The South African Savings Institute (SASI) launched its annual Festive Season Savings Campaign in a year where the demise of African Bank highlighted that the escalation of arrears has reached levels previously unknown of in unsecured lending to credit-hungry South Africans. Prem Govender, Chairperson of SASI, says, “We not only have to develop a robust […]
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Use repo rate cut to pay off debt
With the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) decision to cut the repo rate one half a percent to 5% – the first cut since November 2010 – bringing interest rates to the lowest in almost 40 years, consumers should resist the urge to use this saving on unnecessary short term expenses and rather look to pay […]
Spend wisely for survival beyond festive season
There are no free lunches – which is why you will, out of necessity, suffer a guilt trip if you fail to exercise caution on spending during the festive season. That’s the message from the South African Savings Institute (SASI), which urges restraint in prudent preparation for demands on the pocket early on in 2012 […]
Don’t panic in tougher times
“It’s not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.” Warren Buffett Numerous warnings are being issued of lower investment returns going forward. The past ten years have been good to South African investors – if you have been in equity markets – but this does not mean these good returns will continue […]
2011 Outlook – any surprises?
By Paul Stewart, managing director of Plexus Asset Management The famous US baseball player “Yogi” Berra once said, “It’s tough making predictions, especially about the future.” Hopefully we can all identify with Yogi’s somewhat contorted logic. Forecasts on very short-term outcomes such as, ‘I will be alive to see this article’s completion in an hour’s […]
Where we’ve been this week – finding the money to save
On Tuesday we attended the Old Mutual Savings Monitor launch. This is the third survey that has been completed for the biannual Savings Monitor, that surveys working metro households. One of the interesting findings in the survey is that for most income groups living expenses have decreased over the past year. While this may be […]
Don’t waste a good recession
At a press conference held on Tuesday (30 November) to release the latest findings of their Savings Monitor, Old Mutual sounded an optimistic note that the economy is on the slow road to recovery after the recent recession, with interest rates at their lowest levels since 1974 and inflation falling comfortably within the government’s stated […]
The new generation individual member investment choice
The move from defined benefit to defined contribution retirement funds has shifted the risk of inadequate retirement provision from employers to the members. It has also seen the subsequent evolvement of individual member investment choice within retirement funds. However, the fact remains that high-income earning members are generally financially literate, demand greater control of their […]
