What You Will Learn From This Article Why Munger and Buffett both singled out leverage as uniquely dangerous, compared to ordinary investment risk The specific mechanism by which borrowed money turns a temporary decline into a permanent loss Where this shows up beyond...
What You Will Learn From This Article Why Charlie Munger repeatedly named envy, not greed, as one of the most destructive human emotions How envy specifically, rather than greed, actually shows up in bad investment decisions Why envy is a uniquely bad deal, all the...
What You Will Learn From This Article What denial and self-deception bias is, and why it makes bad positions get worse for longer than they should What overconfidence is, and why Munger considered humility one of the genuine secrets behind his and Buffett's success...
What You Will Learn From This Article What loss aversion is, and the research behind why losses and gains aren't felt equally Buffett's two-rule list, never lose money, never forget the first rule, and the arithmetic that makes it serious rather than a joke Why...
What You Will Learn From This Article What social proof is, and why Munger considered it one of the most powerful tendencies humans have Buffett's famous rule for using crowd sentiment as a contrarian signal, and where it actually comes from Why both ideas describe...
What You Will Learn From This Article What incentive-caused bias is, and why Charlie Munger ranked it as the most powerful tendency in his entire catalogue of human misjudgment Why this bias works even on genuinely honest, well-intentioned people Real examples of how...
What You Will Learn From This Article What "circle of competence" actually means, and Munger's three-basket test for using it What "margin of safety" means, where it came from, and why Buffett calls it central to everything he does Why these two ideas work far better...
How R1,000 a Month Became R232,000, By Doing Absolutely Nothing Let's talk about a guy called Sipho. Sipho isn't a genius stockpicker. He doesn't watch the business news every night, and he definitely doesn't know what "the rand weakened against a basket of...
For decades, defined benefit (DB) pension funds, where employers guarantee fixed retirement benefits to employees, were the standard corporate retirement vehicle in South Africa. However, DB schemes increasingly burden employers with unfunded liabilities, actuarial...
Financial advisors (IFAs, wealth managers, financial planners) recommend pension funds to clients daily. Yet many advisors lack systematic frameworks for fund selection, resulting in recommendations based on marketing relationships, platform convenience, or personal...
What You Will Learn From This Article How the US national debt grew from around 55% of GDP in 2000 to over 120% today, and the major events behind each jump Why the pace of borrowing has accelerated so dramatically, and what that has to do with compounding interest...
High-net-worth individuals (HNIs), typically those with liquid investable assets exceeding R5-10 million, face unique pension fund challenges. Standard one-fund-fits-all approaches rarely suit their complex tax situations, diversification needs, and wealth...
Retirement is one of the biggest financial decisions most people will ever make, yet it is also one of the areas where South Africans are most likely to underestimate how much planning is required. The often-quoted claim that “90% of people will not retire...
Derivatives, financial instruments whose value derives from underlying assets, are among the most misunderstood and misused pension fund tools. Many investors associate derivatives exclusively with speculation and excessive risk. Yet properly used, derivatives serve...
Every month, a portion of your salary disappears into your company pension or provident fund before you even see it. Most employees know this contribution reduces their tax bill, but very few understand whether they are actually structuring it in the most tax...
A pension fund promising 10% annual returns is worthless if you cannot access capital when needed. Liquidity, the ability to withdraw invested capital at reasonable prices with minimal delay is often overlooked by pension fund investors focused on return...
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing and blended finance combining philanthropic capital with commercial investment to address social and environmental challenges, represent the fastest-growing investment categories globally. For SA pension...
Fees represent the largest controllable variable affecting long-term pension fund returns. A pension fund investor can influence neither market returns nor economic conditions, but fees—which can range from 0.2% to 2.5% annually for passive and active funds,...
South Africa's pension fund industry is dominated by a handful of large, established managers: Ninety One, Old Mutual, Sanlam, and a few others control the majority of AUM. This concentration creates opportunity for emerging managers, smaller, newer firms willing to...
The first half of 2026 proved challenging for South African pension funds. Global economic uncertainty, persistent inflation concerns, and domestic policy headwinds created a complex investment environment. While some fund managers navigated these conditions...
A fund manager displays a ten-year track record of outperformance, consistently beating benchmarks by 2% annually. This appears compelling until you discover the manager is new, promoted last year from analyst, and had nothing to do with the historical performance....
Fund marketing materials present a sanitized version of risk. A brochure might state "volatility: 12%" or "risk rating: medium", metrics that sound technical but reveal little about actual portfolio risk or downside exposure. Fund fact sheets present historical...
Due diligence is the rigorous investigation of an investment before committing capital, separates successful institutional investors from those who suffer preventable losses. Yet many investors rush through pension fund due diligence, conducting superficial reviews or...
High-net-worth South African investors face a critical strategic choice: should retirement capital be deployed through domestic pension fund structures (Retirement Annuity Funds, occupational schemes) or through offshore endowment structures? Each approach offers...