I'm sure there are decisions in your life, financial decisions, that worked out simply because of timing and luck. And I'm more than certain there were some that didn't.

Sometimes making decisions about where you will be financially in, say five years' time, are incredibly difficult.

The decisions have become a lot harder as we have moved from a sort of career-in-one-company model, or even just one career, into the strange and sometimes very scary gig economy.

The impossibility of long-term planning for you and I probably really comes to the fore when you buy a house. It's usually your biggest purchase (unless you have a Lamborghini collection and are thus no longer welcome to subscribe to this column.)

A recent returnee from exile in Cape Town told me over the weekend how they'd made money on their house there.

But he also said that he'd lost money on every single other property he'd ever owned.

Electricity production and the longer-term plan

Kgosientsho Ramokgopa reminds me a little of a prospective house-buyer.

As Electricity and Energy Minister he has to manage the longer-term plan.

And as a veteran of load shedding, you know how long-term electricity planning is, and more...