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I was recently told that you cannot use interest expenses for an IP to reduce your income for determination of centrelink family tax benefits. I was also told that interest expenses for other investments such as shares can be used to reduce your income for the means test. Is this really true? It...

Sue, thanks very much for this great tip. My wife had been thinking about paying full price (!) for something similar. We've now ordered one, and might try to get a few more - great christmas presents. The promotional code that you listed didn't work for us, but we googled and found another...

Thanks everyone for your replies. It sounds like most people just ignore REA comments about previous offers, and that sounds very sensible (especially wrt to lizzies comments about conditions attached to the offer, I hadn't thought of that). I'd like to understand this a bit more from the REA...

I agree with Alex that it’s important to treat share investing as a long term investment. But I disagree that it’s ‘harder than you think’. I think it’s much easier than most people think. Only a very small fraction of the institutions/investment professionals can actually outperform the basic...

Sorry for such a naïve question…..I’ve been looking at a property listed at 399K. I’d be interested at about 370-380, but the agent tells me that they’ve knocked back an offer of 390K. Is this likely to be true? Or is the agent free to just make up any figures to manipulate potential buyers? I’m...

Very interesting thread. Not owning an IP myself (yet) I won’t even try to make up any numbers, but I think the level of conservatism depends on why you want to forecast. Eg if it’s to work out whether you can afford private schooling for kids, or to retire next year, then you’d be mad to use...

Hi Caz, I’ve just returned from 12 weeks overseas trip with my wife and children aged 4 and 1 (nearly 2). First up, let me say it was a fantastic experience, but it was also damn hard work. For most of the time we had a rental car and stayed in self-catering apartments. These were far better...

Oops, I meant to say, "The expert fund managers CAN'T even get it right.

Of course, the 'loss of control' that you get with LPTs is also a good thing. It means it's a hands-off investment, leaving you free to do other things. IMHO, you can waste a lot of time worrying about LPT selection (do I buy Westfield, Mirvac, Valad, or...). The 'expert' fund managers can...

Yes, that's my experience with HSBC, NAB, SGB and Commsec also - they'll keep lending as long as you have sufficient equity to cover it. Commsec initially declined my request to increase above 250K because my salary wasn't high enough (<100K). But the next time I tried, they seemed to have...

Would really appreciate some property investment advice, and Somersoft looks like a great place to get it. I am an active (fanatical, actually) share investor, but have started thinking about spreading the risk around by making some property investments. I know very little about property, except...