It's the 24th December and Did You Do Enough in 2008?

Yes, folks it's that time of year again, although I am a fortnight late this year

This was 2004

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18527

This was 2006

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29460

This was 2007

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37828

So what happened in 2008?

I closed the Franchise in April, resumed my Broker practice, went to Engand in May, came home in October, been a busy year.

Property wise the concrete bunker is still as it was, although with a new kitchen, new bathroom, covered paved courtyard, painted throughout, but due to circumstances thar she sits for probably a while longer.

All rents increased this year, and for once we have tenants who haven't been late, been to the Tribunal or caused any particular issues. The possum palace is empty and will stay that way. It needs either a major renovation or demolition. Demolition wins the vote. 2009 is the year of getting the townhouses drawn up and hopefully the building underway by Christmas 2009.

Didn't buy anything this year.

Family wise, No: 1 Son got engaged after an 8 year courtship, he and the Main Squeeze are doing well in London. No: 2 Son is now in a management position and really enjoying his career. Daughter completed her Honours Degree with Distinction. Mike works all the time and so do I, but that's par for the course.

We are all well.

Did we do Enough in 2008? We did what we could. Family matters took priority this year and I will be forever grateful that we were able for me to stay in England and to assist Mike's Family at that time.


So that's our 2008. Did You Do Enough in 2008?


Happy Christmas to you all, and a Wonderful and Prosperous 2009

Lotsa love
Kristine

2008 was a biggie for me.

Got admitted as a Solicitor.

Sold the first house we built and completed the other 3.

If i had to pick a great year 2008 was it for me. I'm happy and healty and so are those I love and care for.

24/12/58 / 2008 a quiet yr

2008 has been a quiet yr.
Only built one new place this year. Sold down some older places earlier in the year and re-financed some of the remaining portfolio.
Interest rates and fuel prices went up.
But now they are down. (Who would have thought)
Gearing is low and rents have gone up Heaps
Did a few flights around Aus with my twin boys, Met some SS forumites
Have not had any major problems with my Kidney Transplant or ended up in Intensive Care
New SV6 Commodore last week.
So it has really been a good year.
And Today cracked half century People around all day
Bloody friends want to visit and drink and eat all day.
Don't they realize X/Mas Day tomorrow

Gee Cee

Greg

Older Fart

Been a good year , busy

Finally settled on selling the half of our development we were sell. Sale took 2 1/2 hours , Settlement took around 5 months.

Bought a share in a boat syndicate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ1ic2rNeiM

Went to Canada for a song writing course . Vancouver is a nice place.
http://www.reorafting.com/site/retreats/songwriter_retreat.html

Just finished a course with Berklee online .

http://www.berkleemusic.com/school/course?course_item_id=9078553&program=songwriting&usca_p=t

Middle son did HSC and got the marks he needed to get into the course he wants to do.

Managed to avoid getting dumped by the financial crisis by having all money including super in cash. Cash is king except bought our first IP for five years.

Cliff

2008 will be etched in my mind for 2 main reasons.

1) Became a father for the first time and stay at home dad/baby sitter (semi retired from work but still investing).

2) 10 years of marriage to a very special and wonderful lady.

Can't rightly comment just yet - still have 7 days to achieve some great things....promise to report back when the year is over.

Funnily enough, i was reading what i wrote last year and this year is actually quite similar. Overall a really good year, highlights have included:

Significantly increasing my net worth

Getting another promotion at work and enjoying the new challenges

Taking an awesome trip through Europe

Personally it has been another up and down year, but hopefully this will be a bit better in 09!

I'm happy with what i've achieved overall.

see_change said:

Just finished a course with Berklee online

Click to expand...

What did you think of the course?

I just had a look through their list of online course, and there are heaps I'd like to do (the one you did looks good, but also a number in the area of performance and jazz guitar). At around US$1K a pop though, it could get rather expensive! Plus they're 12 week courses with weekly assignments, by the look of it, which could get a bit tricky time-wise.

Back at university I shared a house for a year with a jazz bass player. He was doing a correspondence Berklee course for jazz bass (no "online" back then) and thought it was very good. He was an active player at that time though, playing gigs with most of the jazz musos in town (Christchurch NZ).

Cheers,
GP

Best year ever had, in business, financial, personal and physical.
That's about 5 years in a row that each year has been better than the preceeding.
Will have to step up again and write bigger and better goals for 2009 to surpass this year.
Look forward to smashing some new records.

Also had 1st baby this year which makes it even better.

GreatPig said:

What did you think of the course?

I just had a look through their list of online course, and there are heaps I'd like to do (the one you did looks good, but also a number in the area of performance and jazz guitar). At around US$1K a pop though, it could get rather expensive! Plus they're 12 week courses with weekly assignments, by the look of it, which could get a bit tricky time-wise.

Back at university I shared a house for a year with a jazz bass player. He was doing a correspondence Berklee course for jazz bass (no "online" back then) and thought it was very good. He was an active player at that time though, playing gigs with most of the jazz musos in town (Christchurch NZ).

Cheers,
GP

Click to expand...

GP

I found it fantastic

This is the second one I've done . I did the melody one previously and each has resulted in a quantum leap forward in my writing . I'm going to do Andrea Stolpe's Commercial song writing next and at some stage their Logic Course.

Yes it is time consuming and the more you do , the more you get out of it .

I was generally putting in around 10 hours a week, but some people obviously were putting in significantly less.

If you're serious about music it's well worth it.

Cliff

2008 was a decent year, accumulted few more houses, sorted out a few dramas i had with my life. however, i picked up some dirty habbits... smoking, drinking, and gambling (and ASX).

Moving forward to 2009, i have very low goals to my standards however i will share...

buy 10th IP
buy 11th Prop as potntial PPOR

increase all rents a further $40pw

Lock in unfixed debt @ <5% for 5+ yrs

Pay off all unscured debt (approx $30k) tax cheque should cover this.

ensure i dont loose my job this year (and if i do, my backup is becoming repair man for the realestates i use as PM's)

buy a Hummer H3

4-6 week trip around parts of aus i havent seen before

nett worth to $1mill

quit smoking, excssive drinking habbits which i only picked up this year (currenty going cold turkey)

As far as the farm goes,...

2008 was almost perfect as far as the season went, However the 200 mills in the last month downgraded the wheat grain to feed and turned a profit into a loss, which is not uncommon I might add.

My farm has experienced the commodity boom and bust first hand. By the end of summer crop harvest in May, we had had our most profitable year ever by a few multiples. Huge grain prices, combined with a perfect growing season. But farm input prices were also huge and still rising.

This season started with the winter plant in June, and then the summer plant in Nov and it looked like it could be a repeat of the last. Cost well over a million dollars to plant, mainly due to astronomical fertilizer prices, but unfortunately grain prices crashed in the last part of the year. We have about 20% of our grain production locked in at terrific prices, but the rest is at the whim of the market. The season is continuing to be perfect, except for all the rain that ruined the wheat, however it looks like we might make a significant loss unless grain prices improve. Besides the 20% already sold, we haven't sold anything else yet.

Should be tremendous opportunities ahead in farming. Massive areas of south America and former soviet states are now not viable for grain with current prices and credit crisis. Something big will happen and I think it will be good [for me that is, not an African].

Farm input prices are crashing, so I should be back to profitability next season, even with current grain prices. It will be just like I've gone back to 2005 before the bubble started.

Basically a year of boom in the first half and bust in the last half. Everything was a bubble. Plenty here will soon realise that.

A big learning experience.



The drought finished 2 years ago in these parts. Been wetter than average since. I was doing this last week in my creek 100 metres from my house. Unreal..!! Something special. I'm in the front,......








A fully priced share market in Nov 07 saw me sell enough shares to be debt free. I was pretty much letting the profits run. The share crash has since about halved those profits.

Last seasons massive farm profit sees the farm debt free too.

The coming nasty asset devaluation will be the buying chance of a lifetime in everything for those debt free. Just getting the strategy and timing worked out. My current thoughts are shares are at or near the bottom, but property won't bottom until unemployment peaks.



Family is all good. January is a quiet time for me after the hectic last few months of flat out. Off all month camping and holidaying on the Gold Coast.



Did I do enough..?? Did as best I could.


See ya's.

Ineresting year spent in emergency mode keeping the ship afloat... After being hit broadside by the movement of the share market, it was evasive action to offload some properties to shore up the books.

The property sales market went from ok at the start of the year to a screeching halt in the latter half of the year (for inner suburb Mlebourne).

Saw prices drop 30~40% in the few blocks surrounding the property we were (and still are) trying to sell in a matter of months (yes, it does happen folks - I wouldn't have believed it before).

As we sit here at the end of 2008, it feels as if we have stopped taking on water, and helm has some semblance of control back - so now need to figure out which direction to sail in

With much less time spent chasing the almighty dollar, we have managed to spend a lot more time at our home in the past few months - very nice to be able to sit back and "smell the roses" as it were.

Cheers,

The Y-man

Great thread,

2008 was great

- Traveled to Canada, China
- Got a new job
- Bought my first ever property (IP).

for 2009

- Purchased a second IP
- Consolidate my job position
- Read and Read more on property and start getting my head around development
- Perhaps getting married (?)

Enough, I think, but plenty left to do!

Completed a renovation on a period home, purchased a 2 br flat (next project) and a new job (and 2 relationships of which all ended!) All of which had positive financial and learning experiences. A solid follow up to 2007, now just waiting for IR's to bottom and enter into the world of positive cash flow!

But gees so much to do, with so many options. Primarily its personal versus professional. At 38.5 the options become more stark!

Want to continue with the portfolio increase but also would like to have an Albert Park/Middle Park/South Melbourne PPOR! Oh for a future partner with high income!

Maybe I'll think with more clarity after the Christmas alcohol party haze! Merry Christmas everyone!

Hello

Brought another IP in June. (Hint: Try and time the settlement day so it's on the same day as your wife's birthday. Then you get to say "Honey I love you so much, I brought you a house!"

Good LVR, Low interest rates. Building a better buffer.

My goals for the year were only financial and required a lot of sacrifice and dedication on my behalf in other areas of my life, but I personally smashed it and achieved way more than what I originally set out for.

I cleared all my debt, saved a stack of money for my gambling bankroll.

I made it professionally with my gambling. Turning professional was a big thing, as the ability to generate a profit and hang onto it to end up well and truly in the green for the year was a big step. After 2 years of diligent study and working on a system that generates money in the long run, I finally put it into practice with serious money and churned over $150k for the year with a decent ROI (return on investment) that outperformed the market by a looong way and would have most fund managers turning green with envy at the best of times.

Got my first IP... almost got a second one, but pulled out mainly based on bank valuation and legal troubles which has left my job prospects uncertain for the time being...

Next year will be dedicated to achieving more happiness and fufilment from life... I have legal charges to deal with that I am hopeful can be squashed and not affect my life, but either way I am looking forward to getting it over & done with so I can move on with my life. Once that is sorted out, I will be full steam ahead once again with a bit more balance this time.

Big year
Settled IP 1 in the first few working days, settled number 2 and reno'd it late this year
Waiting on the 6month clause imposed by LMI'r to go number 3 early next year with equity from reno.

Got married

promotion at work and survived two reshuffles to be in a very strong position

In the last month have had our business go from back burner to working on, to in the last week and a half being given an opportunity we never dreamed we'd get, so working round the clock. If successful this business will provide us with a great lifestyle and cashflow to do what we want.

Next year
- Will be happy to pick up one more IP and a PPOR
- get our business up and going with international recognition
- bring our business team/family together more
-survive my three overseas trips and many weeks away from home and JOB with business
- have our business in a cashflow position to take six months off JOB in 2010

Kristine.. said:

So that's our 2008. Did You Do Enough in 2008?


Happy Christmas to you all, and a Wonderful and Prosperous 2009

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Nothing new,it's been a good year ,middle daughter finished grade 12,went out too the Uni with the her the other night to see if she can do the course she wants so everything there is good,my wife is happy and we are bothvery proud of her,just one left at school now..

AS far as property goes we still have not bought anything in six years now still holding what we have,even with all the doom and gloom around all are still holding in c-value, intend to put up all the rents in march next year the way "Kev From Queensland"is giving money away i might as well take some as well..

Lost a bit on the ASX,but no big problem,i bought all the way down may even go lower but when the market turns as it will i will ride it all up again ,it's like what my old accountant said to me yesterday,when you look at what you paid for them and everything they have given you back over the years then they owe me nothing,have a good new year Kristine..;and to everyone else in this site all the best for '09".willair..

Was very happy with 2008. Saved a lot. Bought my first property. My ppor/eventual ip. Worked my *** off preparing for my application and interview for my job at work. I think it all paid off. Will find out officially sometime January if I was successful. lol though will have to lose some weight. Put on a bit this year with the stress of everthing. Anyway looking forward to moving into my place soon and will be riding my bike or walking to work, will be able to drop some kilos. Looking forward to 2009.