PERSONAL FINANCE
By Schalk Louwmarketplace investment
finweek 24 October 2019 35i
recently got home from work to find my eldest daughter in tears. She
had a massive university assignment due and feared that she wouldn’t
be able to finish in time.
We’ve probably all been there before. Whether it’s an assignment, a
large sports event, or preparing for your retirement, we all know the anxiety
that comes with facing a tight deadline.
My advice to my daughter was to divide the assignment into smaller
sections and to finish each section before moving onto the next, as
opposed to focusing on the assignment in its entirety.
The same principle applies to our personal wealth. The financial aspect
of our lives in their entirety can be so vast and overwhelming that it’s easy
to understand why it causes anxiety and distress.
The task of managing one’s personal wealth can be broken down into
many little pieces, but I’d like to focus on five smaller wealth challenges
that can help combat the anxiety that accompanies financial planning:- Invest in a retirement annuity
If your employer does not offer retirement benefits, you
seriously have to consider investing in a retirement
annuity (RA). It’s a disciplined savings method. In
addition, the allowable tax-deductible percentage
(personal income tax) of the greater of your
taxable income or remuneration currently
amounts to 27.5%, with an annual maximum
of R350 000. That means you can enjoy up
to 27.5% of your income as an allowable tax
deduction, just by making use of an RA. - What about your emergency fund?
“Life happens”, right? We’ve all experienced events
that were completely out of our control, and that ended
up costing us money we didn’t have at the time.
We take out short-term insurance to cover us against losses or
damage to personal items. We take out medical cover against unforeseen
medical expenses. But do you have an emergency fund to cover you
against unforeseen expenses, such as your car breaking down outside of
its warranty?
Most experts recommend having at least three to six months’ worth of
personal expenses set aside in an emergency fund. This would normally be
invested in something like a savings account, or money market account,
where market volatility isn’t an issue, and where you can gain access to
your funds within 48 to 72 hours. - Invest in yourself
James Clear, author of the bestseller, Atomic Habits, summarised four
types of wealth perfectly:
■ Financial wealth (money)
■ Social wealth (status)
■ Time wealth (freedom)
■ Physical wealth (health)
Building towards your personal wealth doesn’t just mean you have to pay
5 steps to building your wealth
Constructing a financial plan can be quite overwhelming. Compartmentalising the various aspects required to
manage this process can make it easier – and more successful.Photo: Shutterstock
someone to help you achieve your financial goals. At least three of these
four types of wealth require you to invest in yourself.- Are your ‘containers’ full enough?
You should, in fact, have three “containers”, or wealth strategies, and these
containers are not equal in size.
The first container is your income strategy container. It should contain
your income and capital requirements for the next three years. These funds
are normally allocated between cash and income funds.
Your second container is your wealth preservation strategy container
and should contain your income and capital requirements from years four
to six from now. These funds usually have an equity allocation of 30% to
40% with a goal of achieving returns in excess of inflation plus 3% over a
rolling three-year period.
The third container, your wealth creation strategy container, should
contain the balance of your capital not required for income and
capital requirements from years one to six. It’s normally
allocated to long-term investments in balanced- and
equity funds. These funds should aim to deliver
returns of inflation plus 4% to 7% over a term of
longer than six years.
5. Diversify your risk
Whether you’re an experienced investor or just
starting out, always ensure that your risk is well
diversified. We live in an era where we can invest
in a variety of asset classes, through various
service providers and in multiple countries at the
press of a button. Why would you choose increased
risk by focusing on only one area?
I find that some experts are recommending to
clients that, based on the past few years’ tough economic
environment, they should now withdraw all funds from their local
investments and invest those funds in the “better-performing” US. These
very people also seem to forget that from May 1999 to May 2009 the
US didn’t show any growth in rand-terms. In fact, it delivered negative
performance over that period.
SA has one of the lowest correlations with the US, which means that
you cannot always draw a parallel between their economic performances.
If you had invested 50% of your capital in SA and 50% of your
capital in the US 20 years ago, SA would have been responsible for
your portfolio’s performance in the first 10 years while the US suffered,
and the US would have been responsible for good performance
over the last 10 years while SA suffered. Investing in both countries,
therefore, as opposed to only one of them, clearly seems to be the
healthier option.
Many more aspects can be added to any healthy financial plan.
But start with these five and take them one at a time. If you still feel
overwhelmed, you can always ask a financial planner to assist you. ■
[email protected]
Schalk Louw is a portfolio manager at PSG Wealth.
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