Recent content by alba

Yes, of the little money my employer paid into it (I only started a year ago) a third went to taxes, insurance and other fees, the rest I think was invested in Merryl Lynch shares:-)) Personally I always viewed the sharemarket as a big gamble, mainly because I never took the time to learn...

GR you are making a lot of sense, and Bluecard, that's exactly right, trying to pick the bottom in a downtrend is a dangerous exercise.

They sure look cheap now, but the lower price comes with a drop in earnings/yield expectations. I still believe there will be bigger discounts, we are in a downtrend that hasn't bottomed yet. And boy, am I glad I didn't buy any australand shares - I was very close to do so last week. Still I own...

Thanks Andrew, so my calculation was about right, yield for NAB is 7.3%. There are some very cheap ones with a lot higher yield, not sure what's the catch, but I will be using this tool to learn more about the market before diving in.

Blue Card, I'm new to shares, only just starting to understand the principles. I am looking at NAB which sells for 26.31 and last time paid dividends of 97 cents apiece (I assume that 100% franked means after tax). It seems to me that this happens twice a year, so that would be just under 8%...

Thanks for the articles. Top investors like Warren Buffett, George Soros predicted this is going to be long and painful, so even after this weekend, I don't think we've seen the worse. Surely Europe is next on the list of causalties so it would be silly to think that any country can be immune...

I've got a recommendation to hold off buying financial stocks however attractive they might seem right now until October/November 2008 or February/March 2009. It makes sense to me as even if we in Australia sofar escaped the "bloodbath" in the US or UK, job losses will inevitably result from...

Hmm...this sort of makes it awkward for me as I have to be at the airport by 00:30 the next morning, so that means no other family members can come to pick up my son, although they may not want to anyway. If the group can tolerate my aswer of "maybe" then if the stars are so aligned, I would...

Thanks GP for your advice. So it seems to me that trusts are most suitable for highly paid professionals who run a greater risk of getting sued, but are not necessarily the best structures for investors who are trying to replace their jobs with passive income because of its inflexibility. Am I...

Congrats Anna, this is textbook example of property investing! :)

I would have loved to come but my son was flying out for a holiday that night. 30th should be fine as he's coming home on the 29th. Usually any day suits me as long as I have about 2 weeks notice. Cheers, alba

So are you saying that do buy shares one does not necessarily set up a trust? Can we still deduct the interest if buying shares in own name?

A lot of anticipation of falling prices across the board, which might come but at the moment all I'm seeing in my target areas that the number of listings is dropping. Hardly indicative of bargains to be found. Maybe in 6 months time.

The answer to your question is 11 July 2008. Isn't hindsight a marvellous thing? :-) Looking at the charts from a purely technical point of view I see no sign of a bottom just yet. The index is clearly in a downtrend or bear channel. I see scope for another drop in the coming months to 4500...

Funny you should mention that as the reason for my question was that I am thinking of starting a website but first I should get familiar with these legal and accounting issues. Any advice would be appreciated. Of course I can ask my accountant but they are not very forthcoming with answers to...