http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com Dabbling in investments in Australia Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:34:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Interesting article from Sydney Morning Herald, The Dirty Secrets Of Financial Planners. Obviously from this the only financial planners worth using are fee per hour ones who can disclose they take no fees from financial product providers. Plus the mess from Storm Financial and similar would have highlighted these issues. http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2009/07/09/the-dirty-secrets-of-financial-planners-from-smh/ Well since I got the house the share market has been on a crazy ride, mostly downward. Though I would be happy to go along for the ride, buying for the long term rather than the current market value, having the margin loan forces me to keep an eye on ... http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2008/10/28/annoyed-by-volatility-selling-down-to-reduce-margin-loan/ Well as we had to repair the iffy bathroom floor, which would involve ripping up the tiles, we got talked into a full bathroom renovation as most of the bathroom would have to get ripped out to properly waterproof the walls and floor. This is fine, as we had factored ... http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2008/08/03/minor-gripe-multiform-spa-baths-what-you-pay-for-might-not-be-what-you-get/ Settlement has occured... which is real estate jargon for the transaction and legal stuff is over and we can call the place ours (and the banks). This time, with a competent, professional and straight down the line Real Estate Agent to deal with, while keeping the same Mortgage Provider ... http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2008/06/27/settlement/ Australian Power and Gas - listed on the ASX - have 10% green product. Victoria Electricity - owned by Infratil - which is listed on NZ stock exchange - have 10% green product. ActewAGL - owned 50% by Singapore Power and ACT govt? .. hard to tell because of the vague wording ... http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2008/06/24/more-electricity-notes/ Overview here: http://www.greenelectricitywatch.org.au/ Additional comments in an article from Neerav Bhatt's blog: http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/dont-get-tricked-into-choosing-fake-greenpower-electricity/ Right now tending towards Origin - even though I left them for TXU a while back because one of their door to door sales people was harassing me at home when I was home from work very sick. Jack Green looked OK ... http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2008/06/16/green-electricity-notes/ Just pasting some stuff on flooring found on the web: my guestimates for the loungeroom is 26 m2 two bedrooms all up 31 m2 will measure more precisely on pre-settlement inspection. found on ebay, ... http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2008/06/09/flooring-notes-brain-dump/ A long time ago I wasn't impressed with Westpac, so I moved my banking somewhere much better. I also switched my credit card to a product that seemed better at the time, Virgin Mastercard. Now I read (yes I know this is month old news but I just found it ... http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2008/05/31/westpac-encroaching-on-all-fronts-st-george-bank-and-virgin-mastercard/ I just purchased a copy of A Random Walk Down Wall Street which is one of those books I have heard the general gist summarised by others, and agree with what I have heard of this gist.. but never actually read. Ordered from Etrades Moneybags site, though it hasnt showed ... http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2008/05/22/a-random-walk-down-wall-street/ From the Vanguard email newsletter, which sometimes has some quite interesting info although I am not currently a Vanguard customer It’s time in the market that counts Australian share market volatility 1978 -2008 Guess demonstrates even with volatility shares do OK as long as you take a long term view. http://arandomperson.linuxbandwagon.com/2008/05/18/vanguard-australian-shares-volatility-chart/