Investments

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Better returns is not a purpose

Better than what, over which period, for which future need and with what access? What belongs in an investment brief before any product gets named.

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Unit trust describes the structure, not the risk

A money-market fund and an equity fund can both be unit trusts and behave nothing alike. What you own is units, and unit prices move.

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ETF describes the packaging, not the strategy

An ETF may follow global bonds, a commodity or one narrow industry. Exchange listing is a trading mechanism, not a guarantee of diversification.

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Available is not the same as stable

Saving prioritises access. Investing accepts uncertainty in pursuit of growth. An asset can be sold quickly while its value is temporarily lower, and that is the catch.

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Ask what the cash is waiting for

Cash is not one thing, and it is not free of risk. Too little forces a badly timed sale; too much for too long quietly limits growth.

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A bond fund has no maturity date to wait for

The word bond sounds stable, but prices move before maturity and a fund never matures at all. Interest-rate risk, credit risk, and what income really means.

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A profitable company can still have a falling share price

Price follows expectation, not only profit. What a share actually gives you, where shareholders rank, and how much of your position rests on a few companies.

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Bricks and mortar does not mean stable

You are not buying a building or collecting a fixed rent. What listed property actually exposes you to, and whether you already hold some inside your equity funds.

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A rising foreign asset can still lose you rand

Offshore does not simply mean safer or higher returning. How much of the result is currency, and which currency each of your goals will actually be spent in.

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Five funds can fall for the same reason

Owning many funds is not diversification if they hold the same companies. What to circle in the holdings, and the sentence to complete for each one.

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Passive does not mean no decisions

Someone still chooses the index, its rules and how it is tracked. What to ask of either approach, and why last year's winner is not the test.

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The model is standard, the reason for choosing it should not be

Platform, model, DFM and underlying funds can all sit on one statement. Who designed it, who may change it, and who checks that it still fits you.

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A closing value cannot tell you how it performed

Six fields to mark on one statement, and the exact dates to write above them. How to separate the money you put in from the movement the market caused.

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If the only new fact is that the price fell

A falling balance does not tell you whether to hold, sell or buy. A pause-and-check process, and deliberately not an instruction in either direction.

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A risk profile is a conversation, not a personality label

You can be entirely comfortable with volatility and still unable to afford it. Capacity, willingness, time and required return are four separate questions.

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Rebalancing keeps the plan, it does not check the plan

A discipline for maintaining a chosen risk structure, not a method for predicting winners. What the policy should state, and what a rebalance can cost.

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The mix explains more than the number of funds

Cash, bonds, shares and listed property each do a different job. Give every class one job, then compare the mix with the date the money is needed.

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Owning it is not the same as reaching it

Liquidity is more than whether a withdraw button exists. Three things to record for every asset before you are entitled to call any of it liquid.