Take the Disprin
Sometimes, the financial world makes things far more complicated than it needs to be. A recent example I came across involved a highly complex investment strategy with layers of charges and multiple moving parts. Lots of sophistication. High upfront fees. Plenty of market timing. The underlying idea was that a large, important portfolio […]
The 5 Money Personalities
I had an interesting conversation the other day. I have two clients in almost identical financial positions. They hold the same portfolio — same asset allocation, same exposure, same strategy. In the wake of Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, the markets took a knock, and both portfolios dipped for a couple of weeks. One client was […]
Markets, War, and What Comes Next
Geopolitical events always feel like the start of something bigger. And sometimes, they are. There are worries about oil prices, radioactive fallout, and broader instability across the Middle East. Historically, markets have often shrugged off geopolitical shocks. There’s a long list of events — wars, bombings, political uprisings — that caused short-term sell-offs […]
Property vs Investment Portfolios
The latest Lightstone property report came out recently, detailing property price inflation across South Africa. The chart below comes from this report, and shows property price inflation by province for 2025: Chart: Lightstone Property Price Inflation 2025 Surprisingly, the province with the highest price inflation was Limpopo — my assumption is that this […]
Make Fewer Mistakes. Keep More Money.
I recently listened to a podcast featuring Barry Ritholtz discussing his new book, How Not to Invest. Ritholtz runs a U.S.-based wealth management firm that manages over $10 billion of private client money. What I respect about their business is that it wasn’t built by acquiring other advice businesses (we see a lot of that today locally). […]
You can retire (but you have to give something up)
I had a fascinating conversation with an older financial advisor the other week. He’s in his late 50s, winding down his practice. He was tired. He explained to me that the challenges in this profession never really change. You may have a mature practise, but the issues are the same as when you started. The […]
The Rand
The rand briefly broke through R18 earlier this week and is currently sitting just above it as I write this. Looking back five years, the rand has essentially retained its purchasing power. Looking back over the past five years, what’s striking is how little it’s moved. If you had asked someone in 2020 […]
Why Pilots Study Crashes
Pilots spend a lot of time studying crash landings — not because they expect to crash, but because when things go wrong, preparation makes all the difference. Investing works the same way. Big crashes are very rare, but when they do happen, it helps to know what has worked in the past (typically doing nothing […]
Less is more
A few years back, The Wall Street Journal profiled Steve Edmundson, the investment manager for Nevada’s $35 billion public retirement fund. The headline was: “What Does Nevada’s Fund Manager Do All Day? Nothing.” That’s him the picture below Here’s how the article opened: Steve Edmundson has no co-workers, rarely takes meetings, and often […]
8 years of market turbulence
Over the past 8 years, global markets have delivered strong annual returns — around 8% to 10% per year. Any investor would be happy with that result. But those returns didn’t come in a straight line. There were multiple points where it felt like the market was on the verge of collapse — […]
