My thoughts on 22seven

27 Jan 2012, Posted by Cape Town Girl in apps, cool websites, money money money, technology, 1 Comments

So the internet is abuzz about new financial tech arrival on the scene, 22seven, a subscription-based app / service that employs a ‘gamified’ approach to managing your money. That is, it turns developing good spending habits into something fun. Not a bad thing I don’t think, especially since most of us spend our lives unconsciously swiping away our cash. I was privvy to some of the thinking and development behind 22seven since I worked on the brand before it even had a name, and can say this much about it:

For all the doubting Thomases, a lot of time and energy has gone into the development and strategic partnerships that form the 22seven service. So while a lot of people are freaking out about giving their banking details to 3rd parties, I’m somewhat reassured by the fact that 22seven uses Yodlee, which has a flawless track record when it comes to online banking security. Something I guarantee YOUR bank does not have.

I also know that Christo and Di, the founders of 22seven, spent a year researching consumer and tech trends in the states, attending lectures and conferences and working with Dan Arielly, and I respect the amount of careful thought that has gone into the development of the app. It’s certainly more than my bank has done in developing an app (they have done zero, my bank does not offer an app). I also appreciate having help when it comes to making the most of my money, something of which South African banks do the exact opposite. In fact, it’s in their interests for you to NOT know how much you spend on charges, to be a little ‘out of it’ when it comes to your finances. The more of a mission it is keeping track of your investments vs costs vs expenditure vs monthly fees, the better. This app is designed to show you where you are wasting money, across every aspect of your finances. Not even your private banker knows / cares that much. No wonder they are freaking out about it.

Lastly, I know 22seven is designed to create a consciousness around how you spend your money. Anything that makes us more conscious, in my opinion, can only make the world a better place.

So while there’s a big ol’ hoo-haa now, I’m sure we’ll all be using 22seven within  year’s time.

UPDATE: Here is another article on why it’s safe to use 22seven.

how rich are you?

14 Jul 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in cool websites, money money money, 0 Comments

We can’t all make it onto the Forbes Top 10 Rich list. Or even the top 20. But now you can see where you stand! Check out the Global Rich List. You’re probably richer than you think!

(thanks JW)

15 signs you will be rich

14 Jun 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in money money money, 0 Comments

Among them, being tall and good-looking counts in your favour. But being married  increases your net worth the most – by 77%. More in this article.

Rich Bitch video gets released. Not sure how it makes me feel. You?

10 Mar 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in Celebrity, money money money, music, music video, south africa, 3 Comments

Just watched Yolandi Vi$$er from Die Antwoord’s video for Ritch Bitch. Not sure how I feel about it. Kinda feel like they ‘underutilised an opportunity’ here seeing as this is definitely the best song on their whole album. Felt it was a little ‘non-dynamic’ via her ‘lounging around on that bed the whole time’. But then again, maybe her toenails are as long as her fingernails and that ‘makes walking around and dancing sexy quite hard’.

I do like how they treated the best line in this song: “Nutella on my sarmie / fokken dik gesmeer bra” – translation: Nutella on my sandwich, smeared quite thickly. She takes a good big bite out of it and it kinda reminds me of two girls one sandwich. Or something like that.

There are some things I find a bit confusing about this vid. Like the fact that it ‘looks like it was made with R400 and a trip to A-Store in Kloof Street’. I kinda thought we were maybe past ‘giant fake popcorn buckets’ and ‘hologram lenses’ and ‘marijuana shades’. Feel like ‘we got over that’ when we all ‘got over the Scar haircut‘ and had agreed 2 ‘put this all behind us and not mention it again’.

Was kinda hoping that Interscope would take the ‘very raw and unpolished and sometimes debatable talent’ that is Yolandi and Ninja and ‘give them the LA treatment’. When I look at Die Antwoord in this vid, am just ‘not feeling growth’. It seems like they have ‘gone 2 LA and stayed in their hotel room skyping Cape Town’. Can I also ask a bold question here? Yolandi, Ninja, DID Y’ALL FILM THIS VID ON UR IPHONE 8MM APP? Yes, am referring to this black & white treatment. It’s okay. Maybe Interscope ‘doesn’t take financial risks’ on new artists / ‘artists who incorporate rats in2 their personal brands’.

All in all, it’s a good, shiney, gold effort. I’d give you guys hi-fives if I saw y’alls in Kloof Street and I wasn’t ‘too scared u would kill me if i spoke 2 u’.

Investment for CTGs: what I learnt with Global Trader

10 Feb 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG recommends, money money money, sponsors, 1 Comments

So the last month has been a wild rollercoaster of emotion with Global Trader as part of their What’s Stopping You campaign. They took a ‘chick who lounges around in lingerie eating cupcakes macaroons’ and gave her a whole bunch of macaroons and then said, we will make your more macaroons. And we made macaroons – boy did we make them. But we lost them too, and in the losing of the macaroons did I really learn what trading is about. To summarise:

- trading is great if you love the thrill of a moving puzzle. A lot of it involves watching the markets and then making educated guesses. and it’s fascinating how, when you suddenly think you’re on top of all of it, you get a bit of a curveball and suddenly your guessing system stops working, and you realise there is no guessing system, you just have to keep watching the markets. So it’s an exercise is being extremely present! Quite adrenalin-filled – if you enjoy poker, you’ll enjoy this.

- if you’re a phone-phobe like me, you’ll need to set up an email reporting system with your trader, or you’re going to miss out on some valuable advice and insight. Oli used to ring me in the morning and I’d miss  his call, and then I’d see my money going up and down and I’d be guessing what he’s doing and have to ask him later what went on. This got easier to manage by simply using the GT247 app on my desktop, which I’d recommend you do.

- trading is actually a lot easier than everyone thinks it is. Global Trader also make the information readily available. They just launched ‘The Wire’ which is like twitter for traders - you can see what everyone else is doing, and chat about what you’re going to do – real time. I reckon I’d spend most of my time here, because I don’t like to feel alone in my trading. I like to see what other people are doing. I’m a social market analyst, I like to see things in front of me.

- if you’re going to trade, start small. The risk of diving right into it can really cause some stress, which is why the services Global Trader offers are really invaluable. Having a dedicated trader gives you the most comprehensive level of service, whereas chilling on The Wire or using the desktop app keep you constantly connected. The best way to start is by creating a simulated account HERE and MAKE MISTAKES. Seriously. Making mistakes = learning.

How CTG did:

We started with 10k. We then went up to 14k. We then hit a low of about 7k. And then we got up to 11k again. So an overall earning of 10% in the three months I worked with Global Trader. Not bad! We could have done things differently, like banked the money at 14k. But I think part of the fun is taking risks. I really enjoyed it. Why not give it a try? What’s stopping you?

Click here to access the Wire

Click here to read the blogs on the wire – some great writers there

And Click here to go to Global Trader’s site. Give them a call and say CTG sent you.

lost a grand last week. that’s a new Dior fragrance. or two days worth of groceries, depending on whether your raise was above inflation or not.

30 Nov 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, competitions, money money money, 0 Comments

So with the wins come the losses right. While the week before last we made R2 500 playing the market, last week Oli and I got a little too excited about the way things MIGHT be going that we took a risk and we lost some money. Not a lot - just R 1000 – but still. It hurts. Ouchie. Anyway the reason we lost money is because the Euro suddenly got stronger. God knows why – all signs were pointing to it getting weaker because Ireland is in mad financial kak (the EU had to bail them out because they spent all their money – probably on whisky, and Burberry, yes I hear Burberry is HUGE there). Anyway against the odds the Euro got stronger, and we sold when Euros were at their lowest and BAM! There went our money. And Oli drew a graph to try and explain what happened:

Where we lost our shiz

Basically Oli sold Euros at that point in the circle, before the Euro started climbing higher. He reckoned it would have got weaker if he’d waited but whatevs, that’s in the past now. Plus Ireland do like their whisky so maybe they will need another bail out soon :P Will keep y’all updated on this wild world of stock trading. Emotional rollercoaster! For now we’re still sitting tight and not ‘chasing’ the market, as they say. Can’t afford to lose another macaron budget. Check out Global Trader’s site - where you can sign up for a simulated account and practise this whole trading thing with fake money before you go all out with real ca$h.

Coke bottle sells for $35 million.

16 Nov 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in Design, WTF, art, fashion, money money money, 1 Comments

Soooooo bummed y’alls. Wanted to put this in my guest bathroom. Had my eye on it for a while. Even bought matching black & white fluffy covers for my marble loo. And then BAM, someone snapped it up for $35 million. Guess that’s ‘just the way art goes’. Dear Andy Warhol, wish. you. were. here. 35 million. Damn.

Trading update: making (and banking) money

15 Nov 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, cape town, lifestyle, money money money, 14 Comments

Guys my dalliance with stock and share trading is going well. I am in the money!

So after our Naspers trade did pretty well, Oli suggested we start trading commodities, which are things like food, grain and metals. His reasoning was that the US dollar was taking a huge beating, and thus a commodity like copper was cheaper. Why? Because copper prices track the dollar prices (the US is the 2nd largest copper producing country in the world) so I’d get more for my money. Simple. And thus weak dollar means copper is cheaper for other countries to import, which means copper is at a 2-year high.

Copper was looking good for a few reasons – it was trading at a price similar to 2008 , even though some countries like china came out and said they were scaling down there imports of copper. Plus copper is a base metal that is widely used and in high demand (so it’s not gonna suddenly tank). So we decided to risk a R1 900 margin by selling SHORT Copper (we were anticipating that the price of copper would move down, as the dollar strengthened - is just logical really) – - (PS margin is YOUR money that you outlay) and we got some GREAT returns on that – R1 500 to be roughly exact. Nice following the R600 bucks I made off the Naspers trade.

We then had a look at the week’s trades – Naspers, Aus Dollars & Copper – and we find ourselves sitting on a profit of about R2 400,00. Nice for my first week. But stop: at this point I must make the decision to close the trade and bank the money, or to let the trade go on into the weekend. Now a very NB thing I have learnt is to stick to your strategy when it comes to trading and to not get greedy when you’re doing well. Things had gone according to plan, so Oli and I made the call to close the trade and bank the money.

Next week, it’s a fresh start. Exciting! I’m really loving this. It’s like chess meets poker on crack. To get trading yourself, or just find out how to, a good way to start would be by doing a self-evaluation so you know how much you do and don’t know. Click here to check it out.

UPDATE: Oli from GlobalTrader247 and I chatted this morning and the markets aren’t looking great. So we’ve made the mature call to just hold back and wait until it looks like we’d make a profit on some sharetrading. We were thinking gold, but it could go either way at this point, so we’re going to sit tight. A very important part of share trading! Let’s quote some Wyclef-doing-Kenny-Rogers this fine Monday afternoon, whaddya say:

You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em
Know when to fold ‘em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
You never count your money
When you’re sittin’ at the table
There’ll be time enough for countin’
When the dealin’s done

The trade goes on: Last week’s ca$h profits, this week’s share purchases, Naspers, China and Lady Gaga

08 Nov 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG recommends, advertising, blogs, cape town, lifestyle, money money money, south africa, 11 Comments

So our trade from last week is still in play – we were up to R600 profit this am, but it’s dropped and have now made a R250-odd profit thus far and Ollie tells me he is happy with the way things are going so we’re letting it continue (even though things were looking quite bad at 2am this morning, when we were just breaking even, somehow the numbers did their thing and balanced out by the time I got the call from Globaltrader at 10am this morning). Good news! Feeling encouraged. Feeling like not a total numbers dufus.

Anyway I have been doing some of my own ‘fundamental research’ (where you look at the business as a whole, it’s past, present and future, it’s ethics, what its staff say about working there, etc) and I asked Ollie about buying some Naspers shares (will tell you why later), and I sent him to this link and asked if he thought it was a good idea. He then drew me this graph, and used it to help explain why he thought it was a good  idea:

How funky is this graph? Wish we coulda done this in school. Would have made ‘how to be a mogul’ classes so much more fun. Anyway here’s what Ollie explained: you see that grey block? It shows that Naspers stock has been trending upwards. Which is a good thing. He was slightly worried however, because the graph has ‘broken through’ at the bottom there (where the little white line falls out of that uptrend grey block). So what he recommended is, instead of just buying it right out, to put an order in (which you can do from the Global Trader desktop app) to purchase shares when they hit a certain price. In this instance, a good price to buy at would be R359,05. So that’s what we’re doing.

That Stop-Loss of R350.89 in red letters - that is like a trading ‘trip switch’. You put a stop-loss in to make sure you don’t lose too much money. So when the share price falls below R350.89, the trade will automatically be closed, preventing a future where I ‘eat catfood from tins’ and ‘live in the alley behind the Louis Vuitton store at the Waterfront’.

Ollie will let me know as soon as the order goes through so we can start watching the Naspers shares.

PS. Why Naspers?

Well, they are an SA company whom I find interesting. They own like, over half of China’s internet. Their CEO fires people who can’t move with the digital times with rampant abandon (I respect that, I would do the same in my own company) and they’re pioneers in the publishing industry, which I respect, too.

If you look at publishing in this country without any sentimentality, you really have to wonder how any of the magazines still make money, since most of them are failing to even acknowledge the fact that the internet now delivers new trends in fashion and popculture daily, making the traditional magazine contents page largely redundant by the time it lands in your postbox. And the rest? Another article about how to deal with the office bitch? Really? Um, scuse me while I go read a 10-page investigative journalism piece on How Lady Gaga Rose To Fame on NYmag.com – nothing personal, it’s just more interesting. SA media houses largely don’t seem to accept that they need to change what they do in order to make themselves relevant again. Naspers, however, is all over that. So they get my money.

PPS. Just got a text telling me my order went through. I’m now a proud Naspers shareholder. 100 shares. Mine. God it feels good!

PPPS. Click here to sign up with a Global Trader Simulated Account and practise trading until you feel confident to use real money. It’s really not as hard or complicated as you think it is! Plus you could win R10 000 to trade with. Win-win, as they say.

CTG starts ‘learning the markets’, bakers rejoice

02 Nov 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, CTG recommends, bloggers, cape town, field guides, lifestyle, money money money, sponsors, 15 Comments

So I’m learning to buy and sell (at a profit) shares on the stock market through GlobalTrader, a company who enables you to trade on behalf of yourself, online. Being a complete novice to this world, they sent a very patient broker by the name of Mark through who gave me a crash course in trading. I wrote some notes. Let me refer to them.

Wish he was riding a bull so could make a pun about 'owning the bull markets', or something.

Firstly, he explained what kind of stock I’d be trading. I’ll be trading CFDs (Contract For Difference) which basically allows me to trade with more money that I have already invested. For example, I’m starting off with R10 000, but a CFD will allow me to trade to the value of R20 000, and the difference will be loaned to me by Globaltrader. Great if you know what you’re doing but don’t have too much money to play with.

GlobalTrader makes the whole system very easy, because you just download an app that sits on your desktop and you watch your shares throughout the day. If you decide you want to buy or sell, you can do it right there on the app, instead of calling your broker. You can call him too, which I sometimes like to do, just because Mark is nice to chat to.

In my crash course I learnt this: there are 3 things you can do when trading: Buy, Sell, or do nothing, and sometimes, doing nothing is better than both buying or selling. So really, ‘trading is like a metaphor for life’.

When choosing which shares to buy, there are 2 ways of doing it: 1) you can look at the charts or 2) you can do some fundamental research into the background of the company. You should probably do a bit of both, but I quite like the second, because I like understanding how business impacts people and rides trends and shizz. For eg, I happen to know that despite the fact that never have we been more educated about the dangers of smoking, never have we been heavier smokers (hardcore!) and that fascinates me, and even though it saddens me, I might just invest in British American Tobacco, because never have cigarettes been this expensive! What a crazy intense mind-puzzle of a socio-economic party!

Anyway every morning I’ll be checking in with GlobalTrader and we’ll be ‘discussing how my CFDs are doing’, and they will help me make buying and selling decisions until I feel confident enough to do it on my own. So watch this space – I’ll be letting you know how it goes. My next step would be to decide where I’m going to buy. I’m thinking fashion, technology and financial institutions would be my first port of call. Oh, and MTN, because they are a progressive company that invests in bloggers.

Yes people – this is my turn to GIVE BACK to the corporations that have nurtured me so well. Excited! Click here to read more about how I’ll be working with GlobalTrader as part of their What’s Stopping You campaign.