For the longest time I thought a progressive tax system referred to how we spend our tax money. Poor, naive me. It turns out that a progressive tax system means there’s not one tax rate. How much tax you pay depends on how much money you make. Your tax rate gets progressively higher as you ...

Whenever I hear from someone about to make their first investment (or take their first yoga class), I get a pang of nostalgia. I’ll never forget my first investment — the thrill, the terror, the sense of achievement, the self-rewarded grown-up badge.  Fear was definitely the biggest part of it. True to form, I made ...

This week’s show is the second of the risk-series, sponsored by the Index and Structured Solutions team at Absa CIB. In the first episode we spoke about financial risks that aren’t investment-specific. This time, we talk about risks specifically related to the stock market and your portfolio.  When it comes to investing, we’re most concerned ...

What are the implications of buying two ETFs that have similar holdings? Raesetsja is trying to figure out if they should add MSCI World to a portfolio of S&P500 holdings. In this week’s episode, we show you how to figure out what doubling up would mean for your portfolio using local Satrix ETFs as an ...

In this second instalment of my Holiday Show Load, we are not nearly so clever. We tried to push through as many questions as we could, but you know how chatty we get! This is the Double Jenny episode, which delights me no end. We discussed some of the things Jenny the First can do ...

In honour of my long-awaited holiday, we spent two shows doing nothing but answering questions. This is the first.  Don’t forget we’ll be at the JSE in Cape Town for a live recording of The Fat Wallet Show on 31 October.  Win of the week: Jonathan The fees are a little confusing, because the quote ...

If you’re a regular listener, you already know your emergency fund is the most important thing in your financial life. It’s boring, yes, but crucial. You should protect the assets you have with insurance. For as long as you’re earning an income, you are your most important asset, so dread disease and disability cover is ...

This week, Ben inspires us to delve into how ETF units are priced. A recent presentation of our favourite five concepts made me realise how far removed share prices are from the companies whose shares we buy. After the initial public offering (IPO), what happens to the share price can be entirely unrelated to the ...

Earlier this week we introduced ourselves to the education department at the financial sector conduct authority (FSCA). They recommended we spend some time on what you can do when you feel like you’ve been wronged financially. In this episode we discuss what rights you have on your financial journey. We also offer some ideas of ...