• Real Estate

    4 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Home Loan

    Reading Time: 4 Minutes Howdy folks! Have to say I am in a GLORIOUS mood today. Because, finally, for once… the sun is out. And we can ALL enjoy our weekend proper. The way it should be :) Before I can though, I have to let y’all in on a secret. It’s something which has been bugging me for a while now. I see it every day, invisible to most of us. What is it? I’m talking of course, about the hidden fees and charges in our home loans. Now, for our international friends who are not as familiar with Australia, us Aussies – we are obsessed with real estate,…

  • Alternatives

    The Frugal Samurai Interview Series – Esther from The Happiness Investher

    Reading Time: 4 Minutes Hello everyone! A little something different for us all today. Recently I’ve started up a new interview series, whereby I’ll be profiling a number of high profile Aussie FIRE and personal finance bloggers. The thing with blogging is that it can get a bit lonely sometimes, what better way to cure this than to connect with other bloggers and showcase their talents too! Esther from The Happiness Investher First cab off the rank is Esther from The Happiness Investher. PLEASE check her out (not literally, the blog I mean). With the interview, it’s basically a questionnaire of… questions, whereby we really get into the nitty gritty…

  • Life

    Coronavirus and its Effect on Human Psychology

    Reading Time: 3 Minutes Well it’s bucketing rain at the moment in Old Sydney Town boys and girls. What better way to spend our time indoors than to catch up with your favourite personal finance and development blogger! OK, so I wanted to follow-up on my earlier post regarding the hot topic in Australia right now. Which of course, is the Coronavirus. I wanted to revisit this topic because I’m seeing some news headlines about an unprecedented surge in hand-sanitizer right now. Headlines such as: Coronavirus panic causes hand sanitiser to be marked up, sells out at supermarkets And: Coles sells out of hand sanitiser as coronavirus rush hits All…

  • Life

    The Most Miserable Countries in the World

    Reading Time: 2 Minutes If you’re having a crappy, can’t-wait-for-it-to-end week like yours truly, then this post is for you. You see, some people believe that happiness comes from within. But lemme tell ya, there’s a bit of science to it as well! And surprise, surprise, there’s been an economic study done to highlight how happiness can be measured against quantitative factors. These being: Inflation, Bank lending rates, Employment levels Growth in GDP. Courtesy of our good friends at Visual Capitalist, the 2019 Misery Index ranked 95 countries based on the above 4 economic variables: 2019 Misery Index To calculate each Misery Index score, a simple formula is used: GDP…

  • Life

    How Serious is the Coronavirus?

    Reading Time: 2 Minutes Everyone’s heard about it, we’re all in fear of it, but what exactly is the Coronavirus? What is it? Coronaviruses are a family of viruses in the same category as SARS and MERS. They originate from animals and are caused by animal-to-human contact. They are feared because of their ability to cause more severe diseases such as pneumonia, which can cause death. Here’s the comparison between each one: This latest Coronavirus has been labelled 2019-nCoV, and originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, most likely from a seafood market selling live animals for consumption. So far, it has caused over 300 deaths and cases have popped…