Tag: diversification

We have announced new research into the CFO 4.0, which reveals that the manufacturing CFO will play a critical strategic, innovative and financial role in the business moving forward.  The study, which was conducted in July to September 2021 and assessed the sentiment amongst senior level Chief Financial Officers within manufacturing sectors across the Americas, APAC and EMEA.

The scientific consensus is that climate change is real and getting worse. The goal for policymakers, activists, business leaders and investors meeting at the United Nation’s COP26 summit in Glasgow is to limit the damage. Specifically, the aim is to keep the increase in average global temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

September is Heritage Month in South Africa. As a diverse but also divided society, building a shared view of our heritage is very much a work in process. Nonetheless, all South Africans have an interest in sharing in a more prosperous economy with more jobs and less poverty.

When we think of gender inequality in the realm of money, the perennial pay gap springs to mind. It remains a problem. The 2020 Momentum/UNISA Household Financial Wellness Insights report estimates that, on average, women earn around 30% less than men in similar jobs in South Africa. 

For a country always in need of cheering up, recent news of better-than-expected economic growth was most welcome. StatsSA data showed that the economy grew by 4.6% after inflation in the first quarter on a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis.

Since 2018, sustainable fixed income indexing assets across the industry have more than doubled every year, with investors increasingly looking at sustainability as an important driver of returns. The pandemic has also accelerated reallocation within fixed income as traditional role of government bonds within portfolios has become increasingly challenged by a lower for-longer interest rate environment.

Investing in the stock market has played a key role in helping investors diversify their portfolios. Money Market funds and savings account are instruments used by investors and savers, looking to grow wealth in a risk averse manner.

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.

When investing, sometimes the best course of action is to do nothing. Having the ability to block out the noise, and look through the cycle, are some of the cornerstones to investment success over the long term. But what else sets successful investors apart?

It’s been over a year since the pandemic-induced stock market meltdown and since South Africa entered hard lockdown. It is time to look back and examine what this period has taught us as an industry.