It has never been harder for first home buyers to get into the market. Australian property prices are at record highs and each week they go up further.
With property prices having gone up by between 20% in the last 12 months even the most diligent savings efforts by 2 young professionals (each on 6 [...]

Every one talks “equity” but most don’t really understand what it is and how it can be used. So at a time when property prices have jumped forward by somewhere between 5-20% in the last 12 months, I thought it might be useful to have a look at what “equity” is and how you can [...]

With interest rates on the rise, and further rate rises expected it is not surprising the clients are starting to worry about how they are going to manage. Our financial landscape is changing.
This means that now is a really good time to stop, survey our position and develop a plan of attack with which [...]

Most people would have been happily unaware that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) was due to meet yesterday. All focus has been on getting the kids out the door and back to school (or for those without kids, recovering from another BBQ where a little too much of everything was consumed). Either way, the [...]

If ever there was a popular time to go into debt, Christmas is the choice of many. According to a Reserve Bank report, Australians have more than $1.9 trillion in outstanding debt, 61 per cent of which is made up of consumer debt. The festive season may well blow-out this already inflated figure unless we [...]

I have received dozens of calls from clients in the last 2 months.  All asking the same questions: “Have interest rates hit rock bottom? Should we fix our home loans now?’.
In recent weeks the frenzied activity around fixing rates has almost reached swine flu hysteria like proportions.

Interest rates might be down and the government might be giving first home buyers up to an extra $19,000 but getting finance for your first home has got far tougher in 2009.

Know someone with a GE home loan? Please pass this important news on to them…

On Feb 3 the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate by 1% taking it to a 45 year low.  All the major banks announced they were passing on this rate cut in full within 24 hours.  Not since 1964 have variable home loan rates been this low.  People with mortgages of $250,000 will save around [...]

The sub-prime hurricane that hit the US in 2007 has left a trail of destruction in its wake around the world.  Banks are now the only 100% safe place for Australians to keep their money, the share market has plunged more than 25%, finance is harder to get at every level, the rate of “mortgages [...]