Hi Remy, I think you have a situation that is more common than you think! One option worth considering is selling your home and moving to another desirable (perhaps more so for lifestyle!)but cheaper area. For instance if your home is worth in excess of $700,000 there are many lovely areas (like where I live – Goulburn) where you could buy a lovely lifestyle for say $400,000 and have $300,000 to invest.
Goulburn is experiencing an enormous growth in people moving to the area for a better lifestyle for themselves and their children, but it is still relatively very affordable.
With your childrens desires to go to Uni, don’t feel you have to bear the full financial burden. Get them to start work at Maccas or somewhere similar at the earliest age possible, teach them the work and savings ethic, and guess what? – they won’t need much financial support from you when they do go to Uni! It worked for us.
Good luck and keep us posted!
Cappie
[]Like any property investment, real good deals in Commercial also come along. We bought a commercial property approx 15 mths ago for $155,000, as a going concern, therefore paid no GST up front. (We stayed registered for GST for only one year, so no longer have to submit 3 monthly GST reports).
After spending $23,000 on the retail outlet we received $420.00/ week in rent. We then constructed a commercial workshop at the rear at a cost of $65,000 and will rent that for $150.00/week. Our next project is to turn the scungy upstairs flats into bright/light studio appartment and rent them for $100 each/week. Cost to do each appartment is $20,000. For a total outlay of $283,000 we will receive $781.00/week. As this is part of our self managed super fund it is not mortgaged.
The income from the property is invested into shares.