All of us have moments in our life when we realise that we have to make a change. Sometimes change is something we choose, and sometimes it happens to us, forcing us to find a new way to cope. Making a sustainable change is something that we can choose – before life forces something worse upon us. As Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer says: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the […]
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Ifs, buts and Bitcoin
“If only I’d bought into Bitcoin in 2008…” “But, it’s not regulated…” “But, the bubble…” “Bitcoin – I don’t want to miss out…” Before engaging in any blog about Bitcoin, it HAS to be stated that Bitcoin is an incredibly risky investment that may or may not pay off. Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without […]
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It’s Hue-Guh, not Hoo-Gah
Hygge (pronounced hue-guh, not hoo-gah) is a Danish word used when acknowledging a feeling or moment as cosy, charming or special. This can happen whether alone or with friends, at home or out, ordinary or extraordinary. It’s about how the event makes you feel, not the event itself. From Danish cookies, cheese and pastries to their culture of simplicity, politeness, and equality – they should have a pretty good sense of how cosy-charming-special truly feels! And, […]
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Bite-sized chunks
No matter how hard we try, we never seem to get it all right… all the time! We were taught as kids that practice makes perfect, and this phrase set us up for unrealistic expectations. At some point in our future, we figured we would get it perfect. All we needed to do was keep trying and keep practising. A different way to phrase that saying could be that practice makes progress, not perfection. Progress is […]
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Stop telling yourself these things
Everyone knows that building wealth can help to ensure financial security in the future. Yet, it is a small number of the world’s population who have had the opportunity and fortitude to save money consistently. In some cases, this is because putting money away is not the easiest thing to do. It’s a tough habit to form. As a result, we don’t give ourselves time to save, only time to spend. These behaviours cause us to […]
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Key thoughts for passive investors
Passive investing has become the most popular investing strategy, globally. Simply put, it’s the strategy of buying the whole market (a diversified reach of stock allocations, ETFs and the like), and continually contributing to your portfolio. The long-term goal is to achieve the average market return. This strategy avoids buying and selling regularly (like with actively managed strategies), long hours of extensive research into individual companies and stocks. In theory, this sounds like an easy approach […]
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Four Fresh Investment Ideas
We all want more from life. We want to live a good and meaningful life. This is how we generate hope, by believing that there is something new for us to discover, fresh for us to share and fulfilling for us to experience. Sometimes life will gift us a reward that we haven’t had to work for directly, but for everything else, it is a constant cycle of trade-offs. We have many resources at our disposal, […]
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Is active or passive fund management better?
The first thing to remember when approaching investing is that the best approach is dependent almost wholly on the investor and their desired investment outcomes. While this may sound simple, working out desired outcomes hinges on many factors and conversations and ultimately works out best when a trusted financial adviser guides the investor. In a nutshell (this is a very simple explanation): Active fund or portfolio management is overseen by a team of investment, market and […]
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Is there more to life than happiness?
There seems to be an increasing drive to pursue happiness; we want to be satisfied and content with who we are and what we do with our lives. Whilst a few people seem to eventually “find” their happiness, many of us are still trying to figure out what would genuinely lift our spirit… and keep it there! The usual assumption is that we’ll be happier when we achieve success, but some successful people think their accomplishments […]
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Divorce and your retirement savings
Recent times have been life-altering for so many, from emotional and health traumas to relational and financial traumas. We’ve all had to encounter a considerable onslaught of ‘stuff’ to process and deal with. It may just be life, but it’s still hard. Divorce is one such trauma that so many have to work through. It has a wide range of social and financial implications, as Lebona Khabo from Allan Gray highlighted in a recent article on […]
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