Investment Education Articles & Tips

17/10/2011
Investment Education

The ‘Piggybacking’ Strategy

There are many property investment strategies available to investors looking to create wealth through investing in residential property. This month I am going to share with you one of my strategies I call the ‘Piggybacking’ Strategy. Property values are made up of two components, the land value and the ‘improvements’ (more communally ref...

13/10/2011
Investment Education

Complicating Simple

Throughout the business world over the years there has been a lot of discussion about concepts and/or theories around best business practice, thought leadership theories etc, etc. Great sayings like “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” to the complete opposite of “if it isn’t broke, break it”........ My observations from my time in ...

10/09/2011
Investment Education

Advisor vs. Salesperson

I’m in the process of finalising the plans for a major renovation of our home, and there are a lot of people involved in the process and a lot of decisions we need to make – BIG Decisions that carry a lot of costs. Through this process it has once again been highlighted to me the wish I have always had regarding making BIG financial decision...

17/08/2011
Investment Education

World Comparisons Irrelevant

You’re sitting down about to read the paper or watch the nightly news or one of those incredibly intellectually stimulating current affairs programs and the headline grab is something along the lines of: Australian Property - some of the most expensive in the world! Melbourne / Sydney - in the top 10 most expensive cities in the world to li...

10/08/2011
Investment Education

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...

17/07/2011
Investment Education

Reducing the ‘Fear Factor’ in property investing

Without a doubt, one of the biggest reasons people hold back from investing in property is fear of risk. This fear shows up in many different ways, from well thought out objections to procrastination itself. There are books on the shelves, magazines on the racks, shows about investing and presenters advertising the merits of investing. There are...

10/07/2011
Investment Education

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...

10/07/2011
Investment Education

A Great Time to Start is NOW

As we begin the new Financial Year, most people can expect to receive some key information regarding their financial situation - employees will be receiving their PAYG Payment Summaries (Group Certificates) for the year and most people will also be receiving statements from their Superannuation Fund(s) which will give an insight into the wealth bas...

11/06/2011
Investment Education

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 ...

10/06/2011
Investment Education

How do you Get Started?

In the previous Newsletter, we looked at the first step in Money Planning - knowing where you are now - and outlined the sort of information that you would need to collect to be able to prepare a picture of your current financial position. But that’s only the beginning - your financial position will be constantly changing over time, and ...

19/05/2011
Buyers Agents

Basic Rental Property Obligations

Although this would appear as common sense to all my landlords, it’s still important that one understands their obligations when it comes to letting out a property for rent. Under the act governing the letting of property the landlord has certain obligations, the most important of which is that the property being let is in a condition that would ...

10/05/2011
Investment Education

My Greatest Fear, Disappointment & Possible Regret

In taking a moment to reflect on what Jane (my wife) and I have been able to achieve financially over our 16 years of investing in residential property and amassing a multi-million dollar property portfolio before the age of 40, it once again highlights to me a couple of valuable lessons that have resulted in our household becoming financially inde...

10/05/2011
Investment Education

Where to Get Started?

As we have highlighted in recent newsletters, Money Planning is a critical factor in achieving your goals and dreams, and the earlier you get started, the better the outcome is likely to be. So, where to begin? Like any other form of planning you may do in life, Money Planning involves the three basic steps of knowing where you are now, knowing w...