With low interest rates continuing to heat up some property markets around Australia there seems to be an ever increasing number of real estate spruikers or “property specialists” (as they’re calling themselves) coming out of the woodwork to push their wares. Just this week we received a snazzy email from a slick looking company offering us a list of high commission investment properties. What was the list for? Here’s what they said: “We source and provide comprehensive lists of investment packages from all over the country, all of which are available by your clients and return industry leading commissions to…

Ever heard the saying “a lie gets half way around the world before the truth puts it pants on”? Well, when it’s a financial lie and it’s being repeated often enough by lazy journalists, a lie can do a few laps of the world before the truth puts it pants on. The lie in this instance relates to the oil production glut that may or may not be happening in the US. The oil price has suffered a significant fall from its peaks of 2014 after a combination of surging production in the US and OPEC’s refusal to accommodate that…

If you work with a financial advisor, it always helps to remember what they exist for. A financial advisor exists to help you with your financial circumstances and decisions – whatever they may be. It may seem strange to state that, but sometimes the clients of financial advisers don’t want to tell their financial advisors about their financial decisions, circumstances, or more specifically financial “opportunities” they’ve been offered. Financial advisers eventually do hear about those “opportunities”, but unfortunately for the client, only sometime after the client has acted on that opportunity – the time when it’s too late to get…

Last year the independent senator from South Australia, Nick Xenophon raised a loopy idea that has long been an obsession of the real estate industry. Let first home buyers raid their superannuation to buy a house. It didn’t grab a great deal of attention and it attracted mostly criticism. Given Xenophon enjoys an occasional populist thought bubble and lacks the ability to carry such a proposal through to legislation, it soon died off – until recently. With the federal Liberal government struggling in the polls there have been some notable backflips and populist ideas emerging. Xenophon’s superannuation raid for homes…