Archive for November, 2008

Financial Crisis – Summary to Date

I just read this article and I think it does a pretty good job of explaining the financial crisis up to now and also what is currently ‘brewing’ in the background (which might actually come true depending which way the world decides to turn)

I think the world needs to prepare themselves for another shock as more companies are being dried up of credit (ie. loans) Obvious things will become worse

  • cut back on any business expansions
  • they will be forced to fire more staff
  • leading to mortgage defaults
  • meaning more bad debts, and tighter credit
  • the loop continues…

Until now, Australia has been very sheltered from a lot of this financial crisis. As the financial crisis drags out and become worse, people are starting to hear mining/resource/oil/gas industry are scaling back their operations, which leads to redundancies across their workforce.

At the same time, Australian banks are most probably preparing themselves for Babcock and Brown going under after their trading halt got extended for another week. It’s not that pretty when it starts affecting your backyard and this is what we’re starting to seeing. It’s happened so fast and most people are not prepared for it.

So watch your back pocket and if possible, borrow as much as possible for a buffer just incase the worse is yet to come.

The financial crisis has morphed into several simultaneous crises that feed upon each other. The real estate bust crippled the banks. Crippled banks starved companies of credit. Starved companies laid workers off. Laid-off workers defaulted on mortgages, deepening the bust in real estate. By a similar process, crippled financial institutions stopped making auto loans, which caused people to stop buying cars, which pushed the carmakers to the brink. If the carmakers go down, a whole new round of job losses and mortgage defaults will slam into the financial system – Source

Tweets on 2008-11-23

  • reading 4 hour work week, awesome book! and i’m only up to chapter 3 #
  • Chapter 14… I think i’m a slow reader… but awesome book! #
  • http://is.gd/8Fe8 – Four Hour Work Week – must read! no BS approach to remove the ‘crap’ out of your life so that you can start living! #

Australian Bank Starting to Axe No Deposit Loans

It’s going to be interesting as more and more banks tighten their lending policy and make it harder for people to borrow. In the article below, CBA is axing their no deposit loans. I think its important to interate that the Property market is “moved” by the ability to finance the asset (ie the property).

Reducing/tightening credit policies and rules will obviously make it harder for individuals, investors and of course businesses and large corporations to finance things. Which means people will fail the credit assessments and not be able to purchase (ie. reducting in the demand of property due to the inability to finance the asset)

So keep an eye out for other signs of tightening credit which will effect the economy and all other markets!

 

CBA axes no-deposit loans
Prospective homebuyers will find it hard to get no-deposit loans in the wake of the global credit crisis.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has banned no-deposit loans and the ANZ has tightened eligibility requirements.

JPMorgan banking analyst Brian Johnson says stricter lending standards are here to stay.

”The era of getting very easy credit to buy a house is over,” he told ABC Radio, adding the move could have negative implications for house prices.

Aussie Home Loans boss John Symond says the change signals a return to sensible lending practices.

”Banks have got to have prudent lending,” he told ABC Radio.

”People buying home in Australia with little or no deposit is flawed process.”

Source – AAP

Tweets on 2008-11-19

Twitter Tool – version 1.5.1

I have no idea why the twitter tool stopped working after a couple of days of upgrading to 1.5.1, I’ll have to experiment some more because I really liked it while it worked. For whoever has been reading my blog over the past couple of days you would have noticed the many repeated post which the Twitter Tool scheduled and posted on the blog. I managed to stop that from happening, but new tweets have also stopped… 

This post is also to test if I can get version 1 of the twitter tool to work again… Hopefully it does! fingers crossed

Anyways, if you guys want to download twitter tool – both version 1.5.1 and version 1 is on Alex King’s website

Twitter Tools 1.5.1

Tweets on 2008-11-18

  • twitter tool 1.5.1 still not working, Might have to roll back to the old version (hopefully I can find it somewhere) #

Tweets on 2008-11-17

  • some weird stuff is happening with my twitter plugin on wordpress… need to play around with it some more later #

Tweets on 2008-11-16

Depreciation Schedule – The Benefits Explained

Last week I wrote about Depreciation Schedule – Where Can I Get One?, I realised that some people may not know what a depreciation schedule is and why you actually want to get one. So I better explain myself…

The dictionary definition for depreciation is: “A decrease or loss in value, as because of age, wear, or market conditions.”

The good news for property investors is that the Australian Tax Office (ATO) allows us to claim this “decrease or loss in value” an expense. The best thing is that we actually didn’t pay for it, i.e. we didn’t have to pay anybody for the “decrease or loss in value”, but we are allowed to claim it! People in the accounting industry call this paper loss since no money actually comes out of the investor’s pocket.

Let me help you understand with an example. I will be using a slightly modified version of my personal transaction:

  • Property Purchase Price: 370,500
  • Loan Amount: $359,385
  • Annual Interest (8.2%): $29,469.57
  • Annual Rental: $15,600
  • Water Rates: $800
  • Council Rates: $800
  • Strata Rate: $1,000
  • Depreciation (First Year): $3,000 (This is the number from your depreciation schedule – and will vary from property to property and is dependent on the age of the property and capital improvements that has been done on the property)
  • Tax Rate: 30% (My Assumption)

If I don’t have a Depreciation Schedule:

  • Net Income: $15,600 – $29,469 – $800 – $800 – $1,000 = -$16,469
  • Tax Deduction (30%): $4,940.7
  • Actual Cash Outflow: $4,940.7 – $16,469 = -$11,528.3

If I have a Depreciation Schedule

  • Net Income: $15,600 – $29,469 – $800 – $800 – $1,000 – $3,000 = -19,469
  • (used for tax calculation)
  • Net Income: $15,600 – $29,469 – $800 – $800 – $1,000 = -16,469 (actual
  • cash out flow – however depreciation does not cost you real cash and is not included)
  • Tax Deduction (30%): $5,840.7
  • Actual Cash Outflow: $5,840.7 – 16,469 = -$10,628.3

As you can see there is $900 worth of savings (real money). That’s potentially a short holiday, a new computer, an iPhone, 15 months subscription to Your Success Club, saving to offset your interest paid, the list goes on!

Deposit Guaranteed – Rudd Government

Last week the Government announced:

  • All bank deposits will be guaranteed, at no charge, until 28 November 2008.
  • After 28 November, the first $1 million of a deposit will continue to be guaranteed, at no charge, for three years until 12 October 2011.
  • After 28 November any amount over $1 million will be guaranteed only if the bank holding the funds opts into the Government’s deposit guarantee scheme.

For the majority of people who doesn’t have millions of dollar worth of deposits, this will not apply to you. However for people who do have a substantial cash portfolio you may want to read on.

After the 28th November deposits over $1 million will no longer be guaranteed by the Rudd Government unless Banks decide to pay a fee for this ‘guarantee’. What you need to do is contact your bank and find out whether they are intending to opt-in to the Government’s deposit guarantee scheme or create a guarantee of some sort through hedging/buying insurance. The banks will obviously need to pay some sort of insurance fee for this service so I suspect the interest rate will be slightly less attractive.

Another way is for you to overcome this issue is to spread your deposits over several banks. From my understanding the deposit guarantee is per depositor, per bank. I think it will be wise to go speak with somebody who are in the business of deposits and get their clarification on this (hopefully they will be able to give you a better source)

“The deposit guarantee threshold under which there is no fee is one million dollars per depositor, per bank the government said last night. The clarification came amid advice from planners and analysts to companies, councils and individuals with more than one million to spread their money around to avoid the fee.” – Source

Until next time, maybe its about time to put your cash to work? Rediscover Stock Market and Real Estate, both are looking attractive compared to 18-24 months ago. World interest rates are falling; governments are pumping in large amount of money via stimulus package.

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