Easy! Live like a slob recluse! Ditch cleaning products ($5) and petrol to get to work ($30), because you won’t be going. Now, as you aren’t going to be seeing anyone, you can also ditch clothes ($15) and spend the week naked in front of the TV. Awesome! Just don’t answer knocks at the door […]

THPPPPT! Ridiculous! Just one? Humbly, on behalf of Gen X, I could list a hundred. A thousand! In my first breath! Why? Because Gen X is … AWESOME! We are the bees’ knees. And as we’ve been telling our parents, like, forever, we know everything. Everything! Except how to grow old disgracefully, which Boomers have […]

“If you decide not to buy, you will rent until you die.” There, a catchy jingle that says it all. (But also proves I’d be an AWFUL poet.) Like that bad dream (complete with Freddy Krueger) that you can’t wake from, renting will haunt you in later life. (As will those 1987 photos of me […]

FOR your special girl? Yes! Particularly if you think a gold necklace, bracelet or earrings will buy you a year’s credit for upcoming misdemeanours. That would be an awesome investment! But I’m guessing that’s not what the editor is asking. And, in any case, it’s unlikely to buy a full year’s forgiveness for stumbling home […]

Look at me. Clearly, I’m neither Dr McDreamy, nor Dr McSteamy. But I do know your body is a tremendous indicator of stress. If we listen, it tells us things. Making money feels good, so few will feel queasy when markets are running hot. The following are warning signs for when markets are crapping out. […]

Jeez, I don’t know about that. That’s like me saying: “Getting hitched was awesome. I’ll never have to cook again”. (Duck the frying pan that’s flying my way … NOW!) Couples have twice the bad spending habits to keep under control, will eat out more and might do something silly like get married, where the […]

That we’re apathetic, aimless, ambitionless, slackers. Generation X – Tales for an Accelerated Culture was the 1991 book by Canadian Douglas Coupland, which kicked the whole thing off. It was followed by “Slacker”, a movie about a day in the life of a bunch of deadbeat 20-somethings. The term “Generation X” caught on. And we […]

Will anyone be in Australia to fill out the Census this week? You should be reading this by smart phone or an internet cafe … somewhere the sun’s shining and it’s permanently cocktail hour. With Australia’s dollar in the stratosphere, there’s never been a better time. Between 1996 and 2006, I spent a year backpacking. […]

Electric shock therapy. Cattle prods and electrodes. What? Whaddya mean it’s not legal anymore? It was standard parental behaviour in the 70s! If you want to teach a teenager not to speed when they learn to drive, take them to a trauma accident unit. If you want to teach teenagers how not to mistreat money, […]

Does a bear you-know-what in the woods? Or, in the words of Frank Spencer from Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, has “the cat done a whoopsie in my beret”? Yes, of course property’s still a good investment. Property will always be a good investment. That said, not all property, and not every year in a […]