Terry – what we reeeeally want to know is whether you:

1. Read the investment books yourself before you give it or

2. have an arrangement where the recipient gives your book back as a present the next Christmas/birthday

The second approach is win-win as the recipient doesn’t need to dig into his pocket for presents to you and you get to keep…[Read more]

Geoff wrote:

’14 Goldfields wa’ [][][]

More info:

http://www.alga.asn.au/newsRoom/mediaReleases/SOR2003RegionalCities.php

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/23/1069522478654.html

Peter

‘Hi Mini – just one question – what is GV?’

Duh – just read the answer a few messages up.
So easy to skip the little posts!

Peter

Hi Mini – just one question – what is GV?

Regards, Peter

G’day Drew

I can’t comment on that course, but I’ve read Fitzgerald’s ‘7 Steps to Wealth’ book and suppose the course would be similar.

It is based solely on buying houses (not flats) for capital growth and heavily negatively gearing them. This means properties near the CBD.

The example is made of Logan (Brisbane) as being an especially bad…[Read more]

I’ll add a few more (and my take on some Ian’s already mentioned)

The Property Investors Handbook
Airey, Graham
My rating: 5.5
Very discouraging for young or lowish income investors at start, but gets better

Seven Steps to Wealth
Fitzgerald, John
My rating: 6.5
Useful reference for growth-oriented investors

Streets Ahead
Wakelin, M&R
My rating…[Read more]

This would mean that we should distrust stats derived from auctions (eg average prices and clearance rates) as they may give a misleading impression being skewed towards the more expensive properties?

This is apart from the issue of properties passed in at ‘vendor bid’ prices.

I would suspect that auction results would be even less…[Read more]

Luckyone wrote:

quote: I really think it would be wise for you to go out and find someone who has a copy of the game Cashflow 101 and go and learn about the value of money. This might teach you that it’s harder to get ahead the more income you earn as with more income you have more expenses

With Cashflow 101 you pick up a card and you’re stuck…[Read more]

Hi Fudge: though the families that I mentioned before might have a marginal tax rate of 30c in the dollar, their effective marginal tax rate is much higher if they recieve most forms of health or family benefits.

This is because as their income increases their benefits are clawed back. Thus they might keep much less than 70% of the extra income…[Read more]

Hi Swampy – that sort of price is pretty common for wheatbelt towns in WA.

But if you want the cheapest houses, you can’t
go past Norseman, WA where I’ve seen places for $15-20k. You might get 20% yield, but I wouldn’t invest there.

Peter

I doubt that the people who pay the highest marginal tax rates are necessarily those earning above $62501.

Instead they are most likely to be 1 or 1.5 income families earning somewhere between $20 and $40k PAYE especially where the children are teenagers.

There’s heaps of benefits that cut out, including concession public transport fares, health…[Read more]

Now in case anyone was wondering, that s**** actually stood for swunk (replace the U with an A to get the picture).

In other words the exact opposite meaning to what readers might have imagined.

A clear case of multiple meanings and postmodernism at work!

Peter

Like Kay Henry, I too have wondered about the application of various strands of postmodernism in property investment (especially + cashflow).

I’ve decided that postmodernist architecture is pretty irrelevant for us. Most post-modern pads are in the swank suburbs of capital cities. Definitely heavily negatively geared right now. And even if you…[Read more]

I also remember talk of a Melb – Brisbane freight route through inland NSW, Vic & Qld to take pressure off Sydney about 2 years ago. And talk of all the industry that would magically spring up at country towns along the way.

But there’s already heaps of country towns that have good rail access, but that is not stopping their population…[Read more]

Another good info source is a town’s economic profile, as put out by shire councils or govt development agencies. These will often contain important ABS stats.

Some ABS stats are free but others aren’t. You should be able to get access through a uni library.

I’ve never tried this, but maybe talk a teacher into marking a supplementary…[Read more]

Hi Jake – Anita Bell started when she was about your age.

When you ring up REA no one says that you must give your age. If you’re worried, maybe you’d be better off phoning first for an appointment if your telephone manner is older than your appearance ; ) !

Main thing is to be organised, to research the area (good ideas from Kay Henry), to…[Read more]

Dan76 wrote:

‘With all the respect I think that if you want to assess a situation/maket you should not limit yourself by relying on some old fahioned stereotypes.’

I agree. I was just pointing out that Europe isn’t exactly the population growth capital of the world.

http://www.unhabitat.org/habrdd/trends/europe.html

suggests that European…[Read more]

The paper makes many good points, but there’s some that raised my eyebrows:

1. Boom Australia-wide. Seems to be the case for much of eastern Aust (incl Tassie) but some parts of regional WA (including cities) have so far missed out.

2. Yields of around 3.5%. This would be so for Sydney & Melbourne, but higher for other places, which I initially…[Read more]

Dan wrote:

quote:Then if the rules are same in UK as there are in say Hungary how much more risk am I running into?

Good laws alone is not enough.

Some dictatorships had marvellous constitutions that ‘guaranteed’ the rights of all, but in fact individual rights were not valued.

The security of a nation for investing encompasses such things…[Read more]

Hi Redwing:

quote:I was once told a long while back (who knows how true it is) that in Japan your first $10 000 in a savings account attracted “no” government fees to “encourage saving”, good for the economy too.

Weren’t part of the GST reforms a removal of FID & BAD taxes. The main enemy of savings are bank fees. Anyone for re-regulating the…[Read more]