Reading Time: 9 minutes “Buffering…please wait…buffering… please wait…” Ever recall that message come up before? Well, before the age of high-speed internet and insta and snap and YOLO, us millennial folks who grew up in the 90s sure can. We who grew up in the age of the Pentium 3, the 56k modem (brrrkrrr… beep…krrr…dookrrrrr dookrrrrr…) and the Nokia 3210 – we remember. Because we used to get that messages ALL the time. As a teenage boy, the frustration of seeing that pop up when trying to download por… maths papers was palpable. “I REALLY need to do some mathematics, RIGHT NOW”. I used to say out loud to no…
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Investing in Real Estate 110 (Loan Structuring Tips)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Wow! What a difference a day or two makes eh! Looks like the Australian politicians were reading the latest post (here) from TheFrugalSamurai and decided (again) to change the leadership of our nation. So for the seventh time in a decade, we now have a Prime Minister in office unelected by the people. Our new PM ScoMo (Scott Morrison) won’t even get a chance to stay long, because the Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten is odds on favourite to get in come the federal election next year. Which means once Bill comes in – he’s going to be backstabbed by some other candidate from HIS…
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Amusing Timeline of (Recent) Australian Prime Ministers
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hey y’all! How’s it all going? Hope you’ve had a great week so far! I’m here in old Melbourne town actually, on a national work conference for a couple of days. As much as I would love to see the sights and catch up with old friends, frankly the schedule and activities which work has placed on us doesn’t allow for much, if any, free time (I’m writing this at 4am as we speak). Still! Looking forward to a couple of days out of the office with everyone from around the country – should be exciting! I was going to continue writing on the previous post…
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Investing in Real Estate 109 (How to Start a Property Portfolio)
Reading Time: 7 minutes RnB music pumping: “….She’s so dangerous That girl is so dangerous, That girl is a bad girl, yeah” Oh! Hi there – how’s it going? Sorry for being distracted, you see – I’ve had an old school RnB binge this weekend. Poor MrsFrugalSamurai had to put up with my dance moves and random bursts of song. She doesn’t mind, tests our marriage she says, makes it stronger. Today’s article is in response to a question from one of her good friends Bane-san, a well-renowned medical physician based in Melbourne, who originates from the Indian sub-continent but has a Japanese name. #Winning! Bane-san asks: How to start a…
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Snapshot of the Oz Economy
Reading Time: 5 minutes Hey YOU! (Points finger in your direction). “M…me?” YES YOU! Have you ever wondered how the Australian economy is going right now? What our GDP growth rate and headline figures are? WELL?! HAVE YOU??? “N…no…no” Well today’s your day to find out! “Oh…O…OK” The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA aka Oz Central Bank) kindly released an economic snapshot (great info-graphics) of how our Australian economy is tracking right now. Given the negativity recently in the media and pundits stating we are overdue for a recession – it’s a prudent time to see just how we are doing. Courtesy of the RBA: Some solid numbers reported, with…
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Which Financial Level Are You?
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hey guys! How y’all doing? Hope you been enjoying the weekend – plenty of glorious sunshine out there! MrsFrugalSamurai certainly did, for she went out for a hike with friends to the famous Wedding Cake Rock whilst I ran around throwing my weight around on the field (as a referee). During one of our breaks, I sat down to have a chat with a couple of my fellow refs. Soon enough, the conversation gravitated towards our normal day jobs – one was a doctor, another a self-employed jeweler and the youngest of us, still a student. “You guys are all level 99’s!” said the student at the end…
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The Evolving Great Australian Dream
Reading Time: 6 minutes Ah yes, the Great Australian Dream. What is it you ask? Well, since the beginning of time, us Aussies – we’ve got this fascination, no, not the right word, this need of owning our own home. The insatiable desire for the quarter acre block and a piece of land we can call our own. I’ve discussed it previously in some of the earlier blog posts (here and here) regarding our attitude to real estate. Not only does the property market provide housing to all of us – it is also an enormous asset class which dominates the media airwaves and creates a huge number of jobs. Which…
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What Are The 3 Big Financial ‘Mistakes’ That People Make (and the first thing they can do right now to rectify them)…
Reading Time: 5 minutes Today’s post is courtesy of my friend Light Beam AKA “Mike’s friend from Canberra”. Light Beam works and resides in our nation’s capital and is employed in the public sector. But what makes Light Beam different to most public servants is that he works for the government body which sets and implements our economic policy. That’s right – Light Beam pulls the strings for the Treasury department. Suffice to say that Light Beam is a pretty switched on kinda guy and someone who knows a thing or two about finance. Inevitably our conversations end up talking about a financial topic or two whenever I get the…
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How Did These Billionaires Approach Failure?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Everyday all of us deal with failures. Some are big – “OMG I just had a car accident.” Some are small – “WTF why no organic cronuts left.” And some are just downright ridiculous – “My fantasy football captain went down injured in the first minute”. Yet, there are various moments in our life when we have LIFE-defining failures. You know, the ones which brings you to your knees and you try to squeeze out a tear – but even your tear glands shake its head at you. “Yes I would, if I could, I surely would”. Life is hard. It’s not just us mere mortals…
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What’s it Like at a Real Estate Seminar?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Howdy fellow Frugal Samuraites! Hope we all had a cracking weekend – the sun is out and looks like the worst of Winter is passing through FINALLY! It’s beeeeautiful! Did you head outdoors to enjoy the warmth and sunshine? I did… well kinda – I mean, I did head into the city, walked by our very own Darling Harbour… to attend…”cue drum roll” A real estate seminar! The thing with property seminars, for those who have never been – is that usually they try and sell you something there and then. It’s either a “training” course, or an “exclusive” new insight or some other unique and wonderful…
