Hello,

I would appreciate some advice and analysis on my current investment strategy.
I'm 43 years old and, after all my expenses, I have approximately R40,000 per month available to save and invest.

My current position is:
I contribute R11,500 per month to a Sygnia Skeleton 70 Retirement Annuity (RA).
My TFSA is fully maxed each year and is invested in the Satrix MSCI World ETF.
I have a home loan, and for the past couple of years I've directed most of my surplus cash towards paying it down. I've managed to pay off roughly 50% of the bond in less than two years.
I currently have around R80,000 invested in the MSCI World ETF and about R10,000 invested in the Satrix Nasdaq 100 ETF.
I also have approximately R10,000 in EasyEquities, where I've been investing in a few individual AI-related stocks, some of which have performed very well.
I do not maintain a separate emergency fund or savings account, as I treat the surplus funds available in my flexi home loan as my emergency reserve.

One of the reasons I've prioritised paying down my bond is that I'm somewhat concerned about the potential impact of AI on my future employment and earning capacity.

After reading the Wiki, I can see that increasing my RA contribution may be worth considering, and I plan to look into that.

My main questions are:
Is it reasonable for my TFSA to remain fully invested in the Satrix MSCI World ETF?
Going forward, what would be a sensible allocation of my monthly surplus between:
Additional bond repayments, and Investing in equities?

If I do increase my equity investments, should I continue focusing on MSCI World, or would it make more sense to allocate more towards the Top 40, Nasdaq 100 or something else?
Given my age, current investments, and concern about AI-related career risk, does my overall strategy seem balanced, or am I being too conservative by prioritising the bond?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi, looking for some advice on investment options. I have some money that has been sitting in $’s in my FNB global account. Anyone aware of investment options internationally on the FNB platform using this Global fund as source. Obviously want to avoid exchanging back to rands and then re investing. Open to suggestions.

Hi all,

I will be a first-time home seller in ZA the home will be sold as part of my mother's estate.

I would like any advice, tips and resources to put myself in as much of an educated position as possible.

I am especially looking for advice on tactics lawyers and real estate agents use to maximise their profits or to otherwise dupe novice sellers. Basically I want to avoid falling victim to any skullduggery.

TIA

My parents are entrepreneurs who are very good at making money in business, but don't know much about investing and fees. An acquaintance of theirs introduced them to a pair of local financial advisors, and they have proposed that my parents invest R10 million into an endowment policy with Ninety One through them.

The fund managers fee is 2.01% pa, and the advice fees are 0.5%. Although the quote from NinetyOne had total annual fees of 3.45%. Not sure why there's a discrepancy.

I don't think the financial advisors are bad people, but I know they are licking their lips right now. They rely on people's ignorance surrounding investing.

So my question is: does this sub's rules change for ultra high net worth people? I know the whole shtick about maximising your TFSA with easy equities, but 46k pa is chump change for them - they are sitting on a mountain of cash. This endowment policy is also appealing to them due to the fact that it is tax efficient for a trust.

Am I worrying for nothing? Obviously this wouldn't drastically alter their retirement plans, but I still want them to get a good deal. What would your advice for ultra high net worth people be? Are there alternatives for them to look at? Could you guys give me some numbers to ponder on and pass on to them? (in terms of how much they will lose out on over time).

Capitec credit card offers 1% cash back on all your spend.  What other good options are there to switch to?

Hi All,

I'm in the process of immigrating.

I'll be selling my car this month & expecting an income of R300-R350k for it.

What will the tax implications be? My wife has no income so pays no tax. I thought maybe would be best the money goes into her account to minimize the tax rate?

Plus a moving allowance of R250k. Which has to come into my account.

Any advise is appreciated 👍

Hey Everyone,

A few years back (2022 tax year) I changed jobs. Somewhere between, my taxes weren't filed properly and my 2022 tax return wasn't filed at all.

I wound up with a R250 penalty, but I had no idea what was happening and where the problem was so I requested and filed a return. But it wasn't for right year, and the penalty kept going up. I tried on various occasions to dispute, but since I honestly didn't know what I was doing with the e-filing, I essentially made zero progress in trying to dispute the penalty.

I am completely compliant and the 2022 return has been filed. I don't owe any taxes.

It reached a point of R9000 and they handed me over to debt collectors. And in April 2026, SARS basically drained my account of the R9000.

I finally reached out to an auditor who has been trying to assist pro-bono, but they sent me a mail the other day stating:

- Please be advised that we have tried to waiver the admin penalties but it was declined by SARS, the reason they keep on declining the matter is because the debt was settled! It relates to the 2022 tax year assessment penalties and three (3) years have lapsed.

I don't know what to do next. I've reached out to the auditor, but since they're assisting me at no cost, they aren't giving me more feedback.

Is my R9k lost? Do I still stand any chance? Does anyone have any suggestions, or experienced anything similar?

Thanks in advance guys!

Hi everyone,

I've taken the decision to withdraw from my savings pot and want to know if anyone has withdrawn from Liberty.

I'm in debt and would like to use the money to settle these debts in order for me to restart my life. I know I won't get the full R30k but I believe it will be sufficient to cover the immediate debts I have.

I know it says 5 - 20 business days and I guess I'm being impatient, but what's the realistic turnaround time that you've experienced?

Hello lovely people of PFZA! I hope you’re all doing swell this Sunday evening or whenever you see this. I was scrolling instagram and I saw an ad from Fynbos. They seem to advertise that they make everything simple and I have someone in my life who wants to get into TFSA and retirement savings.

The site makes it sound like they make everything so simple for you which is great but advertising and reality are two different things, I’m sure we can all agree.

Anyone here have any experience with them? Link for those who are not in the know:
https://fynbos.money

Last night I got a job as Process Engineer at mine in north west. My starting base salary will be R150 000 per month which represents a increase of almost R100 000 per month. I currently also have about R287 000 in my savings accounts I was thinking of saving R60 000 per month so I can start maybe a pharmacy or whatever logical business that comes to me. My monthly expenses will be really low as the job comes with accommodation, meals ,phone ,laptop and a company vehicle .So I was wondering how I could go about investing my money in smart way into a practical business that can generate good passive income and also how does one go about acquiring business loan if needed.

I am moving my family to Sygnia and favour Sygnia's own funds, because I looked into their Family Group offering, which would cut the Sygnia administration fee to 0% per annum for us. That seems like a big win.

Focusing on the living annuity specifically: it is currently in a Reg 28 fund.

I am thinking of:
25% Sygnia Itrix S&P 500 ETF as the growth edge
75% Sygnia Skeleton Worldwide Flexible Fund as the more stable core

The Skeleton Worldwide fund seems to be less volatile and to recover quicker in downturns, but I am open to alternatives.

I have also considered holding 5% to 10% in cash or bonds as a one-year buffer during downturns, but it seems unnecessary. Possibly you can instruct Sygnia which fund in your Living annuity to withdraw from.

The annuity drawdown started at 5.17% in 2024 and now sits at 4.59%. Depending on market performance, I aim to reduce the drawdown by 0.2% to 0.3% each year, with the goal of getting it below 4%, and then reducing it at a slower pace afterwards, perhaps 0.1% per year. So far this has worked well, with the monthly payout increasing by roughly R1.5k to R3k each year.

Any thoughts on my Game plan?

My Luno account was emptied without any warning or notification, and I’m trying to understand how this could have happened.

I made my last deposit on 6 January. Then, on 7 February, all of my Bitcoin was transferred out of my account. I received no email, SMS, or push notification, and none of Luno’s security features were triggered.

I actually hadn’t logged into my Luno account for quite some time because Bitcoin had dropped significantly, so I just left it alone. Then yesterday, I logged in and noticed my Bitcoin wallet showed a balance of R0. At first, I thought it was a display error, but after investigating further, I saw that all of my Bitcoin had been withdrawn back in February.

I checked my email thoroughly for any login alerts, withdrawal confirmations, password reset requests, or security notifications, but there was absolutely nothing.

What makes this even stranger is:

• I never lost access to my account
• None of my devices appear to have been compromised
• I can still access my account normally
• There were no login alerts or withdrawal confirmations
• No security checks or authentication prompts were triggered

From my side, it looks like the withdrawal happened without any visible authentication challenge or notification. At this point, my main concern is whether there could have been some form of compromise on Luno’s side, because I cannot explain how funds could be withdrawn without triggering any security measures.

Has anyone else experienced something similar or know what actions I should take? I’ve already reached out to Luno support, but so far I’ve only received the usual responses asking me to check whether the issue could have been on my side.

Hi everyone, I’m interested in learning from local business owners. For those who have started or grown a business in South Africa, how did you secure funding in the early stages?

I’m not looking for funding, just insights into what worked for you (savings, loans, investors, grants, etc.) and any lessons you learned along the way.

Would really appreciate any advice or experiences you’re willing to share.

I have $21,000 (R340k) in my South African wise account (in US dollars) which I have received over the last few years from overseas. The money has been sitting there without generating any interest, so I would like to somehow invest it directly from wise into an S&P500 index fund without being liable to pay taxes, and without having large fees of some sort. I don't want to transfer it to a normal South African bank account, so I'm thinking of sending it to an account on interactive brokers, any thoughts? And what are the chances that I'll be required to pay taxes on that money? Also I don't plan on needing to use that money for at least the next 10 years

Hey investors. As the title suggests - I'd like some help in deciding which stock brokerage to use for my lifetime share portfolio.

TL;DR - Should I use RMB if I intend to live in South Africa for my lifetime, due to less SARS headache; ZAR denominated account; and Dividend Tax Recovery service they offer. Or, should I use IBKR due to their insane flexibility; global prestige; insane amount of options; and lower fees? But then have the SARS headache and have to deal with governments to recover my dividend tax myself.

Full context below:

Currently, I bank with RMB, have TFSA set up as global unit trust option and max it out at 46K per year (36k historically), and I would like to begin investing in actual shares.

I'll start off with JSE shares because the "minimum" order with RMB to offset the minimum brokerage fee is R80 / 0.005 = R 16,000. Meaning: for the "minimum" to no longer kick in and the 0.5% brokerage fee to be exactly 0.5%, the order should be R 16 K or above... Cool...

For international shares it's significantly higher, roughly 70K per order because the minimum is 15 EUR / USD. Which is fine - when I'm large enough I'm completely ok with this.

I wish to invest in dividend yielding shares which will eventually replace my income entirely. Reinvest half the dividends and enjoy the other half. I know that this is sub-optimal, and I'm okay with this. I want to feel it scale. This will massively drive consistency, rather than living "frugally" and watching a CAGR my whole life which I can't touch until I'm old... I'd rather have slower growth in exchange for the constant reward.

I mentioned this specifically because it makes my use case a little different from usual investors, who may be more into capital gains or care less about dividends. RMB offers a Global Tax Recovery service whereby any international dividend that's been overtaxed, they recover the difference for you as a managed service. Which is an amazing value-add.

However, RMB charges 0.2% brokerage fee on the full portfolio per annum, whereas IBKR do not charge this at all. Which makes them extremely attractive again, but then FX; SARS and global tax headaches become my own to manage again.

So now to my question: Does it make sense for me to stay within the RMB ecosystem, use their local shares and global shares platforms and enjoy the global tax recovery, but pay 0.2% brokerage fee + the tax recovery commission.

Or should I bite the bullet and use IBKR which has little-to-no cost in comparison, but could be significantly more admin intensive when my portfolio becomes truly globally diversified across Europe, Asia, USA and JSE.

IBKR also has more options, like 'options' themselves, covered calls etc. And other instruments and even markets which RMB don't offer, which adds a little weight back onto their side.

I just love the idea of RMB being my one-stop investment machine. But IBKR looks like an incredibly powerful platform and I don't want to choose the wrong thing and then have regrets later. Even if that means regretting choosing IBKR because of the administrative nightmare I could face down the line.

Anyone with experience in this able to help me decide? Sorry for the wall of text...

I put in a R1.8m+R0.5m deposit offer on a 4-bed house currently under executorship. I believe that's the legal term they use when an owner dies. The husband died a few years ago from what I gather. Since then the wife seems to have been struggling to maintain the place. Eskom and water were both disconnected. They made a plan to install a solar setup and a borehole. The pool is not working, the drug addict daugther apparently sold the pump. The house itself is in good shape. I did not see any cracks or sagging ceiling boards. But I did add an inspection as a suspensive condition. The area is also great. I like it. Good gated community. It was listed at R1.9m which is significantly less than the average price of a similar sized house in that area. A 4 bed house in that place sells for at least R2.1m. I even asked the Agent if there is a major issue as the price sounded too good to be true. She told me nothing is wrong, it's just a distress sale. I went to have a second viewing and everything looks good. As I was about to sign, that's when she disclosed the rates issue and requested to use part of my deposit to pay the oustanding municipal and eskom accounts. I told her I would think about it and signed the offer anyway. After some thinking, I realised that the deposit arrangement would put my  money at a huge risk if anything goes wrong in the sale. The owner, the surviving wife, is 80yrs old. If she were to drop dead, I'd be stuck. I would never get my money back.  Anyway, to cut the long story short, has anyone here come across a similar situation. Should I be worried. Can I trust this agent and their conveyancer?  I asked her how much is owed but she did not disclosed. I presumed it's because my offer had not been accepted yet.

Edit:

Thanks all. I hope this helps other prospective buyers avoid some of the pitfalls of property buying

Hi, first time posting here.

A bit of background: in my early 20s I had around R700k invested, but bad financial decisions and impulsive spending wiped it out completely.

I’m now 31, earning R38k per month, and trying to rebuild properly. I currently invest R3k/month split between:

Tax-free investment account

Index fund

Rainy day fund in an Allan Gray balanced fund

I bought a house 2 years ago at what I thought was a good price, but I massively underestimated the actual cost of owning a large property.

My monthly costs are roughly:

Bond: R11k (I pay R14k)

Rates/taxes + electricity: ~R6k

Insurance: ~R1.2k

So housing alone costs me about R21.2k/month before general living expenses, fuel, insurance, DIY repairs, etc. Most of the rest of my salary has been disappearing into maintaining the house.

I’m considering relocating back to my hometown, but decent medium-sized houses there are around R1.7m, which doesn’t seem affordable for me right now.

Current financial position:

Investments: ~R10k

Interest-free debt: R280k

I’m trying to figure out the smartest move financially:

Rent out my current house and rent/buy in the new town

Sell the house and buy another one

Sell the house and rent a flat for a few years while rebuilding financially

Would appreciate any advice from people who’ve been in a similar situation.

Hi guys
I’m a 24 year old earning a net of R53k a month with saving around 40-50% of my salary.
Been working for 1.5 years now and built up my rainy day savings to R300k which is needed due to the job insecurity in my field which I may be facing soonish.

My car is fully paid off.
I have started to max out my TFSA as of this financial year.
I don’t own property to my name currently and aiming to buy one in the next 2 years hence building a good deposit before starting to invest in a RA.

Just wanted advice on how better to maximise my finances?
Any advice or tips?
Appreciated thanks

Hi guys I will be starting my TFSA with easy equities.

I have the full lumpsum of 46K to max out for the year.

As per numerous post and suggestions/reccomendations in this sub Reddit, I will be placing 100% into 10X world stock feeder ETF.

I just want to make sure it's the one in the image for R18.43?

Secondly I read somewhere that depositing the full amount and maxing out your TFSA makes you exempt from the thrive fee is this correct?

Where can I access this information, and fee structures?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well

I am currently maxing out my TFSA all into the 10X Total World but I want to start investing into my ZAR account too.

I am 21 years old and have an extra R7000 a month I can deploy into this account. My current mindset for this account is deploying as much as possible with the possibility of taking some of it out in +-5 years for a deposit on a house. I would like to keep this account going forever and use it as my snowball/growth account where it becomes my biggest account because of the contributions.

I have recieved some advice saying do a 60/25/15 split between the Satrix top 40, Satrix S&P500 and Satrix Nasdaq 100.

Im not too sure about this portfolio and would love some feedback based on my situation/goals.

Thanks !

Hi, I am new to property investment as in I want to start. I have abit of disposable income (R20K) every month and want to invest it. I like the idea of property as having a tangible asset and would like to utilize the rental income and manage it as a job when I'm close to retirement. I'm 30 btw. Anyway has anyone invested with IGROW to buy property? I understand the fees can be a lot and can eat into the profit after the break even but it seems like an easier way to get into... Not having to do all the admin and managing tenants. Any advice is much appreciated

Has anyone here used Nedbank Insurance for car insurance?

I’m a Nedbank client and they’ve given me a surprisingly competitive quote for car. I’m a first-time insured driver so most of my quotes have been quite high.

I’d really appreciate hearing people’s actual experiences with:
• claims
• customer service
• payouts
• reliability
• whether you’d recommend them or not

Thank you! 😊

I have USD denominated investments with Nedgroup Investments in the Isle of Man, and I simply cannot get any tax certificates for SARS from their Service desk or via the local SA Nedgroup service desk. The specific fund is the "Nedgroup Investments Core Global Fund" which is a accumulation fund.

The Isle of Man service desk states they do not issue tax certificates, while the SA Nedgroup Service Desk claims they don't have access to offshore investments and simply refer me back to the offshore team. Furthermore, the Nedgroup South Africa Tax Tools on their website show no tax certificates are available for me.

Has anyone dealt with such an issue? Any ideas where to turn to, to get the tax certificates from Nedgroup?  Had similar investments accumulation fund investments at Coronation and only paid tax when I withdrawn the funds and they provided all the tax certificates online without an issue.

For context, my investment ("Nedgroup Investments Core Global Fund") is a accumulation fund, so I am not entirely sure if I need to pay annual tax, but I know for sure that switches and withdrawals will trigger a taxable event.

I am honestly getting quite desperate here—if anyone has any advice or a workaround, please help!