I remember as a child how much fun Mum and Dad put into Christmas. There was not huge money to spend in a family of 5 children. The Christmas Tree was a branch cut from a fruit tree and coloured white by us with shoecleaner, decorations were made by hand. Santa’s sack...

Security Guarantee : Buying your first home without a deposit When buying your first home, generally you need a deposit, which might be:5% of the purchase price - which must be saved over a minimum of three months and documented through account statements – mortgage...

In light of last night’s Budget there are three areas worthy of comment in relation to property and Home Loans;

1 The Bank Levy : as the Treasurer said in the pre-budget briefing “Cry me a river”

Something you weren’t taught at school … The Power of Leverage.

There is good debt … and there is bad debt. Not once in all my years of mathematics education was I ever taught the difference. In my upbringing, all debt was seen to be “bad”.

At the start of March I wrote … “If you haven’t heard of APRA and ASIC until now – then you soon will”. 

And only two weeks ago I wrote … that “interest only loans to owner occupiers” were of increasing concern.

This is all against the backdrop that Sydney and Melbourne house price is now overheated and that the Reserve Bank’s hands are fairly well tied in terms of using interest rates to dampen them.

The Council of Financial Regulators met yesterday in Sydney (The Financial Review Tues 21st March)

• APRA
• ASIC
• Treasury (meaning the Treasurer and his Department)
• Chaired by The Reserve Bank

Doesn’t that sound like a fun party!! (You might like to background yourself by reading this again … http://bit.ly/2l0JZcI )