The surprise announcement of an “economic recession” and the recent collapse of the Rand raises many questions. But mostly, how does this affect my investments? We’ve drawn from a recent Old Mutual Wealth article that supports our views as we provide insights into these issues and explain the effects.

The investment adage goes “Buy low and sell high” – easier said than done – as often greed leads us to do the opposite. We buy that which keeps going higher as we can’t bear to miss out on making money, and at some point, that same investment starts declining and we sell at a lower point as we start to panic and lose money. Today we review a well-known, but unusual fund which is positioned completely differently from any other of the other +1000 local unit trusts and is at a potential “low point”. Maybe now is a good time to buy?

Land Reform is a very emotional subject and understandably so. It is top of mind for most South Africans and is negatively affecting the perceptions of the international and local investors. We summarise our views on this important subject with some input from top fund managers in the country.

This is the question most investors are asking as returns have disappointed over the last 3 to 5 years. What do I do now? Analysis shows when returns are low investors move out of growth assets into income investments (money market, fixed deposits). This is the wrong strategy and can be destructive to wealth. Coronation addresses this very interesting human reaction to disappointing returns in a recent article that we have summarised.

Times are tough. In a recent PWC survey, 50% of respondents said that having an adequate “emergency fund” topped their list of concerns, followed by retirement savings (29%) and then not being able to meet their monthly expenses. Financial stress is a major concern and can affect your health. One needs to have a plan to deal with it.