How to brace your money for 2021 (#233)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
Release Date: 01/03/2021
What The Fat Wallet taught me (#245)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
Like many of you, I have listened to every episode of The Fat Wallet Show. I’ve learned so much over the years, but I find it interesting that some lessons keep repeating. This week, Simon and I spend our last episode together reflecting on lessons we keep on learning. Think of this as the TL;DR version of 245 episodes of this incredible show. Here’s what we know for sure: Many people who listen to the show think their biggest financial decision is ahead of them when actually they’ve already made it: being an active participant in your own financial life is the best financial...
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Access bonds explained (#244)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
If you’re new to this money business, access bonds will confuse you. Not only do we use the word “bond” to mean “lending money to the government” and “borrowing money from the bank to buy a house”. The access we’re talking about has changed over the years. As Simon Brown explains in this week’s episode, in the bad old days before the 2008 crash, banks used to give you a little additional spending money when you took out a home loan. Those days are long gone, but the idea prevails. These days you can’t access the interest or principal repayments you’ve already made....
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The cost of moving retirement products (#243)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
It has always been the philosophy of this show that a good question is more valuable than a good answer. It’s incredible what you can learn from a really good question, both about the topic and about the person asking the question. This week, Frank had an excellent question about moving retirement funds. This question reveals, first and foremost, just how much Frank already knows about the market. It also reveals a thoughtful person who has found a balance between taking calculated risks and doing whatever he can to protect his assets. In this episode, we address issues around the ethics of...
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Passive income (242)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
A conversation on our excellent had me wondering why we’ve never dedicated a whole Fat Wallet to finding passive income streams outside of investments. It took about ten minutes for the realisation to dawn on me: true passive income is a myth. We often talk about side-hustles. “Hustle” is the operative word there, because we’re describing a second job. The appeal of working in your free time is the diversification of income streams and the potential to eventually earn your monthly income doing something you enjoy instead of your day job. True passive income means you work at...
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Should I stay or should I go? (#241)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
Many people take their first wobbly steps into the financial world because they understand money is meant to do something. What exactly that “something” is, is often left to someone else to figure out. However, once they start learning about the financial environment for themselves they realise there might be products better suited to their needs. Moving a lump sum away from a provider you’ve trusted for a few years is a daunting process. Even if your reasons are sound, it’s not an easy decision to make. In honour of the brand new tax year, we spend this week’s episode helping...
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Farewell Fatties! (#240)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
After five rewarding years as host of The Fat Wallet Show, my time with the show is coming to an end. This episode is a short retrospective of our time together, followed, as usual, by your questions. On 30 May 2016 we published the of The Fat Wallet Show. We knew from our personal experience and from our work at Just One Lap that money was such an emotional topic. All so-called financial education came with an assumption that you would already know the jargon and have some basic understanding of how the system worked. Based on the questions we got at Just One Lap, we knew that wasn’t...
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TFSA strategies (#239)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but tax month is a close second. For buy-and-hold investors like myself, this is the only time of year I get to do anything significant in my portfolio. That’s why I take a moment to reflect on my portfolio every February. My tax-free strategy may seem static from the outside, but it has changed as new products have come into the market and as I’ve matured in my investment philosophy. The market is a highly dynamic environment and even a buy-and-hold strategy requires sharpening every so often. In honour of tax-free savings month, we think...
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Finding the next hot thing (#238)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
We are still running our survey. Please take two minutes to . Around the beginning of every year we notice a strange phenomenon. Energised by the holidays and inspired to turn life into an everlasting vacation, investors start searching for the investment Holy Grail. “What is the one, hot thing that will finally liberate me from the shackles of employment?” The opportunity that generates the most excitement changes every year, but the pattern is the same. Newbies and impatient veterans alike flock to alternative assets, penny stocks or underdog listed companies believed to be the...
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Money and travel (#237)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
There’s nothing like lockdown to induce a bad case of wanderlust. 11 months into the biggest bummer of many of our lifetimes, it’s wonderful to hear some ordinary good news. Remember weddings? Lady Kablo certainly does. She got married in December. Lockdown is giving her a little time to think about what she’d like for her perfect honeymoon. Many of us striving for financial independence hope to travel once we no longer have to work. Every time I take a trip, be it abroad or local, I’m reminded travel money works differently from ordinary money. While I’m extremely frugal in my...
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Intergenerational wealth (#236)
The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap
Time is such an odd ingredient in the realm of wealth creation. When treated with respect, a good amount of time can be your greatest ally. When ignored, however, time can be your biggest risk. In a country with so much historical inequality, the idea of intergenerational wealth seems entirely mythical. However, a small amount of money sprinkled with a great deal of time makes building a nest egg for the next generation seem downright simple. By the same token, sleeping at the wheel creates an opportunity for inflation to eat away at real returns. In this week’s episode, we explore...
info_outline2020 gave us all a new appreciation for the humble emergency fund. In this episode of The Fat Wallet Show we think about some steps you can take to prepare your money for the year ahead.
Win of the week: Celma
I turned 55 and had to visit my bank (Nedbank) a few months later.
I asked them if there is any reduction in bank fees when you turn 55 and to my surprise my bank fees got waived provided I make a R10 000 deposit. I only get 2.5% on the deposit, but save about R300 in monthly bank fees. The facility is probably available to everybody but seems like you must ask about it - it is not as though they tell you or advertise it.
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Zee
I've been listening to you guys like a fiend for the past 3 months and I have managed to follow your instructions of having insurance, reducing living expenses etc. Now I'm at that stage of forming my retirement strategy. Annnnnddd I'm pretty much having a bit of a breakdown as to whether I'm going in the right direction.
So I'm 28 and working in South Korea. I've never had any debt, I don't pay rent, car, I have no kids or financial dependents. This allows me to save about 54% of my pay, which is split between my RA 16% and about 4% Unit trust (which I top up with my annual bonus) both with 10X .
Then 30% in a ZAR Easy Equities monthly (I just opened my TFSA which I will max out on the 1st of March as I have already saved the R36K). Ohhh I have saved 3 months salary as an emergency fund.
Should I keep the UT as a means of saving a year's worth of salary for when I am old and wrinkled and the medical costs are eye wateringly high or to supplement my income when the market falls apart. Orrrrr should I just leave that and go beast mode into EasyEquities and the RA.
I also wanted to know if I should push to save up to a 6 months salary even if it takes me more than a year? And put it into a money market or savings account cause the prospect of going back to being unemployed for a long period of time scares me to death!