@born94 I think you need to get a budget so that your investments and expenses are more structured. Don't focus on guarantee bonus for investments. Base investments of your contractual income as a starting point.
Higher equity allocations (diversified for better risk adjusted return) will result in a long term growth. But you need to remove the speculations! So the overlapping and stock picking. If you want to speculate - 5-10% max, if you can afford it. By this I mean the over allocation to US centric with S&P500 and MSCI World. Also all the stock picking which seams to be based on recency bias and future expectation of tech and automotive sectors (and these companies are already included in the index, no need to overweight them unless you have more information than what the market has).
So to take a step back:
Get a budget
Get rid of debt, highest rate first (excl property)
Get an emergency savings up with 3-6 months of living expenses (so excluding investments/savings)
You have a bond, this can be a good starting place to keep it via access bond facilities
Else just search the sub on the topic, but TLDR is savings accounts if you completely risk adverse, (I believe Tyme Bank is best atm, can use ratecompare.co.za) else a low cost and low volatility income fund (Lots of them out there. I think Sygnia's Enhanced Income is good, Investec has been referenced a few times as well).
Depending on situation, sometime emergency savings might not be needed since things like credit cards or other debt can be used, while money can rather be invested more aggressively with a higher expected return, but lets rather start with the basics here until you are comfortable with shifting things.
Sort out other short term savings, like car, holiday etc. can be similar to above.
Ultrashort term I personally just keep in savings pocket or savings account as part of my bank account of ease of use and transfer, like 1-3 month duration.
In terms of investments, make as little speculation as possible and understand why or what you are doing when you are making allocation decisions.
Fee's matter, make sure the funds and platform fee's are competitive.
Based on your investment amounts, I assume you are in higher range of tax bracket. So might be worthwhile upping your RA for some tax benefits. Although RA can be a big debate as it ultimately depends on tax rate, withdrawal rate in retirement and some assumptions of opportunity investing outside an RA vs investing in rand denominated and reg28 compliance. But we keeping things simple here to start with.
For RA, cheap platforms like 10X or Sygnia.
Sygnia with some index funds can be a good bet to optimize your cost and allocation.
Example here is 40/30/30 for World/Local/Bond index funds e.g. MSCI World, 10X Total World and then Top 40 Index and Bond Index. % are based on what is reg28 compliant, you can go higher on offshore. Note that once your allocation/growth results in non-compliance, you need to manually rebalance in order to contribute again. So some manual work here from time to time can happen
Otherwise just by into their standard RA fund if you want to keep things simple to start with and optimize once you are more comfortable, higher costs here.
TFSA you should rather be max as soon as possible. E.g. each March (beginning of new tax year) in order to maximize time in market. Although it normally just is allot easier whacking a monthly debit order on it and let it run and forget about it - part of monthly budget just like all other contributions.
Here it depends on your allocations, but a good starting point, imo, is pushing global exposure more since RA already contains allot of local exposure. Also TFSA sitting at 3k, for higher income individuals, this might only form a smaller portion of their investments long term. Starting out, 10X Total World. If you want some local here as well, add some Top 40 index.
Discretionary / Taxable
EE USD can be a starting point, although I much prefer IKBR over them, they are miles ahead in terms of offering and price, but the platform is a bit more of a learning curve to navigate and set your cost profile etc. I personally use Shyft for any currency conversions to USD / Euro and send internationally.
To make the forex fee's worthwhile, I only recommend this for long term investments. I haven't done the math in a long time, but I would probably say break even is around 7-10+ years
For ZAR holdings, there is nothing wrong with holding the same funds than your other accounts that is also meant for long term. Although here there can be some advantage structuring things for optimal tax savings where more tax benefits will be in your TFSA and less in discretionary, as long as both is seen as long term holdings for retirement
Overall, you should have an holistic view of your investments.. E.g. overall I want to be 30% local equity, 50% global equity and 15% in income/interest based and 5% as FU money that I gamble with. This excludes short term and more focused around your long term view. Then need to take tax efficiency in account. Where is the best place (investment vehicles) to invest what amounts and funds. Is it better to have my TFSA 100% local and investment outside of it rather in taxable or offshore with tax treaty etc. This can be a topic on its own so not going deeper into this.
Enough about investments, think about risk insurances like life and income protection. What happens if you get insured for example and can no longer work?
Financial dependents and estate, do you have a will? Nominee's on your RA? Who is the major bread winner? In the unfortunate event of you or spouse passing, is the other in a financially stable condition before and after estate is finalized?
Lot to take in above and things to think about. Apart that, I highly suggest you slowly improve your financial knowledge over time in order to understand what is more optimal and to make informed decisions when adjusting things.
@born94 There is overlap in 3.1 and 3.2, I'd just dump it in the world etf.
Also serious overlap with your US stock picks.
Nvidia is also overvalued and at an ATH because the market feels like they are great because of this AI stuff, yet other stocks are being downgraded because of AI hype. It probably means Nvidia is destined for the moon but it's too much of a risky ride for me.
