Empower Blog Property & Financial Investment

How Do Lenders Assess Loans?

Gone are the days when you can just go down to your local bank branch and get loan approval because of your longstanding relationship with the manager. These days lenders have become quite sophisticated in their method of assessing loans - it’s now all about Risk Assessment. For years, lenders have been compiling data about every one of their ...

Read More

What is Money Planning? (MONEY)

Over the past few months, you may have noticed the phrase “Money Planning” appearing in communications from Empower Wealth and wondered what it means.  Not to be confused with Financial Planning, we have invented the term Money Planning to describe a new range of services designed to assist our clients to get the most from their money. So, wh...

Read More

Game Plan – The Next Level

Juggling family,work and trying to get a foot on the investment ladder will be a challenge that many will be familiar with – and that’s exactly what Mick ans Sandy Greenway are facing. The Townsville-based couple Mick, 35, and Sandy, 42, met through the Army Reserves in 1996. They have been married for nine years and have a 14-month-old daughte...

Read More

Property Outlook 2010

If there is one thing that people are interested in it’s the value of property. We all enjoy it when the values of our property increases and it certainly makes for good media.  I don’t think there is a day that goes by without those current affair programs or the press talking about property—they love it when it goes up or down, just NOT wh...

Read More

Wealth Creation Personality

Following on from my the topic I spoke about (Money & Wealth Mindset) at last week’s forum, I believe strongly in the topic that I wanted the thousands of subscribers to our newsletter to also benefit from this message that mindset is the key thing that limits us to reach our full potential, so I will continue on the topic in this month Direc...

Read More

You Motivate You – But We Can Help

A few months back I attended a professional development day, which is part of holding my qualifications as a licensed finance broker. These types of events can be a bit hit and miss, but I always take the view that you can never stop learning and improving, so even at some of the dud events I usually still get one or two key points or ideas to take...

Read More

RBA Rates Decision – November 2010

Unless you have been living under a rock you would by now know that the RBA lifted the official cash rate by 0.25% to 4.75% yesterday afternoon.  The first rise in over 6 months.  They saw it prudent to move the cost of money higher, in light of the relatively strong economy and a growing global outlook.  This will most likely be the last rate r...

Read More

Want Advice or an Opinion?

When it comes to property investing, everyone has an opinion on what makes a good property investment. I’m not exactly sure why, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we know so many people who have made a property purchase and I suppose it’s the fact that once they have experienced it, they know a bit about the topic and are happy ...

Read More

Will House Prices Slow Over the Longer Term?

I read with interest an article relating to a study by the Switzerland Bank for International Settlements, which indicated that house price growth may slow by up to 30% over the next 40 years due to Australia's ageing population.  The study highlighted that demographics factors resulting from the baby boomers pushed up Australian House Prices by...

Read More

Your Credit File – Part 2 Credit Dispute Resolution

If you have a credit dispute, meaning if your credit report is showing incorrect details on your report which is limiting your ability to get credit, your first point of contact is the creditor – the people you owe the money too or the ones who have made the mistake. Start by calling their customer service department and registering your dispute....

Read More

RBA Rates Decision – October 2010

The warnings came early this month when the RBA Governor made some hawkish comments about the health of the Australian economy.  He said the RBA is ready to manage robust growth, stating “part of that task will, clearly, fall to monetary policy.” He noted potential downside risks to the economy, but said “If downside possibilities do not mat...

Read More

What is NRAS?

The National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) is a long term commitment by the Australian Government to invest in affordable rental housing. The Scheme seeks to address the shortage of affordable rental housing by offering financial incentives to the business sector and community organisations to build and rent dwellings to low and moderate incom...

Read More

Rates on the Rise….?

I can understand why we are referred to as the ‘Lucky Country’.  Great climate, enough fertile land to produce food to support our population & provide a great quality of life and standard of living, stable government (well sort of) and the most important thing from an investors view point - an economy that has grown over the last 20 years...

Read More