Making sure that you have enough money to see you through retirement is a vital part of your future planning. But it shouldn’t be the only part.

A holistic approach to thinking about your future should also consider your overall wellbeing, and particularly the challenge of loneliness that many older people feel.

In this article we look at how dealing with loneliness is attracting more attention, and how loneliness and financial difficulties in retirement can form a negative spiral.

Many retirement and insurance products allow you to nominate beneficiaries – the people you would like to receive the proceeds, should you pass away.

The rules governing what happens next differ from product to product. And in some cases, the law might overrule your nomination: your estate has to provide for your dependants, even if you don’t want it to.

Mark Twain once said, “Buy land; they're not making it anymore.” But do these famous words still hold true? 

There’s much debate about investing in property, especially local property. Like all asset classes, it has its pros and cons. 

That said, we still believe it should form part of a diversified portfolio. After all, diversification is the only free lunch in the world of investment. 

War in the Middle East, expectations of higher-for-longer interest rates and ongoing fears that these would eventually take their toll on the world economy dampened investor sentiment during October and saw equity markets experience another negative month. 

But developed market stock markets still managed to hold onto many of the gains they experienced at the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, emerging markets are typically more volatile and vulnerable to adverse global developments – evident in South Africa’s negative performance during the month and year to date.