility to derail their investment plans. As investment professionals, we have seen it all and understand that, most often, investors struggle to remain emotionally detached from their investments. Markets often produce contrary signals. No market recovery or trend ever moves smoothly in only one direction, and although the long-term trend in the stock market is generally up, there are many corrections, dips…

If you have built up debt and are at the point where you have decided to – or are forced to – do something about it, there are various routes you can take, depending on the depth of your financial troubles. Obviously, the deeper those troubles, the more drastic the action will have to be. An early intervention point might be when, while still being able to afford to service your debts, you decide you want to live a more healthy life financially and reduce your debt as much as you can. This would be akin to noticing that you have put on too much weight and you decide to reduce your weight and live more healthily by cutting out certain foods and increasing your physical exercise. A widely recommended method at…

Here’s one for the next pub quiz: which crypto scam was the biggest in the world in 2020? According to the 2021 Crypto Crime Report from the Chainalysis blockchain data platform, that title went to Mirror Trading International (MTI). You’ll probably remember hearing each successive twist in the tale of the Stellenbosch headquartered company, which has since been placed into final liquidation. The Chainalysis report said that the MTI Club had received $588 million worth of Bitcoin across more than 470 000 transactions. In August 2020, Texas state regulators labelled the company a scam, and here in South Africa, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) announced an ongoing investigation into their activities, and warned the public against trading with them. When the FSCA informed MTI that it was conducting an illegal unregistered financial services…

It’s rare for someone to earn the highest distinction a profession can bestow after being a fully-fledged member of that profession for only about four years. But this is exactly what 36-year-old Ryan McCaughey accomplished in October last year, when he was named Financial Planner of the Year for 2021/22 by the professional body for financial planners in South Africa, the Financial Planning Institute (FPI). The coveted award goes to the winner of a gruelling annual competition among the FPI’s members. To put his achievement into context, though, McCaughey’s career in financial services actually started long before he decided to be a financial planner, and everything he did in that time laid a firm foundation for his current role. The road to financial planning In an interview with Personal Finance, McCaughey detailed his…