Blog Archives

Noel News   Welcome to our September Newsletter It’s been another busy month and the good news is that the Reserve Bank did not increase interest rates at its monthly meeting on 5 September. I do think we’re getting near the top of the interest-rate cycle, but I can’t guarantee there will be no more rate rises. The problem is that so much inflation appears to be entrenched with big backlogs in the construction industry. Increasing rates won’t fix that. The estate planning book is moving along but taking longer than I thought due to the vast amount of research needed. I do thank you all for the fantastic anecdotes you have sent me. I’m now working through these and I think they’ll be of immense benefit to the readers of that book. We’re still hoping for release in time for Christmas. ...

Noel News  “Make the most of yourself, because that is all there is of you.” RALPH WALDO EMERSON Welcome to another Newsletter The big news last week was the housing summit, but unfortunately, I can see nothing proposed to solve the alleged housing crisis. There are two basic problems: too much demand and too little supply. The only way to cut demand is to cut immigration, which the government is not prepared to do, and building all these proposed new houses will put further pressure on the building industry, which cannot complete the jobs they have.  I would hate to be building or renovating a house right now. Then of course you have the Greens pushing for a rental freeze, one of the worst ideas imaginable. To increase the supply of rental houses, we need to make becoming a property investor attractive, not unattractive. If they want to freeze rents ...

Noel News “Don’t make your mistakes into a habit, rather make it a habit of learning from your mistakes.” DAVID MELTZER The Reserve Bank has spoken… …and, as I predicted, interest rates are on hold for at least one more month. The big question now is where they will go from here. The simple answer is that they will keep going up until inflation is under control, and at this early point in the new financial year, I see no signs of that. In the last two weeks our electricity bills have gone up by 15%, our car insurance bill is up 45%, all tolls have increased, and my favourite block of Lindt chocolate has leapt from $3.50 to $5.50. At the same time, the whole country is in a building frenzy, with massive projects going full steam in every state. My architect friends tell me it’s impossible to get ...

 Noel News “The simple things that lead to success are all easy to do. But they’re also just as easy not to do.” JIM ROHN Another financial year ends Good morning. We are almost at the end of another financial year. In the newsletter I wrote at this time last year, I was bemoaning the fact that the previous 12 months had been horrendous. However, I did point out that markets tend to have four bad years every decade and six good years, and my advice was to hang in there. That’s what I have been doing for as long as I can remember. Anyway, the market has done the right thing and the All Ordinaries Accumulation Index is up 13% from this time last year. It just proves the value of staying in there. This is not to play down the state of the world right now. It seems ...

Noel News  “The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”  CICERO – 55 BC This is an early newsletter: The Federal Budget will be delivered on Tuesday 9 May, after which I’ll be doing a special bulletin. Labor has already promised no more changes to super but I’ll believe that when I see it. I’ve got three speeches booked in after the budget and I am sending this newsletter now to give you plenty of notice if you would like to come. Inflation The Reserve Bank usually announces interest-rate movements on the first Tuesday of the month, which means the next announcement will come on Tuesday next week. Of course, there are the ...

Noel News Faith is a GPS that not only will reroute you when you lose your way, it will take you to a better destination! DAVID MELTZER Welcome to our April newsletter It’s amazing how quickly the year is flying by. The last four weeks have been dominated by proposed superannuation changes, where interest rates may be going, and the state of world markets. As I have said repeatedly, the way forward is to focus on the things you can control and not to get obsessed with things that are out of your control. Let’s talk about interest rates first… Interest rates Last Tuesday our Reserve Bank decided to put rates on hold, which was exactly what many of us thought would happen. However, they also made it clear that more rate rises could be expected. My view is that the cash rate will go to at least 4.25%, and ...

Noel News  Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. SENECA THE ELDER Welcome to our first newsletter of 2023 No doubt it will be another challenging and interesting year, but I’ll do my best to keep you up to date on the important things that happen along the way. First, a big thank you to all you kind folk out there who sent me such lovely emails when I wrote that I had fallen and broken my ankle. It was most appreciated. Now seven weeks have passed and I hope to be out of the moon boot this time next week. It’s been a challenging journey but also a time for reflection, which made me so conscious of the difficulties faced by people with disabilities. I didn’t realise how a small step would be enough to stop a wheelchair going into a restaurant. I also had time to ...

Noel News  Merry Christmas! Most investors have great intentions. So why is it so many fail? Simple. They lack the long-term perspective needed to help get them through short-term chaos. KEITH FITZGERALD Welcome to our last newsletter of the year! And what a year it’s been. Volatile share markets, property markets in a downturn, inflation roaring, a war in Ukraine, interest rates going sky-high and a change of government. That’s just a bit of it. There is so much to talk about, which I will do in various newsletters as 2023 goes by. But today, because this is our last newsletter for the year and it’s a bit late to be putting new strategies in place, I will focus on two topics – both of which could have a huge effect on your finances: The first is the psychology of investment, and the second is the huge increase in scams which are ...

 Noel News Don’t wish it was easier; wish you were better. JIM ROHN   Welcome to our December newsletter, the second last one for the year… Unfortunately, I’m a bit short of Christmas cheer as I write this. Monday last week was our 42nd wedding anniversary and we had prepared to celebrate it by having dinner at home and then by spending the rest of the week in Sydney. It was not to be. Around lunchtime I walked into the garage and, coming out a bit too quickly, tripped over a skirting board. There was a horrible pain, and I thought I had broken my ankle in two. The family called an ambulance, which whisked me to the emergency department at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane. After an X-Ray and a CT scan, I was diagnosed with a fractured ankle and was admitted as a patient with an operation to ...