Unit Trusts - The New "Must Have" On Any Wedding Registry
Bob Dylan famously sang that “the times they are a changing”, and this is no less true for the world of wedding nuptials and gift registries.
Gone are the days when soon to be married couples listed crystal glasses, salad servers and hot trays on their gift registries – the new thing is unit trusts!
This is according to Mike Soekoe of Foord Asset Management, who says that Foord have recently had a number of couples approaching them to arrange for unit trusts to be listed on their wedding registry.
“More and more, people are realizing the importance of savvy investing for the future - of building a balanced portfolio that will ultimately see them through their retirement.”
“Unit trusts (known more formally as collective investment schemes) are a simple and effective way of investing over time and are a good place for any couple to start saving for the long term,” says Soekoe, who explains that unit trusts accommodate both big and small investors who wish to make use of the skills and expertise of a professional investment manager.
A unit trust investment made for a marrying couple may even allow them to retire several years earlier than originally hoped. Clearly, a wise unit trust investment (like a marriage) is something to be cherished for the long term; it is not a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme.
Foord believe that unit trusts should be held for a period of at least three to five years in order to be more assured of an appreciable return. “It is sensible to give your investment time to grow and overcome the inevitable fluctuations of the market – these fluctuations pale into relative insignificance over time. Unit trusts are an ideal and efficient way to save; just depositing your money in a bank account and leaving it there to earn small amounts of interest is hardly optimal,” says Soekoe.
Where to start?
Soekoes’ advice is that couples look at the Foord Flexible Fund which is ideally suited to being a substantial component of any retirement savings portfolio.
“The Foord Flexible Fund aims to provide investors with a net-of-fee return of 5% per annum above the annual change in the South African Consumer Price Index, measured over rolling three-year periods. The fund seeks to achieve this objective by exploiting the benefits of global diversification in a portfolio that continually reflects Foord Asset Management’s prevailing view on all available asset classes, both in South Africa and abroad.
“Young couples MUST look to the future and prepare for their retirement to ensure that theirs is a good one filled with enjoyable leisurely years free from financial worry! Unit trusts are the perfect way for people to build their valuable investment portfolios. The sooner you start investing, the brighter your financial future looks,” concludes Soekoe.
For more information on unit trusts and investing visit www.foord.co.za or contact (021) 5326988.