Gobble. Gobble.

The festive season is so festive because we do too much, spend too much… and eat too much! We try to fit in as many social events as possible, because we have so many people that we want to see; and we spend so much money because we want people to spoil our family, friends and ourselves!

But we also often land up eating lots of foods that are richer and a little more special than our normal daily diet. One such food is Turkey. Whilst you may enjoy the odd shaved Turkey sandwich, cooking and eating an entire Turkey is mostly reserved for that meal where the extended family is seated around the table and are all digging into the celebratory meal.

If you are considering Turkey this year – here are some facts that few people know about this game hen.

The pros

Turkey is a rich source of protein.
Skinless turkey is low in fat. White meat is lower in kilojoules and has less fat than the dark meat. A typical turkey consists of 70% white meat and 30% dark meat.
Turkey meat is a source of iron, zinc, potassium and phosphorus.
It is also a source of vitamin B6 and niacin, which are both essential for the body’s energy production.

The cons

Turkey can be high in sodium.
Turkey skin is high in fat.

Turkey tips

If you can, buy organic. Turkeys raised organically will have been treated humanely and are less likely to contain pesticides and herbicides.
A turkey roast is cooked properly when it is piping hot all the way through.
Turkey dries out quickly, so don’t overcook it.
If marinating turkey meat, put it in the fridge straight after you’ve finished, as it is highly sensitive to heat.
Store turkey separate from any gravy, stuffing or raw food.
Refrigerated turkey will keep for about one or two days. If it is already cooked, it will keep for about four days.

Before you indulge in a rich meal this festive season, do yourself a favour and have a glass of water about 10 minutes before you eat. It will help you eat less and reduce your chances of over-indulging on richer foods that may have you wishing your eye hadn’t been bigger than your stomach!

Employee Appreciation Tips

At the end of the year, there is often a heightened expectation to show appreciation to one’s staff. Whether they help you out around the house or run your company, most of us have people who work for us and feel a desire to show them appreciation!

Whilst paying out bonuses is a common way to do this, not all employers can afford to pay out bonuses and may feel stumped as to how to motivate their team and show them the love they so very much want to.

Here are some tried and tested ways to appreciate your staff without needing to necessarily up your overdraft.

SURPRISE BREAKFAST Without warning, when they arrive at work – take your team out for the morning to have a lavish breakfast on your dime. Depending on your budget, you could choose anything from the local Woolies cafe through to a wine estate or fine dining establishment nearby.

Breakfasts are a great way to treat your staff but they are also a space where you can have some quality personal conversations and find out how their families are doing – and talk about non-work topics that you never really get to do in the rush of the day.

EXTRA TIME OFF As you near the last days of work, you can let your staff leave at lunch time. This way, you are still able to keep your doors open until the most opportune moment, but your staff are able to start entering the holiday spirit, maybe run some errands before their leave, so that they can rest and relax during their time off and return to work energised and creatively ready to tackle the new year!

Giving them half-days will most likely have very little impact on your bottom line, but it will have a big impact on your team in terms of feeling appreciated!

ONLINE APPRECIATION Take a look through some online flower/gift delivery websites, and have some surprise gifts delivered to the office. The novelty of having something delivered at work, that is for you, from your boss – has huge appreciation value!

Whatever you do, let your team know that they matter… and that you care!

Road Trip Bliss

For most South Africans, December will include a road-trip of sorts. Whether it’s an hour or two up the coast, or 15 hours across the middle… we live in a country that is too beautiful not to explore in our time off.

So how can you use your hours on the road to your advantage?

Watch your posture Did you know that sitting in a car naturally makes you moody? Joint research from Harvard and Columbia found that low-power poses, like sitting down with your arms crossed, lowers levels of testosterone, reduces your feeling of power, and increases your levels of the stress hormone cortisol compared to high-power poses like standing.

This is why it’s also good to roll your shoulders, sit up straight, and switch drivers (or stretch your legs) every couple of hours. You will be less cranky and way more conversational!

Hold hands (if driving with your partner…)
Even though you’re confined to your own seat, holding hands with your partner, or holding their leg whilst they drive, helps strengthen your bond, and releases neurochemicals that create a relaxed atmosphere. Touch can help break any barrier of tension or confusion, especially when you have to deal with stop-goes or changes enroute.

Be willing to take detours Beyond talking, sharing new experiences can bring you closer together. Luckily, road trips are ripe for novelty: Take the scenic route or stop at cheesy roadside attractions that you would normally include in your holiday. Not only will this keep the trip fun and exciting, but it’ll give you new things to talk about.

Disconnect for the ride We’ve become conditioned to turn to our phone when we’re bored, but one of the biggest blocks in conversation is electronics. Researchers speculate the gadget reminds us of the wider network we could be connecting with, keeping us from focusing on the people right next to us. Unless your kids are watching movies or playing games on devices in the back, try to keep everyone engaged with the journey and other travellers in the car. It also helps to keep the driver alert when people are engaging them in conversation.

Listen to new music New music stimulates the creative impulses in the brain, excites us and keeps us awake as our brain assimilates all of the new
information. It’s also a great opportunity to listen to the full album that you’ve been wanting to listen to, but can’t find the time to appreciate in full!

Have savoury and sweet snacks, and plenty of water
Make sure you have a variety of snacks as your body will move from needing sugars to needing salts and all the while needing to stay hydrated. These don’t only keep your appetite sated, but they help you stay awake and alert!

Also – if you get stuck in a traffic jam, your next food pitstop may turn from 1 hour away to several hours away. Have extra refreshments on hand – hungry, dehydrated travellers are cranky and difficult!

Lastly – never be in a rush. Even if you are running late, remind yourself to take it slow and carefully. You will get there eventually, and then a few hours won’t matter any more.

Christmas Gifts… Sorted

Every year it seems like Christmas gets closer and closer, and December seems to disappear without warning. Before we know it, it’s a few days before the big day and our gift cache is looking too meager for our liking.

So here is my solution: buy online through Takealot!

But not at the last minute… start browsing today! Every day, they post their daily deals that have an average of around 40% discount. But if you buy several gifts at once, you can score free delivery and make several other key savings too…

USE THE WISH LIST

If you’re not the impulsive type, and don’t want to buy on the spot – you can still save and make some excellent gift choices. Take a few days to browse, starting today, and then add the ideas you have to your online Takealot wish list. This is a super way to compare gift options and then increase your cart to avoid paying for delivery.

After you’ve taken the next few days to build up your wish list, check back in on Friday and check out your final choices. All things being equal, your delivery will arrive early the following week – without you having to go anywhere!

BUY FOR MORE THAN R250

If your cart total is higher than two-hundred and fifty rand, you will save yourself R65 or more on delivery. But – you will also save on not having to drive to the shops, spending an hour or more in the different stores and then having to pay for parking!

If you’re buying for several people, you’ll easily cap this amount and save yourself money and the time and stress of December fever.

CHECK DAILY DEALS… DAILY

Here’s the link: http://www.takealot.com/deals

Visit every day if you are a prolific bargain hunter! From coffee makers, cast iron cookware and binoculars, to fashion, sports, tech and toys – this page will certainly not disappoint. But remember, you have to buy on the day and ensure you spend over R250.

There are several other reputable online shopping options for South Africans, but I’ve found Takealot to have the quickest delivery time, which – in December – is crucial!

Characteristics of a canny investor – Part 2

Just because you don’t have an ultimate financial gambit to sell a business or inherit funds, it doesn’t mean you will never become wealthy. The important thing is to know yourself – in particular, your financial behaviour. Modeling your behaviour after successful investors is already a step in the right direction.

Let’s look at some more of the behavioural traits of an astute investor:

1. They get pleasure out of saving, not spending

Buying things releases endorphins, resulting in a ‘shopper’s high’. This can be a tough behaviour to reprogram due to the satisfaction that is hardwired into your brain, but it is possible. Using retail therapy to cheer yourself up is not healthy for your bank balance.

2. They understand the power of passive income

Smart investors weigh up the risk versus return. Dividends can be a good source of passive income, so can rental income. If you’re an employee and your company is going to put you out to pasture at 60 – what are you going to do for the next 30 or 40 years? More
importantly, how much money are you going to need to fund that?

3. They build their retirement savings from day one

In your 20s and 30s retirement seems so far into the future it is quite understandable that present financial pressures take precedence over retirement. You might feel that there is always time to catch up, and that might be true – but what if it isn’t? It is in those early working years that wealth habits become entrenched. Given time, investments compound and a small nest-egg can grow massively in 40 years.

Wealth is what is left after you have consumed your income. It takes a perseverant and prudent attitude to be a successful investor.

I’m here to help. Let’s look at securing your financial future.

Characteristics of a Canny Investor – Part 1

By making the most of your income and implementing some savvy financial thinking even an ordinary salary earner can grow an impressive portfolio of assets. Investment success is primarily due to behaviour – not luck. As you will probably know, one of the mature investment perspectives reminds us that it’s not so much about timing the markets as much as it’s about time in the markets.

Let’s look at some of the behavioural traits of a shrewd investor:

They don’t worry about keeping up appearances
Wealth is what is left after you have expended your income. There is no point in seeing yourself as a smart investor if you don’t leave yourself anything to invest with at the end of every month. If you worry what people will think about the car you drive or the house you live in perhaps you need to rethink your priorities.

They clearly define their investment objectives
Investment is not a one-trick pony; investments need to be sorted according to objective and managed accordingly. We all have different goals with different time horizons, but smart investors know that different timelines mean different asset allocations and tax implications.

They know the difference between a trend and a classic
We are all driven by either fear or greed to some proportion. If you are chasing better returns on a hot tip or folding out of fearsome unknowns, and find yourself making numerous fund switches in the year, you may need to take a step back and decide which of these factors are driving your investment decisions.

Is your portfolio diverse enough to ward off your fears and focused enough to reach your investment objectives on time? If not, let’s take a look and get you on the right track.

Don’t go crackers

For most of us, November started off with a bang! But unfortunately remembering the redemption from explosive chaos does little to help us manage our time, stress, skills and finances over November and December. It’s like we just go from one event to the next, our limited weekends disappearing under the demands of a myriad of social events – all costing us ‘a little here and a little there’.

Before we know it, we look at our bank balance and somehow our budget figures seem to be quite different to the reality – this can drive us crackers!

Here are some financial planning tips for the next 54 days…

Make a calendar with budgets: It’s easy to assume you’ll have enough money when you’re only spending a few hundred here, and a few hundred there. But when they all add up, you’ll find that what you thought would be a couple of hundred bucks, turns into a grand or two.
Itemise all the events you have to attend and put in an estimate cost for each one. It’s okay if you go over, this is simply to help you understand where your money will be going in the next 7 weeks so that you don’t have an unhappy surprise!
Keep & capture your slips: Keeping your slips will help you check how accurate your budget calendar has been and will enable you to make decisions about the next event as to how much you should or shouldn’t curtail your spending. Knowing where your money is going empowers you to not spin into a panic when it’s suddenly less than you thought. Also – if you have extra left over, you’re able to enjoy some more guilt-free luxuries over this festive period!
Use cash instead of cards: If you budget R300 to spend at an event, and you have it in your pocket in cash, you’re far less likely to overspend. But if you simply swipe your card… it’s way easier to add on and extra R50 without even ‘feeling’ it.

Part of having me as your financial advisor, is that I’m here to help you plan and manage how you earn, save and spend your financial resources. If you feel like you’re going crackers… just drop me an email and let’s hook up!

When it comes to the rand – local is lekker

Have you ever wondered what causes the rise and drop in commodity prices? While there are several factors at play, the most significant cause is the fluctuating value of a country’s currency.

We’ve seen this happen with our own rand in the past few months as our currency has tumbled and gained momentary reprieves, so has the price of certain commodities.

As things currently stand our currency is doing better than it was in January of this year, but with the ominous threat of ‘junk status’ around the corner we can’t be sure what the future holds – and the recent political instability poses some unknowns. However… if the political decisions move in a constructive democratic direction, our Rand will strengthen.

So what causes a currency’s value to fluctuate?

There are quite a few factors at play. These are just a few of them:

Trade balance is one of the main factors. The trade balance helps to understand the strength of a country’s economy in relation to other countries. This is based on the calculation of a country’s exports minus its imports. When a country’s imports exceed its exports, the subsequent negative number is called a trade deficit. When the opposite happens, a country has a trade surplus.
Another factor is the political climate of a country. Political stability, especially in emerging economies is very important. But not just in emerging economies – look at what happened in the UK in the wake of Brexit. A political decision to leave the EU ended up having huge ramifications on the pound.
Inflation also plays a part. If your inflation rate is very high, then the value of your currency is going to be eroded. South Africa’s inflation rate is relatively high compared to the US.

Countries like South Africa operate a flexible exchange rate system, which means the value of the rand is determined by the market forces of supply and demand. In some other countries, like the United Arab Emirates, they have fixed exchange rates. Such countries, mainly oil-producing countries and ones with small populations, have very stable and predictable economies.

The strength or weakness of a currency always reflects on the prices of goods.

If commodities are imported for manufacturing processes, then the cost of finished products will be significantly higher in a country with a weaker currency. However, if the country is producing more raw materials and goods locally, there’s a better chance of keeping prices stable and inflation low.

The moral of the story from this blog…? Local is lekker!

A woman’s will

Happy Women’s Day for tomorrow!

In celebration of Women’s Month I wanted to share an article that focuses specifically on a financial planning aspect that is often overlooked for women. Recently, the Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa (Fisa) discussed some important financial planning considerations for women that highlighted the need for an up-to-date will.

It is estimated that at least half of the estates reported at the Master’s Office each year are of people who died intestate (without a will). This is largely due to the fact that South Africans often don’t see the need to draft a will, especially when they are relatively young or don’t have a significant asset base.

It is important to note that men and women living together are not automatically treated as ‘married’ under the law in case of intestacy. Couples who live together without getting married often assume that the law treats them as married, this is not necessarily the case.

The bottom line? You need your own will and have to understand the implications of your partner’s estate planning.

Fisa often finds that where a woman does not have a lot of assets, or leads a busy life, proper estate planning is neglected. Where estate planning is done, it is important to not only consider current circumstances, but to plan for the future.

The Intestate Succession Act applies to every South African who dies without a will and stipulates that the estate should be divided according to a specific formula. If the person was involved in a relationship other than marriage, the type of relationship will determine whether the partner will be allowed to inherit.

In terms of the Act partners need to be regarded as a “spouse” in order to inherit in the case of intestacy, but the term is not defined in the Act. As a result, other legislation and court cases have to be consulted for an explanation.

Historically, a marriage entered into in terms of the Marriage Act was the only recognised spousal relationship, but with the introduction of the Constitution, the legal system acknowledged that people in other types of relationships were entitled to protection.

Williams says as a start, legislation was passed in the form of the Customary Law of Succession Act and parties to traditional marriages under black customary law are now regarded as spouses when dealing with an intestate estate.

Court cases have also extended the definition of a spouse in this context to include monogamous Muslim and Hindu marriages and polygamous Muslim marriages.

In terms of a Constitutional court ruling, same-sex partners are also regarded as spouses for purposes of intestate succession.

The law allows parties to have a joint will, but Fisa usually advises against it. There have been isolated instances where the surviving spouse dies and the Master’s Office battles to trace the original will that also applies to the surviving spouse.

It is crucial for partners in a relationship to ensure that they draft wills to protect one another.

If you would like some advice on how to go about setting up your will, I’d be happy to advise you on this.

* This content was sponsored by the Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa.

Source: moneyweb

The power of positivity and a good plan

Have you ever told yourself, “When I have more money, I’ll be happier”? How about, “I’ll never be able to pay off this debt”? These sort of toxic money thoughts are holding you back from financial success – and happiness! A good financial plan needs to be attainable and measurable, those expressions are neither.

The first step to a financial plan is both the hardest and the easiest – it’s the starting point. The point where you measure how deep you are so that you can calculate what you need to do to get where you want to be. Measuring your budget is usually a huge relief for most people, your finances are no longer a mystical figure floating in the ether, you have defined an attainable and measurable goal.

You need to rescript your brain into thinking positive and actionable thoughts. Here are some tips to help you along your way:

Get good advice
Getting good advice and being reminded that what we want to achieve IS attainable does wonders for an attitude of success. However, you will also need to keep your end-goal in mind.

A good way to do this is to pick out a positive phrase that acts as a sort of rule-of-thumb. For example, “Is this [potential purchase] better than a family vacation / new car / bigger apartment?”

Don’t Rush
One study showed that the farther away a goal seems, and the less sure we are about when it will happen, the more likely we are to give up. Consistency is key.

Use numbers and dates to measure WHEN you want to achieve your goals by. And work out some smaller, short-term goals along the way that will reap quicker results. Paying off debts or saving a certain amount, for example, can leave you with a great feeling of pride and accomplishment. This increases the likelihood of you keeping up your good financial habits.

Dig in your heels
Not next week. Not when you get a raise. Not next year. Get started today – and don’t let up!

Need some good advice? That’s why I’m here. Let’s get in touch!