Die wysheid wat nie afgelaai kan word nie

November 3, 2026

Die spoed en omvang waarteen inligting en ontledings in ons moderne tyd aangebied word, is verstommend. Ons hoef nie meer ure in biblioteke te sit om navorsing te doen nie. Die internet en kunsmatige intelligensie kan ingewikkelde onderwerpe verduidelik, uiteenlopende menings saamvat en ontledings aanbied.


Hierteenoor leef ons in een van die mees problematiese tydperke van die wêreldgeskiedenis – geo-politieke verhoudinge is kompleks en gespanne en Westerse lande ervaar uiteenlopende intense  uitdagings. Help al die inligting en ontledings ons noodwendig om beter besluite te neem? Ek dink nie so nie. Daar is een vermoë wat die internet nie kan bied nie - dit is menslike wysheid.


Die Griekse filosoof, Socrates, sê hoe slimmer ons word hoe meer besef ons hoe min ons eintlik werklik weet: “Ek weet dat ek nie weet nie”. Miskien is dit die eerste teken van wysheid om nie deurgans antwoorde te hê nie, maar om eerder beter vrae te vra. Wysheid is nie om alles te weet nie, maar om te weet wat werklik saak maak.


Dan kom ons weer terug by die kernvraag wat ons deesdae moet vra: “Maak die beskikbaarheid van kennis ons noodwendig wyser.” Nie noodwendig nie. Kennis gee vir ons feite en ontledings; wysheid vra egter meer. Dit vra besinning, oordeel, perspektief, selfkennis uit ervaring, en die vermoë om te onderskei tussen wat ons kan doen en wat ons behoort te doen. ‘n Mens kan boeke oor verlies lees, maar die dood van ‘n geliefde leer jou iets wat geen ontleding volledig kan oordra nie. 


Daar is ook ‘n oënskynlike verband tussen ouderdom en wysheid Ouderdom waarborg nie noodwendig wysheid nie. Sommige mense word oud sonder om besinnende vrae te vra en sonder om ooit uit hul foute te leer. Ervaring, daarteenoor, wat gekoppel is aan nadenke en selfondersoek, bring ‘n soort insig wat nie bloot uit die versameling van feite ontstaan nie. In die Bybelse boek, Spreuke, word wysheid in ‘n groter morele raamwerk geplaas. Kennis behoort met nederigheid, insig en verantwoordelike vermeng te word.


Miskien is dit die paradoks van ons tyd: ons beskik oor al hoe meer antwoorde, maar die belangrikste vrae bly op ‘n menslike vlak. Wat is reg? Wat is genoeg? Wanneer moet ek swyg? Hierdie vrae vra meer as inligting. Hulle vra lewenservaring en insig.


Die uitdaging van ons tyd is dus nie om meer kennis te versamel nie, maar om te leer hoe om dit wys te gebruik. Want kennis kan ons help om die wêreld te verander. Wysheid help jou om te besluit watter verandering die moeite werd is.


Die kern van ons samelewinguitdagings in die tydperk waarin ons lewe is in werklikheid ‘n spanning tussen ons tegnologiese vermoëns en ons menslike vermoë om sinvol te oordeel. Ons het vandag dalk beter instrumente as ooit tevore, maar dit beteken nie dat ons noodwendig beter besluite neem, meer begrip vir mekaar het of gelukkiger saamleef nie.


Hoe meer ek van die lewe leer, hoe minder klink absolute sekerheid na wysheid.


Geskryf deur Koos van die Waterberge

vir Bovest

Why diversification matters—even when the future looks exciting

By PJ Botha • November 3, 2026
In conversations with people, and increasingly in the media, I hear the same message: “Just put everything in the S&P 500. Over time, it will all balance out.” There is sound reasoning behind investing in a broad share index over several decades. But that advice can overlook something important: your investment horizon and your ability to stay invested when markets fall. Even investors with decades ahead may need some of their money much sooner. During the dot-com crash, the S&P 500 fell approximately 49% from its peak in 2000 to its low in 2002. Imagine watching an investment of 1 million fall to roughly 510,000, excluding dividends and currency movements. It is easy to say you would remain invested; experiencing it can feel very different. Even the eventual winners suffered. Amazon’s share price fell approximately 94% between December 1999 and September 2001. An investment of $100,000 would temporarily have been worth around $6,000. Amazon survived and eventually flourished, but other businesses did not: Webvan and eToys entered bankruptcy in 2001, with shareholders facing the loss of their entire investment. Recovery is possible for a broad market; it is never assured for an individual company. If you need to draw an income, fund a major expense or simply find the losses unbearable, you may be forced—or tempted—to sell before markets recover. Different markets followed different paths. While US shares struggled, the JSE All Share initially rose approximately 52% between March 2000 and May 2002, before falling around 37% by April 2003. At that low, it was approximately 4% below its March 2000 starting level, excluding dividends. South Africa provided diversification, but its market still experienced a substantial decline along the way. Bonds also played an important role. Over the three calendar years from 2000 to 2002, US 10-year Treasury bonds delivered a cumulative return of approximately 42% in dollars, while South Africa’s All Bond Index returned approximately 63% in rand, including reinvested income. These are full-period returns, rather than peak-to-trough figures, but they show how different asset classes can support a portfolio when shares struggle. The Rand added another layer. It started 2000 at approximately R6.12 to the dollar and weakened dramatically, briefly reaching around R13.85 in December 2001. It subsequently recovered, briefly revisiting roughly R6.10 in December 2003 and trading around those levels again in July 2004. Rand weakness initially cushioned offshore losses for South African investors; the subsequent strengthening worked in the opposite direction. Moving offshore after a sharp currency decline can therefore introduce its own risks. Artificial intelligence (AI) is creating exciting opportunities today. The internet boom offers a useful reminder: a technology can change the world without every investment in it delivering a good return. The price paid and the expectations built into that price still matter. This does not mean a similar crash is imminent, or that investors should avoid the S&P 500. It means that an investment can be a useful part of a portfolio without being the right place for all your money. At Bovest, we build portfolios around your goals, income needs and investment horizon. Diversification across companies, sectors, countries, currencies and asset classes cannot prevent every loss, but it can reduce dependence on one outcome. The best portfolio is one that supports your financial goals—and that you can live with when markets become uncomfortable.

Think of Your Wealth as a Collection of Boxes

By Ruvan Grobler • November 3, 2026
Every investment in your portfolio should be able to answer one simple question: what are you here to do? If the answer is “I’m not sure” or “it looked good at the time”, that’s a shot in the dark. You might hit something, but you didn’t aim at anything. Goal based investing is the opposite, there is a reason and a plan behind every Rand you invest. Every investment goes into its own box, and every box has a label. The label says what the money is for, when the box will be opened and who it is meant for. One box might be your emergency fund, opened at a moment’s notice. Another might be school fees in six years. Another might be your retirement in twenty-five years. These are very different boxes, so they shouldn’t hold the same things. That’s why every goal needs a date, a goal without a time frame is a wish. The date on the label drives almost every decision we make about what goes inside and it determines the risk you can afford to take. Money needed in eighteen months can’t be exposed to a market that might fall 30% next quarter but money needed in twenty-five years can ride out that fall, and it needs growth assets to give it the best chance of beating inflation over time. It also determines the asset allocation. A short-term box leans towards cash and conservative assets. A long-term box leans towards equity. A medium-term box usually sits somewhere in between. Your emergency box must be easy to open, it determines liquidity. Your retirement box doesn’t need to be, and sometimes it’s better if it isn’t. A box that’s hard to open early protects you from yourself. Does the box itself matter? It does. Two boxes can hold exactly the same investment and still lead to very different outcomes. The structure around the investment decides how growth is taxed and who owns the asset. It also decides what happens when you pass away. Growth inside a retirement annuity is tax-free but the same investment held in your personal name is taxed on interest, dividends and capital gains along the way. On death, a retirement structure with a nominated beneficiary generally moves outside your estate, which means no executor’s fees and no estate duty on that capital. The same money in a discretionary account becomes part of the estate and attracts both. The investment is the same, but the box is not. So when we plan, we don’t only ask what to invest in. We also ask which box it should sit in, given the goal, the tax and the estate plan. How do we review a box? We review it against its label. This is where many investors go wrong. A long-term equity portfolio or a retirement annuity cannot be judged six months after you buy it. Markets move, and in any six-month period equities can lag or even fall. That doesn’t mean something went wrong. It means the box isn’t due to be opened for another twenty years. Judging it after six months is like digging up a seed every week to check on its roots. The same goes the other way. Your cash box shouldn’t be criticised for being “boring” next to your equity box. It’s doing exactly what it was built to do, which is to be there when you need it and a proper review asks different questions. Is the goal still the same? Has the date moved? Are the contributions on track? Is the risk still right for the time that’s left? As a box gets closer to opening, its contents could change. A portfolio that opens in two years shouldn’t look like it did when it had twenty to go. When every investment has a box, a label and a date, the noise gets a lot quieter. A bad quarter is just a bad quarter. You know what each Rand is for, and you know when you’ll need it. Reach out to me at ruvan@bovest.co.za and let’s look at your boxes together.  Ruvan J Grobler FSA® (PGDip Financial Planning)