Milly,I'm so very sorry to hear about your husband, and your difficult personal circumstances.  Yours is a story that illustrates exactly WHY we DO need welfare.  As to why I think my step daughter has an easy life – she tells me herself that she does.  She told me that her daughter has so many brand new unworn baby clothes being packed away as sh…[Read more]

Grant,I've heard alot of good things about insulating paint but haven't actually used it.  A painter told us that good quality external white paint would do the same job, so we painted our (also uninsulated) roof with it, and it wasn't much good really.  Wish I'd spent the money on the proper stuff.  Hopefully you'll get a more knowledgeable po…[Read more]

Townsville: Not yet at the bottom.  Recently laid off miners don't seem to be truly hurting yet.  While I see some properties moving and promisingly low prices, there is alot of people still adverrtising at last years prices, alot of properties on the market for quite a while, and plenty of FHO's out there exiting rentals (slowing rental d…[Read more]

Thanks IP freely.

Mister,I think alot of people are working under the idea of little, no or negative capital growth at the moment.  Under such an assumption, I haven't yet found anything that fits my criteria performance wise in order to buy.  There may be alot of other people like me, just carefully watching and waiting until the maths says an unmistakeable &…[Read more]

Don't worry, there is a fair difference in handouts to indigenous people here too.  I didn't vote the idiots in.  Trouble is too many idiots have the right to vote. 

Does anyone know where on the net I can access spot price data for not only individual securities, but also things like gold?  My client has access to a spot price graph that he can draw trend lines on.  The graph can be zoomed in and out to different periods of time, and is in real time for Australian markets.  It may be a paid data su…[Read more]

realestate.com has a section now called realholidays.com.  This is what I use when booking self contained holiday accom (as a tourist). 

I know no one who made themselves retirement rich through property alone.  Re the post with the BRW rich list, I bet if you added all those different business categories together, then business, as a broad banner, would be the number one way to get rich.But this thread has taken a slightly down in the mouth turn, don't you think?  Let's b…[Read more]

devo76 wrote:
The military is like insurance. You dont need them until the day you do need them.

Couldn't agree more.I don't know what they need, but I reckon if they need more planes, better planes, subs whatever, they should have it.  Not just a state of the art field kit.  My brother's descriptions of what air support does, and how skilled t…[Read more]

OK, conscription and the military.  I think we gotta get our guys the best stuff, even if it is expensive.  And I agree, conscription could be an excellent character building excersise for our youth.  Bit hard to lump all of the problems of todays youth on the military though, and I agree, no govt would ever bring it in.  Pity.  Personally, I thin…[Read more]

Oh, lovely, lets all go to Costa Rica…WJ,OK, brainstorming.  Had to agree with alot that you said.  I'll add:1: Open further university placements, particularly in the sciences so we don't have to import any more half educated, non english speaking doctors.  I'm sure we've got plenty of great Australian kids to train, they just can't all ac…[Read more]

WJ Hooker wrote:
             Maybe we should all place our brainstorming up for comments ?

OK, you first.  Sorry to be such a cynic, but I hesitate to share the few ideas I have with a bunch of other people looking for their lucky break, and hundreds of guest visitors to the forum.  I'd love to share if I could overcome my fear and greed….…[Read more]

It is nice to see someone online who cares about spelling, grammar and punctuation.  I had started to feel a little old fashioned, personally, and was wondering if the rest of the world thought so too, because I choose to put a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, and usually get my choice of where and were, their and there correct.  P…[Read more]

This is an interesting thread.  I've been thinking similar thoughts (minus the shooting myself, thankfully).  When you hear about people who have made alot of money somehow, be it business, property, shares, whatever, they all seem to have a few things in common.  They were all in the right place, at the right time, with the right knowledge, an…[Read more]

Someone mentioned to me, in a thread where I was asking for advice, the  idea of obtaining DA for a 'dream' project and selling the block with architectural plans for a lovely home / block of units / whatever and DA.  Not sure if this fits the location of your block, but I thought it seemed like a good idea. 

Twice you have asked about needing to take a risk.  The answer is, yes, any investment has risk.  But, there is alot you can do to mitigate the risk.  Lots of research, planning, research and more research.  Property investment is about making very well informed decisions, to minimise risk.  Afterall, the figures you are gambling with are pret…[Read more]

Gosh, it's been a long time since I was last in Humpty Doo.  It used to be all acreage housing sites, though.  You need to look into the zoning and what you are allowed to build there, before spending too much time costing out various projects.  Not sure what it's like there now, but a block of flats would have been decidedly out of place there te…[Read more]

Chatting with my Dad on the phone thismorning, he reckons kruddy is simply buying votes, which is correct.  His theory was that the work towards stabilising the economy has been done by the Reserve Bank, but that it takes at least a year to have any real effect.  Kruddy is painting himself on a white horse, by handing out a bit of cash, in the h…[Read more]

It is very frustrating.  I think that the government does give them too much money.  My stepdaughter asked if there was any way we could help her to buy this car she wants.  I said we were a bit strapped for cash.  Working people like us already fund her lifestyle 100%.  What makes these people think we are willing to give them money, on top of t…[Read more]