The myth that money cannot buy happiness
Over here is a post where the ‘money cannot buy happiness’ myth is debunked. I just wanted to quote a few things from it which I believe in myself, and I thought I’d put it to you for discussion.
…money can’t buy happiness, but it sure can buy lots of things that contribute mightily to happiness.
…money contributes to happiness mostly in the negative; the lack of it brings much more unhappiness than possessing it brings happiness.
…money can help you boost your happiness. For example, philosophers and scientists agree that having strong ties to other people is the KEY to happiness, and money can pay for a plane ticket to visit your sister, a babysitter for a date night with your sweetheart, or pizza and beer for a Super Bowl Party with friends. Novelty and challenge will make you happier, and money can pay for a trip to France, for a drawing class, for a mountain bike.
Net worth update
It’s been a long time since I updated my Net Worth… the last update was back in November 2007 . A lot has been happening since then, and I completely forgot about keeping it up to date each month. It also didn’t help that I was out of work for about 6 months throughout 2008… To continue my desire to keep a record for myself, I’ll provide another update now.
Assets in Nov 07 were: $105,536
Liabilities in Nov 07 were: $87,577
Net worth was: $17,959
Assets in Mar 09 are: $95,504
Liabilities in Mar 09 are: $65,928
Net worth is: $29,575
So with all the significant changes I’ve had over the past year and a bit, I’ve still managed to depreciate my liabilities and increase my net worth. This has come after a depreciation of 9.5% in my assets, a reduction of 23% in my liabilities, and an increase of 65% in my net worth over the past 16 months.
Holiday Plans to Australia
Deidre and I spent close to 4 hours last night working on our joint budget plans, to help us save money for the upcoming trip to Australia. We're doing a 'first', for both of us, and combining our incomes into one single amount and paying almost everything from our joint account. It's really quite exciting to think that we could have up to $11,000 saved in the next 5 months, by combining our incomes and being stringent with our spending.
According to the budget we did last night, we can do it. We'll save $7,000 for the holiday, which includes airfares, car hire, accommodation and spending money. And on top of that, we'll have about $4,000 'surplus', which is the money left over from ALL expenses, including savings.
Budgeting again
It's that time of year again, it seems, when I do my budgeting again. Almost a year ago exactly, I started a budget that went well for a while, but then I lost the dedication to follow it. It happened as a result of doing it with Swee, but then she lost interest in following it, and so did I. The incentive to follow it wasn't there. But now that Deidre and I have moved in together, it's important to get the joint budget sorted out.
I updated my budget last night, ending up quite happy with the position I'm in right now. I'll be able to go on the holiday next week, AND still have money left over. And then there's the two shifts I did at work on the weekend, to cover for someone who was sick, so that's going to give me some good overtime money coming in NEXT pay.
Even more property investment
was talking with Darlene by email today (yes, my ex of '99 – we're still keeping in touch with each other on a relatively regular basis) about property investment. She's been a real estate agent and has owned a couple of houses. I asked her if she had any tips for me in relation to property investment. Interestingly, her advice was, in relation to what I've learned, bad.
Many people see negative gearing as being something of value. However….
Negative gearing means offsetting losses in one area against income from another to reduce tax. An increasing number of Australians understand this from first-hand experience. Most commonly they are using losses from investing in residential property to reduce the taxable income from their job or business.
It means that you're losing money! However, the losses you make can be submitted to the government for a tax refund. Negative gearing promotes the value of getting tax refunds, but the reality is that you're losing money on a house.
