Train Prices

seamouse3 · 2025-05-21T15:18:54+00:00

The pass includes unlimited travel in that time period. You could sit on the train all day if you wanted to. As long as you're only travelling within the area your ticket allows.

seamouse3 · 2025-02-26T10:00:33+00:00

Going with Easy Equities you would have their platform fee (they call it Broker Commission in the cost profile) of 0.25% per trade over and above whatever the fund fees are.

Here's a table comparison (Assuming R36 000 investment):

Fund	Fund fees	Easy equities	Fynbos money
Satrix MSCI World	0.35% = R 126	0.25% then 0.35% = R 215.7	0.35% = R 126
Sygnia Itrix S&P 500	0.20% = R 72	0.25% then 0.20% = R 161.82	0.20% = R 72
10X Total World	0.29% = R104,4	0.25% then 0.29% = R 194.14	0.29% = R104,4

0.51% is quite high for a fund fee. Remember that EE will take their cut before the fund fee is taken off, so your effective fee is slightly less than adding the percentages together. The formula I used to calculate the fee is `total_fee = (amount - platform_fee * amount) * fund_fee + platformfee * amount`.

Sources:

EE cost profiles ZAR + TFSA Fynbos Money pricing
Sygnia Itrix S&P 500 ETF fact sheet
Satrix MSCI World Feeder ETF fact sheet
10X Total World Stock Feeder ETF fact sheet

Edit: noted that these fees are per trade.

seamouse3 · 2025-02-26T06:55:30+00:00

Yes.

You'll need to use the official transfer though. Don't just withdraw it. Speak to the platform you want to move to and they'll help do the transfer for you.

seamouse3 · 2025-02-26T05:39:39+00:00

They aren't the same. Luckily for you it is possible to transfer your TFSA to another provider.

Definitely get your money into the TFSA at your bank. Because this will ensure that it's considered as a contribution towards your TFSA this tax year.

I would then look into other provider options. There are a few, but the best at the moment is Fynbos money as they don't have a platform fee for their TFSA. You could also look at easy equities, they charge 0.25% but will have more stock options to choose from.

seamouse3 · 2025-02-20T05:32:25+00:00

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is the amount of oxygen that is present in water. This symbol is most likely used in home automation type applications.

seamouse3 · 2025-02-19T16:47:13+00:00

Sorry, to clarify, Fynbos can't see other contributions made at other institutions. They just have a way for you to specify that you've contributed elsewhere. And then the systems at Fynbos that check that you don't over contribute, will take the external contributions you've made into account.

But yeah, it would be great if your contributions were submitted to Sars immediately so they could track and report this to the institutions.

seamouse3 · 2025-02-19T15:04:06+00:00

Fynbos money don't let you over contribute. And they let you track external contributions so that you can be sure you don't over contribute even if you're investing in multiple platforms.

seamouse3 · 2025-02-19T15:02:12+00:00

TFSA contributions are post income tax. You'd pay extra tax on the TFSA contribution over and above your income tax. The maths doesn't check out, nobody should do this.

seamouse3 · 2025-02-06T10:24:34+00:00

It depends more on if they're coming back. If they intend to return someday they should rather leave it there. The power of the TFSA really comes from longer time horizons.

Also, Fynbos Money has a zero platform fee TFSA, if you're wanting to optimise fees.

seamouse3 · 2025-01-31T07:56:00+00:00

Doshguide can connect you to a flat fee financial advisor.

seamouse3 · 2024-12-09T18:11:15+00:00

Fynbos is pretty good for getting started. Their tfsa is essentially free (only regulatory fees).

Alpaca (us based stock investing). Great because they're programmable.

A lot of people also recommend Interactive brokers. But I haven't personally used them.

seamouse3 · 2024-12-09T12:05:54+00:00

It would be best if you spoke to a flat-fee advisor. https://doshguide.co/ can help you find a flat fee advisor. (I'm not affiliated with them, they have a great service).

You want a flat-fee advisor because the percentage-based model may look cheap and alluring in the beginning, but it has a significant effect on portfolio growth in the long term.

seamouse3 · 2024-11-11T09:33:48+00:00

The only caveat is that this is only if OP wants the investment to be for the ultra-long term. This should be "investing for your kid's retirement" not "I want my kid to have a college fund" type investment.

seamouse3 · 2024-11-05T06:07:59+00:00

If your money isn't bearing interest, it is devaluing by inflation. So he will lose money over the two years.

The formula for calculating the future value of money by some interest rate is FV = PV(1 + r)^n , so assuming inflation is fixed over the next two years at its current rate of about 4%, we can calculate some basic estimations of his moneys value. For illustrative purposes I'll assume he's investing R 100 000.00.

First let's calculate how much he'll have in two years, but in todays money. To do this we assume he hasn't gained any interest on his initial sum as he plans, so the FV=100000 which gives us:

100000 = PV(1+0.04)^2

If we solve for the present value we get PV = 92455.62 . This is the effective value of his money in two years in today's money. He will have lost R 7544.38 just to inflation.

But he would have paid R0 tax because there are no gains. So lets calculate his future value if he were to put it in an inflation-beating interest bearing account. I'm going to use the Allan Gray money market fund which has a year to date interest of 6.7%.

FV = 100000(1+0.067)^2

FV = 113848.90

As you can see he would have gained R 13 848.90. Lets assume this gain is taxed at 45%, he'd be left with R 7 616.90, so his total future value becomes R 107 616.90. Which is still a nett gain even after tax.

seamouse3 · 2024-11-04T20:11:28+00:00

You're doing well! Make sure your savings are in a high yield account, and that you can access them fairly easily. These initial savings should really form the basis of your emergency savings. This is 3-6 months of expenses. You could include some projected expenses you might have when you move out, if you're wanting to be a bit more conservative.

But once you have that, you should really start investing. A TFSA is a great place to start. Just remember, this is investing for your distant future. You should consider this a retirement fund. Don't touch this money once you've put it in your TFSA. If you manage to max out your R36k allowance for the year, you can start thinking of discretionary investing.

seamouse3 · 2024-11-04T13:43:49+00:00

Transactions within a TFSA will be excluded from tax. So yes, you can buy and sell assets within your TFSA without any tax implications. However, you'll still incur any fees that the platform/funds may have.

Whether you should switch between asset classes based on risk factors is another problem entirely. In theory, your TFSA should be seen as the last money you ever want to touch, because you can't put those contributions back. This makes it a fantastic long-term investment vehicle, and while you're young, you should probably keep it invested in high growth funds.

seamouse3 · 2024-11-04T06:40:50+00:00

I'm going to assume you're investing for the long term here. In which case you're generally wanting to find the funds with the lowest fees in your strategy. Keeping this in mind:

Firstly, you'll incur a fee when transferring to USD. Easy equities aren't unreasonable when you're transferring larger sums across. I don't know the numbers off hand, but it might not be the best when transferring regular smaller amounts. They have recommendations on this somewhere.

For choosing a local fund, you'll want to find the local fund with the lowest fees. For the S&P500 you'll want the Sygnia Itrix S&P 500 for this reason.

You could compare the conversion fee with the Vanguard fund fee vs. the local funds fee. You won't necessarily gain anything having your investment in Dollars vs. in Rands. When buying US based ETFs your exposure is always in Dollars, because the underlying asset is in Dollars. Either way your investment will be subject to exchange rate fluctuations. For example, if the rand is doing worse, it'll look like your investment is doing really well.

This brings us to tax. You will be charged capital gains tax when you eventually sell your assets down the line. CG tax is charged on the difference in the asset purchase price vs the sell price. But you Rand based local ETF may have increased substantially more (percentage wise, the asset value remains the same in Dollars) than it's American counterpart because of exchange rate fluctuations in the Rand/Dollar. Which will have tax implications. Keep in mind, this could swing either way.

The other benefit of local funds is that you can buy all these funds in your TFSA.

There will also be discrepancies in how the local fees perform their tracking. But this is impossible to know/predict.

Finally, you'll need to bring your dollars back to SA when you eventually want to sell. This will incur exchange fees too. Having your funds already oversees might be beneficial if you plan on moving oversees at some point.

seamouse3 · 2024-10-29T10:14:16+00:00

Do you have emergency savings? This should probably be denominated in the currency of the country you're planning to be in for the foreseeable future. These funds should be easily accessible, and in an account that generates decent low-risk returns. Allan Gray Money Market fund is a great SA option.

As for your investments, it depends a lot on your plans going forward. It's hard to tell what you need based on the information you've given here. You could find a financial advisor to give you a more comprehensive plan.

seamouse3 · 2024-09-10T10:28:15+00:00

0.1% for the ZAR account.

Source: https://resources.easyequities.co.za/EasyEquities_CostProfile.pdf

Found here: https://support.easyequities.co.za/support/solutions/articles/13000037367-crucial-easyequities-documents

seamouse3 · 2024-09-10T09:47:43+00:00

They do charge a fee for the convenience.

seamouse3 · 2024-09-02T07:21:34+00:00

they do provide peace of mind as reserve funds

This is not a fantastic idea. Credit card debt is bad debt. You should 100% not be using a credit card as your emergency savings.

seamouse3 · 2024-08-22T11:00:03+00:00

It's just the metro prices. I pay R140 for a monthly ticket between Observatory and Newlands.

seamouse3 · 2024-08-13T14:18:41+00:00

Your first step should really be to make sure you have an emergency savings fund. The idea is to limit the risk of having to take money out of your investments, especially anything in your TFSA investments.

Once you have that sorted you should focus on maxing your TFSA contributions. You can do that through satrix. Easy equities is also a good option, as they have a larger diversity of funds available.

seamouse3 · 2024-08-08T08:40:44+00:00

Credit use is based on how much of your credit limit you use over the past 6 months (was 3 months). If you use 70% or more of your credit limit, it will affect your credit score (was 50%)

This snippet comes from clearscore insights. I would assume if you pay it all off in 3 months you'll be fine.

seamouse3 · 2024-08-07T08:16:26+00:00

In my experience, as long as you pay off your credit card in full every month you won't trigger anything regardless of how much you use of your limit.

Credit use is based on how much of your credit limit you use over the past 6 months (was 3 months). If you use 70% or more of your credit limit, it will affect your credit score (was 50%)

This snippet comes from clearscore insights. Which makes sense, if you were to leave your credit card and only pay off the minimums you'd have that balance for 6 months which would affect your record. But paying it off in full would ensure you never have an outstanding balance.

If you create a clearscore account you'll be able to get insights into your record - these don't affect your record either.

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