Yes,
times are tough. But seeking out opportunities
is far better than worrying and doing nothing.
Turn on the news or open any newspaper right
now and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll
find at least one story full of doom and gloom
about the property market. There’ll probably
also be talk of share markets crashing, increasing
interest rates and people losing their jobs;
hearing all this you may even start to think
the entire Australian economy is heading for
disaster.
Meanwhile, some “experts” are
busy making predictions about how long it will
take for things to recover, others are telling
us how much further things will fall. The whole thing reminds me of a washing machine,
going around and around and making a lot of
white noise. I for one think all of these “predictions” are
about as meaningful as gazing at a crystal ball
and trying to guess what will happen. The reality
is that no-one predicted the most recent economic
boom in QLD and WA and it’s unlikely that
anyone will accurately predict where or when
the next one will be either. All the noise is
just distracting most people from what’s
really important. So what really is important? Well, forgetting
about the “big” picture for a second,
think about your own life and what directly affects
you. What’s happening with your job, your
mortgage, your tax and your superannuation? The
great Australian dream for most people is built
around buying your own home, paying it off, maybe
putting anything left over into superannuation
and hopefully retiring at about age 60. But the
reality today is that if this is the only financial
planning you do to prepare for your retirement,
when you hit 60 or 65 you’re likely to
have to get by on the equivalent of less than
$14 000 a year in today’s money. That’s
only about $200 a week – which doesn’t
sound like much of a dream life for anyone. When you take away all the noise and look at
things in a simple way, it’s obvious the
biggest risk anyone could take would be to sit
tight and do nothing. And the only way to even
have a chance of a better life is to look at
your options for a more secure future as soon
as possible.
This isn’t a sales pitch;
this is just the plain and simple truth. It’s
easy to say it’s all too hard or that the
timing isn’t right, but it is possible
to make money in any type of market, good or
bad.
Just ask any millionaire. And although tackling
something new is always hard, the reality is
that every day that goes by is a lost opportunity
for a better life. by Stephen McCarthy
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