Start … your party engines! Woo-hoo! Today marks the official opening of Christmas party season. Drink and be merry I’ve got an average of a function a day for the next 30 days. Straight-out work-related Christmas parties, plus Christmas lunches, dinners and barbecues with family and friends. Christmas is the excuse anyway. Berocca is my […]

Lest someone starts misconstruing some sermonising for hypocrisy, first thing I need to do is ’fess up. Here goes: I’m a financial adviser and … I’ve never done a personal budget. As Aunt Kerrin (right) points out, some people have a sixth sense of the incomings and outgoings of the household budget. I guess I’m […]

People make out like debt is the “dark side” of the Jedi force of finances. Darth Vader snuggles up with debt at night, gently stroking it and whispering his bidding. Bollocks. Love it or loathe it, debt greases the engine of global finances. Sure, some over-indulgence in recent years has been painful. Globally. But we […]

The easiest solution is to play the blame game. Focus your anger. “The nominees for biggest barrier preventing you getting ahead are … Mr Wilson in Abysmal Economics Teacher … your parents in Woeful Examples … the Government for Needless Interference … and … South Park’s Future People (‘They took our jobs!’) “And the winner […]

Calmly, with your partner, walk into your bank brandishing loaded handguns. Pulp Fiction: “All right, everybody be cool. This is a robbery!” That would certainly get you into a new home. One that serves porridge. So, let’s try the more conventional method. You know … the boring plan that’s largely hard work and sacrifice, but […]

It’s a story of an auction, a midnight drug deal gone wrong and the proceeds of crime being equitably redistributed among the people. Nah! I’ve got a better one. It’s about a mother who made a bold financial threat to her children, and then wrote herself out of her own fortune. In a desperate attempt […]

Sure, get yourself a new credit card. Get a lower rate. Feel like you’re doing something positive for your finances. But don’t delude yourself. Shifting money from card to card is to your finances what aspirin is to treating a bad dose of the “Phuket puke”. It’s ignoring the underlying problem. It’s short-term relief, not […]

Dust off your golf clubs. Take a chill pill. Close down your internet trading screen. Let go of your mouse. Grab your boy, a footy and head to a park. Get down on the floor with your daughter and find out what she and Barbie have been doing. “Sir, calmly step away from your iPhone. […]

WHOA! Stop! Let’s start by running a demarcation line through this property argument. Homes and investment properties require ideologically different decision-making processes. A home is where you live. It fills emotional needs, such as proximity to family, friends, schools or a lifestyle. Homes should make you feel safe and happy. I roughly agree with Justine’s […]