Investors keep first-timers out of market
- Thread starter MsAli
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As you know, I have a strong view on filling up this Country/Planet with humans just because we have the space. So what? Does that mean we should, and just because Japan is packed, does that mean we in Aus should too?
When folks talk about dense population levels - and don't note in their comments that it is a bad thing to have (which it is in my opinion), then it is reasonable to assume that they are either in favour of it, or don't mind it, and see nothing wrong with it.
It can also be construed from such comments that they deem it would be ok for us to follow along that path of denser populations, don't you think?
And people have argued with me previously that we can easily cram in a few tens of millions more into Aus, so the basis for my "jump off a cliff" post is already there.
Your Money & Your Brain
There is a good book that should give you a start.
"Your Money & Your Brain" by Jason Zweig.
SUMMARY:
"How could I have been such an idiot?? If you?ve never asked that question of yourself, you?re not an investor. There may be nothing in life that makes so many people feel as stupid as investing does. Yet while many books describe the mistakes investors make, only one draws on the latest scientific research to explain why smart people can be so dumb about money ? and how they can do better. In YOUR MONEY AND YOUR BRAIN: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich, Jason Zweig reveals in clear and accessible terms what actually goes on inside our brains when we make decisions about money. More importantly, he highlights practical steps that beginning and advanced investors alike can easily follow to improve their financial performance.
Zweig writes: ?I?ve been a financial journalist since 1987, and nothing I?ve ever learned about investing has excited me more than the spectacular findings emerging from the study of ?neuroeconomics.? Thanks to this newborn field ? a hybrid of neuroscience, economics, and psychology ? we can begin to understand what drives investing behavior not only on the theoretical or practical level, but as a basic biological function. These flashes of fundamental insight will enable you to see as never before what makes you tick as an investor.?
Rob Williams from this forum recommended it to me. Might be timely for me to have another read.
There is a good book that should give you a start.
"Your Money & Your Brain" by Jason Zweig.
SUMMARY:
"How could I have been such an idiot?? If you?ve never asked that question of yourself, you?re not an investor. There may be nothing in life that makes so many people feel as stupid as investing does. Yet while many books describe the mistakes investors make, only one draws on the latest scientific research to explain why smart people can be so dumb about money ? and how they can do better. In YOUR MONEY AND YOUR BRAIN: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich, Jason Zweig reveals in clear and accessible terms what actually goes on inside our brains when we make decisions about money. More importantly, he highlights practical steps that beginning and advanced investors alike can easily follow to improve their financial performance.
Zweig writes: ?I?ve been a financial journalist since 1987, and nothing I?ve ever learned about investing has excited me more than the spectacular findings emerging from the study of ?neuroeconomics.? Thanks to this newborn field ? a hybrid of neuroscience, economics, and psychology ? we can begin to understand what drives investing behavior not only on the theoretical or practical level, but as a basic biological function. These flashes of fundamental insight will enable you to see as never before what makes you tick as an investor.?
Rob Williams from this forum recommended it to me. Might be timely for me to have another read.
You could triple Sydney's overall population density from 300/km2 to 1000/km2 and I doubt you'd even think it was so bad. I just want to confirm that you know how low density even 1000/km2 is? Many inner suburbs in say Melbourne are already triple that or more. It doesn't mean you're going to have to live in a tiny studio apartment and walk around with a mask because it's so polluted. A lot of this anti population growth stuff is quite hysterical and not at all based on reality.
Great post lizzie.
We had our house almost paid off by the time baby #1 came along. I went back to work for 1 year, working mostly opposite shifts to my (then) husband.It was hard, and we wanted me to be a SAHM. So we decided I would quit work.
As someone said, by the time childcare costs, extra vehicle, etc are accounted for, you can be working for nothing.
It was very hard at times, but our attitude was amazing.
Concerning the toaster ...
My mother gave me her electric pancake griddle that she got in 1952.I still use it today. I love it.
When I married in 1982, I received my grandmother's washer and dryer. They were purchased in 1968. We sold the washer in 1990, and the dryer finally died a couple of years ago.
I think families would be better off, if they struggled and worked like crazy to pay off their house. Then have one parent stay home, when the babies come along.
Stop enrolling kids into all these activities. Allow their imagination to grow, and create their own fun.
Sit down as a family for mealtime.Presents only at Xmas and birthdays.
That's nice Kathryn but house prices can't have been that high if you could pay it off before having children. If we keep our budget at the very tight state its currently in and put every spare cent into the mortgage (i.e. a bit over $4000/month inc the min repayment) it will be paid off when I'm about 40. A bit late to be thinking about kids. Sure I could have purchased something slightly cheaper but the lower priced apartments I looked at and considered buying have already gone down in value in the very few months that have passed since then. I'd hate to see where they'll be in a matter of years. What we purchased was among the cheapest of stock that was actually worth purchasing (i.e. with potential for good future gains). A dog kennel would have got good CG in the 90s.
I'm not hysterical, and I couldn't really care less.
I won't be on the planet in 50 years time, and I currently live in a place with 1 traffic light, in a court surrounded by holiday homes which are vacant....
Just how I like it (except for Dec 26 when all the Terrorists descend on the place and wreck it for 3 weeks
).But, I do care about the people coming into the world behind me.
Good for you if you like it to be more crowded....
But; seeing you live in Canberra; you don't live in a really crowded place, making your argument a bit weak.
If we don't have overcrowding now, then why do we have hourly traffic updates in Sydney and Melb?
Just a thought.
2 years before my wife and I got married, I bought a block of land for 60K - with cash (massive savings binge for 2 years).
We spent 180k on the build and we paid that off in just over 2 years - no kids at that time.
Mind you; I was 32, so we had a few years of income earning up our sleeve.
Because of sprawl? If there was a higher density of people, Sydney (or Melbourne) would be able to support better public transport infrastructure meaning less people would be driving as it'd be comparitively inefficient.
The town planners have always been aware of what the future was going to bring in terms of population and sprawl, but always neglect to implement the correct infrastructure ahead of - or in time with - the future use requirements. This may be due to budget restraints of course.
Almost every freeway that has been built since I've lived in Melb has been too small not long after it was opened, and you never see train tracks moving out to the new estates as/when they are being developed.
Look at places like Craigieburn (god knows why you'd move there, but anyway...) why are there no new tracks etc going out there?
Blind freddie can see what will happen in that corridor...how long before it all links up with Kilmore and areas near there? They should have the tracks there already.
I sort of agree on that the pub transport - actually; I reckon it's more a Catch-22 scenario.
The public transport system need to sharpen up it's act, and then folk might travel on it more. But, it has issues, and so folks don't bother with it.
Also; it allows waaay to many fare evaders to get away with it, so their revenue is no doubt below what it should/could be.
I also believe that to combat this problem of fare evading, we should make all public transport free, all the time - buses, trains and trams..
Of course; the cost would have to be covered by the public in some form.
What and how and how much - I don't know.
But, it's also not that simple; often times the link up between home and pub transport and place of employment is not easy or time-synced, so the time for pub transport can take longer than a drive, and the drive is direct to the door most times.
We paid off our 52'x12' mobile home in 2 years. Paid $6500 for it and sold it for $7800.
Also in this time period, we bought a piece of land and paid it off, which I think was $5600.
We had to clear the land and put in a septic and well.
I remember one week having $5 for groceries. Bills always came first.We bought Xmas decorations on Boxing Day...sales.
Vacations were camping.
With the money from the mobile, we paid cash for the basement to be constructed.
We then moved into a tiny apt, which was a converted motel room.When the folding couch was pulled out, you couldn't walk in the room.One end hit the kitchenette unit (fridge,cooktop,sink all-in-one unit) and the other hit the kitchen table. It was smaller than a caravan.
I worked all the overtime available to pay for everything needed, and my (then) husband and my brother built our house.He would work all night at the factory, build during the day, and sleep in the evening for a few hours. We paid for everything as we went along.
That is why after after 6 weeks we moved into this 'water tight' house.To save on rent.
We stored all our belongings in my brother's garage.
We didn't have any debt. After 4 months we then borrowed $21k on a personal loan at 21% to finish it. My FIL co-signed, but we made all the payments.
Our entertainment consisted of having family/friends over.
Second hand and yard sales 'treasures' outfitted our home, even though we already owned the basics.
I had been on my own and working fulltime since I was 17 and I was just a few months short of 24 when our first child was born.
My husband had been working since 18 and he was 27.
We did the hard yards before having kids.
The year we built our house, our income would have been $23k gross total, for the 2 of us + any overtime.
It would be considered a median house in our town.
When I quit work, we got rid of the second car.
Our friends at the time mostly still lived at home, or had just started getting their first rented apt.
The difference between us and them, we had full time jobs. They had jobs where they were laid off in the winter months, and only recieved 60% of their previous earnings.
We also worked all the overtime available to us.
Of course, they weren't mobile phones, cable tv,or internet payments to distract our desire to pay off our house.
After it was paid off we got the satellite dish...and then a DVD player. (no cable in our area)
We watched my husband's older brother and wife struggle with a house payment, 3 kids, and job that didn't provide full time hours. We knew we didn't want to rely on handouts of money from his parents.
They almost lost their house when the mortgage rates went to 18 %..until their father paid it off for them.
They already lived each weekend at the parents house, because they couldn't afford food.
I don't think they liked the idea of it being full time
They also built their house, but with a mortgage...similar in size to ours.
Was it worth it...sure was
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Great post Katherine, fear it falls on deaf ears
How about we ask the existing Sydney-ites here on SS what they reckon?
Anyway, we won't agree, so it's over.
Like so much of the discussion on this site, pulling out stats based on a report found on the internet hasn't actually got much to do with reality.Not sure if you live in Dromana (going by your sig), but that's about ~850/km2 so it's not too far off
A lot of cyber-experting going on here, without a lot of world experience.
Maybe not you, but this latest comment is a joke - come down here and actually see.
Live in Melb for a while, live in Sydney for a year or two.
Then you'll see how it is.
Dromana is probably 50% holiday houses or even more by my reckoning, and there is narry a traffic jam is sight.
The busiest day of the week is the 100 pensioners trundling down to the Bank to withdraw their pension money to go shopping.
Weekends go mad of course; tourists and bike riders in the cafes and so forth.
We do have 3 weeks per year when it is standing room only on the beach, 2,000 jet skis lining up at the boat ramp to go "fully sick" on the aqua pura, over an hour wait to get a pizza on a hot evening, stalled/stopped traffic on the forshore road, no parking available and so on - but this is from tourist influx.
Come down here in Feb on a 35 degree day midweek, and I promise you the beach will be empty - just how I like it.
The point I was trying to make is that the figure I gave you is not as high as you think. It doesn't mean there has to be traffic because, as I said, it's very low. The stats I gave are from the census which is taken in winter (August). I'm pretty sure they're reasonably reliable. Btw, I have lived in Melbourne for 25 years and just moved to Canberra for my current job