Empower Blog Budget

Bryce and Ben: “The Money Men”

It's true. On Channel 7's Sunrise earlier this month, Bryce and Ben were dubbed "The Money Men" on National TV after shining the (much needed) light on how exactly regular Aussies can take charge — and, more importantly, stay in control — of their finances!! And it doesn't just come down to the obvious (and often forgotten!)... spend less t...

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Money SMARTS: 7 Steps to Wealth

Do you want to make money simple again? Have you ever wondered whether there's a simple way to manage your money that optimises and minimises the amount of interest you pay to the bank while trapping more surplus and giving you peace of mind... all while committing no more than 10 minutes a month to manage it? And wouldn't it be great if such a ...

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The Art of Money Management

Hi, Ben Kingsley here. In this How To Session, I want to talk to you about the art of money management. Some might argue that it's a science but, for me, it's definitely an art. There's no scientific aspect to it, but there are some rules that you need to follow. Most of us have attempted to use a budget before — a very typical or standard budge...

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The Buyers’ Decision Quadrant

I'm always finding when people are buying real estate whether they are buying it for themselves to live in or they are buying it for an investment property, they are faced with some form of compromise. We've thought about this a lot and usually it is one of four things. So we've come up with what's called the Buyers' Decision Quadrant. It's really ...

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The Thought Process when Buying A Home

Hello, in this How To session, I want to tell a story. I want to tell a story that goes through everyone's decision making process when they are looking to buy a home. Now, there's a few things that goes on in your head. You've grown up in area and you know the area well. You know its attractions, its benefits, you know the great coffee shop and yo...

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RBA Rate Decision – June 2015

Hello, today the Governor and the Reserve Board met and they've kept interest rates on hold. Now this was widely anticipated. The facts are, at 2% cash rate, it is at historically low level and if we were to actually move rates further down which we do have capacity to do if you look at the minutes for May 2015 Cash Rate. They are saying that we...

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RBA Rate Decision – May 2015

Today the Reserve Governor and the Board met and they've dropped interest rate once again to 2%. So following the February rate cut, they've followed it up with a May rate cut. Now the reason behind that is simply the spare capacity that we are still seeing in the economy. They've made a judgement call, even before we see the May 2015 budget ...

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When Is the Best Time to Refinance Your Loan?

You’ve bought or invested in a home and are making regular mortgage payments. What happens when you want to adjust your repayment plan? Perhaps a step up in your salary has given you additional resources to pay off your balance in less time. Maybe an outside hardship requires you to refinance in order to improve your cash reserves or your loan mi...

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Is Now the Right Time to be Fixing your Loan?

So is now the right time to be fixing your home loan? One thing that I want to talk about today is to try and explain to you how fixed rates works versus how variable rates works. The first part of this story is, variable rates which is obviously the rates that we see changing when the RBA does their cash rate decision is what we set those variab...

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Three Simple Tips to Keep a Good Credit Rating

Gaining and maintaining good credit is one of the most important things a person can do for themselves. Credit is something that is often confusing to people who are looking to start building their credit and a daily necessity to those that have an established history. Following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), Australia is now using a system wh...

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Tips for Buying at Auction – Part 1

I find that lots of buyers are really reluctant to go to auction and to be honest, for good reasons because its largely a process that favors the seller and of course, the auctioneer. But here's five tips that I can give you to help you better prepare for when you're buying your next property at auction. Auction Tip No.1 The first one is quite simp...

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Understanding Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI)

Post the Second World War, Australia transformed itself into ‘The Lucky Country’. We opened our doors to large levels of immigration and we had plenty of land, food, water and great weather that made us attractive for many who were fleeing war torn areas of Europe and alike. It was also through this era that we got our second great tag line of ...

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Buying Well vs …well,… buying.

Every aspiring investor is gripped with fear about the impact of their property selection when I first meet with them. Their questions range from “where should I buy?” to “what do you think of off-the-plan apartments?” The answer is simple – there are MANY factors that you need to take into consideration to ensure that you buy well; it’...

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