Personal Finance Newsletter - Volume 2009, Issue 344, September 2009

In last month's issue of Moneyweb's Personal Finance (August 2009), we published an article headed "The Great Consumer Rip-Off", in which the writer indicated that Unilever's product "Sunlight 2-in-1" did not live up to its claims of being both a washing powder and a fabric softener in a single product.

The market undertone is decidedly more bullish these days. It is clear that the worst of this particular economic crisis is behind us, and it is likely that the first quarter of this year will have marked the low point for both markets and economies around the world.

Car allowances as a taxreduction tool are under siege, if the proposals contained in the 2009 Taxation Laws Amendment Bill are anything to go by. But unlike changes that have been introduced in recent years, which have been aimed at tightening up on perceived abuses at the claim stage, one of the proposals is likely to hit your pocket each month as well.

Conveyancing atoorneys play a vital role in the registration of every property transfer or bond, but their role is often misunderstood. Furthermore legal fees are often a hidden cost that may come as a surprise to first-time buyers. Heather Briggs of Shepstone & Wylie Attorneys gives the low-down for first-time property buyers.

Consumers are advised to keep their credit record clean, even during the current economic climate, as this will boost their credit-worthiness in the future.

Like rabbits in strong headlights, equity investors with a gold bent continue to chase increasingly challenging cash margin compression.

In a recent examination of the flow of investor's cash into and out of the various different fund categories for various different periods. What was concluded was that money was still going into money market funds, even with the recent massive rally in equity markets. In this article I will look at the flows into / out of retail equity funds (Domestic General, Growth, Value and Large Cap funds) and compare this to their performance in order to determine if there is any correlation between the performance of a fund and its resultant flows.

Has the bottom been reached in the current residential property cycle? The statistics seem to indicate that this may be the case. Although Lightstone's National Repeat Sales house price inflation is still slightly negative year on year, it appears that the House Price Index bottomed out at the beginning of 2009 and that house prices are actually now on a modest upward trend.

The first "pension" was introduced by Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg, Count of Bismark-Schönhausen in the Kingdom of Prussia via a piece of legislation called the Old Age and Disability Insurance Bill of 1889.

Every taxpayer has an inherent right to arrange their affairs in such a way as to minimise their tax liability. While this right has been confirmed many times by the courts, the question one should ask now is : Is it still possible to do any sort of tax planning at all, given all the recent changes that have taken place, with more to come?

Stock markets have staged a very nice recovery since their lows in March this year.

There's few things like a midlife career change that can focus one's mind on whether there'll be enough in the kitty for retirement - especially when the earning potential of your second career is somewhat less than the one you left behind. In fact, I worked out the other day that looking at future earnings foregone over the next 25 years until retirement, expressed in today's money, the decision to become a Methodist minister has cost me R15 million!

Recent months in the Anne Porter Knight Frank sales experience have once again shown just how complicated house sales can become when they are caused by a divorce, says Lanice Steward, MD of Anne Porter Knight Frank.

A comprehensive National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, aimed at broadening access to health care, is a laudable objective - but is it financially feasible? According to many analysts, the R100 billion figure thrown around as the cost taxpayers will have to pay for NHI is grossly inaccurate.

The Pension Adjudicator (PFA) has launched a scorecard that will keep pension funds and administrators in check by tracking the number of complaints each fund processes, and the time taken to process these complaints.

Investors who need a source of income and capital growth over time are better off choosing listed property, is the message from analysts.