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Two articles, 2 years apart – how time changes things. 

October 19, 2015
http://www.reuters.com/article/safrica-beverages-brandy/south-african-brandy-orders-shot-of-state-support-to-chase-whisky-idUSL5N11Y3EY20151019

October 13, 2017
http://www.sharenet.co.za/news/Brandy_chases_whisky_in_South_African_spirit_wars/b46ae4a5a6d9a7d8bfe37f5135dc1371

Yes, it’s true.  Go check yours out.  Here are a few gems I’ve discovered in my messages.   Do they really expect anybody to fall for this?

http://hellogiggles.com/apparently-theres-another-hidden-message-inbox-facebook/?utm_campaign=socialflowfacebook&utm_source=Social&utm_medium=Facebook



You caught my eye with your profile, I felt a divine spark in my heart, a connection which makes my heart beat fast. what can i say opposites attract.my reaction was instant, my heart charmed by the eloquent presentation of your personality and the unwritten words said by your picture. I just had to offer you my hand of friendship and a place in my heart


How are you doing? You are very attractive and beautiful with a warm face that says a lot about good woman. I would love to have some genuine conversation with you


Lovely Smiles You have and you Look Good, I Will Love To Know You Can We Be Friends?.


Sexy, sjarmant, goed gebou, slim, opreg, nederig, handsome, sagte hart... okay nou genoeg van my.. hoe gaan dit met jou?



Say what now?

As with everything in life, plan for the worse, expect the best. 50/50 Chance


Warren Ingram shares pointers on what to do.

Warren Ingram | 3 November 2015 00:01

It is a harsh reality that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce. Aside from the enormous emotional toll, divorce is one of the most financially damaging events that can happen to an individual.

It is an incredibly expensive process, especially if the divorce is acrimonious. The emotional impact often causes people to make poor financial decisions that have a lasting effect on their finances.

What the stats say

According to information from Statistics South Africa, a male is most likely to be divorced at age 42 and a female at age 38. The largest number of divorces happen in marriages that have a duration ranging from five to nine years. Nearly 55% of divorces involve parents who have children under the age of 18.

As a 39-year-old male who has been happily married for nearly ten years – I am certainly making sure I do my share of the chores at home, which is apparently one of the key factors to a successful, long marriage!

What to do

If you are going through this unfortunate experience, here are some pointers to help.

If you have not finalised the divorce agreement, make sure that you accurately calculate how much capital you will need to fund your expenses. A rough indicator would be to expect R4 167 income per month for every R1 million of capital you receive. To put it differently if you get a R1 million pay out, you can comfortably draw 5% per year from this money if it is invested in a diversified portfolio.

Face your reality today – you can’t dwell on how your life used to be and what you may have had in the past. Face up to what you have now and try to reconcile yourself to your new financial reality.

Prioritise your most important lifestyle/financial goals – most divorced people find that their budgets reduce by more than 50% after a divorce. This means that you have to decide how to reallocate your very scarce financial resources and often the best way to do this is by writing down your goals and revisiting them a few times over a few weeks before making a decision.

Develop and stick to a budget – compulsive spending or financially compensating for the trauma of a divorce is not going to help you in the long term.

Develop a game plan for your money – your situation might be compromised but this does not mean you can ignore your finances and hope that things get better on their own. You have to develop a plan for how you are going to generate income, manage expenses and debt and look after your assets. You can do this on your own or with an advisor, just make sure you take action.

If you were not the breadwinner in your marriage, you will now need to become one for yourself – take the time to determine how you can generate an income and if necessary invest some money in training/upskilling yourself.

Avoid making big, long-term financial decisions for the first year after your divorce where possible – don’t immediately buy a new home or invest in a new business. Opening a new coffee shop or food outlet a month after your receive a pay-out is not necessarily your best idea. It might still be a great decision but don’t rush into these decisions, take time to let your emotions settle and then do proper homework before taking the plunge.

*Warren Ingram is an executive at SmartRand. Please go to www.smartrand.com to contact him for ideas and suggestions.

Taken from http://www.1mtb.com/ - Looks like 11, but "No.5 Copy" has been scrapped.




Top 10 Best Free Cloud Storage Services

As the use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets increase everyday, the need for cloud storage services has also been growing rapidly. Mobile devices with their small and sleek form factors have limitations on the internal storage available on them. This has made cloud storage services a necessity even to the common man. Vying the huge potential in online storage space, many cloud storage services are providing free storage to lure new customers.

With free cloud storage services you can store your videos, music, movies, photos and files in the cloud for free and access them from anywhere on the go through internet. Your data is safe with the cloud storage providers and you don’t run the risk of a crashed or stolen hard disk. Listed below are the top 10 best free cloud storage services.

Top 10 Best Free Cloud Storage Services

1. Dropbox: Without any doubts, Dropbox is the best cloud storage service in the world. It is very simple to use and is available on almost every platform. Dropbox provides 2 GB of free cloud storage to every user and you can also earn upto 16 GB of additional free storage by referring Dropbox to your friends. (Also See: How To Get More Free Dropbox Cloud Storage Space?)

2. Google Drive: The cloud storage service from the search giant Google provides you with 15 GB of free storage which is shared among its various services like Gmail, Google Plus etc. along with Google Drive. Google Drive lets you store, share and edit your files. You can also collaborate with others to work on your files. (Also See: How To Get More Free Google Drive Cloud Storage Space?)

3. Box: While Dropbox is popular among individuals, Box is popular among business and enterprise users. Box provides 10 GB of free storage for personal use. With a personal account you can only upload files smaller than 250 MB to the cloud which is a major inconvenience if you are looking to store movies or large files. (Also See: How To Get More Free Box Cloud Storage Space?)

4. Mega: Mega comes from the once very popular file hosting service megaupload.com. After megaupload.com was shut down, Mega was launched as the cloud storage service. Mega provides 50 GB of free cloud storage to its clients. (Also See: How To Get Extra Free Cloud Storage On OneDrive, Copy, Bitcasa & Mega?)

5. Copy: Barracuda Networks, the computer data storage company has made a foray into the cloud storage space with Copy. Copy provides 15 GB of free cloud storage to every user and you also get a whopping 5 GB free space for every friend you refer. There is no upper limit to the free storage you can get and sky is the limit.
Many readers have found out that ‘Copy’ is a very insecure cloud storage service. Big thanks to all the commenters for notifying others the potential risks of ‘Copy’.

5. ADrive: ADrive gives you an impressive 50 GB of free cloud storage with personal accounts. But, with the free account you miss out on the best features of ADrive like 16 GB file uploads and also have to bear with the ads on Android and iOS apps.

6. Bitcasa: Bitcasa is a cloud storage service that lays emphasis on the privacy of your data. All data you store on Bitcasa is encrypted before upload and only you can view them. Bitcasa provides 20 GB of free cloud storage and you can access your data from 3 different devices.

7. OneDrive: Microsoft has recently re-branded its cloud storage service previously named SkyDrive to OneDrive. In its attempt to gain a foothold in the industry and drive hundreds of millions of its customers to OneDrive, Microsoft is giving away 7 GB 15 GB of free cloud storage to its users. You can get an additional 5 GB by referring your friends and 3 GB more by enabling photo backup.

8. SpiderOak: This is one more cloud storage service that lays more emphasis on your data privacy. SpiderOak provides a meager 2 GB of free cloud storage which can be expanded upto 10 GB by referring friends (you get 1 GB for every friend you refer to the service).

9. Tencent Weiyun: Tencent is a very huge Chinese internet company that is offering a whopping 10 TB of free cloud storage to every new user! Yes, you heard it right. That is 10240 GB of free cloud storage! So, if you trust the Chinese, you can claim your 10 TB right now. Follow the instructions here.

10. Qihoo 360 Yunpan (Cloud Drive): Qihoo 360 is a reputed Chinese internet security company that offers loads of free cloud storage space. The Qihoo 360 Cloud Drive used to offer a whopping 36 TB (36864 GB!) free cloud storage space. It stills offers huge Terabytes of free cloud storage. Stop worrying about privacy and use this Chinese cloud storage service to dump non-private stuff. (Read: How To Get 36 TB Free Cloud Storage From Qihoo 360 Yunpan (Cloud Drive)?)

2014 Article, but still worth reading, good explanation of overall issue.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessecolombo/2014/03/19/a-guide-to-south-africas-economic-bubble-and-coming-crisis/3/

So, you're ready to share your thoughts and memories?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-02-04/mind-clones-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence

With respect to those who are bigger than they should be, but this is too funny not to share.

Where are you now?

I'm thinking most investors are at 'euphoria' starting very slowly to move over to 'unease'. 

I'm between denial & pessimism.