Buying a home? Here's everything you need to know in one place. This article is for anyone looking to buy a home. If you're frustrated with going it alone and researching everything yourself, this article can help you. Buying a home for the first time can be tricky. I get it. Everyone on the Internet has an opinion. Which is great in one sense because there's a wealth of information...
Holidays can be an expensive proposition. Once you factor everything in, sometimes you’re left wondering whether it’s actually worth the financial stretch, particularly when you could be putting that money, say, towards paying off the mortgage. If you’re a long-time reader of my blogs, you’ll know that getaways and holidays are a must for me and my family. We always bake-in holidays when planning next year’s...
Everything in life’s a trade-off, regardless of which way you look at it. Take accumulating wealth. To get to a point of choosing whether you want to work – or not! – takes discipline and sacrifice. In other words, getting there’ typically a massive trade-off when growing wealth. For me, the most difficult trade-off is having stuff and living happily and not beyond your means. I guess...
This week I want to touch on something I haven’t covered in previous blogs. Nearly half of adult Australians don’t have a will. That’s a lot. If you don’t have a will, that’s certainly no criticism, but more to say that you’re not alone. To be fair, it’s not something that’s really top of mind for your average Joe. And fair enough – no one likes to...
No one likes paying tax. Let’s face it. Actually, I’ll qualify that by saying ‘too’ much tax. There’s the often bandied about reason for the rich getting richer. To that I’d argue that anyone with a bit of wealth-driven nous is using the laws of the day – legal tax breaks, tax structure et al – to get their taxable income down and use potential return...
Have young kids? Well, now’s the time to introduce them to the concept of saving, and there’s no better way to do that than opening up a bank account for them. As parents, we play a critical role in educating our kids around money and, within that, establishing positive habits around spending and, more importantly, saving. To this end, if you’re good with money, chances are,...
The word ‘debt’ cops a bad wrap, in my opinion. Mention debt, and our minds tend to jump to the negative connotations of the word. And rightfully so. ‘Bad’ debt is exactly that – not great. Meaning, any debt that’s not going to make you money over the medium to long term (aka building your wealth) is something you want to avoid like the plague. Well, as much...
Being in debt ain’t fun. Particularly if it’s credit card debt and the compound nature of interest (in reverse!) means you can see no end in sight in terms of paying it down. I met someone recently who has racked up close to $30K between two credit cards over the past 18 months. She also has close to $3K on Afterpay. Both cards, I’m guessing, would be...
If you’re invested in the stock market and have had your ear to the ground, you’ve no doubt heard rumblings from Wall Street and major news outlets of the potential for an economic downturn. You keep hearing things like “the property market’s down another 20 percent”, “the global equities market’s bull run’s over”, “the United States’ trade war with China’s going to rip the carpet out...
Before you buy your first home, the thought of taking on a sizeable mortgage can be pretty daunting. I totally get it. I felt the same prior to taking the plunge and buying my first property back in 2007. There’s something about the psychology of borrowing such a large amount of money and paying it off over such a long period of time if, like...
