by SFT | Mar 29, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis
Right now, the world feels like a mess. War dominates the headlines. Political leadership seems weak or absent. Economies are under pressure, inflation threatens to rise again, and closer to home, South Africa faces its own uncertainty and frustration. It’s noisy, unsettling, and at times if we’re honest, quite depressing.
In moments like these, it’s completely natural to ask: Should I really be invested right now? Would it not be safer to move to cash, to something guaranteed, to just sit this one out? These thoughts are not irrational, they are human. We are wired to fear loss twice as much than we value gain. But here’s the important part: when everything feels uncertain, we need to separate how things feel from what is actually true, because sentiment is not reality.
If we take a step back and look at the facts, a different picture emerges. Despite everything we see on our screens, the world today is, in many ways, safer, more advanced, and more prosperous than it has ever been. Progress rarely makes headlines—but it continues quietly in the background. The same applies to investing. Great companies do not suddenly become bad companies overnight because of a news cycle. When one business struggles, another adapts and grows. When conditions are tough, innovation accelerates. History shows us that this has always been the case.
Investing in global markets is not a bet on a single country, a political system, or a moment in time. It is a bet on human ingenuity, on man’s ability to solve problems, adapt, and improve the way we live. History is very clear on this, markets do not move in straight lines, there is volatility every single year. There are wars, recessions, elections, and crises, and yet, over time, markets have consistently moved higher.
That’s not an opinion, its fact based on evidence. The biggest risk to long-term wealth has never been volatility or bad news, but rather behaviour. When investors react to fear, they interrupt the very process that creates long term returns. This is why the real skill in investing is not predicting what happens next. It’s staying disciplined when things feel uncertain. At times like these, the best course of action is often the hardest one; stay invested. In fact, for those still building wealth, it may even be an opportunity to invest more.
All this only makes sense if it is done within the context of a clear, long-term plan, because a portfolio without a plan is just noise. A good financial plan gives structure, perspective, and most importantly, the confidence to stay the course when headlines try to pull you off it. We cannot control wars, politics, or inflation.
But we can control our behaviour. We can control our plan, and we can choose to focus on what has always worked.
This time feels different, it always does.
But it never is.
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Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner
t. 083 261 9287
e. dirk@clientcare.co.za
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Disclaimer:
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice in any way or form. It is important to consult a financial planner to receive financial advice before acting on any information contained herein. Client Care and PWM and its directors, officers, and employees shall not be responsible and disclaim all liability for any loss, damage (whether direct, indirect, special or consequential) and/or expense of any nature whatsoever, which may be suffered as a result of, or which may be attributable, directly or indirectly, to the use of, or reliance upon any information contained in this article.
by SFT | Mar 22, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis
There’s a quiet but dangerous belief that creeps in once we retire: “This is it. The die is cast.”
We assume that whatever we have is what we have, and that our lifestyle is now largely fixed. But in reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Every financial plan whether simple or complex rests on four key numbers. And the important thing to understand is this: each of these numbers can be adjusted. They are not fixed. They are levers. Get them right, and you can completely change the trajectory of your retirement.
The first number is your available assets. This is the pool of money you’ve built up, your retirement funds, unit trusts, share portfolios. It’s what generates your income and funds the big-ticket items: holidays, cars, helping family. This number sets the foundation, but on its own, it tells us very little about how you can actually live.
The second number is your lifestyle cost. What does it cost you to live your life monthly and annually? This includes everything from groceries and medical aid to holidays and hobbies. This number is often underestimated, and importantly, it doesn’t stay constant. Early retirement might be more active and expensive, while later years may look very different. Understanding this number properly is where real clarity begins.
The third number is the return required on your investments. This is where many retirees go wrong. There is a long-standing belief that once you retire, you should become “conservative.” While this feels safe, it can be incredibly risky. A modern retirement can last 25 to 40 years. Without sufficient exposure to growth assets, portfolios may simply not keep up. Ironically, being too conservative is one of the biggest reasons people run out of money.
The fourth and final number is longevity. None of us know how long we’ll live. But we do know this: people are living longer. Living into your 90s or even past 100 is no longer unusual. This creates both a gift and a risk. A longer life means more time for experiences, but it also means more years your money needs to last, often with rising healthcare costs.
When you bring these four numbers together through proper cashflow planning, something powerful happens you move from guessing to knowing. You stop asking, “Will I be ok?” and start asking, “How well can I live?”
Too many people either spend too freely and risk running out, or live too cautiously and leave behind a life they never fully lived. The truth is, there is often far more flexibility than people realise. Small adjustments to any one of these four levers can create a very different outcome.
If you feel like you’re just accepting the retirement you think you can have, it might be time to take another look.
Pop in for a coffee. Let’s see what’s possible.
Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner
t. 083 261 9287
e. dirk@clientcare.co.za
Recent columns:
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Disclaimer:
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice in any way or form. It is important to consult a financial planner to receive financial advice before acting on any information contained herein. Client Care and PWM and its directors, officers, and employees shall not be responsible and disclaim all liability for any loss, damage (whether direct, indirect, special or consequential) and/or expense of any nature whatsoever, which may be suffered as a result of, or which may be attributable, directly or indirectly, to the use of, or reliance upon any information contained in this article.
by SFT | Mar 15, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis
If you’ve been following the financial headlines recently, you will have noticed the excitement around gold and silver. Over the past two years both metals have enjoyed an impressive run, reaching record highs and producing eye-catching gains. Naturally, this raises a question that many investors quietly ask themselves: Should we have owned more of it?
It’s a fair question. Watching an asset class surge while you’re not heavily invested in it can be uncomfortable. Gold in particular has a powerful story behind it. It feels tangible. Real. It has been seen as a store of value for thousands of years and historically even formed the backbone of global currencies. In uncertain times the narrative is simple: own something you can hold.
But before making changes to a long-term portfolio, it’s worth stepping back and thinking carefully about what would actually have been required to capture those gains.
The Hindsight Trap (looking in the rear view mirror)
One of the most powerful psychological forces in investing is hindsight bias. Once something has happened, our brains convince us that it was obvious all along. But markets don’t work that way. To have meaningfully benefited from the recent rally in gold and silver, you would have needed to make a large and concentrated bet before the rally began. At the start of 2024 that case was far from obvious. Gold had been moving sideways for years. Interest rates were high. Silver had been stuck in a trading range for a long time.
Another bias then reinforces the illusion: survivorship bias. We constantly hear about the investments that worked out. The big winning bets make the headlines. The countless bets that failed rarely do. Looking backwards, winners appear inevitable. In real time, they never are.
The Difference Between Assets and Businesses
There is also an important difference between owning commodities and owning businesses.Gold and silver certainly have practical uses in the real world. They appear in jewellery, electronics, and many industrial applications. But as financial assets they produce no income. No earnings. No dividends. They simply sit there. In fact, they cost money to store and insure.
Shares, on the other hand, represent ownership in businesses. Real companies that employ people, serve customers, solve problems, and generate profits. Over the coming decades we cannot predict exactly what challenges the world will face. But we can be fairly confident about one thing: human ingenuity will continue to adapt. Businesses will keep innovating, finding new ways to create value.
The long-term case for owning productive companies remains far stronger than trying to guess which asset might shine next.
Diversification Means You Didn’t Miss Out
There is another important point that often gets overlooked. If you own a diversified global portfolio, you didn’t completely miss the gold rally anyway. Many global equity funds include mining companies and businesses connected to the commodities sector. You may have captured some of those gains already—just not through a concentrated bet.
And that’s precisely how diversification is meant to work. As Nick Murray once said, diversification means you will never own enough of any one investment to make a killing in it—but you will also never own enough to get killed by it. It’s a trade-off that protects long-term financial independence.
Process Over Outcomes
In the end, successful financial planning is not about identifying the next asset class that will make headlines. It’s about building a plan robust enough to support your life across many different outcomes. Our role as financial planners is not to chase whatever is performing best this year. It is to help protect your financial fortress so that you and your family can remain financially independent for the rest of your lives.
Markets will always rotate. Today it might be gold. Tomorrow it could be something entirely different. The headlines will change. The hype will move on, but the principles that build lasting wealth remain the same: stay diversified, stay disciplined, and focus on the long term rather than the latest trend.
Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner
t. 083 261 9287
e. dirk@clientcare.co.za
Recent columns:
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Disclaimer:
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice in any way or form. It is important to consult a financial planner to receive financial advice before acting on any information contained herein. Client Care and PWM and its directors, officers, and employees shall not be responsible and disclaim all liability for any loss, damage (whether direct, indirect, special or consequential) and/or expense of any nature whatsoever, which may be suffered as a result of, or which may be attributable, directly or indirectly, to the use of, or reliance upon any information contained in this article.
by SFT | Mar 8, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis
“The years go by, as quickly as a wink, enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.”
— Guy Lombardo, “Enjoy Yourself”
It’s an old lyric, but it carries a timeless truth. The older we get, the faster the years seem to pass. One moment we are building careers and raising families, and the next we find ourselves in retirement wondering where the decades went.
A fascinating illustration of this reality comes from the American Time Use Survey, which tracks how people spend their time across their lives. The data shows a striking pattern: when we are young, we spend a great deal of time with our parents and siblings. As we grow older, friends and coworkers take up much of our daily interaction. Later in life, time with children peaks while they are still at home. And eventually, as the years move on, the graph shows something quite sobering — we spend more and more of our time alone.
Although this study was conducted in the United States, it mirrors the lives of many people living in places like St Francis Bay, especially retirees. Many of us move here to enjoy a simpler and more fulfilling lifestyle, surrounded by nature and community. Yet if we are not deliberate about how we spend our time, we can slowly drift toward the same pattern shown in the survey. The good news is that this graph is not destiny. If we don’t like what it suggests, we have the power to change it. The best place to start is by taking control of how we spend our most valuable asset: our time.
One practical step is to revisit and update your financial plan. Often we look at a financial plan purely as numbers — expenses, investments, and projections. But those numbers represent something far more meaningful. They represent experiences, memories, and special moments with the people we love.
Take your annual holiday as an example. What does it actually look like? Is it still the experience you truly want, or could you do something different? Could you travel somewhere new, spend longer with family, or create an experience that will be remembered for years?
Then ask yourself a tougher question: How many healthy summers do you realistically have left?
If your children live overseas and you visit them once a year, how many more times will you see them and your grandchildren? Ten? Fifteen? Maybe fewer. That thought can be uncomfortable — and might be whats jolts you into action.
None of us knows how much time we or the people we love have left. So stop filling your days with things that don’t add value to your life. Start designing your weeks, months, and years around what truly matters.
Don’t accept the graph from the study as your future.
Rewrite your own graph. Create a new plan, regardless of your level of wealth. When you intentionally align your money and your time with what matters most, you change your life for the better. If you don’t know where to start, pop in for a chat.
Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner
t. 083 261 9287
e. dirk@clientcare.co.za
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by SFT | Feb 22, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis
At Client Care, when we begin working with a new client or family, we insist on one simple but powerful principle: if you are part of a couple, we want both of you in the room. Not sometimes or later, but from the beginning of our onboarding process.
I have found that in many relationships, one partner – very often the man – has traditionally taken responsibility for the finances. He attends the meetings, understands the investments, signs the documents, and “handles it.” The other partner may have a broad idea of what’s going on but often feels less confident or less involved.
To many this may not seem like a big deal, but in reality, this situation can lead to unintended consequences. If something unexpected happens to the partner who manages the finances, the consequences can be devastating. We have seen too many situations where the surviving spouse is left not only grieving, but also overwhelmed and uncertain – unsure of what they own, where it is invested, what income is sustainable, or what decisions need to be made next. We would rather avoid this situation.
What we have found over the years is that what often starts as discomfort – “Do we both really need to be there?” – quickly transforms into something far more valuable. When both partners sit around the table, something shifts. The conversation moves beyond numbers and portfolios and into something much more meaningful. We begin to hear different perspectives.
How does each of you feel about money?
What was money like growing up?
What are your dreams for the next 10, 20, or 30 years?
What are your fears?
Do you worry about whether you have enough?
What is the money for?
Often, the fear of “not having enough” stems not from reality, but from a lack of clarity. Without proper cashflow planning and a clear understanding of what your money can and cannot do, uncertainty fills the gap. And uncertainty creates stress and even conflict.
It is remarkable how often partners are unaware of how differently the other feels about finances. One may be quietly anxious while the other feels confident. One may want to spend and enjoy life more, while the other prefers caution and security. These differences are not problems; they are opportunities for alignment.
Our onboarding process is designed to bring these facts and feelings into the open. We help couples understand their current position – clearly and objectively. We show them what is possible, what trade-offs exist, and how their resources can support the life they want to live. When both partners are involved, they take control together and magic can happen.
If one of them passes away, we are not left in a situation where the surviving spouse feels lost. Instead, there is continuity, understanding, and confidence. They know what they have. They know what they can do. They know what they don’t need to worry about. Clarity relieves stress. Shared understanding strengthens relationships. In many cases, we see that open financial conversations lead to healthier marriages and deeper trust.
Money is never just about money. It touches lifestyle, security, dreams, identity, and legacy. These are far too important to be managed by only one half of a partnership. Include each other in your family’s financial decisions. Talk openly. Ask questions. Listen carefully. Plan deliberately. It is one of the greatest gifts you can give one another.
Doing this is not only wise financial planning; it is a better way to live. And when you live and plan together, everyone gets the best out of life.
Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner
t. 083 261 9287
e. dirk@clientcare.co.za
Recent columns:
by SFT | Feb 15, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis
In our work with clients, we focus on a lot more than their money. Yes, the numbers and thereturns matter, but they are never the starting point. The starting point is always the person sitting in front of us and the people they care about.
We spend a great deal of time helping clients understand what is truly meaningful to them. What does a life well lived look like and what would make their retirement rich in more than just rands and cents? These are not always easy conversations, but they are the most important ones. When we unpack retirement goals, one topic that we cover is legacy.
For many, legacy immediately conjures up images of money and assets — a holiday home on the coast, a trust fund for grandchildren’s education, a sizeable inheritance. Being able to leave financial assets behind is a privilege, and it is something that requires careful and responsible planning. But it is often seen as something that applies only to the very wealthy.
I have realised that this is not necessary the case. Having spent another weekend fishing and playing monster trucks with my four-year-old grandson, I was reminded again that legacy has very little to do with balance sheets. Those mornings on the riverbank, those laughs on the lounge floor — that is legacy. Time, presence, shared experiences. Those are the things that shape memories and values.
Reaching the end of one’s life with a massive investment portfolio may sound impressive. But if that portfolio came at the expense of living fully, loving deeply, and engaging meaningfully, one has to wonder if it can be different?
As part of our planning process, we help our clients get clear on whether they have enough to live their best life. And if they have more than enough, we encourage them to imagine what else might be possible. How could they assist those they care most about? How could they use their wealth deliberately, while they are alive, to make a difference?
This is not about reckless giving. Giving without thought or guidance can become a poisoned chalice. We have all seen examples where sudden or unmanaged wealth has damaged motivation, relationships, and even lives. Money without direction can be destructive.
But giving with care, structure, mentorship and clear intention can be one of the most rewarding things we ever do. It can change both our lives and the lives of the recipients. It can build confidence, teach responsibility, and strengthen family bonds.
A real legacy is values modelled consistently. It is work ethic demonstrated. It is generosity shown wisely. It is memories created intentionally. It is planning done properly so that when wealth does transfer, it does so smoothly and in alignment with your wishes.
Planning and managing how future generations inherit wealth will have a profound impact on their lives — and on the peace of mind we experience in ours.
In the end, we cannot take our money with us. But we can choose how we use it while we are here. And we can decide what it will represent when we are gone.
That, to me, is what a real legacy looks like.
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Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner
t. 083 261 9287
e. dirk@clientcare.co.za
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