With over 30 years of experience in the banking and home loan industry, my hope it is share what I have learnt over the years with my blogging community, inspire conversation around the subject and in the process discover unique insights into this ever changing environment.
Just to break from the usual property information as I did one blog ago, let’s talk about business and life. Overtrading is not a well-known word for most people although, like Gearing, we often use it. It’s roots are in financial management so as bankers, we use it a lot. It applies to the tendency […]
You know, I have been looking at the volumes of credit extension and am suitably impressed. Oh, you might say, that’s “glass half full” stuff. But you know the old story, if you “gave” me something a year ago or just after Nenegate, would I have taken it? A resounding, Yes! So let’s dig a […]
The news of Pravin, made me think that it’s time to write about something different. The other day, we walked past our neighbour who had just pulled into her driveway. She had a passenger [Sue, for sake of this blog] with her who climbed out the car and proceeded to greet us, “Hello, I know […]
Never heard the word? Well, BREXIT stands for: Will Britain exit the European Union? MUNEXIT stands for: Will the ANC exit the municipalities of Tshwane, Joburg and Port Elizabeth? One, or two, or all three and/or in any significant proportions? The lovely thing about democracy is that you don’t know. Many polls have seen the […]
Today’s blog is not scientific and will refer to little of the volumes that have been written on the subject of BREXIT. It’s just from the heart and a view of many things. This much we do know – little of major significance in the world does not affect us on the Southern tip of […]
So what do we say, South Africa? Against the backdrop of S&P’s “steady as she goes” decision, we have won a reprieve. That is until December 2016. Remember, we still have Fitch to come and if I was a rumour-monger, I would say they exited SA early this year in order to deliver bad news […]
Can you believe it, the year is far advanced. And what a year it has been with probably the only gorilla in the national room being the arrest of our Minister of Finance. So far, everybody has confirmed it is not going to happen so let’s rest with that knowledge. One of the reasons he […]
There has been some amazing news of late. Sadly, we have become so accustomed to bad news that it washes over us in a kind of ostrich way. We duck and just hope the wind comes head-on so we don’t get swept of our feet. So the good news! RMB is about to build a […]
The saying “pregnant pause” normally relates to speechmaking or coaching. But the recent months have been pregnant as everything but the stock market has taken a pause. Consider this……. In four months the global markets have lost 10% of their value except for China which almost halved very early in the year. Commodities like iron […]
We return to buy-to-let. Here are some solid thoughts for those of you privileged enough to afford a property investment. Remember to buy close to home. Think of it this way: Trouble equals distance squared. Ever tried to find a plumber to fix a geyser in another town. ever tried to sort out a non-paying tenant […]