Starting out when you’re almost 50 and missed the boom

How old are your kids?

 

How about these? Not the prettiest but can be improved later

4/23 Ashley Street Box Hill North Vic 3129 - Unit for Sale #128503998 - realestate.com.au

3/1-3 Grenville Street, Box Hill North, Vic 3129 - Unit for Sale #128496758 - realestate.com.au

Not exactly BH or Blackburn but not too far away either.

2/98-100 Mount Pleasant Road Nunawading Vic 3131 - Unit for Sale #128464806 - realestate.com.au

Or adding a 3rd bedroom in the dinning area?

10/36 Queens Parade Ashwood Vic 3147 - Townhouse for Sale #128527878 - realestate.com.au

 

You are a harsh man

 

Hi, I'm into saving. I have written some books on some of my learnings, e.g. How to Kick Bad Spending Habits ebook (very short ebook) and Create your New Life of Abundance. There is always a way to save when you have a good income. Roughly, you each make $73,000 after tax (less after your super contribution) x 2 = so $130,000 if you put $16,000 in super. That's $10,000 a month or so.

Compare this with my 3-person family. The household budget runs on around $54,000 per year, with a medium mortgage and old house that constantly needs a fix. It's $4,500 a month. We are a similar age to you and did not profit from any boom - quite the opposite! However, we live in an affordable region.

I'm also into learning. Over the years I have studied the Aussie investing gurus. I now work in commercial property research. I have seen people get caught up in new inv. property that turned to disaster (yikes). This is because they trusted and didn't do their due diligence. But I think you are in a place of fairly good power. You can make a great plan for your family's future. (Make it a one page plan!)

Whatever you focus your efforts on will be more likely to eventuate. My suggestion is to focus on positive cash flow investing with secure tenants. Numbers wise, you are looking for a net yield at above 7%, this allows a 2-3% gap between the investor interest rate and your income. From what I see, it all works when you get the high yields and you get diligent, secure tenants on long leases. Then the banks are more happy to loan to you, because you are increasing your overall income. Many happy travels in the future.

 

I think everyone is looking for above 7% net yield and secure, long term tenants..... I just don't think these deals are easy to find......

 

And not in resi prop in Syd and Mel now

 

9 and 11.

 

I had looked at those Box Hill North ones. Not quite where we want to be, but near enough to make me consider whether PPOR is a better way to go. Thanks

 

Buying in Box Hill now...will be liking jumping from the frying pan to the fire.

I you want a place in Sydney...wait...a survey the markets which are taking a hit...places like Scholfields, Marsden Park, Box Hill, Kellyville, Rosue Hill, Baukham Hills will offer some opportunities to buy.......at a bargain...

 

Talk to your family and see what they think, take your time to think & plan & decide & run the numbers. Good luck!

 

Nah.... they should shoot everyone over 50 this thread is hillarious

Seriously never too late to invest, more important is strategy, timing, exit plan as someone mentioned

 

It's good you are working on things now. Better than waiting another 5,10,15 years on. As the saying goes: what's the best time to plant a tree - 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

If I was you I would work on fine tuning your budget as tight as you can and saving as much as you can. Maybe in 6 months when you've got the basics of budgeting under control and learned a bit more about purchasing property you can then start making some decisions on where to put all your saved cash.

Without knowing your circumstances it seems to me if you are just starting to pay attention to your finances now you might want to keep things as simple as possible. Have a home to live in, pay it off as quick as you can and then focus on saving and super. These are the basics you can focus on.

On the other hand, if managing money interests you and you're ready to jump in deep and learn as much as you can then you can consider other investments and SMSF. But I personally think that the more you complicate your financial situation, the more stress it will feel like if you aren't mentally interested in anything beyond the basics of home, cash, super.

 

Nah...us cannibals....just cook dem in a big pot.....

 

have you considered building a business?

 

I think firstly, being on 200K is great. Good for you.
The best investment you can make is on yourself so the household income of 200K puts you right up there.*

As others have said, buying now around said places in Melbourne probably isn't the best idea.
I'd focus on protecting the money maker and saving/budgetting and keep doing your due diligence.

Consider: maximising super contributions, rent-vesting, sharemarket (ETF/index funds) for dividend income.


'In Australia, 20.0% of households had a weekly household income of less than $650 and 16.4% of households had a weekly income of more than $3000.'*
*2016 Census QuickStats: Australia

 

Beggars can't be choosers. Although in Australia it appears they can when I was giving out sandwiches to them, a lot of them only wanted chicken sandwiches and point blank refuse to take the ham ones.

I should write a cookbook of all the recipes that can be done quite easily on $60/week (between me and my wife) for you guys then! In fact I thought we are more on the luxury side as my wife can't cope with eating things in bulk which means I can't cook the same thing for the whole week which I personally could tolerate. I just use the same meat with slightly varying vegetables with 2-3 different sauces to get enough variability for my wife's liking. I personally think what we do are nothing compared to the people below:
Melbourne mum serves family on $1 a meal | Daily Mail Online ($100/week for 4 people ~$25/person/week)

Mother-of-two who feeds her family of four for under $1.55 per meal | Daily Mail Online (hard to say with this one with $187/month for dinner and $40 for healthy snacks but even if you double both = $113.5/week ~$28/person/week which is still better than us)

Mum spent six HOURS prepping meals for 12 weeks & It cost under $500! (~$41/week which means ~$10/person/week.)

Cooking in bulk is no secret especially to anyone who goes to the gym here and I used to be able to cook up a month worth of meal at around $15-$20. There is plenty of websites where you can learn how to cook on the cheap! By no means do I expect everyone to have the same knowledge as me as I only learned it around the gym scene so knowing what to eat to bulk up or get the beach body was quite important.

But hey if you're only here to troll rather than learn then be my guest I just thought most people have a cost problem rather than a revenue problem

With 2.5k/month of savings, buying a PPOR on current interest rate would wipe out any buffer he had - Imagine if the interest rate goes up in the next two years?

 

No troll, just here to learn from great and wise ones like yourself.
If you could school me from your wealth of knowledge gained at the gym and provide me a meal plan for one week for $30.
Some stats for you to work with:
195cm tall, 111kg, physical construction worker, work out at gym 4 days per week, cycle 200+ km per week.
Make it simple, work on 2000cal per day
Ceoliac (hence the allergy comment) so no gluten please, and I will have to pass on the ham sandwiches for same reason although they would be my favourite if I could
As per stats above not really in a bulking phase atm, so limited carbs thanks.
Dairy intolerant
Allergic to albumin in egg whites

Just so you don’t stress too much, we have neither a cost nor a revenue problem but happy to give your $30 pw meal plan a go just for the mental stimulation.

 

You poor thing! Missing alot of the yummy stuff must be hard to eat out too

 

Buy bulk whole chicken + potato?

@PurpleTurtle not much to add from my side, kudos to you for taking the step.