By CRICKEY, that's cheap!!!

Thank you to Australian Real Estate for this list...as you know, I love cheap KFC and I love cheap houses.

Australia's Cheapest Suburbs

Watch out...the scary interest rate monster is hiding in the shadows...

Us property investors have been a lucky bunch of late. It seems that due to the financial news/data coming out of the US, those awesome blokes at the reserve bank have wisely kept rates low, in line with nothing else but......the US data. That's right boys and girls, the interest rates have correlated nicely with the share market mumbo jumbo coming from America, and if nothing else, we can see that the current speculative flat period in shares (has lasted about a month now) has meant the RBA are going to keep rates low....you see, the recovery is not in full swing yet, some of the looming troublesome countries/markets around the world has many thinking twice that we are out of the red and here in Australia we can see that property data, as far as I can see, is reflecting this mentality. Property prices are still stagnant, it seems that getting them to move is a bit like getting Kevin Rudd's hair to move, but ladies and gentlemen, nothing we do will change that. So as Kevin's "hair" remains firmly rooted to his scalp, so have house prices remained exactly where they were, nationally at least, the change has been almost non-existent.

I hope that for a few more months the uncertainty continues. Yes, I know it's bad for business, but for us property investors, it's just that little bit more of a breathing space to sort things out, to take stock and to put in safeguards before the interest rate onslaught is upon us. Listen to the warning my fellow countrymen, keep an eye on the American sharemarket, the likeness to our interest rate rises is uncanny...

Until next time bros and sistassss...

To invest, or not to invest?

More specifically, the question should be, invest in property alone, or diversify? Throughout the last 4 years or so since I began property investing, the returns have been good. I can't say great, because the 2008/2009 "slump" has put a bit of a dampener on things, but still, the value of our investments grew, albeit not as much as in 2006/2007, or the time period I like to call "the icing on the 2003 boom cake." So the current question circles in my mind, keeping me occupied, evaluating my financial position and thinking about what I should do next. After much much thinking, the answer has been shares and online savers. It's a bit of a no brainer, but I really had to re-calibrate my approach of "property only" after the last few years. So here I am, nicely tucking some bucks away into UBank, but also keeping an eye on the share market, some of those blue chips are starting to look tasty.

I think perhaps more importantly, I took stock of my portfolio. Although I was aware of the situation, I am now thinking I have to change the negative gearing situation. Yeah, sure, the capital is increasing and I'm "silently" making money, but my cash flow is taking a major hit. With interest rate rises almost a certainty (although we have heard that before), a few more hits to the cash bottom line, and things will get very interesting very quickly.

As such, I am looking to sell, and I am looking at offloading the poor performers, or, as I am increasingly noticing, my non-performers. I have two blocks of land, sitting idol, doing nothing, growing very slowly, but not making any major headway and definitely doing nothing for cash flow.

The situation has also opened my eye to doing things differently. Being a wage earner is fine, but it's not the way things should be. I absolutely love my day job, but it has strings attached...I HAVE to be there, I drive 25 minutes each way every day, I put in a few hours more than I really should. With a business, I can employ someone to be there, to do the work. With a business, I can look at data and make a difference to operations with cash benefits, at my job, there is no such thing. So, taking the Rich Dad, Poor Dad approach, I am going to start something new, something risky, but more importantly, something that will result in some learning.

Ciao for now...