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 we can move forward with confidence. Along the way we may need to re-evaluate our lifestyle decisions and core beliefs about money.
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 only discernable activity I have noticed this week has had been a collective rush to the nearest café for a quiet latte.
I had this realisation the other day. Actually, it was just one of a number of moments of clarity I have had recently…A few weeks away from the office will do that.
Anyway, for me realisations come not so much as blinding flashes but slow, creeping new dawns. Wonderful “aah ha” moments that warm the soul like the morning sun on a crisp morning.
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 reign-in our spending.
While the essence of Christmas is sharing, this doesn’t mean running your bank account dry with gifts you can’t afford. With a little planning and restraint you can stay debt-free and still keep the spirit of Christmas alive. Here’s how…
One of Australia’s major banks now expects the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will raise interest rates twice this year - in November and December.
The National Australia Bank (NAB) is the first among the big four banks to pencil in a rate rise for this year, rather than holding off until the early part of next year.
NAB said on Friday it now expects 25 basis-point increases in November and December, as well as a further increase of this size in February.
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.
Financial markets have lowered their expectations for interest rates rises, amid renewed concerns about the sustainability of the global economic recovery, reports The Australian Financial Review.
Some very clear trends have emerged in the marketplace over recent months, namely:
A comprehensive table showing the First Home Owners grants you may be able to claim depending on the date of the contract of sale is set out below.
A friend recently confided that “life was not easy” and it probably had not been for a while. I empathised, I remember having felt the same at different stages. But at the same time I was gladdened to reflect that I had not felt that way myself for some time
But it did get me thinking and I woke a few days later to the realisation that all is not peachy in my house either. In fact I have been feeling a little flat since easter. My back has been playing up, I have a cold/flu, the banks are taking 2-3 times longer to do things, which is increasing my (and clients) stress levels, the banks are also lending less, then there is the global financial crisis which is affecting friends and clients…and I am feeling generally glum. That is quite a list.
So what to do with all of this…
