Assets & Investments

Although cryptocurrencies are on an upward trajectory in South Africa, a cryptocurrency wallet is worthless without its key or password. That was the reality for a 24-year-old Bitcoin-holder in 2021, who, after mining 20 Bitcoin for more than ten years when the cryptocurrency was still only worth a few cents, lost his wallet key and access to around R14.18 million in Bitcoin.

Kicking off a debate over how best to make meaningful change through investment, we explore private equity’s unmatched ability to deliver capital to the places it’s needed most. Impact investment, at its core, is the task of identifying a change the world needs and deciding how to make it happen.

Investing for the first time can be daunting – particularly when you are building your own portfolio by buying (and selling) company shares. Investing in the stock market is a “zero-sum” game, meaning that for every winner there is a loser. While picking the wrong stock(s) at some point is inevitable, we round out our top tips for ensuring that you end up with more winners than losers and that you can expertly navigate the sometimes wild and always unpredictable ride.

In its most literal sense, return on investment (ROI) is a profitability metric that refers to the business value derived from spend. It involves dividing an investment’s profit by its cost and is generally expressed as a percentage.

Progressively more articles are appearing warning that the South African economy is heading for a total implosion. The sentiment is incredibly bearish on the ground and South Africans are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place.

Of the companies we research, the tobacco industry has some of the best structural fundamentals. Tobacco consumption is relatively price-inelastic, which means that price increases can make up for falls in sales volumes. Taxes make up a large portion of sale prices.

ESG investing is a term that is often used interchangeably with sustainable investing and socially responsible investing. It began in the 1960s with investors excluding stocks or entire industries from their portfolios based on business activities such as tobacco production or involvement in the South African apartheid regime.

Rather than conducting a proper investigation to trace who should be allocated a death benefit, a retirement fund decided to go “through the back door” and allocate the benefit to the deceased’s estate. This follows the decision of the South African Retirement Annuity Fund to pay a death benefit into the deceased’s estate following the death of its member.

An early start is at the heart of achieving sufficient financial resources for the lifestyle you desire for yourself and your family. It gives your investments more time to compound and grow. There are rules of thumb for younger investors who want to secure a strong financial future.

We have announced the findings of our inaugural Retirement Insights Survey, the first retirement research of its kind conducted by an integrated financial services provider in South Africa. Against the backdrop of widespread belief that South Africa lacks a savings culture, the survey unveils some reasons for disparities in retirement savings beyond apathy or income.