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The biggest house in London, Russian billionaires, and property development... The New Yorker posted a story on it, which makes for interesting reading. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/house-of-secrets There are a few pictures of the property at Forbes...

If Sydney becomes unaffordable to people outside the upper decile of the income spectrum then who's going to do all the important, but not necessarily well paid, jobs? For example, teachers, police, fire fighters, nurses, and paramedics. And where will you find a barista to make your coffee...

The trouble I have with Elon Musk is the cult of personality that surrounds him. For example, he didn't become part of Tesla until several years after it was founded. If you want a different take on that company, then take a look at this article...

A negative interest rate means that the central bank charges for holding deposits. The intention is that it forces institutions to keep money in circulation rather than hoarding it. There's a piece over at Bloomberg explaining it...

The Register has a slightly more cynical take on the announcement. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/04/tesla_powerwall_the_game_change_flavoured_battery/ The real limit that they identify is the peak power output isn't going to run a house unless there are multiple units installed...

Twelve months might be a bit extreme, but the standard advice seems to be to have six months living expenses in cash.

I read a piece earlier that around $75,000 (US) was the point at which further income didn't increase happiness. So maybe $100,000 (AU) is enough. Do you need more than that? Enough to buy a Ferrari, a yacht, or an $18 million watch?

Also have a look at the work Piers Taylor does with Invisible Studio. http://www.invisiblestudio.org/ He's one of the presenters on "The House that ?100K Built". https://au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/the-house-that-100k-built/ He avoids wet trades in favour of cheap, dry materials. So using...

How about considering a different shape for the extension? A very radical approach was taken by Andrew Marynard with the tower house, which was a collection of smaller buildings. You might not have space in your garden for this...

Macrobusiness have a piece up quoting research by LF Economics (Lindsay Davis and Philip Soos) on the cost of paying the principle of a loan exclusive of the interest costs. http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2015/04/oz-housing-affordability-measured/ The piece isn't that clear, but the point...

Ausprop, I don't think that your friend has to worry too much about Greece. Their total debt is ?315 billion, the EU has a GDP of ?13 trillion. Unless there are a lot of weird derivatives hitched to it, the loss could be absorbed if it was written off. Besides, the UK is insulated to some...

The most expensive words in the English language: "This time is different." :D Prices in Ireland dropped by over 50% during the GFC, and Japan has fallen by far more since its peak. Were Australia to take a hit like that then it'd likely be accompanied by a financial crisis, a run up in...

Inflation hit 0% in the UK recently. I don't know the situation in the US, but I think that the EU is in a state of mild deflation. OK, it's not Australia, but I wouldn't be surprised if the economy follows that trajectory. Typically the base rate is a couple of percentage points above...

My personal take is that Sydney is likely to keep ramping up for longer than any of us Doom and Gloomers expect. We've got low interest rates, unprecedented investor activity, and significant numbers of foreign buyers. So we could see a million dollar median this year. But there's scope for...

This graph was posted by Shadow to disprove any climate change. Err, what about the half degree rise between about 1980 and 2000? :D

What plans do you have, and what timeframe are you looking at investing for? If it's a long term investment then split is 2:1 into cheap Index Tracking and Bonds funds. Or roll your own as Sash suggested. Pay off your existing loan. At typical interest rates, mortgage payments are likely to...

OK, the graphic comes from The Guardian, which is renowned for it's left-wing politics. But NASA also supports this position. And Scientific American has an article discussing the research that arrived at that number. Lastly, Wikipedia, naturally, has an entry. If you want to look at the...

Given that the CSIRO's graph only shows a half degree rise over the last fifty years, you're not likely to have noticed much of a change...

I don't know where this "all Europeans rent" thing comes from. If you look at a list of property ownership rates then most European countries are actually above Australia. France, Denmark and the UK are at, or slightly below, the level here. It's only Germany, Austria and Switzerland where...

For Sydney to hit a million, prices would need to rise by about 11% during 2015. If the dollar falls then there could be increased demand from overseas, and a couple of interest rate cuts could inflate things further... So I'd agree that it could get there by the end of the year. But the...