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_outlineThere’s more than one way to raise taxes. You can subject yourself to the ire of the masses by being up-front about it, or you can eke out little tax wins on the sly. Our government likes to do a bit of both.
This week, with the help of Wesley, we explain how tax creep works and what you can do about it. We also talk about lump-sum withdrawals. You are taxed on previous withdrawals taken after the following dates:
- Withdrawals: 1 March 2009
- Retirement benefits: 1 October 2007
- Severance benefits: 1 March 2011
If you took lump sum withdrawals before these dates, consider that an entry for your gratitude journal.
Wesley
It’s been 6 years since the lump sum benefit was last adjusted and we have lost 26.5% of the value of the incentive during this time. Where is my inflation adjustment? Obviously someone is desperate for cash right now, and SARS doesn't think it is pensioners.
When the lump sum is adjusted from 300k to 500k, but you already took 300k in the past, what happens when you take a 200k lump sum from your other RA account?
More complicated. Was 300k, take 400k, pay 18% tax on 100k = 18k tax. Now the limit is 500k. take another 300k lump sum from your other RA account.
What on earth happens?
Do you not get any benefit from the increase?
Does 100k at 18% wipe out half of your new 200k tax free lump sum?
Or do you treat it as a 700k lump sum on the new provisions less 18k tax previously paid on lump sums.
It seems like a good idea to have at least 2 RA accounts.
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Win of the week: Candice
Just thought I'd say a HUGE thank you. After being introduced to the show just 3 years ago, I feel like we are in a committed relationship. It's the only podcast I listen to and look forward to my Monday morning drive to work with you guys.
I finally budgeted. I’m horrified to see where our money goes monthly. I can't complain though, because without knowing I wouldn't be able to change spending habits.
Martinus
I've always championed Total Return ETFs. Outside a TFSA you’d have to pay Capital Gains Tax. TRTs also save on brokerage costs and admin. However, the feedback from De Wet has me reconsidering that approach.
If the fund is a feeder fund like the Satrix MSCI World, is there any local tax event? To me, it makes sense that if they just reinvest the distributions they receive outside SA the only tax event would be in the foreign country. Your only local tax concern then is CGT.
It is possible to switch from Satrix to 1invest MSCI world at an increase in fees of 0.05% and then have dividends paid out. This leaves an increase in brokerage costs and personal admin.
Martin
I’ve been putting money into the Satrix World. As I understand it, I lose the benefit of the saving on dividend tax in a Global ETF, but I’m at least hedged in a way with the rand weakening over time, and it should show better growth over time than local (who knows though).
So I just listened to your podcast (Asset Allocation Problem – 14/12/20) regarding total return funds (like MSCI World). Am I correct in my understanding that the dividend tax is in the region of 28%, not 15%? Furthermore, are we saying that tax free investments should pay out the dividend, and not reinvest? That feels wrong though, that money then can’t keep growing?
Then, to make matters worse, when you Google “tax on tax free global etf”, you get many links proclaiming that you do not pay ANY tax on either local or foreign tax free investments, e.g. https://www.sygnia.co.za/press/how-to-invest-offshore-and-pay-zero-tax
Please put me out of my misery on this one!
Lizl
I have the *honour and privilege* of working for a financial institution that recently decided all employees must close all accounts with other brokers and open a stockbroking account with them. Exceptions may be approved, but I don't want to open that can of worms just yet.
I have EasyEquities accounts - both an Easy Equities ZAR account with individual shares and a TFSA account with a few ETFs.
Does Easy Equitites count as a stockbroker in this case? Should I just sell the individual stocks and hope they'll let me keep the TFSA? Does the TFSA fall under this prohibition as well? And why is it that they can legally do this?
I have zero energy for the admin of moving and the inevitably higher fees, preferential staff rate or not.
Greg
Normally I put my TFSA allocation of R3000 per month into my bond. At the end of the financial year I draw R36000 and buy the Ashburton Global 1200 ETF in my TFSA.
Should I still be doing so for the coming year? Is this still the one ETF to rule them all?