Andrew is a leading finance specialist who holds a Diploma of Financial Planning (Financial Services). With over 32 years of experience in finance, Andrew has been acknowledged by the mortgage industry with multiple awards. Visit IntuitiveFinance.Com.Au
A new alarmist report has many believing that property Armageddon is nigh. ME Bank’s bi-annual Household Financial Comfort Measures report surveyed 1500 households to gauge how they feel about their financial situation, including cost of living and household debt – and guess what they found? More Australians are dipping into their savings to make ends meet as…
Aussies working and living overseas might be sitting back wondering what on earth is happening in the world of finance back home. Over the past few months, no doubt, they’ve been reading revelation after revelation coming out of the Royal Commission into the banking sector. From dodgy financial advice to customers paying fees for services…
When it comes to interest-only lending, there are a few factors that determine whether it’s a good or bad strategy for borrowers. First up, if your whole portfolio is interest-only, then at some point your repayments are going to switch to principal and interest. You just can’t have interest only forever and at some point,…
Like your first kiss; car, job, love and heartbreak, chances are you’ll never forget your very first credit card. Not because of the dizzying high it gave, the sage wisdom it instilled or the thrilling sense of accomplishment you felt. No, rather because I’m betting if you could go back in time and slap that…
Housing finance is in the news more often than it’s not these days. One of the reasons is that as capital cities move through their respective cycles so does reporting on the property market. One day, strong market conditions were a bad thing, and then the next, softer prices are suddenly concerning. This time around,…
I want you to picture a big suitcase stuffed with $929,000 in cash. It’s all yours. That’s your wealth. Now, I want you to imagine that suitcase is tied to a very thin piece of string, suspended high in the air, dangling over a raging torrent of water. It’s not a very secure arrangement, to…
Not too long ago, savvy homeowners would’ve included their bank manager on their annual Christmas card lists. The name probably would’ve sat quite near the top. In fact, they might’ve even sent a present. Maintaining a relationship with the person who ran your local branch was seen as being just as important as knowing an…
Are interest rates going up? The perennial question. To be honest, the ongoing talk of interest rates and the property bubble, people telling me how hard it is to get into property (as they sip their latte and eat their smashed avo), is tiring! But guess what? It sells newspapers, gets on media and gets…
You know the market has turned when you start seeing headlines with words like “bust”, “crunch” and “plunge”. It was only 18 months ago when the words “boom”, “record highs” and “peak” were much more common. The thing is, there is no one market in Australia – not that most journos seem to understand that….
When you look at auction clearance rates across Australia, speak to builders and real estate agents, it’s clear that the market generally has softened. Of course, finance is the key fundamental that underpins all of the property market. And the latest finance data makes for sobering reading. According to St. George Bank, consumer lending, month…
