I generally believe you have to do your own research and work out which way you want to go and then start talking to various advisors. Learn as much as you can yourself – eg. look at discretionary trusts – get a rough idea how they work, benefits and disadvantages and costs – and then you will have an idea if you need one  -then see an advisor.…[Read more]

Yes it is pretty amazing – property dropping for 20 years. Now there is a rapid decline in the birth rate leading to a shrinking population  (actually has been for a while), economy is bad, general feeling is pessimistic, spending down etc. Doesn't look good for a recovery.

If you are suing a company in its own capacity or a trustee and you are worried about it having funds you can always seek a court order for security of costs. see s 1335(1) of the Corporations Act 2001http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca2001172/s1335.html

Trustees are sued all the time.I just did a search on austlii and found this oneGreen & Ors v Wilden Pty Ltd & Ors [2005] WASC 83http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/wa/WASC/2005/83.html?query=^trustee

HiThe trustee is the legal owner of property. So if you can indenfity the property (not just land) you may be able to find the trustee. If the trustee owns real property you can do a title search and find it that way. If the trust owns a business then the trading name will be the trustee or if they have a registered trading name you may be able to…[Read more]

If you fix it ties you down. It will make it harder to move banks. You may not intend to move now, but things change.You will also get a rate of around 5% now – so you will be paying 2.49% extra. Do you think rates will jump more than 2.5% in 5  years? Even if they do you could still be worse off unless they jump much more as you will be paying…[Read more]

It is good, but you could do it betterby using the offset. You will still save the same interest but tax consequences are better.eg. imagine you pay $100,000 extra off the investment. That means you have $100,000 less available for the home to live in.at 5%pa that is $5,000 less interest on the investment. that is $5,000 less you can claim pa.If…[Read more]

j900 wrote:
5.3% is about average for an apartments in Sydney no?Consider Japanese rental market – I was told it's virtually non-existent as nobody rent in Japan!Regardless I think Chatswood and Artarmomn are good growth areas. Too many asians wanna live in Chatswood and it is a sub-economy in it's own. (same goes to Hurstville)

Plenty of…[Read more]

ST G is one of the few lenders that will still do 95% loans for existing customers – must have an account with them at least 6 months – so don't close it yet. Keep your options open – but I agree about their offset accounts.

I have know of one No Doc lender at 75% LVR – but rates are high 9 to 11% pa. Hope there is now another lender out there.

First thing to do would be to change that loan to interest only and keep spare money in an offset account. By paying down the loan you are creating adverse tax consequences for yourself.

j900 wrote:
You cannot attain great wealth and be a free man if you refuse to take risk.Unless of course you win lotto.Good luck.p.s. ~7% is more like the NORMAL rate. Current ~5% is an emergency rate.

Even lotto is a risk – dn't get your money back if you don't win!

Whether the "rent" is income or not will depend on if the boarders are paying for rent of the room – or just contributing to household expenses. see para 17 of TR 2167.

If your husband is working for a company as PAYG then there is not much you can do to reduce tax – one way is salary sacrifice into super.I wouldn't worry too much about the tax, just set yourselves up properly for investments and maximise the returns. eg. you could set up a discretionary trust and have all the income diverted to yourself – if you…[Read more]

WannaBeInvestor wrote:
Hi Terry,I am also in  a similar situation.I have PPOR worth about $350K and I owe $150K.I have an offset account but I have transferred much of the amount in offset account to home loan account (I&P), about $100K.There is almost $120K  redrawable amount. So, If I want to buy an IP and after 2 years make it PPOR  and mak…[Read more]

Hi AndrewDo you have the offset linked to an investment loan or your own home loan? If you still have a home loan it would be preferable to link it to this – to save non-deductible interest.Also, your interest rate sounds a bit high too. Maybe you should consider looking around a bit or ask your lender for a bigger discount.The interest saved…[Read more]

awsydney wrote:
XYA 1. Think about it – the fastest way to wealth creation is to pay off your PPOR ASAP, therefore always P & I. There are no 2 ways to it. Why pay interest only on PPOR when there is absolutely no tax benefit. You are only making your bank richer. The only time I would do that is to get a family member to buy the property and…[Read more]

xya wrote:
Hi all,I'm still trying to learn about property investment and this forum has been really helpful. Recently, I've been reading some books by Tony Melvin & Ed Chan, and I'm stuck trying to understand some of the concepts. So, some help is really appreciated.1) In the How to Achieve Wealth for Life book, there's a topic on not paying…[Read more]

Sorry, not sure where to put it on the forms.

Glennsa wrote:
Thanks for the information, Terryw.  The legalese is starting to do my head in, but I think I understand the "issue" is that when they were capitalising their interest, they were claiming a deduction on not only the interest from the IP loan, but the interest on the interest in regards to the Line of Credit – so a double dip as…[Read more]