Investopoly

I’m a huge fan of Seth Godin’s work. He’s a presenter, author and entrepreneur and if you have any interest in marketing or business, you must subscribe to his daily blog . Anyway, his recent blog about the difference between an amateur and professional got me thinking. I think many of us could benefit from approaching our finances more professionally. The different between a professional and amat...

For many Australian’s, their home loan is their largest expense. And property investors should seek to minimise their borrowing costs (interest) as it’s one of the top three factors that directly impacts investment success as outlined in this blog . With this in mind, I thought it was timely to look at the current opportunities in the mortgage/interest rate market. What the “market” is expecting A...

A client was telling me a story about how the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a business he used to own passed away unexpectantly. Of course, it was a very sad event both personally and professionally. But an unexpected additional consequence was that the business was locked out of internet banking. The CFO had many important passwords committed to memory (for security). The business had to pay s...

How to get more control over how your super is invested and the fees you pay (and lower fees) Accountants often recommend establishing a Self Managed Super Funds (SMSF) as the best way to gain full control over how your super is invested. But most people don’t want the responsibility and compliance headaches that a SMSF can create. A wrap platform is an excellent alternative to a SMSF. In fact, th...

What is the best way to manage cash flow? Do you need a monthly budget to track every single cent? Or is high-level budgeting ok? And, how much is too much to spend i.e. how do you know if you are over-spending compared to your peers? This blog will answer these questions and many more. You cannot earn your way to improved cash flow Have you heard the saying; “it’s not what you earn, it’s what you...

Perhaps a softer property market will allow you to buy a future home now for below intrinsic value – especially if you plan to upsize or downsize in the next few years. Purchasers are in a stronger position in a softer market – especially with a backdrop of lower median property prices and lower auction clearance rates. This blog considers the financial merits of this strategy and what to look out...

If you are contemplating investing in property, should you buy now or wait? What if prices fall further this year? Maybe you would be better off waiting? As my analysis below reveals, buying for less than market value or at the bottom of the market (i.e. buying well ), has very little impact. The price we pay for a property has little impact on success as investors. So, the desire to buy below mar...

It was reported over the weekend that private school fees have increased by 3.6% over the past year. However, the longer-term trend is closer to 5% p.a. Private school fees are tipped to soon exceed $40,000! That is a big hit to after-tax cash flow. This blog compares three financial strategies you can use to fund future school fees. What is the future cost? There are two things to keep in mind wi...

One of the biggest mistakes that people make is deciding to invest in a few assets/investments and then, after that, figure out what their strategy looks like. Worse still, many financial services and property businesses do this too. They market investments that initially appear attractive but ultimately won’t help you achieve your goals. I outline why this is a very bad approach and what to do in...

If the ALP wins the election in May and ban negative gearing on established property (as proposed), does that mean property is no longer a good asset class to invest in? The answer is no, if you do it right. In an environment of no negative gearing, capital growth becomes even more important. The razzle dazzle of tax savings is too tempting for some people to ignore Too many people have been seduc...

When working out a retirement strategy, often people try to work out the value of investments they will need by multiplying the amount of annual retirement income they will need by a nominal interest rate. For example, if you want $100,000 p.a. in retirement and you think you can earn an income rate of say 3% p.a., you’ll need $3.4 million of net investment assets. The more aggressive you are with...

Question one: What didn’t work well in 2018? When planning, a good place to start is to ask yourself what were the one or two things that didn’t work well in 2018. Maybe you planned to sort out your super and didn’t get around to it? Or maybe you didn’t have a good enough handle on expenses (spending)? The idea is to identify one or two big things that didn’t turn out how you had hoped and develop...

Last weekend, The Australian newspaper published the blog I sent you last week where I predicted that the property market is close to the bottom and that prices next year would either be unchanged or improve slightly. Well, that article received over 60 comments and none of them were complimentary or supportive of my prediction. Upon reflection, I wanted to share some very important comments and o...

I think we are very close to the bottom of the property market – if not already there. In fact, I believe that price growth next year will be positive. I appreciate that this prediction is contrary to most, if not all the predictions in the marketplace – most notably AMP Capital’s chief economist, Shayne Oliver predicted last week that property will fall by a further 15%. I explain my view below....

Paul Nugent, the co-owner of Melbourne-based buyer’s agency, Wakelin Property Advisory , sadly passed away recently. I first met Paul back in 2004. Over the past 14+ years, Paul and I have given many presentations, shared a large number of mutual clients and have had numerous conversations and debates about property investment. Not only was Paul a true gentleman with an encyclopaedic knowledge of...

Nice family homes in blue-chip suburbs are becoming increasingly difficult to acquire from an affordability perspective. This also puts pressure on one’s capacity to fund an investment strategy whilst repaying a large loan. So, a few years ago, a strategy called ‘rentvesting’ was popularised. But this has some limitations. I have formulated an alternative strategy which I’ll call livevesting . Wha...

With the tightening in credit and the reduction in borrowing power, many investors capacity to invest has been adversely impacted. For example, an investor who planned to invest in two properties worth say $750k each might find that when it comes time to purchasing the second investment property, they can only afford to spend say $400k due to a contraction in borrowing capacity. This begs the ques...

No one wants to buy at the peak of the property market! Imagine if you buy a property and then a month later property values fall and it takes more than 2 years to recover to the amount you paid for it. That two years of holding costs (interest) for no gain. Would you kick yourself if that happened? This begs the question, how important is property market timing? How important is good timing? I us...

You must have a robust methodology for selecting the right share, property or bond to invest in. If you select the right asset, your investment returns are likely to be very healthy in the long run. However, if you make a mistake, it is likely to cost you money – in terms of opportunity cost and/or in real terms. The best way to prevent making a mistake is to use a methodology for selecting the ri...

There has been a lot of commentary in the media about the “credit crunch” that we are in at the moment. Why is the credit crunch going to impact you and your plans? And what can you do about it? Why has credit tightened? Over the past year I have written ( here and here ) about how the government has tightened up lending standards in an effort to cool the property market and reduce the volume of i...

How many properties do you think you need to own to generate enough wealth to fund a comfortable retirement? Most people think they need more than 3 properties to become independently wealth. Of course, the answer will be different for everyone because it depends on your income, existing assets, time until you retire, goals and other factors. However, having been involved in developing hundreds of...

The two certainties: death and taxes There are two unfortunate certainties in life; death and taxes. And, unfortunately, tax cannot be avoided (legitimately) even by dying. Australia is one of the very few countries in the world that has no death taxes. However, although there is no tax levied on the property of a deceased person, there may be tax consequences flowing from the dealings with the de...

The last thing you want to happen is that you work hard throughout your whole career, invest successfully and then lose a large amount of your wealth due to an unexpected event. Therefore, asset protection is just as important as asset accumulation. Asset protection is a subject that most investors fail to consider, don’t get good advice on and/or take the wrong advice. The goal of this blog is to...

Paying minimal tax probably appeals to most people. And as tax is often our biggest lifetime cash outflow, it might seem logical that minimising it is a great way to build wealth. However, I’m going to suggest that perhaps you need to pay more tax to build wealth. A higher tax bill typically means you have a higher income and therefore a higher borrowing capacity. I have seen lots of people cut th...

Significantly tighter credit, the potential abolition of negative gearing and increase in the capital gains tax rate, falling property prices, new apartment supply… these are some of the head winds facing property investors today. Given these challenges should you give up and not invest in property? I don’t think so. In fact, good investment opportunities tend to reveal themselves during times whe...