Considering the importance of money, it’s surprising that children receive little formal education about this critical commodity. We give our kids extra lessons to ensure they perform well academically, additional coaching to keep them in the team and technology to access the world. Parents are the number-one influence on their children’s financial behaviour, so it’s up to us to raise a generation of mindful consumers, investors, savers and givers. “According to a research report from the University of Cambridge, kids’ money habits are formed by age seven,” Craig Torr, a director of Cape Town-based financial planning company Crue Invest, says. A father of three boys, Torr outlines some of the tools he has used to get his kids on the money-savvy highway. “From a young age, money, saving and investments have been part of our family conversations; nothing complicated to start, but covering the basics,” Torr says. Here are Torr’s 10 tips for teaching your children smart financial habits: 1. Pocket money: from as early as possible, give your children age-appropriate pocket money so they can develop a sense of responsibility and custodianship. 2. Giving: encourage your kids to give. It helps them to understand their privilege, and develops a sense of duty towards those less fortunate. 3. Online saving: open an online savings account for your children and spend time with them once a month tracking the effects of compound interest. As your children grow, you could consider online trading or virtual online trading games 4. Delayed gratification: practise delayed gratification in real-life situations, teaching consideration and self-control when making financial decisions. Even if your children intend to spend their own pocket money, there is value in allowing them to “window-shop” for a few days before making a final purchasing decision. 5. Family finances: involving children in family budgeting decisions is an excellent way of getting them to understand the value of money. High-cost purchases such as holidays, new cars and appliances should be discussed with your children so that they learn to appreciate how much these things cost and how hard you must work to afford them. 6. Borrowing: it is important to allow your children to borrow money from you so that they know what it feels like to be in debt. Ideally, charge them a nominal interest rate on their loan so that they can experience the dread of watching their debt grow over time. 7. Budgeting: give your children a budget and a shopping list, and let them do the grocery shop themselves. 8. Earning: allow your children to experience the wonder of being able to earn extra money. Household chores and entrepreneurial ventures are also a good exercise in self-empowerment. 9. Tough love: as your children get older and become more responsible for their own money, resist the temptation to bail them out when they make financial mistakes. Practice tough love to teach them how to manage money responsibly. 10. Read: encourage your children to read articles and books about personal finance. Source: Business Live When times are tough, we understand that people try to save money wherever they can. But never compromise on quality insurance of your most prized possessions. At Santam, we feel there are always ways to structure your policy to suit your pocket so you’re properly covered and we can pay your claim. Let’s look at ways to do this. How to afford quality insurance First of all, do a quick run-through of your lifestyle, profile and assets. These are the factors that determine how much you are charged every month. Things change all the time – for example, you may have installed extra security measures around your home and not told us, or you’ve changed jobs and your car is now parked in an underground garage instead of outdoors. Perhaps your student daughter now has a job and no longer lives in a high-risk city area. Just by updating your profile, you may find that your premium decreases or that you risk profile has changed. Saving on car insurance premiums Consider Third Party Only car insurance: This is the minimum amount of cover you can give your vehicle, making it the cheapest there is. Raise your excess payment: The greater your excess is, the lower your premium. During the quotation process, you will be asked to select the amount of voluntary excess you will be prepared to pay in the event of a claim. Although there is a compulsory excess amount, you can always choose to increase this. This would mean paying more out of your pocket, so make sure you can afford the higher excess amount. Pay for smaller damages yourself: If you are able to keep a rainy-day fund for smaller nicks and dents, you will manage to stay claim-free for longer and get a big reduction on your premium. Make sure the correct person is noted as the regular driver: Your risk factor is determined by the person who most often drives the car, so be sure to keep this information updated. Install additional security features: Although we know this means spending more money, drivers who install tracking systems in their vehicles could benefit from a lower premium. Vehicle tracking technology could also impact your risk profile, as it will be easier to recover your car in case of a theft or hijacking. How to reduce home insurance payments Increase your excess payment: The greater your excess is, the lower your premium. During the quotation process, you will be asked to select the excess you will be prepared to pay in the event of a claim. Although there is a compulsory excess amount, you can always choose to increase this. This would mean paying more out of your pocket, so make sure you can afford the higher excess amount. Pay for smaller damages yourself: If you are able to keep a rainy-day fund for smaller repairs, you will manage to stay claim-free for longer and reduce your premium. Upgrade security features: Installing a home security system or upgrading your existing security measures can decrease insurance premiums – plus ensure that you are safer. Also join a neighbourhood or block watch, as some insurers will offer reduced rates to homeowners who belong to these types of organisations. Tip: Combine your car, home and building insurance to reduce your insurance premium. To get a quote and cover that will be sufficient for you please contact Sandy in our Short – Term Department, email shortterm@daberistic.com , tel (011)658-1333 Source: Santam It’s tempting to want to splurge on over-the-counter vitamins and supplements or some other lifestyle item when medical aid benefits, limits and savings accounts get renewed come 1 January each year, especially after the costly festive season spending. GTC’s Head of Healthcare Consulting, Jill Larkan, cautions however that members should spend medical aid savings prudently and use benefits wisely, particularly in the early part of the New Year. “The governing body of this sector - the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) - recently released commentary urging members to make medical aid benefits last longer,” says Larkan. “We completely concur with the CMS. Spending sensibly from the outset helps to extend the availability of funds later in the year, while ensuring you are able to retain a positive balance in your savings account for as long as possible.” The acting Chief Executive and Registrar at the CMS, Mr Daniel Lehutjo, said in his statement that “members should resist the urge to spend all their benefits in the first couple of months” and “not to use your benefits to buy sunglasses, multivitamins or other lifestyle items over the counter.” All South African medical aids run financial years concurrent with the calendar year. This means that all the benefits (with the exception of oncology), limits and savings accounts are “renewed” on 1 January each year. When the New Year comes around a bulk lump sum of money is allocated to every member’s medical aid savings accounts and this sum is the accumulation of the next twelve, savings allocation portions, of the monthly premiums. “The lump sum of advanced annual savings needs to last until the end of December, and any non-essential items purchased now may unnecessarily increase any self-payment gaps which may require attention later in the year, once your savings are exhausted,” continues Larkan. Some additional tips from Larkan and the CMS which would help to extend members’ medical aid savings include: • Check if your medical aid has a formulary list of medications and if they do have one, request that your doctor, as far as possible, only dispenses listed medicines. A formulary is a list of prescribed medications – both generic and branded, for which your medical aid scheme will pay. The formulary helps to guide you to the most cost-effective medications that are effective for treating a particular condition. • If your scheme offers preventative screening tests, paid for by the scheme, get a list of these, and have as many done as possible, ensuring that any potential health issues are detected and addressed as early as possible. • If you take chronic medication, check that you are registered as a chronic medication member with your scheme, ensuring that as much of your monthly costs as possible are covered, by your scheme. If there is a Chronic Management program for your ailment, register for this and follow the program to improve, monitor and maintain your health. • Ensure that you know whether there is a designated service provider stipulated by your medical aid which you are required to use for various medical procedures. These service providers may include pharmacies, hospitals, doctors, specialists and even optometrist networks. Ensuring the designated service providers are used will help to curb additional expenses which service providers not in the network/s may be charging. • Obtain procedure codes and confirm authorisation and cover levels provided by your scheme. Understand what your portion of payment will be. Discuss these rates/tariffs with your doctor and negotiate these wherever possible. “By incorporating as many of these strategies as possible, members will be well on their way to maximising valuable medical aid savings. Professional advice from experienced medical aid consultants and advisors should be sought – whether through one’s employer or in a personal capacity – to ensure the retention of as much of your savings as possible,” Larkan concludes. To find out more on what your savings are from our different medical scheme providers please contact Namhla or Judy in our Health and Wellness Department, email health@daberistic.com, tel (011)658-1333 Source: FANews Over the years Discovery has gathered an in-depth understanding of the evolving risks against which their policyholders need protection.The complexity of the healthcare environment and continuous advances in medical technology mean that new treatments are continuously becoming available. In line with these trends, Discovery has enhanced their Severe Illness Benefit and re-engineered their multiple claims facility to offer broader and more relevant coverage. The LifeTime Severe Illness Benefit Discovery’s LifeTime Severe Illness Benefit provides clients with a minimum payment of 100% of their insured amount for all SCIDEP conditions. This benefit will pay up to 215% of the sum assured, based on the long-term impact of the illness and the life assured’s family composition at point of claim. Multiple claims The most comprehensive multiple claims facility on the market offers clients the ability to claim in excess of the benefit amount for multiple related non-progressive claims, regardless of whether a subsequent claim is of a higher, lower or the same severity as the previous claim. The new Cancer Relapse Benefit The Cancer Relapse Benefit will automatically form part of the new LifeTime and LifeTime Plus Severe Illness Benefits. On recurrence of a cancer after a one-year remission period, a client will receive an additional payment of 50% or 100% of their sum assured, based on the LifeTime Maximum they selected. The new Intensive Care Benefit The Intensive Care Benefit provides cover for intensive care unit (ICU) admissions for both natural diseases and unnatural trauma events, at no additional premium. The new Early Cancer Benefit The Early Cancer Benefit will automatically form part of the Comprehensive Plus and LifeTime Plus Severe Illness Benefits at no additional premium. The benefit provides cover for qualifying in situ cancers and precancerous prostatic lesions. BenefitBooster The BenefitBooster provides up to 40% additional severe illness cover at no additional premium. The Child Severe Illness Benefit and ParentCare These benefits provide automatic severe illness cover for the children and parents of the life assured on a Classic Life Plan. The Global Treatment Benefit The Global Treatment Benefit provides up to 180% of the benefit amount if treatment is required at top overseas facilities. As part of Discoveryr Severe Illness Benefit enhancements, they are running a limited special offer. Qualifying clients are able to select the LifeTime or LifeTime Plus Severe Illness Benefit and get the LifeTime portion of their Severe Illness Benefit premium for the first two years paid back to them in their first five-yearly PayBack. This is subject to the terms and conditions of the special offer. This special offer essentially allows clients to take out the LifeTime Severe Illness Benefit at the same effective premium as the Comprehensive Severe Illness Benefit for two years. This offer ends on 31 March 2017! To find out more information on the Severe Illness benefits contact Thato or Kevin in our Life Department, email life@daberistic.com, tel (011)658-1333 Source: Discovery We at Daberistic aim to provide our clients with the best advice and service, thus we moved to Infinity Business Park. We will be hosting an open day at our new premises and this is an invite to all existing and potential clients to get to know more about Daberistic Financial Services as well as Daberistic Accounting & Auditors. We look forward to seeing you there.
Date : Tuesday 21st February 2017 Place : Block B, Infinity Business Park, 4 Pieter Wenning Road, Fourways (Next to IndabaHotel) Time: 14: 00 - 15:00 pm (thereafter refreshments will be served) You are welcome to invite a friend but please take note that number of seats are limited For more information and to book your seat please contact Koketso at office@daberistic.com or call us on 011 658 1333 For many wealthy individuals the beginning of the year serves as an opportune time for personal introspection making it the ideal period to review financial goals and strategies for dealing with the challenges of growing and preserving wealth in a volatile economic climate.
CEO of FNB Private Wealth and RMB Private Bank Eric Enslin says high net worth individuals take into account a variety of economic, regulatory and investment factors as well as family and career aspirations when planning for the year ahead. Advisers are required to thoroughly assess the state of their clients’ long-term wealth growth, while guiding them on how to overcome and understand some of the key issues and trends. Enslin has identified four industry trends affecting high net worth individuals that advisors should take into account when reviewing long term wealth strategies. Fintech The rapid growth of fintech should not be seen as a threat to advisors, but rather an opportunity to tap into innovation through the use of tools, analytics and technology to better understand and efficiently cater for the dynamic and ever changing needs of high-net worth individuals. Click to read more If you would like to know what is the right investment option for you, please contact Kevin or Thato, email: invest@daberistic.com tel no: (011 658-1333) Source: Coronation At various stages of one’s life, financial needs may differ. For this reason it is important to change financial strategies and instruments used to fulfill those needs. The investment behaviour of women differs to that of men. Women often feel comfortable with “secure” and “predictable” investments, explained Christelle Louw, advisory partner at Citadel. “The problem is that these investments mostly do not offer the required performance after inflation and tax to achieve their financial goals,” she said.
For this reason, equities are becoming an important element to include in their portfolios. This is also true as women become more sophisticated investors, with surplus income to invest. Over the past few years women have been playing a bigger and more prominent role in business and their earnings are increasing. This is contributing to their empowerment. The global income of women will grow from $13trn to $18trn over the next five years worldwide, according to the CFA Institute. Women are also living longer than men. According to the World Health Organisation's 2015 data for global life expectancy, women will live five years longer than men. More women are seeing the need for inflation-beating investments to sustain their lives once their partners are gone. “It is important to ensure that they have made financial provision beyond the life expectancy of their husband or male partner,” said Louw. Click to read more To review your investments and to ensure they still meet your needs, please contact Kevin or Thato, email: invest@daberistic.com telephone: (011)658-1333 Source: Fin24 |
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