One of the most interesting things I do is meet many investors every week (i.e., prospective clients). It is something that I have been doing regularly for almost 20 years, so I’ve literally spoken to thousands of investors. It is interesting because it provides me with the opportunity to reflect on people’s past investment decisions…
Many people can be very focused on repaying their home loan in full before they begin investing. They are so averse to debt that they cannot envisage doing anything else until their home loan is gone. However, often this isn’t the best approach to take. At some point, investing is more important than debt reduction….
Have you ever had a strong opinion (belief) about investment markets that was subsequently proven to be incorrect? A recent example was when many people predicted borrowers would be forced to sell their properties due to the Covid lockdowns and the market would crash. This outcome now seems unlikely. It is my view that a…
One good financial decision will have positive consequences. But five good decisions in a row will be life-changing. It will create a lot more than five times the positive outcomes that one good decision will. That’s because good decisions are a compounding asset. Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made…
A lot has been written about the good fortune of ‘baby boomers’ in that, overall, they have enjoyed a long period of economic, share market, and property market prosperity. Whilst they haven’t enjoyed the full benefit of compulsory super (which only began in 1992), other assets such as property have certainly compensated for that. This…
If you invest in residential property, how can you be sure that it’s going to work out for you? The media talks about a property boom or even a bubble, whether the government should abolish negative gearing, the RBA’s warning banks to not be too exuberant to lending money and so on. There’s lots of…
Now that home loan interest rates have risen by 4% this cycle, is it still worth investing your surplus cash flow, or should all cash flow go towards repaying your home loan? Many of my clients invest some surplus cash flow in the share market each month. This has been very easy to do over…
My professional life has been all about “the numbers” for more than two decades! So, as an accountant and financial advisor, it pains me to say that numbers are not always right! Numbers are factual, verifiable, and logical and the ‘robustness’ gives me a lot of confidence. However, when it comes to investing in property,…
It is very common for people to make an initial investment e.g., buy a parcel of shares or an investment property, but fail to make any further investments for many years or decades. Why does this happen? What is paralysing their ability to make investment decisions? Perhaps you don’t have enough time We use lack…
Every few months, there’s a story online about an investor in their 30s that has amassed a property portfolio of 12 properties…and how you can do it too. Firstly, we shouldn’t be impressed by the number of properties that someone owns, as it doesn’t tell us anything about their wealth (equity). Boasting about the number…
