Let’s be honest: we all want to save more, but by the time we’ve paid the rent and paid our other debts, and all the monthly debit orders have come off, there simply isn’t enough money left to save. Each person’s situation is different, but most of us should be…

Many employers, especially the bigger companies, have retirement funds for their employees. Check your payslip — you’ll see how much you contribute each month. But what if you work for yourself, or your employer doesn’t offer any retirement fund options? In this case, you are responsible for saving for your…

A clever fellow called Josh Billings — the pen name for 19th century US humourist Henry Wheeler Shaw — once wrote: ‘Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.’ It’s the truth. There’s actually no such thing as ‘good’ debt…

We all know we have to save for retirement. (Like, seriously, guys.) But it’s not always clear how much you should have saved by certain points in your life. Research by Liberty shows that half of all working South Africans aren’t putting any money away for their retirement. That’s a…

Let’s talk home loans. In South Africa, home loans (also known as mortgage bonds) are typically based on a variable interest rate, linked to the prime interest rate as published by the Reserve Bank. For example, if the prime rate is 8.25% per annum, the bank may give someone with…

It’s that time of year again… When you pay tax, you only want to pay what is due, preferably not a cent more. But how? SARS offers a variety of incentives that are sometimes hard to understand. Let’s discuss three of the most common, each of which offers real bang…

Buying a property will likely be one of the biggest purchases you make. It’s daunting to sign that bond document and think that you’ll be paying for your house for the next 20 or even 30 years. It doesn’t have to be that way. Yes, buying a property is a…

If you decide to run the Comrades Marathon, the only way you’ll manage is if you give yourself enough time to train, and if you implement a routine-driven training plan. It’s the same with investing. …

It’s a term you see whenever you read about investing, and it’s something you’ll be told over and over by anyone who works with investments, like a financial advisor. But what does “diversifying” your investment portfolio actually mean? Well, it means that you should invest in a mix of assets…