Empower Blog

RBA Rates Decision – September 2011

The RBA have again left interest rates on hold, after much speculation mid last month around the cash rate being reduced to stimulate the wider economy as it’s believed to be slowing over the past few months. In a recent speech, the Deputy Governor, Mr Ric Battellino, gave his indication that recent global economic uncertainty and the subseque...

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Population Growth = Value Growth? – NOT ALWAYS

At our final Property Wealth Forum event for 2011, my team and I busted a dozen myths about what drives property values. One of the biggest myths we busted centred around the view that if you get population growth you will naturally get growth in property prices.  Not entirely true - let me explain. Population is seen as a demand driver of value,...

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If You Can Measure It, You Can Manage It

You have heard me talk about treating your household as a business.  Those of you who are new to our newsletter, let me revisit this point. Your household, which could be you, you and your partner etc, generates income for the work you and potentially other members of your household do, just like a business generates income.  In fact if a hous...

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Lending Laws Now Consistent Across the Board

The start of the 2011-12 financial year saw the new National Consumer Credit Protection (NCCP) laws take effect for banks and other lending institutions along with brokers.  The laws for brokers came into effect 1st January 2011.  This now provides consumers with greater protection from unscrupulous lending practices that may have occurred in the...

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RBA Rates Decision – August 2011

For the first time in a while the RBA decision on interest rates was something worth watching.  Only two weeks before the inflation data was released last week, there was Bill Evans – Westpac’s chief Economist - on Sunday night TV talking about rates coming down.  Then stepping up to the plate is the Inflation Genie, which really put a spanne...

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Scarcity Value – Not Just in the Land

Statistical evidence shows us that when it comes to property  the land portion is the portion that historically appreciates in value.  This is a result of the scarcity of the land combined with the demand for that land, as once a lot of land is allocated and built on , the amount of available land decreases and the lot of land can’t be re-used ...

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Money Choices

In this month’s comment I’m putting my focus on discretionary and lifestyle spending decision with a goal of just making people contemplate a little harder before making such decisions or continuing with the money choices they currently make... Smoking: Based on research conducted by Galaxy for Pfizer in 2009, the average smoker spends $2,50...

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RBA Rates Decision – July 2011

Hmmmmm, just how well is the little Aussie Economy going? As expected the RBA remained in a holding pattern on the cash rate, pushing out their well versed message of “rates remain appropriate”, well for now anyway. Their people still remain hawkish on further interest rate rises as theirs and Treasuries GDP calculations have the economy gro...

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Financing for Cash flow

Cash flow is at the heart of any household or business and in almost all cases the lack of cash flows is their downfall, because they technically become insolvent. There are several ways in which structuring your financials/debt can help from a cashflow position for households. Here are a couple of examples that will assist in building your know...

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Property Values – Where to from Here?

Avid readers of my commentary will know that I am a buy and hold investor, opting for long term passive income and capital growth. It’s this methodology that suits most of the strategies we design for our clients at Empower Wealth. Furthermore our investment analysis has over-weighting towards incomes as a core growth driver for property value...

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Please Keep Talking Up this ‘Property Bubble’!

This month’s comment is not going to focus too much on the hype surrounding property values and what they are worth today or the next 3 months, you can read my previous comments from other newsletters about how I have been predicting 10% or more correction in values in new housing areas where the majority of the market has mortgages, and also in ...

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RBA Rates Decision – June 2011

The RBA held off increasing the cash rate / interest rates once again this month, as it digests the March Quarter GDP data.  The numbers for the quarter weren’t good, driven by the natural disaster events in Queensland.  These events caused significant disruption to the mining industry, due to major infrastructure damage from these events. T...

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Property Selection Myth

Location, Location, Location was and still is the catch cry from most Real Estate agents when it comes to which properties outperform and which properties don’t. When a property investor is looking to make a property selection for investment, maybe we should adopt this principal but with a little more creative license.   Location One: Id...

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