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  As investors, we’re all intent on growing our wealth and net worth through our investing. Our aim, when investing, is ultimately to afford a better quality of life for ourselves. What this life looks like will vary from person to person, however the underlying goal is almost always consistent: we want financial freedom.   It’s not enough to simply want financial success. We need to take a structured and goal-oriented approach to investing. One of the ways to do this is to use the SMART goal-setting framework to guide your investment strategy, which we’ll expand on below.   Goals act as a road map for your investment success Once you put your investment plan together, having an actionable step-by-step process will help you stick to your plan and make it a reality.   Your goals will also make it easier for you to chunk down your plans and make smarter decisions because goals, when done right, force you to really think about where you’re going and how best to get there. They’ll help you see any holes in your strategy and make it easier to change tack when an investment decision doesn’t go as planned.   Most importantly, goals will help you keep track of your progress. While this framework is geared towards investing, these are principles you can apply to all aspects of your life – from health to your career.   Mapping out your goals using SMART framework   SMART goals stand for   S = Specific: Is your goal clear? A clear goal takes a general wish such as “I’d like to start investing this year” and turns it into a clear, specific and workable plan like “I’d like to start investing into a tax-free investment account through ETFs so I can supplement my retirement”. Use Who/What/Why/When/Where/How questions to guide you. The rest of the SMART acronym will help you add some structure to the now very clear statement   M = Measurable: In order for you goal to be measurable, you need to add some metrics to the mix to help you see your progress. What time lines are you dealing with? How much do you want to contribute? How frequently can you make contributions? How will you know you’ve reached your goal?   A = Attainable: Once you’ve got your metrics in place, you need to assess whether you have the means to start moving with putting your goal into action. Whether a goal is attainable or not depends on your financial circumstance.  If you’d like to invest the full R33,000 in your TFIA per tax year, you’ll need to be able to contribute R2750 a month. That means you need to look at your income and see if this is a possibility. You also want to set your goals up in such a way that you’re not setting yourself up for failure. This means not setting a goal to save R1,000,000 in a year when you have no reasonable plan in place to acquire that money. Unfortunately, betting on the possibility of winning the lottery isn’t a plan.   R = Relatable/Realistic: We’ll break these down into two components. As it relates to relatability, your investment goal should be consistent with your lifestyle needs and your personal values. If your aim in life is to retire by 35 and travel the world, your goals and investment strategy will be very different from someone who wants to be married with 2 children (in private school), a gorgeous house in an affluent suburb and a c-suite job by the time they’re 40. You also need to be aware of the opportunity cost of investing, for instance, will choosing to invest aggressively mean you can’t further your studies or will it have an impact of the kind of house you can afford? Or will you have a time opportunity cost because you must pick up a side hustle to reach your investment targets? When it relates to being realistic, your goal needs to make sense given your resources and competing responsibilities. If your salary is R30,000 a month and you have a house, car, education and general expenses to take care of, you might not be able to invest R15,000 a month simply because your income doesn’t give way for that kind of aggressive investing. It’s may be an unrealistic target and might end up having a counterproductive impact on your investment planning.   T = Time-bound: Lastly, you need to have a sense of time limits around your investment time horizon. This ties in with having measurable goals. Are you investing for retirement? Children’s education? When will you need the money you’re putting aside? Are you going to break down your progress into 12-month progress intervals? How often will your review your strategy?   Be disciplined but leave room for life to happen   As with all things, have a plan but don’t forget to factor in life’s up and downs. Certain events might force you to change your investment goals or affect whatever progress you’ve made. There’s not much you can do to stop these but the most important thing is to get up and keep going. It’s important to start, and then keep going, no matter what obstacles find their way onto you path.

I recently opened a webtrader account and have not yet deposited any funds to the account. I originally selected a USD account as a base account, later I realized that I would prefer trading in the UK and Euro markets mainly. I have registerd for these accounts with the USD account remaining as the base account. Is it benificial to change my base account and if so how can I do this?

  The new year is often a great time to rethink our goals. We often set all kinds of ambitious targets, fueled by the enthusiasm that comes with turning over a new annual leaf. However, we don’t have to limit our investing strategy to January. We can review it at the end of the tax year, on our birthday or whenever we find a suitable cycle.   When it comes to investing, it is important to take time and reflect on the previous year’s performance. What worked, what didn’t, and how much your knowledge and understanding of the market grew. It’s also a great time to think about your investment strategy, especially if you’re still fairly new to DIY investing. Below are some guidelines you can follow to help you put an investment strategy together.   Get a plan into place The first step is to understand what, exactly, you’re trying to achieve through investing. It’s useful to start off with an adaptable framework in place that will guide your decision making.  This will come in handy when there’s a lot of media noise about recession – or when a tweet from a certain leader of the world’s biggest economy decides to tweet something that will no doubt cause all markets, from stocks to forex, to move. Elements of your framework could encompass: A ‘skeleton’ framework to help guide your decision making. It should include a quick guide such as the first 3 things to check when the rand goes up, or what to look out for when interest rates change Your investment time horizon: decide what you time horizon looks like and build your strategy around that. What makes a good plan Your investment plan is guided by your goals and the time horizons you’ve mapped out. And you’re not investing with the aim of ‘getting rich quick’. You’ve aligned your asset allocation strategy with your return expectations, done your homework and picked your securities accordingly. Periodic portfolio review and rebalancing: You take the time to assess your portfolio’s performance versus you return expectations and change tack if need be. Contingency plans for market moves: you don’t make sudden panicked moves when the market overreacts to intraday or very short-term events. Instead, you have a playbook you consult to ensure that you think clearly and carefully about your next move instead of panicking and selling off what could be valuable assets. The role of discipline Once you start, your biggest challenge will be implementing and sustaining your plan. This requires a great deal of focus and discipline, as well as consistency. Having a plan to follow will also help you get a better sense of your own investing preferences and your investor personality. You’ll also build a structured space that allows you to adjust and change as you grow more comfortable or gain a better understanding of market forces.   New to investing? Check out the articles below:   A beginner's guide to investing Understanding shares, stock exchanges and indices Understanding the risk of investing in shares Important investment ratios Financial ratios for Fundamental Analysis: which numbers to look for and why (video) Understanding market cycles and market corrections

What I love about this is firstly who runs  it , their value driven approach , and secondly the private capital approach it represents. What I don't like [ and to  be  fair I think managment have seen the light on this one  - is the getting involved with listed stuff as a minority share holder ]  So it irks me that they are hanging around in Conduit Capital. And it scares the life outa me that the latter are linking in their Constantia short term with Trustco (and guess what there is going to be a shareholding in Trustco's LSH or what ever the call it )- okay , the interest that RACP has in CC is very small - but given the price raise in CC there is only one thing I think makes perfect sense and that is sell , sell , sell Conduit. Because, for my own account,  I would rather swim in shark infested waters than get involved with Trustco...  

I wonder whether its possible that the  Equity Research team worked for the Albanian Regime in a previous life - their President Hoxha would say every year when looking forward to the next year something along the following lines "Last Year was difficult but it will not be as difficult as the year to come"? (  To be fair this did happen  in a country where even using the words "hope" "future" "enjoyment" would probably give rise to a life sentence - with hard labour .)   But just looking at the prospects for food delivery - even a breakeven point for food delivery  - and the ebitda - ?? Man ....if those pockets don't stay deep....