Dual Citizens: Good News if You Lost Your South African Citizenship, But…
“Citizenship is the gateway through which a number of rights in the Constitution can be accessed. It enables a person to enjoy freedom of movement, freedom of trade, and political representation” (Constitutional Court, quoted in judgment below) Note: Many South...
How to Invest When There’s So Much Bad News
“Panic is highly contagious, especially in situations when nothing is known and everything is in flux.” (Stephen King) South African investors have every right to feel concerned. The local economy is facing a heap of problems, and growth has slowed to almost nothing....
Four Ways to Make the Most of Retirement
“The greatest task for ANY person is to find meaning in life.” (Victor Frankl) Retirement. The word conjures schmaltzy images of silver-haired men in tailored suits, sipping coffee from small cups while gazing out of the window at an expensive view. Or an immaculately...
Can Gratitude Make you Feel Better About Your Money?
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” (Oprah Winfrey) Most personal finance advice focuses on practical things like budgeting, saving, and investing. But financial...
A Must-Have for Couples who Choose not to Tie the Knot
“The course of true love never did run smooth.” (William Shakespeare) The times they are a-changin’ Living together and having children without getting married is becoming increasingly accepted worldwide. When Boris Johnson and his partner lived together as the first...
Property Buyers: The Danger of Not Doing Your Financial Homework
“Look before you leap” (wise old proverb) Don’t let the excitement of buying a property blind you to the necessity of doing your homework before you agree to anything. Look before you leap! It’s not just a matter of buying the right property at the right price – make...
Maintenance Claims and Life Partners
More and more couples are opting to live together as permanent life partners rather than enter into a formal marriage. The risk for such couples is that whilst our law is steadily (if slowly and cautiously) extending many of the protections of formal marriage to...
Losing Your Property to Acquisitive Prescription
“… a person shall by prescription become the owner of a thing which he has possessed openly and as if he were the owner thereof for an uninterrupted period of 30 years or for a period which, together with any periods for which such thing was so possessed by his...
Trustees: Your New Duty to Report Beneficial Owners
“National Treasury, therefore, expects that if South Africa continues to make significant improvements in effectiveness and swiftly exits grey listing, it will have a limited impact on financial stability and costs of doing business with South Africa, particularly if...
What is True Wealth?
Many people think that the more money they have, the more they can buy, and therefore the happier they will be. True wealth, however, is not just about living standards. Being wealthy is as much a mindset as it is a measure of what you have in your bank account. It is...
Living Wills: A Must Have, Despite the Grey Areas
What is a Living Will? A Living Will is a document describing your preferences for medical treatment if you are terminally ill or injured and are unable to communicate. For instance, you may not want doctors to use artificial breathing equipment or tube feeding to...
Much Ado About Risk
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk.” (Mark Zuckerberg) So, what is risk, exactly? Investment risk can be defined as the probability of loss relative to the expected return on any investment. It’s a measure of the level of uncertainty of achieving the returns...