You want focus? I’ll give you focus! Al Pacino in Scarface: “Say hello to my little friend!” My “little friends” in financial motivation are “fear” and “greed” and you need a bit of both or you will struggle each month. They are two of life’s most powerful forces for good. Fear. Does living on the […]

There was a guy doing the talk show circuit two years ago and his suggestion was to “cancel Christmas”. “Visit friends in the week before Christmas and share a cuppa. Christmas is about spending time with people, not presents,” was his message. Mmmm. Sure. Nice idea. Remember you’ll wake up the loneliest person on the […]

Feed them. Clothe them. Shelter them. Love them. That’s what I was told when I signed up for kids. Nobody ever said anything about “Pay them”! Isn’t there some United Nations’ parental right to slave labour for menial (but time-saving) household chores for 15 or so years? My parents insisted there was! Before they sent […]

Who likes eggs? I’m generally a scrambled sort of guy. Occasionally, I go for hard boiled. And this question relates to how you boil your eggs. You want them easy, you do it quickly. You want it hard, you just make the process longer. The easy way to save for a deposit is simply to […]

Excellent topic to ask one of Australia’s most senior bankers, Sir Ralph Norris, from the Commonwealth Bank. Bruce: “Morning Ralphy.” Ralphy: “Morning Bruce.” (Hey, don’t forget his New Zealand accent.) Bruce: “Would it be a winning idea to consolidate all of my banking with CBA?” Ralphy: “Hell, yeah! I’d love you to! I’ll slug you […]

Earn more versus spend less? Oh no, the never-ending battle of good versus evil! But which is good? And which is evil? It’s like pitting Angelina Jolie against Brad Pitt in Mr and Mrs Smith. As a guy, I was rooting for Brad. But Brad, please don’t kill Angelina. For Gen Xers, the focus is […]

I’d get really cross and let her have both barrels. “Red card, Grandma! How many times have I told you? A thousand! There’s no more room left on your reverse mortgage and I’m not bailing you out this time. “You can’t use it at the RSL to pick up dinner and a night on the […]

Wha-a-a-t? Boring! Old-people topic! Yawn. Wake me up when you start talking about something of interest to Gen Xers. Okay, even for Xers, fixed interest has a place. A small place, like the cavity for Paris Hilton’s brain, but a place. What is fixed interest? It used to be called bonds. Fixed interest is one […]

You mean these days? Like today? Well, um, probably not very. Bu-u-u-t … who needs a home, when for just $100,000, you could buy KITT – David Hasselhoff’s legendary wheels from Knight Rider! There’s a lot wrong with research saying houses were “cheaper” 40 years ago. Because it fails to point out a fundamental societal […]

“Would you like fries with that?” I started flippin’ burgers just after I turned 15. Actually, that’s not true. I needed “experience” before I could cook the meat. My first gig at McDonald’s was “puttin’ buns in the oven”. And did my dad love to snigger at that one. For years. He still does. Bloody […]