Geoff Noble's Blog, page 10

Filtering out the noise

Author Note: This blog is about “Forgetting the Noise”. I thought it would be appropriate to share a modified excerpt from my book.

Noise causes us to behave irrationally. It preys on our biases. The financial press is full of noise. Yes, the press. You can’t live with them but you can’t live without them. I will not be the first to highlight the damage the financial press causes. The Internet has certainly not helped matters. For all the good the Internet has done, it has been the worst thing...

[Sunday Update] A busy week with MTN and election news

I am very happy with the outcome of the South African local elections. Not because I am a staunch supporter of any party but because it was the most competitive election in South Africa's short democratic history. I wrote about needing more than one strong party in South Africa here. It looks like we are on this path which I think is great for the country.

On the investing front, MTN declared interim results. The dividend was cut to R2.50 from R4.80 a year ago. The infamous MTN fine has b...

[Article] Keep educating yourself

We all know about Financial Capital. Often, we neglect our Human Capital. Here is a great article by Warren Ingram on self-investment. Educating yourself is very important. There are plenty of resources on the web which can help. Check out https://www.coursera.org/ and https://www.edx.org/ for some great online courses. And as always make sure you are reading lots of books!
Check out the article by following the link here: http://bit.ly/2aynplp

[Opinion] Making your mark

I don't like politics. I don't really trust any politicians - yes, from any party. In fact, I like (and trust) the sum total of one politician. I vote every election because I think it is the right thing to do. We have just had the local elections in SA and I must say (anecdotally, at least) that I haven't seen so many people keen to make their mark.

In order for South Africa to succeed, I believe that there need to be at least two political parties who actually have any power....

[Article] Taking the shine off gold

I like growing cash flows. Because of this, I despise commodities. I believe commodities add no value to an investment portfolio. Many may disagree with me but let's agree to disagree. A friend passed on a great article by McClean Asset Management called Should Your Portfolio Include Commodities? I have reproduced some of the thoughts below but I would recommend reading the entire article. Copying and pasting can sometimes take things out of context!

We always seem to hear about commodities wh...

[Opinion] Investing too much at home

In Forget the Noise, I propose building an income stream by using a majority of South African-listed assets. I have been doing a lot of  reading recently which challenges this belief. There is, of course, a lot of noise in the SA press about "state capture", "corruption" and "Guptas". None of this noise is great but it is not the source of my worries. You see my worry is that South Africa is a tiny part of the global market. I am taking a massive bet on South Africa. The whole Middle Eas...

[Sunday Update] Keep reading

Another weekend is coming to an end and there is no new dividend news. One of the things, I highlight in my book, Forget the Noise, is that you must read. You must read a lot. You can find a list of my favourite books here. I also have some favourite blogs and people that I follow. Here are 3 of them (I'll share more over time):
Ben CarlsonA Wealth of Common Sense BlogTwitter: https://twitter.com/awealthofcsWade PfauRetirement Researcher BlogTwitter: https://twitter.com/WadePfau...

[Sunday Update] Rates held steady

The main market news was the repo rate being held steady at 7%. GDP growth forecasts were slashed to 0% for 2016 which I have to admit is not the right direction I would the SA economy to be heading in.

On that sombre note, here is this week's updated table:




Disclaimer: I have tried my best to ensure that the table above is accurate. It is based on factual data and does not contain any recommendations. Errors and Omissions are Excluded (E&OE).

[Sunday Update] Chaotic World

The world is in crisis. Every day I turn on the TV and something terrible has happened. We have only just started to calm down after Brexit. Now we need to deal with non-financial terrors such as Nice and Turkey. Are we as a world doomed to destroy ourselves? I don't know what the future holds for share prices, politics or governments. None of us do. If we end up blowing up ourselves, what is the point of having any money? The future is uncertain but I know I need to plan for the future. How...

[Monday Madness] Free Book Giveaway 12 July to 16 July

Just a quick note on a Monday!

Keep an eye on Amazon. I am running 5-day giveaway of Forget the Noise Kindle Edition. Giveaway starts 12 July at midnight, Pacific Time (NB: note the time, this is about 9am South African time).

Link to the book: http://amzn.to/29HKZkP (UK link: http://amzn.to/29Jd5cC)

Thank you to all those who have supported the book since it has been released. I have enjoyed hearing all of your feedback.