Tag: behavioural bias

In his previous budget speech, Minister Mboweni mentioned a host of different taxes that the revenue man would soon be collecting from us. From personal income tax, to fuel taxes, corporate and carbon taxes – the list was long. But one tax he didn’t mention – and to his credit it is not an official tax (but I would argue it should be) – is behaviour tax.

In order to survive as a species, people have evolved to be both risk averse and loss averse, to be fearful of such possibilities. But these attributes serve us poorly as investors. To be a successful investor, one needs to overcome that fear and to take calculated risks.