Money can’t buy happiness. I have heard this a thousand times. Especially in a country where the average salary is R12 700 per month (that is $930 per month for international readers), we will try to find happiness in other areas of our lives. I got confronted with this topic very recently when my parents …
Analysing shares based on PE ratio I recently read an article that stated that the best indicator for future performance is the Price to Earning (PE) ratio of a market. I tried finding it again, but to no avail. However, the gist of it is that when the PE ratio is low, the probability of …
In short, a shitload of money. But that is not what you want to hear. So, I will discuss what we paid for our wedding, and what you can realistically get away with if you wanted to keep the cost to have a wedding as low as possible. We got married in May after being …
It is easy to over-complicate your investment strategy. It is tempting to invest in each new Initial Public Offering (IPO) because it feels like you are getting in on the ground floor. On top of that you do not have to pay the transaction cost for buying the shares. So, because it is new and …
I recently found an article that categorizes you based on your income. According to this, I form part of the middle-class. I decided to investigate what the middle class South Africans are spending their money on. Then to compare my budget over the last 3 months to each item, to identify areas where I am …
When you don’t need to submit your tax return With the deadline for tax submissions approaching fast, everyone is scrambling to submit their tax returns. Not everyone is required to file their tax return, but today I want to convince you to do it anyway. According to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) you do …
My savings rate We all make money from different sources. Most of us are simply earning a salary. A few of us have our own companies from which we also draw a salary. The lucky few, even have their own companies that earn money without their presence. That’s the dream. Irrespective of where your money …
The 4% rule Retiring is easy, all you have to do is save 300 times your monthly expenses. This is until you do the math and see that this isn’t walking around money. The 300-times-your-monthly-salary rule and the 4% rule is one and the same thing. Whip out those calculators if you must. The 4% …
The cellphone cost cycle Every second year, like clockwork, we renew our phone contracts. We go in with a preconceived idea of which phone we want and just renew the contract. Two minutes later, you have your brand-new cell phone. You rush home to charge it, so you can transfer all your contacts and install …
The future cost impact I want to retire early to travel the world. Yes, I know, you can’t go anywhere without someone telling you they plan to retire early. I’m not giving myself an age that I want to retire. I’m still enjoying my job and will continue working as long as I do. Eventually …