It's that time of year and your accountant can only do the best they can with the information you provide them. So here are a few things to consider when doing your tax. Working from home Working from home is tax-deductible. The 9-5 job doesn't exist anymore...
We are hearing less and less about the property market in the media. Whether it is intentional so consumers regain their confidence back or it’s because there is no bad news to report. Remember, negative headlines is what sells newspapers. So I thought I would include...
There have been more changes in the finance industry in the last 18 months than I have seen in the last 19 years. The government has forced the banks to make drastic changes to the process of obtaining a loan. What was once a simple process...
Banks stress test your ability to make repayments at a rate above the actual interest rate to ensure you can still afford your loan if and when interest rates increase. A floor rate is the minimum rate the banks can use to stress test your...
We’ve had two consecutive interest rate cuts and majority of the banks have passed on the the full rate cut of 0.50%. What does that save you monthly or annually on your mortgage? Let’s assume your bank only passed on 0.20% rather the 0.25% both times,...
We’re always on the lookout for great properties to beef up our client’s property portfolios and during a recent trip to Melbourne I found a project like I've never seen before, the incentives, aka guarantees offered just blew me away. This housing estate is located...
My wife and I have recently been school shopping for our son and we’ve been fortunate enough to consider a public and private school in our area. One thing we’ve noticed though is that we’re not prepared enough for the costs involved outside the public...
How can we achieve the great aussie dream sooner, pay off our home loan before the 30 year term ends and save on interest? If I had a dollar for every time I get asked this question...
By now we know you really like the property, you’ve done all your pre-purchase checks and everything’s looking good. This last post for the series talks about neighbourhood checks you can do to ensure the neighbourhood’s right for you. There's nothing more painful than purchasing...
So you've already seen the property and now you're getting serious about putting in an offer, but not before going in for another inspection. Most people inspect the property while they're still emotionally invested in it, and because of this they may overlook small things that...
