For retirement, our investments must achieve an after-tax return above inflation. This is easier said than done within the constraints of prevailing volatile markets. Safeguarding your money in the bank while earning interest will make you poorer over time as inflation erodes the value of your investments. We assess how much you need to earn to beat inflation after-tax and suggest a low-risk investment strategy to achieve this.

In the current environment, it may feel right to be investing all your money offshore. This view may also be supported by the data that global equities returned 17% p.a. over the last decade. However, currently, global equities are generally risky as they are expensive, and therefore, one needs to be careful with an offshore investment strategy.

It is important for investors to take the time to assess their retirement investments at least once a year and check that they are on track to meet their goals.
Here are some important questions to assess your current retirement annuity, preservation fund or living annuity investments.

At the start of 2019 we predicted better investment returns, albeit a bumpy ride, and that is what we got. We expect more of the same for 2020. But don’t be too perturbed. If you have the right investment strategy you should beat inflation, evidenced by our low-risk, highly ranked, Prosperity Worldwide Fund that returned 16.4% in 2019. Please read our 2020 investment market outlook.

As South Africans come to the end of a frustrating year, it is a good time to reflect on the year that was and set our sights on how we are going to tackle 2020. This week, we touch on Investonline’s successful year, review how our 2019 predictions panned out, summarise our market views for 2020, highlight our most popular articles of the year and feature our leading financial planning tools and processes.