News

This year, many things have happened that weren’t on our 2022 bingo cards. An Oscars slap that stopped the world, a year’s worth of rainfall in a week, and an $11 price tag on an iceberg lettuce all knocked us for six. But just as we were starting to get used to the unexpected, the...

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has increased the official cash rate by another 50 basis points to 1.85%. Here’s how to hang in there and keep up with all these monthly cash rate hikes. Another month, another RBA cash rate hike – that’s four months in a row now! It’s hard to believe that...

Seven in 10 homeowners have recently used the equity in their home to renovate, invest in property or shares, or boost their superannuation. Have you thought about how you could take advantage of last year’s property price spike? You might have heard that property prices spiked 23.7% in 2021, yeah? That’s quite the growth spurt! So...

At a time when a single iceberg lettuce costs more than a wheel of imported French cheese, the idea that anything could cost less now than it did five years ago seems inconceivable. Even more bewildering is the suggestion that the cheaper item is in fact a piece of property in the Wild West, also...

Have you heard about the federal government’s Home Guarantee Scheme? (previously called the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme). It allows you to buy your first home with just a 5% deposit and pay no lenders’ mortgage insurance (LMI) First home buyers who use the scheme fast-track their property purchase by 4 to 4.5 years on average, because...

Rising interest rates got you feeling a little vulnerable? It might be time to take some control back by refinancing or asking for a rate review. Here’s why we’re seeing refinancing numbers surge across the country. In just two months we’ve seen the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) increase the cash rate from a record-low...

State premier Dominic Perrottet has confirmed that first home buyers will have the option of opting out of stamp duty in favour of an annual property tax as part of the 2022-23 NSW budget aimed to improve housing affordability. From 16 January 2023, eligible first home buyers who opt into the First Home Buyer Choice...

The year is 2019. Some guy in the coffee line is talking loudly on the phone about investing in toilet paper. You are chuckling to yourself in disbelief. Poor guy, you remember thinking. Where’s the money in toilet paper? The year is 2020. You are no longer chuckling, but you’re certainly in disbelief. The year...

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has increased the official cash rate by 50 basis points to 0.85%. How much extra should you expect to pay on your home loan? Today’s cash rate hike is the second in as many months, with the RBA last month increasing the official cash rate from a record-low 0.10%...

The year is 2007. The first iPhone has just been released, along with Paris Hilton after 23 days in prison. APEC security have failed to distinguish the difference between real world leaders and The Chaser boys dressed up as Bin Laden. And after a long campaign, Kevin Rudd and deputy leader Julia Gillard have won...