Add comment July 13th, 2005
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.
Add comment April 19th, 2005
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.
Add comment October 7th, 2004
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.
Add comment October 5th, 2004
The more I influence myself with books and seminars on property investment, the closer I'll get to actually getting off my arse and doing something about it.
I went to a property investment seminar tonight, which went for about 3.5 hours. It was pretty cool, teaching all kinds of things about buying property, equity, taxation, companies, trusts, etc etc.
While I've been working on reducing my debt and improving finances this year, I've been inspired to try harder. Not sure how much harder I can try without causing undue suffering though. The biggest 'harder' thing to do is sell my car and buy a smaller/cheaper car and use the difference to get rid of some of my debts. I think that's looking to be my only option.
Add comment May 7th, 2004
I was having a conversation with a friend by email about my political views (according to the political compass entry here), and I thought I'd put my comments here because they tell a lot more about me and my views. They're modified only slightly to fit in with the journal entry format.
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Re: being like Ghandi
The interesting thing about that political survey is that you don't know where you're going to be positioned before you do the survey. I didn't know I'd be in the same area as Ghandi, and I didn't choose answers that I thought Ghandi would have chosen. I simply chose answers that were reflections of how I felt.
Add comment May 5th, 2004
I'm tired.
I've been tired a lot lately, of evenings when I get home. It's because work has been so full-on in relation to the number of calls I've had to take, and the workload that's increased. It's all since I got back from my holidays.
They moved people to different groups, trying to create a more streamlined approach within the helpdesk, and putting the better people with the harder clients - those who are high-volume callers, usually with the hardest problems.
Add comment April 28th, 2004
Ever since my recent holiday with Mel around the north island of New Zealand, I've taken to being a lot more serious about money, and the spending of it. I overspent my budget on the holiday, and it's annoyed me that not only did I do less than I wanted to, but I spent more than I was able to. This is because of a pattern in my life that's centred around a lack of discipline and foresight involving money and the use of it.
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