Reading Time: 7 Minutes Hallo meine Damen und Herren, willkommen zu einer weiteren Ausgabe der Frugal Samurai… Warte, Warte COUGHS LOUDLY TWICE. Ah, that’s better. Apologies – I had my German voice on. Should be fixed now. Anyway… Hi guys! How’s everyone doing today? Ain’t it yucky here in Old Sydney Town – old mate Harry and his missus Meg brought the British weather down under, CRICKEY! Wait a tick, too much Aussie… COUGHS AGAIN. Sorry guys, having trouble finding my inner voice this morning… Let’s start again shall we? So this week, there’s been a bit of media attention of where the “next” GFC will come from (e.g. here…
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Australian Household Wealth Update – and How YOU Can Get There!
Reading Time: 6 Minutes Ever wanted to know how Aussie household wealth is doing? Well, it seems like the gap between the have’s (them) and the have-not’s (us) is increasing. That is to say, methinks dem rich are gettin’ richer. But don’t just take my word for it – the latest Roy Morgan (amazing research guys) Wealth Report has shown that the biggest gains in the past decade have been among the wealthy top 10%. What about us poor buggers in the bottom 50%? Our share of private wealth fell from a measly 3.9% (yes, 3 point freaking 9) a decade ago to… 3.7%. “Shakes head” Just wow, those at the…
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4 Reasons Why Property Prices Won’t Drop 40% Soon… and a Story About When They Do!
Reading Time: 7 minutes “Hey The Frugal Samurai, what do you think of the 60 minutes report?” What 60 minutes report? “You know, the one about house prices dropping 40%?” Oh… you mean this one (here)? “That’s the one”. Yeah nah, forty percent? That’s gotta be a typo. But no guys, it’s not a typo – it’s a very real and very “legitimate” story. Suffice to say, this story made sensational headlines in the media and property industry at large. Ah us Aussies – we love a good story about our real estate markets don’t we? Put any emotional words with the words “Australian” and “property” and it’s guaranteed to…
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4 Things to Know in Beijing (and My Brush with the Authorities)
Reading time: 6 minutes “Halt!” Shouted the voice outside the barracks. I turned, to come face to face into the glaring eyes of a soldier on duty. “What’s wrong?” I enquired with a quizzical look. ”Show me your phone”. I looked around, there were now FOUR soldiers in a semi-circle facing me. Without further protest, I handed it over to the first soldier, who proceeded to scroll through my photo album. “Delete this”, he pointed at the last two pictures I took. Meekly I obeyed, what else could I do? Because this here is China – the country of my birth. In China, taking pictures of government buildings and military…
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What Path Would You Tell Your 15 Year Old Self To Go Down (Part 2)
Reading Time: 13 minutes OK guys, we are BACK! Who’s excited?!!! I know I am, let’s DO THIS. Do what you ask? Finish off the last post (read here), which was the first part of the response to my schoolmate DP ‘s question: Knowing everything you do now, what path would you tell your 15 year old self to go down? So let’s get to it, onto the next part! Wait, aren’t you forgetting something? Oh yeah, that’s right – before we jump in, I have to mention a big THANK YOU to everyone who commented and read through the previous post, it was one of the more commented on posts I’ve…
