Newsletters

The last 3 years have been very telling. We have had to deal with Covid that changed the dynamics of the world, the Ukraine War in early 2022 and China’s extensive disruption to the supply chains, with its zero tolerance to Covid. 2022 was a difficult year, with inflation problems rearing its head around the […]

Beginning of an Era In May this year we launched the Pinto Russell Index Note on the Capital International platform. This is an exclusive ‘unit trust’, only accessible by Pinto Russell clients. So far, it has performed well, averaging 15% p.a. over the last 3 months. The PR index Note has a range of 12 […]

My father used to say, “too much love is not a good thing”. In other words, too much giving spoils the one you love and can make the relationship sour. When I was at university, I had a part time job at Hertz Rent a car which allowed me to save a little towards a […]

Current times, calls for investors to not panic but to be very shrewd. We have seen quite a lot of phenomenal events and changes from 2020 to 2022. From a new pandemic that forced economies to close around the world, to war declared on Ukraine by Russia, which of late has created massive uncertainty. The […]

South Africa Quo Vadis? We have just witnessed a failed insurrection which is now hopefully at an end, and Ramaphosa remains as President. From various news reports, it appears that there are wealthy and powerful people who need Zuma back in power, to derail possible investigations against themselves. They appear to have failed. In spite […]

The Big Picture Over the last few years, governments around the world have continued to lower interest rates by doing quantitative easing (QE). This has been done with a view of stimulating economies and avoiding stock market crashes. Their ideas have been based on classical economics – that the consumer has unlimited wants. The theory […]

SA Positive in Covid 19 Times I have always said that South Africa has the luck of the devil! For example, Nelson Mandela was not always the person we got to know. In the 80’s he was a staunch communist who promised to nationalise all the companies on the JSE, when he came to power. […]

As far as I understand, from various media reports, the Corona Virus has similar symptoms as flu but more aggressive and a vaccine is yet to be formulated. The media have done an incredible amount of damage by reporting in such a way that the panic stricken public and authorities are incredibly fearful, which has […]

We live in a new investment era where interest rates are very low, in some cases even negative. In spite of very low interest rates inflation remains low, and again, in some countries we have negative inflation, i.e. deflation. Assets are expensive and therefore their yields are low. Last month, we saw the Feds do […]

The markets are quite volatile and it may be advisable to redeem certain investments which have done well. We had one client who queried his Capital Gain of R240 000, even though his entire investment value was R272 000! How could that be?  Well, in 2004 he invested R32 000 and nothing further since, so over […]

One of the big differentiators between us and animals is the ability to use money. Money allows us to specialise at doing something, for example, a doorman at a hotel, an actor, a politician, a policeman. You can do a particular job, get paid for it and with that money, pay for shelter, food, transport, […]

With so many unexpected events both here and abroad, life has become unpredictable of late. Some people are worried if we will see a stock market crash this year and although nobody I know has a genuine crystal ball, we can be sure that history does repeat itself, however, often with a twist. Sarasin’s of […]

As you may have read in the press or heard on the radio, everyone is abuzz with the news that government has created a new savings scheme which will incentivise individuals through tax exemptions. It is supposed to encourage a savings culture in South Africa. Is it worth the hassle? It is a small scheme, […]

Of late I have had some clients concerned that this year we will see a correction or a crash in the world stock markets. It is impossible to predict the future. History does repeat itself – but often with a twist. Sarasin of London, citing Robert Schiller and Bloomberg, presented the following: The duration of […]

The problem with common sense in the investment world is that it is not so common. Common sense tells us that one should buy low and sell high. However, we often see investors buy high and sell low. The main cause of this is too much emotion and no real financial planning to have faith […]

In the past, life was more certain. In the old days pensions were a certain percentage of your final salary, based on the years of service. Careers were more certain, there was not so much chopping and changing as there is today. In the old days there weren’t the wonder drugs and medicines. So many […]