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...
Five Ways to Teach Kids About Money
Any good habits can be bred at a very young age. Learning positive attitudes towards money is no different. Research has found that children understand financial concepts much sooner than many of us realise. The University of Cambridge has found that by the age of...
Buying Property as an Investment – Some Strategies for Success
"The only bad time to buy property is later." (Steve Bolton) Buying property – whether to live/work in or on a buy-to-let basis – could be one of the most important investments you make. Here are some strategies to help you on your way. Twelve strategies for success...
Compound Interest: The Eighth Wonder of the World
“If you understand compound interest, you basically understand the universe.” (Robert Breault) Don’t be simple One of the best ways to understand compound interest is to know what it’s not — the appropriately named simple interest. This easy example illustrates the...