At what point did South Africans become so obsessed with having money offshore? For a while everyone was obsessed with gold, then something about Jacob Zuma and suddenly Magnus Heystek was a thing, like a bad dream. Our friend Edwin has this ability to ask a question in a way that stretches my brain more ...

The world is changing so quickly that talking about the pace of change is starting to feel a bit clichéd. We measure optimisation and innovation by software updates, not generations. This allows us to customise our lives to a great degree. From time to time we need to check whether rules of thumb of previous ...

Diversification is an important part of risk management in a portfolio. Unfortunately, as with all things finance, there’s no simple diversification solution. This week, we address two diversification concerns: being too diversified and not being diversified enough. In my own portfolio, I pay attention to three diversification criteria, namely assets, regions and sectors. Since I ...

I’ve only ever known debt as the wrathful destroyer of wealth and happiness. Lately, however, I’ve come to realise debt can be a powerful tool in your financial arsenal - if you treat it with respect. Someone recently explained the logic behind maxing out his child’s tax-free account instead of saving for her education. If ...