Can Property Prices Keep Increasing?

Why Property Growth Rates Must Slow I recently watched the owners of a house celebrate their sale after achieving a sale price of $1.5m. They had bought it 25 years ago for $150k! It made me wonder whether this type of growth could go on forever. I did some historical...

Cut up you Credit Cards

Why I said goodbye to credit cards How would retailers fare if credit cards didn’t exist and we reverted to cheque books? They would undoubtedly struggle. Notwithstanding this certainty, most retailers now charge us up to 2% extra on our credit cards to say...

Car Finance

Sharks and Cars. What do they have in common? I had an interesting experience while helping someone finance a car last month and we came across a real shark of a car salesman. I thought it might be worthwhile highlighting a few tricks these sharks often play when it...

The Computer says “yes” but should say “no”

Couple #1 – I met a couple one evening, married for 12 months, both earning $80,000. I was happy to inform them that based on their earnings, the computer says “congratulations, you can borrow $1m!”. Couple #2 – This is actually the same couple...

Does Smashed Avo Cost us Buying a Home

My take on the #smashedavo debate? In The Australian last week, Bernard Salt suggested that young hipsters (like myself) should not be going to cafes and spending $22 on a smashed avocado on 5 grain toast . Some hipsters felt that their generation had given up buying...