The lion has woken up

 

 

You may be looking at BHP’s lofty share price which closed at 56.39 - up $1.67 from yesterday - and wonder, "Did I miss the boat?" I don't think so. There’s still plenty of time left to invest in quality mining companies. BHP is the biggest.

 

 

No, BHP hasn't got back yet to the $59.25 it was at just two months ago on 2 March. Yes, I sold a small lot for a small profit too early today, but there's still plenty left. According to the Lion Clock, we're at 7 o’clock.

 

 

In case you're too short-sighted to read the clock, here's a close-up:

 

From lionselection.com.au

 

In case you were too short-sighted to buy into mining, don't worry! The lion has woken up, but there's still plenty of time left before he roars.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

Another tax grab from the few to redistribute to the many to buy their votes

 

 

Labor wants to remove or reduce the capital gains tax and negative gearing concessions on real estate investments, ostensibly to take the heat out of the housing market and to remove the "intergenerational inequality" for young people.

They had only just stoked up the housing market with their 5% Deposit Scheme which was taken up by 243,000 Australians. This is just another tax grab from the few to redistribute to the many to buy their votes.

Although it may go a little towards curing Australians of their obsession with real estate. The tax concessions have lead to an over-investment in houses. On top of this the housing market has been buoyant, leading people to think they have made a "good investment" in their home.

For many people their home, the house or apartment they live in, is the single biggest purchase they make in their life. People tend to keep their home for a long period, sometimes changing and moving as needs and wants change. Quite often the value of their home increases over their life or ownership period. This is often due to inflation, where it just seems to increase in value, but doesn't in real terms. Sometimes supply and demand pushes the price up, or down. Actually, it is mostly the land on which the house sits that increases in price or value; the house itself mostly depreciates with age and declines in value.

(And you pay the only unrealised profit tax in the country every time you pay your council rates which are calculated on regularly increasing land valuations while charging you for services which are the same as those received by your neighbour who may only pay half your rates.)

With the house we live in we mostly have a loan to finance it and we pay it off over a longish period. It is a means of saving - a forced or disciplined saving regime for us. So after ten or fifteen or twenty years our house may be paid off, and when we choose to cash in and sell, it gives a nice lump sum, probably tax-free, that has kept up with inflation, and we can take our nest-egg and perhaps buy something less expensive, with something left over to invest or play with.

Thus it seems like it has been a "good investment", but a house/home is really a "long-term consumer-durable"; it is like a refrigerator or appliance. It will last twenty years or more years and serve us well. It will have running costs, such as rates and taxes, maintenance. It will need to have leaks fixed, plumbing maintained, paint and various repairs over its life. It will depreciate; it will get old and out of date.

Now this is not to say that one should not buy and own a house to live in. Quite the opposite, owning your own home is an attractive and desirable thing to do and most people do it. It can be shelter and accommodation; it can be a source of self-expression with decorating and furnishing. You can alter and change and expand your home when you need or want to. And it is "home". It is more of a "home" when you own it rather than rent it. And there is a sense of pride and satisfaction and security in "owning your own home".

But look upon your home as a long-term-consumer-durable. Own it, pay it off, make it the way you want it, move and swap when you want or need to, and look for other things for your financial investments. Look for investments that will hold their value or increase in value (in real terms) and give a return. A business or shares may do this.

Enjoy your home, and if it does actually give you a financial return when you sell it, look upon that as a bonus.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

The Midnight Library

 

 

I found this book in my favourite op-shop. The backcover read, "Nora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?"

 

 

I'm not into speculative novels about women who, after reaching a breaking point in their lives, find themselves in a mystical library that allows them to explore the infinite versions of their lives and discover what truly makes it worth living, but what did I have to lose at a mere gold coin? I read it in one sitting, and what stuck with me was this:

"It is easy to mourn the lives we aren't living. Easy to wish we'd developed other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we'd worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia ..."   click here

Well, at least I've gone to Australia!

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

The Lucky Country

 

 

Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise."

 

 

This is the first sentence in the last chapter of the book "The Lucky Country" by Donald Horne. It is even more relevant now than in the 1960s when it was written. The phrase 'the lucky country' has become part of our lexicon; it's forever being invoked in debates about the Australian way of life, but is all too often misused by those blind to Horne's irony who don't recognise it as a put-down. I show you why:

We are a nation of approximately 27.72 million people. Of those, there are around ~2.5 million public sector employees, accounting for ~9% of the total population. Public sector employees are ~14% of the working-age population of this country. They all produce absolutely NOTHING!

(In 2006 the government established the so-called FUTURE FUND, which now holds some $230 BILLION, to provide for unfunded superannuation liabilities for politicians and public servants. They look after their own!)

NDIS and Centrelink recipients (~750K + ~5M) make up an additional 5.75 million. Add those 5.75 million government-money recipients back to the public sector employees, and you get ~8.25 million people (government money types) against ~18 million working-age people.

(I have just found this ABC News article that "More than 8 million people rely on income support, driven by a growing number of mental health claims" - click here. And you thought I was exaggerating, didn't you?)

We are close to a 50/50 ratio between those that are of working age that make money in the private sector vs. those that receive money from the public coffers. Lucky for some; tough for the rest of us.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

It won't be a wooden horse, I'm sure!

 

 

He's not much into building wooden horses — I trust you've read Virgil's Aeneid — but everything else you give to him, Troy's Handyman Service is pretty good at, including the building of the new L-shaped verandah at "Riverbend".

I did all the measuring of the timbers needed while Troy was busy demolishing the old — and in parts termite-eaten — verandah. I had all the required timber measured and priced when, in a panic attack of second thoughts, I went out again with a torch at 3 o'clock in the morning to measure it again. As they say, "Measure twice, order once!"

 

 

I've since been to the timber yard and the hardware stores to place my orders, and I'm absolutely staggered by the price of masonry screws and decking screws — ONE masonry screw $5.50; 2,000 decking screws $376.

As for the timber, I'll be looking at around $6,000, what with the 550 linear metres of Merbau decking at $6.40 a linear metre, and the hardwood for the frame even dearer. No wonder that the builder who quoted me $11,475 (before GST) - click here - was happy to get out of the job, as there wouldn't have been much left to cover his own labour.

 

The weather is turning autumnish cooler which is a good time for some physical work

 

I have two weeks to recover from the shock, which is how long it will take for the hardwood to be delivered, after which Troy's Handyman Service starts building — and it won't be a wooden horse, I'm sure!

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

Keeping tabs on the expenses:

First order of Hardwood $762.38
Screws and Bolts $528.70