Weekly Thoughts

I thought to talk briefly about some something that I saw a financial journalist write about earlier this month, just because I think it is different to what one expects would be written about, and because it is also so true. It is talking about the emotion of envy, financial envy. The article spoke of Forgetting about the Joneses, about what they have, and what you don’t have.

A good way to reduce financial stress is to not to compare what you have with others. The ‘apparent’ wealth of others should not be our yardstick to measure our own financial achievements. I often say, remember that that person in that expensive car might not actually own it. There is a good chance that their car and their house is owned by the bank. There might also be a lot of other financial things going on in the life of someone with huge apparent wealth than you know. Huge credit card debt, for example, or a business in trouble.

Never underestimate the value of non-material wealth: Do you have time for yourself, that someone else might not have…. you might also have better social, physical, and mental ‘wealth’.

Don’t be envious. Keep your financial life simpler, rather than letting it get out of control. The less you owe, the greater your financial freedom. Get this right, and the guy in the fancy car or house might envy you.

Yesterday I invited a client along to spend some time at Marriott’s head office with two of their investment managers. We debated various things around the investments and funds that Marriott manage locally plus together with their Isle of Man partners. All sorts of concepts and funny technical terms got thrown around and spoken about. It was very worthwhile.

But the conversations around value and income, reminded me of one of these newsletters that I sent out years ago – probably around 9 or 10 years ago, or more. Long enough ago to write about it again. Most of you have heard me go on and on about once you’re invested into income bearing funds, stop worrying about the value because value doesn’t determine the income. Many years ago, when spending time alone one day with the late and ex-CEO of Marriott, Simon Pearse, he related a story about his mother and her income.

His mother lived on the dividends from a share portfolio that Simon’s father had accumulated over time back in the day in the 50s and 60s and 70s. One day, when Simon noticed one of her unopened share portfolio statements that had arrived in the post, (for the 20-something year olds, this is when a piece of paper comes in an envelope delivered by a man on a bicycle that someone else had put in a red box somewhere else in the world) he asked his mother if she wanted to know how much her share portfolio was worth.

Her response to him was, “Why do I need to know that? It gives me plenty of dividends every year and I’m not selling anything.”

A simple statement, but one that I’ve always thought says so much about understanding income.

It feels like an uninteresting topic this, but if it helps one person then it was worth it. It’s about being the victim of a scam. I have received quite a few warning emails from service providers over the past few months: Liberty Life, Allan Gray, Marriott, Momentum… There are even scam emails coming from addresses looking like SARS, with an attachment for you to open. That’s another one… an attachment arriving from an email address that might be new to you. Then you open it. We don’t anymore, we send it to our IT guy first. Or I ask Adrienne, she’s the IT guru in our office.

I know of a few of you who have been scammed in some way or other, because you have told me. I too, have been a victim over the past 18 months of my airtime being scammed, as well as my bank account via the Banking App. Not proud of this. Don’t like talking about it. After one response to a call or a message, someone is beginning to tempt you to talk to them for longer. Or answer what appears to be a simple and harmless question.

All I want to leave you with, is suggesting that you are very careful about responding to any SMS that doesn’t make sense or answering any phone number you don’t recognise or are expecting, or that doesn’t come from an action you requested. Rather end the call or action and phone the service provider back yourself through their listed numbers.

I usually don’t answer anything I don’t recognise anymore. Or I answer and want to know within 5 seconds what you want and if you cannot tell me, I’ll end the call. Sounds a bit rude… I know. But it’s a scary world now. Where are those days when things arrived in your post box or you had to be home to get a phone call….

I should have talked about this a week or so ago – if you are thinking about changing plans on your medical aid. If you are, and haven’t let them know, you should still be able to get in your request on Monday, that being the 1st. Most schemes want a month’s notice, especially if you’re move ‘down’ a plan level: paying them less. They don’t seem to mind moving up at any stage of the year: paying them more!

If you are thinking of changing your plan level, go to your medical aid’s website and download the 2026 plans and contributions to compare and choose. Learn to understand the benefits you get on your scheme, line by line. Consider not having a savings account unless you get a few additional risk benefits that come with it, or you need the cash management help.

Black Friday. I think that is today. Although it has become days and weeks rather than a day. Remember, you don’t save by spending. You save by not spending. Stay home and you won’t spend what you don’t need to spend. Although you can shop from home so that point of mine is a bit irrelevant…. The banks are the big winners. Because most people are shopping with money they don’t have.

If you really needed something, and you were going to spend anyway, then the way to save is to pay the amount that you have not spent, i.e. the difference, into your bond or a savings space. Now you have spent and saved.

I have also seen quite a few warnings about scams catching you out during these specials. Be careful of emails and SMS’s and phone calls offering you things.

Retirement is a very first world and recent thing, really only beginning to take form in the late 19th century. People used to work until they couldn’t work. Or passed away. It’s not something forced upon you if you are unemployed, like me. I have no employment contract that dictates to me when I must vacate the office. People like me, or ‘self-employeds’, stop working when they choose to, or can, or don’t. But the reality is that this space of life might arrive on all of us at some time, even if only due to lack of health.

I pick up here on my last thought of last week: what are we going to do with it, with ourselves, our minds.

There are potentially heavy sides to retirement. The illusion of endless leisure (the lack of structure can become a stress of boredom); the reality of loneliness; missing a sense of purpose; you might not miss working, but you might miss mattering; the fear of becoming obsolete; the strain on relationships.

We need to find purpose. We need to provide stimulation for our minds. We need a hobby of sorts. Not just golf once a week or cycling twice a week. Need more. There are things that also don’t require too much money, or any at all. You might just have to look.

For me, opening my toolbox and servicing or fixing a motorbike is very relaxing and at the same time, often includes problem solving. For which the Americans and Aussies have produced U-Tube clips to fix anything.

Model plane building can be an excellent idea. Or sowing and knitting. These activities keep the mind sharp. They provide a focus, cause patience, exercise sequence, provide fine motor co-ordination exercises, they give purpose. Obviously the eyes need to be working.

Maybe you can do woodworking or take it up. You get to go outside to your garage or workshop every day. You have ‘a place to go to’.

Join your local rotary or participate administratively in a club or a church.

Learn to understand cricket, so that you can enjoy watching it on TV. The process and strategy will be good for the mind.

Maybe you’re a fisherman. It’s good for patience. Gives your mind space. Making your own flies can be a hobby.

Working gave you conversation. It gave you company: on the way to the toilet; in the kitchen getting coffee; someone to complain to about the boss. Now you might have to rediscover or work on or create friendships. This can be scary and feel lonely.

Getting a dog can help here. The companionship this creates is healthy. And you know what happens when you walk your dog: it’s a licence for people to talk to you.

Work at choosing happiness. And joy. And not complaining and being negative. We alienate ourselves from other people and friends if we do this too much.

Hopefully somewhere some of these thoughts will mean something to some of you.

We often say how fast time goes. And that it seems to go faster. Which it can’t do. But there are things that, when they come around in our lives again, make it feel as if time has indeed past quicker than before.

It might be when it’s time to fill our weekly pill boxes again. Or when it’s take-the-refuse-out day again. Or time to go to the pharmacy for a repeat of your chronic meds. And when it’s time for your annual medical, a year has gone by!

And so it is that we wake up and find that life appears to have passed by. That time seems less. That all those things we were going to do, might never happen. Because there won’t be time left…. time left with enough health.

I believe in finding joy in the very small things in life. Like stopping to pick mulberries while paddling up my river on Wednesday. And fortuitously seeing a Giant Eagle Owl, perched high up in a tree, up the same river the day before. A rare experience.

Not all joyful experiences in life need money. Most don’t. We might just not know how to find them.

That brings me to looking ahead at being ‘retired’, and what are we going to do with it, with ourselves, with our minds.

Yesterday I had lunch alone with Marriott’s CEO and my consultant. I took a particular question to him, based on how I look at and plan for a client’s income: To discuss the reliability, of the predictability, of the income from their funds. If my English works here.

Meaning, the income anticipated from an arrangement of funds in your annuity or income focussed accounts; how much I can reply on that. He said with a very high degree, to within 5 years over a 30 year timeline. That was good to hear. We discussed it further.

Then we talked about some current market conditions and valuations, in particular what global equity returns have been over the past year or two. Concepts such as market concentration and over-pricing was discussed. He explained how the 10 largest global stocks have a weighting of 35% of the market, and that this was too high. He expects the ‘bubble’ of overvaluations to come off and prices to decrease. This opinion was the same as what I listed to from Allan Gray Fund Managers on a live presentation last week.

Marriott are currently invested in only a very small amount of two of these companies, and he says they won’t buy more because the prices are too high for the very small income they provide. The concept of ‘don’t pay too much for an income stream’, is what’s at play here. Like for us, don’t pay too much for a property you are going to buy vs. the rental income you will get.

Always great to get alone-time with someone like him.