how do u know i haven't been standing on my own two feet, just coz my parents pay for my education??? thats a big assumption..... we are building a house in our village in india my dad asked me and my bro for $10k so we gave it to him, i just gave $20k for my bro's house too...just coz i dont pay for education/bills doesnt mean i bludge and i dont stand on my two feet,. our family works differently. u dont get the culture...and no i wont pay the bills...mum n dad will continue to pay the bills haha, you dont understand our culture!!! i am here for advice to help invest in property.
Navjit, you seem to think that because we aren't just talking about trusts or tax law, we are ignoring your request for investment advice. You seem to be assuming people are commenting on cultural norms that aren't relevant to investment. That isn't really the case.
Investment isn't something that happens "over there" completely detached from the rest of your life. It all has to connect up and make sense, or it won't work.
You have received a lot of investment related feedback on this thread, even if you don't see it as such. Let me point some out and elaborate on others:
- Investing with family is fraught with problems around trust, conflicting monetary goals, and input from future spouses (further complicated by inlaw dynamics). In this case, you're really talking about six people, only three of whom are currently known - a recipe for disaster. If you must go ahead, go in with your eyes open and a contract with responsibilities, consequences, conflict resolution provisions, and exit provisions.
- Borrowing and buying as one of three is particularly problematic because the bank sees you as having all the responsibility and only one third of the profit. Find another way. Help each other into your own properties, build and subdivide a triplex, or buy a small group of units on one title and convert to strata and then refinance separately. Think outside the square.
- Because of your culture of pooling funds, you are at risk of accepting liabilities you could never service alone, on the expectation that your family will help. They may genuinely intend to but be unable because they get sick or they lose their job, and you can't insure against that because it is not money Australian law recognises you as being entitled to. Bottom line - help and be helped all you like, but don't accept legal responsibility for a debt you can't manage alone, or for which you do not get the benefits of ownership.
- You need to balance quality of life now against your investment goals.
- Don't assume your goal and your brother's or cousin's are the same. Yours is to be financially independent by 35. Theirs might be to enable their wives to stay home until the children hit a certain age. If, because of that, they pull back to minimum repayments, you might be frustrated and want to unwind the arrangement. Make sure you have laid the groundwork to do it.