GQ South Africa — May 2017

MAY 2017 GQ.CO.ZA 55

WORDS BY GQ STAFF. ILLUSTRATION BY KEENAN JEPPE. INFORMATION SOURCES:

DIGITAL FUEL MONITOR AND STATISTA

CLASS

ealth

BEST AND WORST SURFING

SPOTS IN EUROPE

he EU is dropping roaming prices for

mobile and data. Prices are set to drop

from€7.70pergigabyteinJune,witha

furtherdroptofollowinafewyears.

Howevertherestillarehugedifferences

whenitcomestoprovidinglow-price

high-speed 4G data. While some

countrieshavescrappedthedatacap

altogether, in others (hello, Portugal!)

yougetanastonishinglybaddeal.South

Africaisnotgreateither,bycomparison.

*maximum ¤30 (R420), 4G LTE

smartphone plans with at least 1 000

nationalminutesandSMSsand4GLTE

mobile broadband (data only) plans.

September 2016

HOW MANY GIGABYTES ¤30 BUYS

YOUINSELECTEDEUCOUNTRIES

(WITH RSA EQUIVALENT)

Estonia 60GB

France 50GB

United Kingdom 30GB

Austria 20GB

Luxemburg 10GB

Netherlands 8GB

Spain 7GB

Germany 6GB

Romania 5GB

South Africa 5GB

Portugal 0.5GB

1 Haveatargetandsticktoit.

Aimtosave15-20percentofyourgross

earnings (including what you put into your

pensionfund).Beclearaboutwhatyou

aresavingforovertheshort(awedding),

medium(anewcar)andlongterm(your

child’seducation)asthiswilldetermine

theamountyou’llneedtosave,aswellas

the savings vehicle. he best long-term

savingsvehiclefromataxperspectiveis

aretirementannuity.

2 Compound interest is your friend.

Investaportionorallofyourbalancein

oneormoreindexfunds.Anindexfund

buys all the stocks in the proportion in

whichtheymakeupanindex.heycanbe

general, such as the Satrix, or speciic, such

as property.hese will be good company in

your old age.

3 Diversify.Putyourmoneyinarange

of asset classes of equities, property and

bonds. Listed property in South Africa

hastoppedannualreturnsovertherecent

years, promising healthy returns. Buying

aplacetolive,however,isalifestylechoice,

notaninvestment.Moneymarketaccounts

areforcashyouneedinthenextiveyears.

4 Insuranceisamust.Butbuytermrisk

insurance,whichpaysyourheirsifyoudie

andhasnosavingelement.hatamountof

insuranceshouldbetheamountoverand

aboveyourassetstocovertheexisting

lifestyle of your dependants. Avoid

insurancerackets(moreonthisonp64).

5 hink big.You’llcomeacrosscompanies

thatarelikelytodeinethecountry’s

future;investin10ofthebestofthese

directly(say,25percentofyourportfolio)

to win big. Anything consumer-facing can

be expected to be a big winner for the next

two decades.

BOOM OR BUST? TECH IPOS

SWING BOTH WAYS

The initial public offering ofSnapat an

incredible $33bn was the most highly

anticipated IPO in recent years. Despite

doubts about the company’s ability to turn

aprofit,investorsscrambledtobuyintothe

company behind messaging app Snapchat.

While the IPO made dozens of Snap

insiders and early investors very rich

overnight,thosebuyingintotheIPOareby

no means guaranteed a windfall. Snap’s

stock soon dropped back to earlier levels.

Some companies are now trading far below

their IPO prices, leaving those who bought

shareswithaheftyloss,andarealisation

that tech IPOs can swing both ways.

Stockpricesgainsandlosses

ofselectedtechcompaniessincetheIPOs*

HOW

TO STAY

SOLVENT

Over the years we’ve learnt that investm

professionals are good at one thing:

making money for themselves.

Which is why you need to master

these 5 basics, as compiled by GQ

*closing prices on February 27, 2017

compared to IPO prices

-18%

-38%

-60%

-68%

-73%

-78%

2012

2014

2014

2015

2015

2015

+259%

+203%

+99%

+86%

+52%

+37%