Forum Replies Created
Great questions. hopefully looking back these Qs will help keep me motivated.
1) What was the prime motivating event in your life that created a focus on the need to invest?
I con’t think that my parents will have enough to retire on so I wanted to be in a position to help them.
2) What have you in fact done about it since then, and rate your achievment.
Started saving and investing in the stock market.
Rating: too early to tell.3) Based on your current performance, how long will it take to reach financial independence? (Whatever this might mean to you)
Hopefully around 15 years
4) What are you currently doing to improve your plans?
Learning, Learning and more learning.
5) What is your ultimate goal; and will it make you happy?
Financial independence and being able to help mum and dad. Probably to get my friends to do the same.
6) Which is more important: The goal or the journey?
Both. To enjoy the journey and the goal to keep you moving there.
Cheers Josh
So I can do whatever I want, when I want.
Josh
Also dino
quote:
Most people are poor because they don’t know how, and don’t have the skills to be anything different, and have no real reason to change. Yes there are dole bludgers out there, but in my opinion most stay on the dole because of the way the system works.I agree that most people are poor because they don’t know how, but there are those out there who don’t know how but also choose not to find out how.
I con’t know too much about welfare at the moment but i think it does provide people with no real reason to change
JOsh
Dino, I couldn’t agree more. I think there are problems with welfare a la rich dad poor dad. It makes it too easy.
I must say I also agree with craig and rich on the consumption tax.
Richmond, firstly I did say that I believed that it was MOSTLY due to peoples choices, I know that there a genuine people out there who do struggle with little way out. (There are always 2 sides to and argument and thus 2 examples of each case.) I just beleive that a lot of it is due to choices. I think our definitions of rich may be different too, I generally mean accumulated wealth in assets. There are plenty of high income people who spend every dollar and if they keep going are more than likely to retire with little unless the choose to do something about it.
I’m sorry for the arrogant tone but I can assure you it wasn’t intentional. One of the problems with the faceless computer. It is just something that I am rather passionate about because I do hate the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the upper/lower class split. I do give damn about this splint hence why i get so worked up about this. I would like to see more help for everyone to be able to become financially independent. I really think education to help people make better choices, things like what phil mentioned about delayed gratification and financial education which our schools do nothing about.
Also as mentioned I do realise how lucky I am. My parents moved from a non democratic country to england and they worked very hard to be able to put me in a position to be in what I consider a well paying job and most importantly having the chance to do well. I thank my lucky stars all the time that I haven’t had to do it ‘tough’. That is why I do want to see changes to education and to help people have choices. I realise that there are some out there that don’t have choices and I would also like to see them helped but I still think that most people are where they are because of choices they have made.
Josh
I hear trust magic by dale gatherum Goss is a good one to read, yet to read it but will hopefully get it some time soon. MIght give you some ideas about using trusts if you’re interested.
The Wakelins have written a book streets ahead, mainly about neg gearing but it was about 3 stars (out of 5)
I’ve just bought martin roths book about comercial property but haven’t got round to reading it yet. Heard it was OK.
Personally I’d go with the books over seminars. I think some are a little too costly when you have little money to start with but then again you can’t put a price on knowledge.
You can loose all your money but you can do it all again as you can’t loose knowledge.
Josh
Josh
I agree kk I think a tax cut will generally only benifit those who are already have made the choice to become rich. Those who choose to be poor will spend it.
I think education is the key, we have to try to motivate people to make them want to learn.
JOsh
Hopefully I’ll have saved up a bit of a deposit over the next year or so so I might buy then. Meanwhile I’m having too much fun in the stockmarket.
Josh
Hopefully I’ll have saved up a bit of a deposit over the next year or so so I might buy then. Meanwhile I’m having too much fun in the stockmarket.
Josh
Richmond
If you note I did mention that there are people who do deserve help and that I was more than happy for my tax to help them.
You are right I can’t judge them from a picture, however I also didn’t see a gun to their head saying they must smoke or not to make use of the free support networks provided by the gov. for what problems they may or may not have.domdom
I couldn’t agree more with education but there are many people who also don;t want to learn. I mean how many people will tell you the stockmarket is dangerous and that you will lose money and yet they will have spent less that 10 min learning about it? It still comes down to the choice to find out more about it and whether it really is that risky.
Fudge
I think the brackets should be adjusted as eventually bracket creep will leave those earning less to also be on the top tax bracket. You will also find that those high income earners who can be taxed more will generally have more resources at their disposal to minimise tax… ie trusts.CGT deductions are still applied at the marginal rate, however it is a discount. (ie less dollars of tax for equivilent in income). It is generally those who are in the higher incomes that can make better use of this to minimise tax paid.
Finally Richmond, I know you probably didn;’t intend for it but please watch what you say about ivory towers and looking down on lesser people. It comes very close to being personal (not that I really mind but others may). Burn my ideas for all you what, It’s one of the wonders of free speech, besides i love discussion, but when it gets personal it’s a sad, sad day. Oh and I do realise how lucky I am and I am more than willing to offer what little help and knowldge I have to those who CHOOSE to take that first step.
It’s all about choices!
Josh
Sorry fudge should have probably read a bit better but…..
Keeping the threshold low has a similar effect but to a much lesser degree to raising the %, it’s the dollar amount thats important. I mean I would hope to increase my wealth through capital gains as opposed to earning a higher income as it is taxed less.
You will tend to find that many of the rich will divert their incomes so that they have lower taxable income through income tax and may build up more assets which are taxed a bit more favourably. ( I don’t know whether you’ve read the millionare mind but in a some ways we are similar to the US with regards to assets over income)
Josh
Tom I thinks what you’ve got there is a great idea, unfortunatly living rural means that I won’t be taking part.
However whilst I think it’s a great idea for property you must be really careful about investing in the stockmarket with a group. You will find that too many things start to influence your choice and you may get emotionally attached to shares and thats when you can get into serious trouble.
Josh
Mike, Fudge is right with regards to the tax scale.
However I do disagree with Fudge on taxing high income earners more. I don’t think it will work. As Mal mentioned a balance must be achieved, sure if you earn more you should pay more. But there is a point where creativity/motivation will be killed off. I mean lets say for example if you were taxed 90c to the dollar would you bother working? (I know its a bit extreme but there is a limit.)
Secondly, many of the people who do earn more also do generate more jobs/ improve the economy which benefits everyone.
You will also find that many on higher incomes will also find more effective ways to avoid taxs:
ie. trusts or plowing profits back into a company.Now I know I may get flamed for this but here goes…..
Why do the poor get poorer and the rich get richer… I believe most of it is attributed to people’s choices. People become poor because of the choices they make. Recently in the Sunday Mail in QLD there was a big blow up about these people living in tents not being able to afford rent, lots of people wrote in complaining about the lack of gov help and so on. Now the lady on the front page complaining about housing was holding a cigarette in her hand, and a friend of mine noted beer bottles in the background. At a pack a day at $15 thats $105 a week going up in smoke. Are you telling me that their choices aren’t making them poorer? I mean if I counldn’t afford housing I sure as hell wouldn’t be smoking my rent away.
Why do you think we are all here on this forum? Because we have made a decision to cut back on some of our spending to buy assets and hopefully get richer. I see lots of people at work who complain that they don’t have enough money but as soon as you mention something like housing or the stockmarket they instantly lose interest and say things like it’s too risky, I never earn enough and then continue to go on expensive holidays or expensive cars on credit.
Now I realise that this is not everyone, there are many genuine people out there who are unfortunatly disadvantage and as far as I am concerned I am happy for all my tax dollars to help them but there are at least as many who have no desire to work or learn to improve their life but would prefer to live off gov hand outs.
Perhaps education may fix this but do people want to learn? I don’t think increasing taxes on the high income earners would work.
Anyway my 2c, I’d welcome opinions/discussion, this is something that really does get me worked up!
Josh
You should be able to work it out with a simple spreadsheet.
Generally a lower maintenance fee is better the longer you have it in for.
Check out some sites like comsec, they allow investing with no entry fees.
Index funds are also an option as they have low management fees.
Josh
You should be able to work it out with a simple spreadsheet.
Generally a lower maintenance fee is better the longer you have it in for.
Check out some sites like comsec, they allow investing with no entry fees.
Index funds are also an option as they have low management fees.
Josh
Books are good, however everyone always fails to mention the local library. I don’t know about you but my library (in a small rural town) has books for free and I’ve even found a few that do business plans. (Suprising in a town with about half the population on welfare)
It will give you a starting guide from wich you can then purchase books that may be more topic specific that you know you are interested in.
Josh
As fudge says it depends on what you want to achieve. a cf+ property will provide instant income which you can use to save for your next house but on equity to leverage off.
You have to remember also that with lower capital growth may come lower rental income growth.
Eg. a house with 8% capital gains and 5% rent will in the long run eventually have higher rent than a 5% growth, 8% rental property.
You could also use a few cf+ IP to buy some higer growth cf- IP.
It depends on what you want to do
Josh
Option 2. Knowledge is everything. If the seminars save you their price then its already break even.
Learning from others mistakes is much cheaper.
Although I do agree with scamp, 6k is a bit much.
Josh
Hi Bill,
I think that it’s a useful indicator you have there. A lack of rental demand with continuing higher property prices isn’t sustainable. In some ways it may be similar to the advance-decline line with share trading.
Westan,
I agree that property should generally be a buy and hold stategy, but as Bill mentioned now may be the best time to offload those underperforming places or to reshuffle/update the portfolio. Most people will say that you shouldn’t have ended up with a poorly performing property but people do make mistakes and admitting it and cutting your losses is one of the hardest things for humans to do.
Josh
I think it depends on how far and for how much longer these increases in prices go. The higher the bigger the fall if any. I thnk it also would depend on the interest rates and whether the herd stampedes or not.
History tends to show a small drop (maybe 20%) and prices staying stagnant for a while whilst inflation erodes the price.
I think with property and one reason it is more stable compared to shares is that if prices drop, (as long as the loan can be maintained) most people won’t sell, they tend to hang on for the recovery.
Josh
Hi mel,
If you don’t mind me asking, Does this leave you negativly geared?
Thanks Josh
