Personal Finance Magazine Vol. 87 - 2nd. Quarter 2021

Personal Finance quarterly magazine is the only publication in South Africa dedicated to giving you the information you need to manage your money wisely and grow your wealth. It is targeted at middle- and upper-income groups, at people established in their careers with families, and retirees. It also appeals to an aspirational younger generation, who are starting out in life and need guidance on managing their finances. The magazine contains in-depth, well-researched feature articles covering all aspects of personal finance: investments, insurance, retirement, banking, credit and debt, medical aid, financial planning, estate planning and wills.

$1.26

in this issue

REGULARS

IS YOUR ESTATE IN ORDER?

The Covid-19 pandemic has been part of our lives for well over a year now and, despite staunch efforts in many countries (South Africa is not among them) to vaccinate as many citizens as possible as quickly as possible, it seems there is still no end in sight, with horrific surges in Brazil and India, among other regions. As I write, the equity markets are frothing at mind-boggling valuations, which makes me very nervous. The markets could come to Earth suddenly with an extremely hard bump if it dawns on investors that, no, we’re not going to turn the corner very soon. In fact, if a far nastier variant of this disease evolves, which causes serious disease and death in younger people and proves resistant to the current round of…

2 min

REGULARS

HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR NEW CAREER

Intelligence Isn’t Enough: A Black Professional’s Guide to Thriving in the Workplace Author: Carice Anderson Publisher: Jonathan Ball Retail price: R220 It’s all well and good to have academic qualifications, but you’ll never fully succeed in the workplace if you don’t understand who you are, who you work with, and how you work, says Carice Anderson in her new book. According to the Jonathan Ball website, Anderson has spent over 17 years focusing on human capital development strategies and working on change and performance management projects. She worked as a professional development manager at McKinsey & Company in Johannesburg where she developed a programme for young black professionals. She obtained her MBA from Harvard Business School. She is the founder of Thrive Leadership Advisory, a leadership consulting, coaching and facilitation…

2 min

REGULARS

YOUR LETTERS

WHAT TO DO WITH A WINDFALL? I recently received some inheritance money, and I am considering a deposit on a home or boosting my retirement savings. What should I do? Name withheld Jac de Wet, a financial adviser from PSG Wealth Somerset Mall Ring Road, responds: There are many answers and opinions to this question, with many different factors to consider – for example, your age, your current savings, your personal goals, and circumstances. What one can consider are the potential long-term returns in retirement funds versus the interest rate charged on the bond on the house. If the expected long-term returns of your retirement fund are more than the long-term average interest rate to be charged on the property, then consider investing. If the interest rate charged on the…

3 min

COVER STORY

THE FOUR FATAL ERRORS OF ESTATE PLANNING

If you don’t have a will, you might feel guilty relief when you hear that at least 70 percent of working South Africans are in the same boat. And the figures are not much better in the developed world: while Americans were surging towards half a million Covid-19 deaths last year, a survey revealed that 68 percent of adults do not have a will. The United Kingdom figure is 54 percent, with an additional five percent having a will that is out of date. According to the website Business Insider South Africa, the pandemic has prompted a dramatic increase in enquiries about wills. One company, Capital Legacy Solutions, reported 3 800 enquiries in the first quarter of 2020, compared with 500 in the first quarter of 2019. There is no…

12 min

FEATURES

WHAT TYPE OF INVESTOR ARE YOU?

You’re invested in the equity market and the market takes a sudden dive. What do you do? Switch out of your investment – which has taken a knock – into a lower-risk one, out of fear of losing more money? Do nothing and ride out the dip? Or plough more money into a market that is now offering good value? What you do would depend on many factors, including the distance to your investment horizon, but predominant among them is your personality. A widely accepted theory of personality lists five main traits: extraversion (to what extent you are outgoing and socially confident); agreeableness (how friendly, cooperative and altruistic you are); conscientiousness (how aware you are of your own behaviour and its effect on others); neuroticism (to what extent you are…

8 min

FEATURES

CAN YOU AFFORD TERTIARY EDUCATION FOR YOUR CHILDREN?

The obvious first step when saving for your children’s education is to find out how much money you will need. “How long is a piece of string?” is the response from Kirsty Scully, senior financial planner at Core Wealth, and chairperson elect of the board of the Financial Planning Institute – but her methods are precise. From university websites, she sources the average cost of a degree at present. As an example, University of Stellenbosch 2021 estimates for the first year of these undergraduate degree courses are: R44 940 for a BCom, R64 974 for a BSc engineering, R54 501 for a BA Law, and R48 037 for a BA in human resources management. Then Scully works on an annual inflation rate of 10% to get to the expected future…

10 min