I spent the weekend at the Cape Town Coffee Festival. One of my businesses (RECUP South Africa) hired a stand and presented South Africa's first coffee cup exchange programme. The company's goal is to rid the world of single use coffee cups. I was overwhelmed by the support we received. People are certainly very conscious of the environmental impact of their coffee consumption.
With all the negativity in South Africa at the moment, it was refreshing to spend the weekend at such an awesome event.
Onto investing. Even though we got a shocking GDP number today, we shouldn't deviate from our plan. Why? Because your plan should withstand shocks such as poor GDP numbers. This means your investment portfolio shouldn't be reliant on any one country, market, company and/or industry.
As always, here is a guideline for your plan:
- Invest your money in real assets (property, shares etc - if South Africa goes south, ZAR cash isn't going to worth very much. I feel real assets have a better chance of maintaining purchasing power.)
- Build an offshore store of wealth or investment portfolio (heck, if you want to leave, it can be the start of you saving towards one of those Visa's you can buy in some European countries)
- Have access to offshore cash in hard currency (USD, EUR or GBP). If you need to get on a plane then you have some rent and food money.
- Start meditating (I am serious). Learn to deal with stress/anger that uncertainty in South Africa is causing you.
- Lastly, on a sunny African day go for a walk on the promenade at your nearest beach and wonder is it all really that bad...
