Reading Time: 3 Minutes “And SOLD, to the young woman in green”. “BANG” goes the gavel, as it comes crashing down… to the applause of the crowd. Yep. You guessed it. It’s another bumper auction result from what is Sydney, nay Australia’s biggest past-time. That is, having a sticky-beak at your neighbour’s property auction. This time, the property in question was a street over from ours. But First, To Set The Scene. MrsFrugalSamurai and I had viewed this one at it’s first mid-week open about 3 weeks ago. It was a standard 3 bed/2 bath/1 car on a sloping block, freshly landscaped and renovated throughout. I was sipping a freshly…
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6 Lessons From COVID-19, One Year On
Reading Time: 2 Minutes Gosh, has it really been over 12 months since an unseen, unheard, unknown virus caused never-before-experienced levels of panic and terror? It has. It now seems oh so long ago but 2020 will forever be remembered as the year in which the world, as we know it – changed. Mask wearing, travel bans, working from home – these phrases all entered our colloquial mainstream. I thought it best to revisit some of the lessons which I have learnt from those turbulent days of March and April 2020, more so as a reminder for myself than anything else. In no particular order, here goes… Herd Mentality Never…
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Sydney Property Boom Times
Reading Time: 2 Minutes Strewth! What a few days it’s been. I hope everyone’s been staying safe and under cover during these intense rainstorms. Yours truly was caught out when I went to grab some Vietnamese beef noodles for MrsFrugalSamurai – because she “wanted it, so there”. Lucky I know how to swim. The things we do for love. Speaking of, Sydneysiders love for all things property seems to be back in vogue. I read this morning that our property market is absolutely dominating right now. Or at least auction clearance rates are, with this weekend marking the 7th in a row where the clearance rate has been above 80%…
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Where To Next?
Reading Time: 2 Minutes Hello all! Some of you have commented on the fact that I’ve not been posting much regarding our own investment journey lately. Have we slowed down our buying journey? Yes. Have we slowed down our investment journey? A resounding no. Now regarding the first point, I am fully aware of this, but the reason is simple. The reason we have slowed down our buying journey is that frankly, I don’t see any value where it makes sense to buy anything. Don’t confuse activity with productivity has been one of my biggest takeaways on this journey. Property values are at all time highs. With corresponding yields at…
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Mistakes I’ve Made A Few
Reading Time: 3 Minutes Recently I was perusing the required reading material that is the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter. If you don’t know what this is – basically it’s the shareholder letter Warren Buffet writes each year since 1977. Every year it’s a hot topic of debate and there’s gems a-plenty. This time, he discusses a lot about his mistakes which I think makes him unique in the market – in that he talks more about his failures than his successes. Editor’s Note: Incidentally I never trust a person who only talks about their wins, never their losses/learns. Anyone who has been investing for a while knows that the more…
