When I was younger (I wasn’t the coolest kid) I used to wonder why anyone would take on a massive home loan and opt to pay off the interest only. When you take on a home loan, you can typically choose from P&I (principal & interest) and IO (interest only) products. Here’s what they mean […]
Recent Posts
Home loan products: Owner-occupier vs investment loans
Whether you’re buying your first home or you’re looking to invest in property, chances are you aren’t quite wealthy enough to fork out the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars it can cost to buy one outright. Even if you do happen to have a seven figure bank balance, you probably won’t even […]
Share investing 101: The basics
I was 21 when I placed my first trade. There’s so much more I know today that I wish I knew back then and you too should definitely be looking to arm yourself with as much information as you can before you place your first trade. There’s no way we can cover everything you should […]
What to do with $10k right now
Here we take a look at what an average person with an average risk profile should do if they had managed to save $10k and didn’t know how to best make use of it. Please understand this is not financial advice, it does not take into account your personal circumstances and it’s only here to […]
Home equity
What is equity? How much equity should I have in my home or investment property? How does equity fluctuate? What does ‘negative equity’ mean and could it affect me? Strap in for answers to all the questions you never asked. What is equity? Say you own a 100sqm rusty tin shed with no ceiling in […]
Passive vs active investment
Imagine if you will the only available investment opportunity is to invest in shares of sandal manufacturers. You are presented with two options. Option 1 is to take a long-term buy and hold position in a fund which holds interests in the top 100 sandal manufacturers in the world. Option 2 is to constantly buy […]
What makes things go up and down
Even in a pre-covid-19 world, my brother would always ask me why the market (and more relevantly) individual stocks would often defecate themselves. He did not say ‘defecate’. ‘Defecate’ is very much a euphemism here. Everyone’s talking about large dips or rallies in the market these days but if you distance yourself from the market […]
Negative and positive gearing
Negative and positive gearing are very popular topics, especially when we talk about residential investment. Generally speaking, if your investment is negatively geared, then from a finance perspective you’ve likely made a poor investment decision. It’s only from a tax perspective that you may actually derive some benefits. However it’s very important to understand that […]
Microinvesting
The average pair of birkenstocks retails at around $120 (I think). Let me forward a value proposition. You could go all out on a pair of sandals so aesthetically offensive they inspired a not-so-humble smashed avo enthusiast to start a blog. You could roam around the inner-western suburbs of Sydney wielding a $7 crappuccino and […]
Private health insurance
If you were ever looking for a euphemism for the word ‘useless’, look no further. I recently purchased private health insurance and I’ve never felt more robbed in my life. What a spectacular waste of money. Assumptions I’ve made three assumptions in dismissing private health cover’s value to society. First, you live in Australia or […]
