Financial independence is having enough wealth to not have to worry about the costs of living your life comfortably. Imagine being able to travel and see the world, being able to follow your passions, or being able to start your own business. Imagine if you did not need to worry about your children's tuition, or the need for a new car or house, or to be reassured that you will be able to take care of yourself and your family in the event of illness or accident. Financial independence means being able to make your money work for you so that you do not have to rely on working for your money later in life.
With an intelligent and long term investment portfolio this is a real possibility. Saving and preserving your wealth is extremely important but growing it is an essential part of gaining financial independence for yourself and for your family. To grow and preserve your wealth you have to do more than just be diligent about saving. An investment portfolio is a means of growing your wealth whereby you purchase something that will bring you financial income and capital appreciation. These gains can then be employed to create more return. This is called compounding. As simple as this seems it is very important that your investments are managed following an appropriate investment approach that makes sure that your investments beat the cost of the capital that you originally invested and beat it by an appropriate margin.
There are many alternative forms of investment that can offer return but to create a sustainable and long term investment portfolio that will be able to weather volatile economic conditions you need to consider your options carefully. While it may make sense to invest in physical things like property and art, the worth of these things are not easily valued and they can be cumbersome, tedious and expensive to maintain. Assets like equity and units in well performing equity funds are liquid, easily realisable and transferable. They can be considered better assets to invest in if you are looking to create a diverse segregated growth portfolio that is exposed to different sectors of the economy. Assets like these can span the globe and you can be exposed to some of the best performing brands and companies in the world.
Some economies are affected by depreciations in currency. Emerging economies like ours which are dependent on outside capital can be more extensively affected by impairment to their exchange rate. For this reason currency is another means of investing that can aid in the journey to financial independence. Purchasing foreign currency when the Rand is overvalued and then selling it when it reaches a favourable valuation can reward you largely and it can protect your purchasing power over the long term. Even if you do not sell it, holding a currency at a favourable valuation is an investment all by itself. The downside to having only currency as an investment is that when economic policy is biased toward low interest rates it puts savers at a disadvantage. With the current economic policy in a situation like this it makes it difficult to cover inflation if the interest rate does not benefit you enough. It is our belief that this downside can be offset by diversifying your investments into growth investments such as shares.
Just as there are many types of investments there many approaches to investment. We believe that our approach of seeking out sustainable returns over the long term through investment in sound companies with favourable valuations at a discount can provide you with the best foundation to build up your financial independence. We specialise in segregated portfolio management and have maintained a formidable reputation that is based on the real and sustainable investment return that we provide for our clients. Our approach is based on the pursuit of investment value and we are committed to this pursuit even in the face of volatile or euphoric economic conditions. We know the difference between a good investment at a discount, a cheap share, and a popular investment that is overpriced. We are diligent in our response to these differences and make sure that your portfolio does not fall prey to hype or unwise investment choices.
If you are interested in learning about building your own investment portfolio or are unhappy with how your investment portfolio is currently structured please let us show you how we can assist in making sure your portfolio brings you closer to financial independence. It is important that you, as an investor, feel that the approach used to build your portfolio is well suited to your investment needs. We can help you here. Contact us and we will arrange a consultation and investment presentation.