Magazines - any thoughts or recommendations?

Well if you were in the Adult industry and needed it for work then I don't see why not.

 

I reckon that could be a bit of stretch @JDP1 ..... but you could always give it a go.

You might find you get a kindred spirit at the ATO who processes your application and can see the very definite link between dealing with the plumbing in an IP, and sorting out your own plumbing

 

I've been subscribing to Money magazine & SmartInvestor magazine (now comes with the AFR newspaper) for a few years. Money magazine has improved heaps and is packed with new ideas, if you are into alternate investing..ETF, LIC..etc. I find the ask the expert sections (Q&A) in money magazine very useful as it presents good case studies. Paul Clitheroe generally discourages buying more than one or two IPs. He promotes investing more into SUPER and into the share market.

I have tried a few Property magazines and settled on subscribing API. Some of the investors profiled in the magazine are laughable, as they do stories on investors with 7 properties and getting a 6% yield and plan on retiring in 5 years. It's a good overall read though and I find it motivates me to aim higher than just rely on my day job.

 

I know what you mean, I think they need to be read through a filter of investor's experience and knowledge. Its more the newbies that will be susceptible to some of the BS.

 

I reckon Property Chat would be the best magazine.
Bring the digital world to print, plenty of contributors here.
All you would need is an editor to collect all the information and put to publish.
Only other thing to prepare is 50 pages of ads and first edition is ready.

 

Great idea.

 

Seriously though, it could work if someone were to take the project on.

 

Only downside is then I need to get 4 bloody magazines.....

 

Terry can probably do tax tip special edition by himself!

I've actually thought about that before as well. There's way, way more good information on here than any investment magazine that I've seen. The only thing is that there are a lot of contrary opinions and all of them may be valid.

I think a lot of people that subscribe to the magazines (I subscribe myself, but more for the benefits than the magazine itself) would be the type of people that don't actually end up investing.
They tend to be very superficial and full of half truths where negatives are intentionally being ignored.

 

That's a good point. If we could really organize the content to be in a nice structure, that'll really benefit everyone.

 

You probably don't need to subscribe to Money magazine. It's free to download from most of the libraries if you have a library card:
http://www.rbdigital.com/randwicklibrary/service/zinio/landing?mag_id=6314

The libraries used to have API magazine but they stopped subscribing to API 1-2 years ago.

 

I find that whenever you look at "Ask Paul" section, whenever investors ask about acquiring a portfolio, its always the same old response of paying down your PPOR loan, pay down debts and to consider additional contribution to super (depending on the reader's age). Very anti-property acquisition.

 

Agree with that. Whenever anybody had 2 or more properties he'd say you have enough exposure to the property market already. I'm always thinking to myself, that's not what I would do.

Then you get people writing in with large incomes and lots of equity asking Paul for advice and he'd congratulate them on what they built up already and he'd give his advice on what to do next. I think the more interesting thing to know for the reader would be to find out how they got to their equity position in the first place. Many will be from high incomes, but there would still have to be some form of investments to get to that position, surely? Unless the PPoR seriously outperformed....

 

I think Paul plays the safe approach because he went through the time when his family was paying 18% interest rate so maybe that's why he likes to play it safe. Touch wood that we never have that kind of senario again but I do know that if I was exposed to 18% interest on all of my loans, I would seriously be in trouble, but than again all of Australia would be as well.

The funny thing is that the Money Magazine has been focusing on the property market so its very contradictory.

 

You could very well be right on that! I highly doubt interest rates will go to 18% again. Paul's advice, which is admittedly very sound for a high interest rate environment, unfortunately seems too defensive for the current world with cheap funding and I don't think interest rates will reach double digits again in the foreseeable future.

Therefore I think you have to go more aggressive on the borrowings to for the leverage and to get the growth. An x% growth on 500k vs x% growth on 1mill vs x% growth on multiple millions? I still stick to reasonable LVRs due to my risk profile but now I have a good amount of equity behind me, and this has only come about because I've used OPM well.

My advice is that you need to be able to hold the portfolio - therefore don't go too negatively geared. You must be able to service the debts. If you can hold and ride through a couple of cycles, (well, let me say booms) its a very sound way to invest.

 

I agree.

I also think its really important to buy at a good price. Long term it doesn't really matter as much but we all know that for there to BE a long term of a large portfolio we need to extract equity asap to build it. That's if building it fast and big is someone's strategy. I think many people would like to build it 'large' and 'fast' if they were being completely honest.

 

Does that also apply if you are not a professional investor and have just 1 or 2 properties?

 

I don't think it would be a problem ato wont go after some magazines revenue. But I'm sure it's ok if you have an ip

 

Agree with all of the above, easy to get bogged down with insufficient reading time. I subscribed to most of all mentioned and rarely read through them. STopped subscriptions but recently have been buying odd issues (well in person that is) each month and read here and there.. think you have to be good at cuttting through fluff very quickly.

That said if you have the time, the money side isn't huge. Even if not tax deductible at least your educating (albeit with a pinch of salt).

haha I also started buying the handyman mag when going through bunnings. Not a handyman at all - never tried tbh, but hoping to 'transform' magically once my properties up. Think it's good for ideas anyway, if not the pictures of what you can choose/do to your own

Just dont subscribe to trash like women's weekly and gossip magazines and at least your one step ahead whichever magazine you read! (sorry to anyone who reads these!)

Oh and like some said, if current edition isn't your need then hit up the library for back issues of these common mags. I picked up 2013-2014 a whole pile of 10-15 mags of YIP and better homes and gardens for $5 off a facebook swap group... haveto cut through outdated stuff but the strategies/articles would hopefully still teach a thing or two?

 

I'm curious where mags like API get their investors. I saw the two twins on API that were from somersoft/here and wonder - do they just approach random people from sources like here??