Empower Blog Property & Financial Investment

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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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 ...

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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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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 ...

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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...

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$13,000 saving on loan set up costs!

At Empower Wealth we believe that making sure you have the right finance structure is paramount to the success you will achieve in your wealth building journey. In this newsletter I would like to share a story of how we were able to save a client $13,000 in loan set up costs, by ensuring that they had their loans structured in a way that was cost e...

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RBA Rates Decision – May 2011

The RBA has left the official cash rate on hold again in May, making it 6 months since the last cash rate movement.  Minutes from the previous RBA board meeting certainly indicated that the board position was that rates remained adequate for the near term, as subdued consumer spending and the impacts of major disasters still filter through the eco...

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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...

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Five Tips for a Happier Rental Property

To ensure your tenants are enjoying renting your property, and looking after it too, it’s important to remember a couple of things so that your relationship with your tenants and property manager is a prosperous one. So I thought I’d pen a few tips to help remind fellow landlords that if they undertake these recommendations then owning their...

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What is the outlook for Melbourne?

On occasion I get asked if it’s time to start considering our interstate capitals now that Melbourne has had a recent and fabulous run. Naturally many investors are keen to identify the next booming city to perform for their portfolio. Before they take our beloved city off the shopping list, I bring their attention to a few compelling reasons why...

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PROPERTY BUBBLE? ….Really… Please!

The property doomsayers ‘noise’ has settled a little since interest rates have stopped increasing for now.  However, with price values stabilising or showing decreases in some markets in the early months of 2011, I’m expecting this media ‘noise’ to start getting louder as logic is not going to get in the way of a good story that sells pa...

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Exit Fee Passed as Legislation

The legislation to ban Exit Fees has been passed into law on 23rd March, by the Federal Government. These new laws will see Exit Fees, including Deferred Establishment Fees banned from 1 July.  The new regulations are: Regulation 79A The new Regulation 79A provides that a credit fee or charge is prohibited if:  it is provided for in a credit...

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When should you start investing?

One of the decisions that will typically flow from undertaking Money Planning is a decision to get your money and your equity working for you, generally through some form of investment.  One of the most important factors in the returns to be achieved from investing is time.  No matter what investment you choose, the longer you can hold it, the mo...

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