What is more tax-effective, investing in property or shares?

Many people are attracted to borrowing to invest in property because of negative gearing tax benefits. That is, the (income) loss that an investment property generates helps reduce the amount of tax you pay on your salary or business income.   However, investing in shares also offers unique tax advantages. I thought it would be …

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Tips on how to maximise your borrowing capacity

Borrowing capacity has reduced by around 30% over the past year due to the impact of higher interest rates and the increased 3% interest rate buffer that banks must use to calculate your borrowing capacity. This was eloquently depicted in this chart by CBA in February 2023. I wanted to explore the common strategies that …

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My investment philosophy is based on 4 principals. What is your investment philosophy?

I was listening to Morgan Housel’s new podcast recently (which I highly recommend by the way), and he said something along the lines of; once you define your investment philosophy, you won’t be distracted by any noise that doesn’t align with it. It really resonated with me. Success with investing is more about avoiding mistakes …

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The typical life cycle of an investor

Most people struggle with working out how to invest their money. Do they upgrade their home, contribute more into super, buy an investment property, invest in the share market, or something else? In fact, this common challenge was the reason that I decided to write my book, Investopoly. I knew that if people understood the …

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Property investors need to be fussy!

Every few months, there’s a story online about an investor in their 30’s that has amassed a property portfolio of 12 properties…and how you can do it too. Firstly, we shouldn’t be impressed by the number of properties that someone owns, as it doesn’t tell us anything about their wealth (equity). Boasting about the number …

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Are index funds still outperforming?

Share markets have been highly volatile over the past couple of years. Markets fell by circa 30% when Covid hit in March 2020 and then proceeded to boom until the end of 2021, fuelled by government stimulus and zero interest rates. However, markets fell by circa 20% in 2022 after central banks aggressively hiked rates. …

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A recession in the US will crash stock markets! What to do before that happens

We are all aware that central banks around the world have been hiking interest rates to reduce inflation back to normal levels. The US economy, and particularly the labour market, have been more resilient than most expected. This means the US central bank might have to hike interest rates higher than in other jurisdictions to …

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