Forum Replies Created
Hiya Jenny,
When you say “any ideas”….do you really mean any ideas at all ?? Are you open to all suggestions ??
Here’s mine..for what’s it’s worth. (it’s a repeat – you’ve heard it before, so probably not a lot !!). [blink]
When you were purchasing this place back in April I sent you a cracker of a little shop leased out for 3 years. Purchase price was 89K and the rent was 12K nett per year (tenant paid all o/g’s).
My suggestion would be to flog your new tarted up place to the highest bidder and acquire some props that have both +CF and also ready to go tenants in place.
It’s probably not what you wanted to hear in terms of simply renting it out – but sometimes pulling the plug and moving to greener pastures can be the best option.
Hope hubby is recovering OK.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Well hiya Mr & Mrs Cupcake,
Love the name – good choice !!!
I believe full understanding and knowledge of your subject matter, along with hands on experience will be the best cure for your initial fears.
If you have a fantastic lifestyle now, and do not in any way wish to compromise that, you might find it a tad hard when first starting out for your – I’m assuming – residential investment portfolio not to impinge on that. Both from a financial and a whinge factor (hassled time).
If you do discover the elixir to investing where they neither impinge on your lifestyle / time and/or cash…can you let me know…I’ll come and join you. [biggrin]
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Courtesy of Jaffasoft (see sticky at top of Help section)
Terry,
Great post, really interesting and well covered on the generalities of the market.
Was there any mention of these ‘intergenerational loans’ that I’ve heard about. That is, the grandfather takes out the loan, father continues paying and eventually the son gets to pay the loan out ?? Is that myth or fact ??
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Hey F,
That’s an extremely broad brush you’re using there to paint “most parts of” all around the massive market that you describe.
Seeing as though it is impossible to buy the entire nation’s resi market, I fail to see how one can individually prosper from the data you quote.
It looks as though you’ve addressed the ‘con’ half of Beast’s original question. What do you see for the ‘pro’ side ??
Which specific areas are you currently targeting – assuming your ‘most parts’ is not indeed ‘all’, that do not fall into the category you describe ??
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Great story Redwing.
I’ve had a similar experience. Took 3 or 4 very frustrating calls spanning about 7 weeks.
Finally worked out talking to the Manager’s of the organisation was a complete waste of time. As soon as they put the phone down after talking to you, your request was obviously put aside and they dealt with soemthing else.
Eventually got through to the lass in accounts who actually entered the data into the stupid computer system that kept churning out the notices. Problem solved in 10 minutes.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Hi leoau,
I won’t sugar coat it. I’ll leave that to Bob-a-Dob.
You probably realise that the current choices are all pretty unpalatable, and are the result of previous poor choices. The way you are weighing things up in your post with your different options, you appear to be taking the easy way out again, which inevitably will lead to worse choices again, the whole thing spiralling downwards. You seem quite prepared to dump your creditors in the ditch and move on. Did you enjoy the good or service they provided to you on credit – i.e. the promise to pay them back ??
Noel Whittaker has written an excellent piece on this very subject of making choices in one of his earlier books.
I was disappointed that one of your choices wasn’t “Knuckle down, reign in my expenses and pay the loan/s back ASAP”.
The only thing you can do is start making the ‘proper’ choices to get yourself back into the arena where the choices are more pleasant. None of those ‘proper’ choices will result in easy and nice consequences. It’ll be tough and uphill all the way.
Personally, it would be a massive knock to my integrity to have to declare “bankruptcy” and I’d do absolutely everything in my power to avoid that ‘end of the line’ option, regardless if it looked like the easy option and saved me a bit of money. Maybe taking the easy options has led to this in the first place ??
If you are serious about getting out of your current predicament, I’d live like a pauper, cut up the cards, chuck away every conceivable luxury in your life and eliminate the accumulated debt in about 18 or 24 months of extremely hard slog. Some good habits might have permeated through in that timeframe and you might be on your way.
Og Mandano was in a far worse position than yourself and made a huge financial success of his life. Look him up.
I’m not saying you are nearly in that situation, but you have a hard road ahead to hoe. If you haven’t or aren’t prepared to change your habits that got yourself in the hole to start with, then the only one you’re kidding is yourself.
What are you prepared to sacrifice, or maybe more to the point, what are you not prepared to give up to get out of your position ??
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Marisa,
They sound like they are having a good crack at it, although I wouldn’t be so conservative, especially if they are young (under 40). [biggrin]
I recall when asked for the biggest regret that the female Qld ex-teacher had looking back on building up her portfolio, she replied “No regrets really, but if I could change one thing, I definitely would have borrowed more and extended ourselves further in the early days.”
Perhaps these folks are living that advice and forging ahead.
Cheer up Richard “They are purely reliant on rent and capital gain.” Oh, I don’t know, what about a bucket load of tenacity, a steely determination to succeed, heaps of research with a power of authority and maybe a couple of weighty friends in the wings just in case a small %age goes pear shaped.
Frankly, their whole numbers scenario looks decidedly pedestrian – but then you’d agree as well wouldn’t you Richard ??
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Hi Oshen,
Last time I answered one of these, I asked a rhetorical question and it wasn’t appreciated very much, so if you want me to sugar coat my suggestion a bit let me know.
Anyway, this is what I’d do in your situation.
1. Jump on a bus and head down or up or across, wherever you are coming from to Toowoomba.
2. Go and see the head knob of both OD&E and Century Drilling.
3. Refuse to leave until they give you a job.
I remember one of the boys I used to work with did exactly that. They flatly refused to give him a job ‘cos he was only 5’3″ (called him pup joint). This was in the mid 80’s and he sat there doggedly determined not to leave without a job. After 5 long days of sitting there being rejected, the Manager came out and threw a pair of Redwings boots at him and said “Here ya go, you start next week, now get out of my face.”
He turned out to be such a good worker, they eventually asked him if he had anyone else in his family who wanted a job. Last time I heard, there was 4 or 5 of them from the same family employed all on great money. If that first one had of given up or not tried as hard, the entire family would of been worse off, as well as the company that gained their services.
Not a very hi-tech prop. investment solution I know, and probably way out there well outside your comfort zone, but from previous posts the lack of reward from your current employ seems to be your Achilles heal.
There you go – plain and simple. Now – don’t jump down my neck please !!!! [biggrin]
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Redwing / Marisa,
Could I ask you guys a favour…
When the figures for Q2 2005 come out and are published in the Saturday West Australian, (usually 2nd or 3rd week of August) could you please post them on here for me to view.
Where I’m at right now, there are no newspapers allowed, and the Prez (or the CIA – never know which) has shut down access to all Western media internet sites and especially anything to do with Western financial websites – banking sites particularly. Mr Bush and his foreign policies are not very popular, to say the least.
Because Steve’s site had “property” and “investing” in it, I was barred access to it as well for the past few days. SS forum was OK though, probably ‘cos it doesn’t have anything to do with money in it’s title ?? Had to fight tooth and nail to get access – special permission from the Information Ministry, but what I write is monitored….hmmm, can’t wait to get back to Perth.
Anyway, when the figures come out it’d be appreciated.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Thanks for the info Redwing.
I question sometimes the detail of the data provided. If you dig a little deeper there is usually a factor that is swaying the figures so much.
*** Following figures quoted are real rough and straight off the top of my head…
I can remember a few years back Mt Claremont ‘looked’ like it was taking off like a rocket – recording consistent gains of 30 or more percent per quarter for about 6 or so quarters…
In reality, what was happening was the titles office (DOLI) was seeing transactions coming through for say $ 350K for a block. It then got built on with a nice $250K house and subsequently was sold off for say $ 700K 18 months later. That transaction went across the DOLI, and hey presto it looks like the suburb is appreciating 100%.
Now that most of the vacant land has been built on, the ‘real’ growth figures for Mt Claremont look positively pedestrian. The people who rushed in after the building must be sorely disappointed with their subsequent results.
I wonder if this “bare block to established suburb” phenomenom is what is skewing the figures again ??
Just a thought ??
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
MrCamacho,
The source of your misunderstanding may lie in the fact that you can’t do it.
There is a big difference between not understanding something, and simply not being able to afford to do it.
To gain understanding, simply take your fully paid off title deed of your PPOR worth 1MM down to your friendly local bank branch, and along with your $ 500K p.a. salary, buy 10 houses worth 100K each (LVR of 50%) and merrily service the loan that you’ve just taken out.
If your particular numbers for both the equity you have in your PPOR and salary are not big enough for the bank to approve, then you cannot.
I think it is the lack of big numbers, not lack of understanding, that is causing you to not reach your stated aims.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Mikala,
I agree with everything you have written except the word “an“. If you changed the word to “the” I think you’d be closer to the ATO’s position. I know it’s nit picking, but that’s what the ATO does and would be the difference between a successful claim or not.
I agree that it is the intent that counts in the eyes of the ATO, but my understanding is that along with that intent – there has to be the very real possibility of eventual taxable income flowing from that specific asset that the expense directly relates to at some later, unspecified date. Allocating the expense to another property in your portfolio isn’t going to fly. Surely if the contract to purchase an IP, and by definition the intent to earn taxable income, is dependent on “subject to” clauses and they fall over…there no longer exists an intent or possibility to earn income ??
A similar case but closer to getting over the ATO line was reported a few years back, whereby hobby farmers (who went one step further and actually owned the property) were claiming massive deductions against piddly little incomes. The ATO decided (or a court – can’t remember) that there was never a possibility that the hobby farm would ever come close to generating a taxable income large enough in the foreseeable future for the ATO to earn tax off, and therefore the farmers deductions were rejected. They had the intent, but not the capacity to generate income.
If mauricio has decided, based on the contents of the report – not to proceed, that second criteria of the capacity, has not and can never been fulfilled and therefore the expense is not deductable.
This is my understanding of mauricio’s specific situation. Would be good to have some definitive clarification.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
If you recall Trav, you asked the ‘open question’ for any insights. If you find my response (a question) narrow minded and ignorant…that’s great !! Care factor is pretty low. I fail to see how a question can be classified as such ??
I think it’s a bit rich asking the forum to comment and offer opinions on your financial circumstances when revealing only 3 flimsy lines of scant data, and then beat the respondees about the head later on when by saying they are ignorant and narrow minded ?? Real nice much later on to reveal a tad more data. What else are they meant to do other than make intelligent assumptions ?? What else is there that is relevant to your original question that you also haven’t mentioned.
If you care to read my post carefully, I haven’t passed judgement on anyone – I simply asked you a question – wish hat do you wish to wear ?? From your response, I gather you want all the freedoms and niceities of the first hat, with all of the wet nursing of the second hat…the most common choice made by most (not all) younger folk nowadays.
Frankly I don’t give a rats wish one you wear – it’s neither here nor there to me. To save you the embarrassment and stress, I shall quietly oblige never to respond to any of your future questions.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
crf,
Put on a big happy attitude and zip into your local council and have a quiet chat. They’ll outline zoning / requirements / setbacks, upfront costs etc etc.
They’ll be most enlightening with what they allow you to do with ‘your’ block.
After having a chat with them, I always come away with the feeling that I have very little say over what I can do with ‘my’ block.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Oshen,
In theory, nothing stopping girls from working on the rigs. Most company procedures specifically allow for it so as to prove to their lawyers that they can’t be sued for discrimination, but that sits on the shelf in head office gathering dust. In reality, it’s a whole lot different.
In my 15 years on the rigs, probably working with cumulatively 10,000’s of people, I’ve only ever encountered 4 girls.
Two of the young girls were local Roma girls whose fathers were pushers working out at Eromanga. The novelty of having a young pretty thing wore off real quick when all the boys had to wait for her to have a shower by herself (one communal shower block). Also, up on the rig floor, to work efficiently requires a real tough co-ordinated team effort. It became apparent that with most tasks, the girls weren’t physically strong enough. It took about a week for them both to quit.
The third girl was a huge big Maori girl offshore on one of the floaters. She must of been a powerlifter in her former life ‘cos she could easily keep up with the lads tripping pipe. Last I saw she was doing derricks (on about 110K p.a.) and sitting her IWCF to step up to Driller. She was fantastic.
The fourth lady was a 50 yr old Chevron ‘company man’ (boss out on the rig) who really knew her stuff. No physical work in that position. The male pushers and Drillers really tested her, but after about a fortnight had them all eating out of her hand. I learnt alot from her.
If you want to start at the lowest level – 45K onshore and probably 80K offshore – and you are a woman, make sure you do some..no…make that an enormous amount of strength condition training, before going for a job. If you can’t lift very heavy weights (well above what the Nancy O.H.S. limits are for women), it’s not fair on your male colleagues who’ll have to take up your slack. That’ll be the first thing the superintendents who hire you will be looking for.
Everyone else – please stop flooding me with PM’s about jobs…I don’t work in Australia and cannot help with applications…I suggest you pick up the phone and start enquiring if you want a job badly enough.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Hiya Megan,
“If you and your parents are happy with the status quo and everyone feels content with the situation – they I don’t see why you should move our just to make a statement that you’re all grown up!”
I’m not sure the physical act of moving out of Mummy and Daddy’s place qualifies you as a grown up…that’s just the very first step of many, you’d agree there’s alot more to it than that before you are truly firmly standing on your own feet. Moving out could be just the first inital wobble.
“whatever we can do to help our children we do. Hopefully, you do the right thing by them too.” My wife and I strongly believe that doing whatever we can for our children is definitely not doing the right thing by them. I suppose we have different viewpoints – which is great.
Your assumption on our parenthood status is grossly inaccurate.
Dannyboi,
No offence taken at all. Actually, I take it as a compliment if people view my opinions (and that’s all they are) as coming from an old fart. Excellent. Give me old fart status anyday. As Warren Buffett was once quoted at his famous AGM’s in Nebraska….”You can’t teach new dogs old tricks”. How true.
Anyone who assumed anything about a large group of people would be 100% of the time wrong. Of course there are exceptions in every grouping. What you say is very safe and correct – but it doesn’t and shouldn’t stop intelligent analysis of habits of large sectors of a population. It’s how the world works and will never change.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Kay said ;
“degree positions pay better”
Wow Kay – not where I come from. My experience has been the exact opposite.
When I was a graduate Drilling Engineer, the best pay I was offered (out of 4 jobs) was 30K p.a. (Oz $ and fully taxable). The illiterate labourers I was working with on the rigs were on triple what I was on. They all assumed I was on more than their bosses ‘cos I was in charge of the show. It took me 6 years to overtake the lowest paid labourer.
“People have their own offices, lunch whenever they like, and complete autonomy- exactly the point of doing a degree in the first place.”
Once again, my experience has been the exact opposite. On my time off a couple of years ago I used to be on a lecture circuit with a Geo and a Reservoir Engineer. The three of us used to go around giving a 30 minute presentation to the year 10 students. The first couple of times I just bantered on about the job and career prospects etc. This bored the students and the teacher completely stupid. To wake them up, I decided on subsequent lectures to put the pay rates up on the board, of the different positions on the rig for everyone to see. Suffice to say that woke them all up and I had their full attention.
What was the two most common things I got asked about during question time ;
1. Are those pay rates for real ?
2. Why are we always encouraged to do a degree then ??Fluffy conditions were never high on their priorities. Incidentally, 3 separate teachers pulled me aside and queried me privately about the rates. They all subsequently quit their teaching jobs and went roughnecking.
Regrow – IWCF stands for International Well Control Forum. The ticket costs $ 1,650.00 and takes 5 days to obtain (Four categories…Driller and Supervisor level for both Subsea BOP systems or Surface BOP systems). Everyone in the industry worldwide on every rig has to have that ticket for any position of AD or up. Your company will put you through the course when you get to derricks, but all the sharp cookies get it on their own beforehand and get promoted quicker.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Regrow,
Good man…well done. Try and get up onto the floor as soon as you can. You probably already relieve the roughnecks on their smoko anyway. Working the decks leads to the crane driver, but that’s as far as you can go.
Get your IWCF as soon as you can and then get up on the floor. The last IWCF supervisors course I was on last year (only 5 days long) there was a young chap there who had never been in the industry and passed his supervisors ticket, with alot of help from the instructor…amazing. Didn’t have a clue what he was doing really, but managed to scrape togther enough marks to get over 70% in all three areas (theory / practical / equipment).
Ask your Driller heaps of questions without driving him nuts, and pull more hours than your normal tour. Do 2 or 3 hours of extra stuff in the opposite tour (get up the stick if you can when they are tripping). Your Pushers will quickly notice you.
Some of my colleagues here in the Middle East worked putting out the fires in Kuwait back in ’91. Labourers were on 3K per day, with the supervisors on 5K per day, working 6 month hitches. Not as good as top silks mind you, but up there. Pretty average conditions to contend with. Standing in the cellar up to your shoulders in crude, 45° heat and working with hand tools so as not to cause a spark.
I disagree with Caston strongly. My philosophy for the past 15 years has been a job is a job is a job. It involves having a boss and working hard. If you have to put up with the sh*te that comes with a job, you may as well pick one that pays well. Better still, get one that pays USD and one that doesn’t attract Ozzy tax…now ya talkin’.
If you want the nice city life with a fluffy cushy job that pays under 30K p.a., don’t start complaining about the low pay if you aren’t prepared to put in the hard yards..especially if you are young. Medical conditions notwithstanding.
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
It depends on which hat you wish to wear ;
First hat…stand up and take control of your life.
1. Immediately move out of home to give your parents a break (‘cos $80p.w. doesn’t come close to what you cost to support in that environment)…hence why everyone recommends stay at home as long as possible. At 22, you’re a big boy now, especially if you can generate 45K p.a.
2. Purchase the smallest and cheapest hovel you can find in Drossville and get to work fixing it up to a decent standard. Pay it off ASAP.
3. Get rid of all credit cards, mobile phones and expensive transport options.
4. With your savings habits (semi-established to have 10 K already) progress on up.
5. Grow stronger and wiser with your new found independence and property acquisition. Your parents will probably respect you more for it as well. Invite them around to your fully paid off castle for dinner.
6. Shoot for the stars – you’re off and running as a fully functioning productive unit in society.
Second hat…let everyone wet nurse you]
1. Stay at home with Mummy and Daddy ’til you’re 40. You should have a nice big deposit by then.
2. Continue researching and studying and fluffying about, anything but jump in and grit your teeth and learn some of life’s hard lessons.
3. Get those credit cards and mobile phones cranked up to full max like alot of young kids. It’s like – amazing like – what fantastic things you can buy like – nowadays like – live life to the full, you’ll never be like – 22 again.
Which hat do you really wish to wear – like ??
Cheers,
Dazzling
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
