Category: Insights

In early 1980's the media was screaming that the world would run out of oil by the end of the Century. Indeed, my second wife stood my two young boys up and explained that by the year 2000 they would be riding horses! Well, it is nearly 40 years later and the U.S alone is pumping out more oil per…

The media love to fan a fire, and the tug-of-war on property lending has given them plenty of hot air to blow! I’ve been flooded with questions from members on many of these. Questions are good – without them you won’t get answers. So here’s my view on some Property Club member’s questions that…

Each year, thousands of Aussie taxpayers are being bitten by that sneaky little tax bug known as “bracket creep”. It sucks out the benefit of pay increases and stings wage earner’s spending power. Couple this with threatened GST hikes and the APRA lending noose constraining building supply, the bug…

"Buying property is not a risk free investment." Last year the RBA issued this statement. It has also been reinforced by the latest figures from Core Logic who record every property sale in Australia. It showed that 10% of properties sold are sold at a loss and the average length of ownership of…

If you listen to the media you’d be convinced that it’s all doom and gloom. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the country is going broke. However, if you have a closer look at our current account balance, shown in the chart below you’ll see why I think we are heading for the Golden Era. The orange…

Joe Hockey has just taken one mighty swing with a deadly punt that is likely to wipe out thousands of jobs in the building industry. The latest announcement by Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to limit investor finance in an effort to cool the housing industry is so far off the mark…

This week’s budget announcement was yet another wake up call for those drifting through life hoping that Super will look after them in retirement. Those are people destined to be among the 95% of Australian retirees living a very poor lifestyle. We know the Government is gradually pushing the…

… and why Stevens needs to be sacked (as the head of Treasury was). Do you know the story about the frog in warm water? Little by little the water temperature was increased and the frog didn't notice until – he suddenly died!  Yet, this little bit by little bit is the same practice of Glen Stevens…

As property investors, if we don't pay any income tax (due to negative gearing) are we bad Australians or good Australians? I believe we are good! Why? Because the Government encourages people to not pay tax, instead creating real jobs and real tax payers. Yes. So what have Kathy and I and Property…

For the last two years the media has been full of the budget crisis and the need to tax, tax, tax to bring it back to zero or surplus.  I think instead of “tax, tax, tax” the cry should be “jobs, jobs, jobs”. We did have 4.3% unemployment before the RBA's rate hike madness back in 2009 (we did…