What to do to acquire a multi million dollar net worth

what does an individual need to do in order to acquire a million dollar

net worth?

There are several things that you can do to propel yourself to this

enviable position, each comes with diligence and perseverance.

When you are working in a job you need to invest extra time.

Arrive an hour earlier than you have to and put that time in working

on upgrading your skill and understanding of your job.

The other end of the spectrum is that you leave an hour later than

others and capitulate the day's work and information processed.

Learn from your job and also by following these steps you are bound

to impress your superiors that you are keen to learn and expand

your horizons. Remember you do this for yourself but there are

other benefits along the way.

This is just a beginning to getting a person started on the road

to vastly expanding their net financial worth.

Stay tuned for more tips over the coming weeks.©    

"Bailout" won't stop the ship from sinking

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago. The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis. When Congress approved the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) on Oct. 3, the need for transparency was acknowledged.Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, some Congress members are calling for the Fed to be reined in, as well they should. Better late than never but limitations need to be placedon the Fed so that authority returns to elected officials as opposed to appointed ones. Bloomberg News tabulated data from the Fed, Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and interviewed regulatory officials, economists and academic researchers to gauge the full extent of the government's rescue effort. The bailout includes a Fed program to buy as much as $2.4 trillion in short-term notes, called commercial paper, that companies use to pay bills, begun Oct. 27, and $1.4 trillion from the FDIC to guarantee bank-to-bank loans, started Oct. 14. Citigroup received $306 billion of government guarantees for troubled mortgages and toxic assets. The Treasury Department also will inject $20 billion into the bank after its stock fell 60 percent last week.There's no transparency to it so who's to say they're right in doing this.The worst financial crisis in two generations has erased $23 trillion, or 38 percent, of the value of the world's companies and brought down three of the biggest Wall Street firms.Regulators hope the rescue will contain the damage and keep banks providing the credit that is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Most of the spending programs are run out of the New York Fed, whose president,Timothy Geithner, is said to be President- elect Barack Obama’s choice to be Treasury Secretary.

The money that's been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It's nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It could pay off more than half the country's mortgages.There's a lot of supposedly smart people who look to be totally incompetent and it's all going to fall on the taxpayer."

President Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, when almost 10,000 banks failed and there was no mechanism to bolster them with cash, is the only rival to the government's current response. The savings and loan bailout of the 1990s cost $209.5 billion in inflation-adjusted numbers, of which $173 billion came from taxpayers, according to a July 1996 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office, now called the Government Accountability Office.

And still they play and manipulate and have no cognisance of the fact that all the problems in the first place were produced by the behind the scene manipulators playing a game of chess with the worlds population as the pawns. It looks like this game will not end untill the whole American economy completely colapses and the human spirit rises to the rescue when there is a realisation that pieces of paper with little pictures on them can not save or help anyone or anything.

Future world economic events

Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events. His track record includes predicting the Crash of '87 and the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. He successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar. He predicted in a November, 2007 UPI article that 2008 would be known as the "Panic of 2008" in which he specifically warned that "giants would tumble to their deaths." Celente's predictions aren't the result of either Divine revelation from Heaven or demons working a Ouija board. It's more along the lines of 'prophesying' that a dog left in the house for three days will poop on the floor. That's why we spent as much time as we did examining how the economy got into this predicament. So you could see for yourself that Celente is simply analyzing the trends -- putting two and two together and coming up with four. That, plus his track record, which demonstrates that he's been paying attention to those trends. Let's compare what Celente sees for the next four years, based on current trends, to what the Bible predicted would befall a single generation, somewhere in time.

"There will be a revolution in this country," he said in a recent interview. "It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen." This is what Celente predicts as well -- he says that the country is going to suddenly realize that they've been had. "The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That’s going to be the big one because people can’t afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You’re going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop." "We’re going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It’s going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It’s going to come as a shock and with it, there’s going to be a lot of crime.' "It’s going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more." "And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people’s minds weren’t wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody’s comprehension."

I checked Celente out. He's the real deal. He has been hailed as some kind of predictive genius by CNN, USAToday, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist . . . the point is he is neither a crackpot nor is he regarded as a crackpot by the mainstream. So, what does this mean to us? Well, lots -- and not much. It depends on your own perspective. It doesn't mean that much in the sense you probably already know all this. Maybe not Gerald Celente or the Trends Research Institute. Or his track record. But by and large, the narrative is familiar. Is Celente right on every detail? I don't know -- the details haven't all unfolded. Gerald Celente is forecasting four years into the future based on his analysis of current global trends.

Getting better

In a brave and sensible move, the Reserve Bank of Australia has ridden to the economy's rescue with a big 0.75% interest rate cut just as some negative types have been predicting a recession. Mind you, they might end up being right, but this action by the RBA increases the chances of making them wrong.

The listed 12 positives that had mounted up and happily the local and global stock markets have come in on cue to swing to the positive.This is the summary:

- Deutsche Bank research said over the past 80 years a bottom of a bear market has been created in the last week of October.

- November has a great track record for stock markets, and historically November to April has been good for share prices.

- This bear market has run longer than the average bear market.

- The 3-months LIBOR versus Fed Funds rate spread has fallen to around 200 basis points, but it was 330 basis points.

-Stock markets look 6-9 months ahead and things might look crook now but in 6-9 months the US economy could be coming out of recession.

- The US consumer confidence measure dropped to the lowest level ever, which sounds bad, but there's history showing that there is usually a big 20% plus bounce of the stock market after the consumer confidence reading hits rock bottom.

- The roll out of the rescue package for the banks has been well-received.

- Co-ordinated interest rate cuts worldwide are raising hopes.

- Valuations for great companies look attractive.

- The volatility index or fear index is falling.

- A range of US companies have reported surprisingly good numbers.

- The US election will take away uncertainty and that should be good for share prices.

Memories of 1991

We were hit by recession headlines. Leading these warnings is the chief economist from J.P.Morgan, Stephen Walters, who has pulled out the dreaded R-word."Australia faces its first recession since 1991 as prices fall next year for iron ore and coal, the nation's largest exports," he said.He thinks the economy will contract in the six months to March because of weakening export growth, which will cause companies to put off or even KO investment spending. And he has dragged down his calendar year forecast for growth from 1.4%, which he made on October 22 to 0.7%.The good news was that he argues the Reserve Bank will have to be more aggressive with their interest rate cuts to minimize the damage. And that's what the Big Bank has done with its surprise 0.75% cut in their cash rate of interest.

In the opposite corner

Against Walters we have the CEOs of ANZ and St. George - Michael Smith and Paul Fegan - who have predicted that Australia will dodge a recession.Even the Deputy Governor of The Reserve Bank Ric Battellino has argued we will avoid a recession.If the Big Bank was as negative as Walters, it would be shooting for a 4% cash rate, but this would also be in the context of rising unemployment and bankruptcies.At this stage, the RBA's view is more preferable to J.P.Morgan's. So, who is more likely to be right?Walters thinks the December quarter will be negative 0.3% and 0.4% for the March quarter. He thinks the 40% plus of the stock market, frozen funds and negative headlines will spook the consumer.

What the chief economists think

By the way, none of the big name economists at the big four banks are out there claiming their crystal balls are revealing a recession.Bill Evans, Westpac's chief economist, can't see a negative December quarter. "We are expecting zero growth in the March quarter and then only very small growth as the effect of the stimulus dies away," he said.And NAB's chief economist Alan Oster also has tipped no recession.Meanwhile, ANZ's respected chief economist Saul Eslake dismissed the speculation about a recession here in Australia.Finally, CommSec's Craig James has weighed into the argument criticising doomsday merchants and also insisting that we can avoid a recession.So at the moment, good stuff is outweighing bad stuff - to put it very simply - but we still have a long way to go.

What we have to hope for is some really smart government decisions right around the world and central bank decisions that help keep confidence as high as it can be, given the economic problems that are still out there.

The good news is...

This week's credit markets kept improving and European governments talked about a co-ordinated fiscal policy response to try and kick-start the Eurozone economy.Then along came the US election result with a win to Barack Obama, which should be another positive for the US economy.The good continues to outweigh the bad!

Why is gold dropping when it shouldn't?

Why is gold dropping right now when anyone in their sane mind would expect it to rise? The simple answer to this question is, " because Comex-gold isn't gold " - and because it deceptively pretends to be 'the' price-setter for real gold.

Gold is gold, paper is paper, and "Comex gold" is nothing but paper masquerading as gold while simultaneously pretending to be the price-setting medium for actual gold in the world. Now, finally, Comex-gold is in the process of being unmasked. The real supply and demand determinants for Comex gold are not actual gold investors but fund managers . Fund managers are inextricably intertwined with the world of contract-based credit instruments. They use bet on Comex gold contracts to hedge their other (currently horrendously losing) bets with something they all, in their in-bred belief in paper markets, believe will 'go up' in value while everything else is going down.
However, these very same fund managers and their paper-bound investment psychology are the exclusive reason why Comex gold is dropping in these times when everyone (including fund managers) expects gold to rise. As already stated, though, and as they now finally realize to their own dismay, Comex-gold just isn't gold - and that causes even further selling.
Fund managers' other bets are losing money fast, now, so they need to raise cash to keep up the overall value of their respective funds, so they can earn their management bonuses and avoid getting booted for lack of relative performance. Guess what they cash in on? The very same Comex paper-gold they mistakenly bought as a 'hedge', of course. Meanwhile, real investors in real gold are enjoying their shopping spree - except that the spree turned into a treasure hunt as the shelves and display cases of gold dealers look more and more like the supermarket shelves in the old Soviet Union - bare . This is the only 'bare-market' in real gold the world will see for a long, long time to come. With this split, this disconnect, between Comex illusion and gold reality, one thing or the other will have to give, and it won't be physical gold that gives. My reaction: I am certain the US is less than a month away from a currency collapse. The fed and treasury are not even taking the time to think at this point: they are just throwing money and guarantees at each new problem that pops up without worrying about the consequence. Since no one can imagine a currency collapse, there isn't the political will to take the painful steps needed to prevent it (reign in fed and let institutions fail). The forces and trends behind the financial collapse are too powerful to stop.
By Eric deCarbonnel http://www.marketskeptics.com

Market shutdown

Former Clinton economic adviser Nouriel Roubini says hundreds of hedge funds will fail and that policymakers might have to shut down financial markets for a week or more in response.

"We've reached a situation of sheer panic. There will be massive dumping of assets," and "hundreds of hedge funds are going to go bust," said Roubini, a New York University professor. He was speaking to attendees at a hedge fund conference in London.Roubini is known for his predictions. In July 2006 he said that the United States would enter an economic recession.Earlier this year, he forecast a "catastrophic" financial meltdown that he said global central bankers would fail to prevent and would lead to the bankruptcy of large banks exposed to mortgages and a sharp drop in equities.He warns, too, that the world is heading for a protracted recession that will end the financial dominance of the United States.Roubini told CNBC that he believes the United States is going to have two years of negative economic growth, quite at odds with most predictions of quarter or two of recession ahead."The last two recessions lasted only eight months each. … This time around, this is going to be three times as long, three times as deep. This is going to be the worst recession the United States has experienced since the 1980s."Emmanuel Roman of GLG Partners, a former division of Lehman Brothers Holdings, agreed with Roubini's dire prediction.He told the Telegraph that 25 percent to 30 percent of the world's 8,000 hedge funds will disappear "in a Darwinian process," either by going bust or deciding that meager profits are not worth the effort."This will go down in the history books as one of the greatest fiascos of banking in 100 years. There needs to be some scapegoats, and the regulators are going to go hunt people. That will be good in the long run," Roman said

Government meets business

The federal government wants to hear what actions, apart from its $10.4 billion economic stimulus package, business leaders believe are necessary to help Australia weather the global financial crisis.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will meet business leaders in Sydney on Friday.
"It's very important to hear directly from the business community on the ground about what's going on and about what further actions may be necessary in the future," Mr Rudd told Sky News.
"Canberra is not the ultimate repository of all wisdom.
"So we'll be out and about talking with the business community and the general community over what's still going to be a very, very tough time ahead."
Some of Australia's biggest companies will be represented at the round table.
Bosses from miners BHP and Xstrata, accounting firms DeLoittes and Ernst & Young, American Express , property group Leighton Holdings, IBM and Microsoft and News Ltd are expected to attend.
Meanwhile, Mr Rudd has likened the world financial crisis to a "cancer" which has spread to the Australian economy.
He also defended the government's decision to implement a $10.4 billion economic stimulus package ahead of official data to be released next month revealing the strength of the local economy.
Mr Rudd said financial institutions had spread around the risk of "dodgy loans" made in the US.
"When the original mortgage payments couldn't be made, the cancer didn't just stay local, it spread across the world to all the other institutions that had been wrapped up in it," he told Sky News on Friday.
The crisis was now affecting the real Australian economy.
Mr Rudd is resisting calls from the opposition for the release of Treasury advice the government received in developing its stimulus package.
Updates would be included in the mid-year economic forecasts, due for release next month, he said.
But the government could not wait for "final, conclusive proof of economic problems" before taking action, Mr Rudd said.
"Guess what, by then it's too late, you need to act decisively and early because it takes some time for these stimulus measures to flow through to the economy."
"The logic of the Liberal Party's position is this, they would say that you should wait until basically the car starts to sputter through lack of petrol in the tank before you put more petrol in."
When pressed about what the government was doing to help self-funded retirees weather the financial crisis, Mr Rudd said the government was maintaining the stability of the financial system.
Guaranteeing bank deposits would help them, he said.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says, many small businesses have not seen any benefit from the recent cut in interest rates, even though the federal government is prepared to risk billions supporting the banks.
Only one bank had passed on fully this month's one percentage point rate cut to small business, a sector of the economy that employs most Australians, he said.
"So ( Prime Minister Kevin) Rudd is providing deposit guarantees to help the banks, he's providing wholesale term funding guarantees, which by the way puts the taxpayer potentially on the hook for many billions of dollars," Mr Turnbull told Sky News on Friday.
"So he's doing all that for the banks, and he's spending $10 billion in stimulus, but the stimulus of the interest rate cut is not yet apparently finding its way in that part of the economy where most Australians are employed."
Mr Turnbull is continuing to press the government to reveal what advice it used to formulate its $10.4 billion economics stimulus package announced and what impact it would have on interest rates.
"They're the one's sitting around the table with Treasury, what has Treasury told them, everyone is entitled to know," he said.

Recession alarm rings around the world

World giants in the automobile, airline and technology industries have ordered emergency action in response to the financial crisis, while the IMF set aside more than $US200 billion ($A297.09 billion) for debt-laden countries.

Even a 1.5 million barrel a day production cut by OPEC failed to stop oil prices falling in the face of swelling fears of a deep global recession which led shares to take a hammering yet again.

Wall Street followed other exchanges downwards as a wave of panic selling and a meltdown in share prices swept around the world.

US shares later recovered some of their losses and fell less than many other global stock markets in early trade.

Grim financial news came in from around the world.

Iceland's government said it had asked for $US2 billion ($A2.97 billion) of support from the International Monetary Fund, the first Western country to do so since 1976.

The IMF said it had tentatively agreed to the loan and announced it had set aside hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue stricken nations.

"The IMF has more than 200 billion dollars of loanable funds and can draw on additional resources through two standing borrowing arrangements with groups of IMF member countries," the institution said on its website.

China, Japan and 11 other Asian nations agreed to set up an $US80 billion ($A118.84 billion) war fund to fight what ex-US Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan called a "once-in-a-century credit tsunami".

French automobile giants PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Renault ordered huge production cuts, while Japan's hi-tech giant Sony Corp and Europe's biggest airline Air France-KLM issued profits warnings.

In Britain, official figures confirmed the country was about to enter a recession, while Turkey's central bank took action to strengthen bank liquidity and prop up the slumping currency.

The combined impact sent shares tumbling in both Asia and Europe.

Japan's Nikkei index plunged 9.60 per cent, ending below the key 8,000-point level for the first time in more than five years, and Hong Kong fell 8.3 per cent.

European shares had lost up to 10 per cent by midday trade before mounting a late rally.

French shares still fell 8.0 per cent to finish at five-year lows, while Frankfurt's DAX 30 index and London's FTSE 100 were off around five per cent.

"The best word to describe what's going on right now is panic," said Credit Suisse strategist Satoru Ogasawara.

Technology giant Sony, a bellwether of corporate Japan , saw its shares plunge more than 11 per cent after forecasting net profit of 150 billion yen ($A2.31 billion) for the year to March, down 59 per cent on last year.

Air France-KLM suffered a near nine per cent drop in its share price after acknowledging it would be "very difficult" to meet its billion-euro ($A1.93 billion) earnings target.

Europe's biggest airline unveiled a plan to cut costs by up to 1.2 billion euros ($A2.32 billion) over the next five years.

The suffering extended to the automobile industry. with Renault ordering almost all French plants closed for at least one week and shorter shutdowns in Turkey, Russia and Slovenia.

PSA Peugeot-Citroen chairman Christian Strieff said he had ordered "massive" production cuts as the group forecast a 17 per cent fall in car sales in Western Europe in the fourth quarter.

Chrysler LLC , the number three US automobile maker, meanwhile said it would cut up to 5,000 administrative and temporary jobs by the end of the year.

ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steel producer, shut smelting furnaces on a temporary basis in France, Germany and Belgium, according to union chiefs who met with management.

New figures showed industrial confidence in both France and Italy had fallen to the lowest level since 1993.

There was also grim data on the jobs front, with Spain's unemployment rate jumping to 11.33 per cent - the highest level in more than four years.

Adding to the gloom, OPEC oil ministers decided at emergency talks in Vienna to cut output by 1.5 million barrels per day from November 1.

The cut was designed to increase prices but Brent North Sea crude for December delivery slumped to $US61 per barrel, the lowest point since March 2007.

"There won't be any impact on inflation, there's not going to be any impact on growth," the cartel's president Chakib Khelil told reporters.

"Growth has disappeared already in the US, it's disappeared in Europe."

New figures meanwhile showed Britain's economy shrank by 0.5 per cent in the three months to September, compared with the previous quarter, marking the first contraction since 1992.

The country's economy screeched to a halt in the second quarter with zero growth. However, it must experience two successive quarters of negative economic growth to be classed as in recession.

The Australian market

For all those who watch the market closely and saw today’s slump snap two days of wild gains on our Aussie stock market, with some bigger stocks reaching a two week high, it is a case of (literally) two steps forward, one step back. This comes as Wall Street falls into the heavy realisation that it really doesn’t matter what [US Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson and the gang do over the coming weeks to avert financial catastrophe — the recession in the US is going to be deep, and there just ain’t no getting aw ay from it. But just how much that will really hurt us remains to be seen. There’s no doubt our market has been just as battered as the US markets in the past 6 or so months — some say unfairly, given that the fundamentals of our banks and financials remans just as strong as they were during the last bull run.We have to be able to convince investors both domestic and foreign that our market is worth investing in, that we’re on the way up, and that a very strong mining industry coupled with sound financial institutions makes a country — and a market — worthy of investing in.As Americans get more and more scared to invest in US equities — as seen by those unprecedented spikes in gold as investors flock to its safe haven — why don’t they consider the Australian market? Just like there were sales people in Australia selling ‘safe’ Lehman Brothers bonds to local councils — how many Australian spruikers are over in the States letting American investors know that Australia, the world’s sandpit, is a pretty good place to park your dough right now?And is it safe enough to be spruiking such things? Those that called the bottom of our market yesterday weren’t shouted down by screaming pessimists — and they weren’t fools either. If the educated guess is that we’re at the bottom — let’s let a few more people know about it, and get some money back in there. Because with a whole layer of sellers wiped out of the market for the next 29 days, surely, the only way is up. By Joanna Townsend,September 23, 2008

Being successful

Rather than focusing on strengths too many people focus on their weaknesses and what they are not good at. They feel unworthy of success as a result of this focus and this inturn limits what they can achieve in their life and work.
Their life forms into a 'holding pattern' which is governed by the confines of their perceptions of unnecessary fears of what people may think about them. by staying in these confines their full potential is never reached.
To some degree, we all have some aspect of this in place in our lives but if we focus on our strengths we can achieve so much in our lives. People who are successful accept or ignore their weaknesses and put their energy and focus on their strengths. They know they are worthy of success and are not disappointed by achieving it. The more you value 'you' the more of everything you will attract.©

'Who's next?' The question as billions lost in market chaos

It is becoming clear that there is more bad news in the Wall Street pipeline despite the US Government's bail-out of giant insurer American International Group.Wall Street was looking grim from the outset overnight but it took a very heavy tumble in the final minutes of trade as the frightening new reality set in that some big dominoes are stacked up, waiting to fall.With three of Wall Street's top five banks gone, the focus is on the remaining two and whether they have come clean with any bad news.So investors have run for the exits.Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley fell by record amounts after reporting profits yesterday, the former losing as much as 26 per cent, the latter as much as 44 per cent.If you look at Wall Street itself, around half the gains of the bull market that began in 2002 has been erased.And it is a flight to safety as credit markets freeze up in fear and suspicion.For example, gold - the haven in turbulent times such as war - jumped nearly $US85 overnight. Oil was up $US6.And investors are jumping into the safety of US treasury bills. As a result, yields on three-year notes have fallen to their lowest levels since World War II.Fallout to spreadBut no one should think this is just a problem for the wealthy.The fallout is showing signs of spreading from Wall Street to Main Street, according to financial analyst Jeff Kleintop, speaking on Bloomberg."A lot of what's been going on here has really been a Wall Street problem, but obviously when you start to question the solvency of money markets, that hits the man in the street and so you've started to see some of that, you've started to see money move very much into the safest securities," Mr Kleitop said."The [US Federal Reserve] has been on top of that in recent days but clearly needs to put a lot of money to work very short term in this market to ensure there isn't a seize up among banks as investors really question their money market funds, and where the safest place to put their money is in these turbulent times."For some perspective on the scale of the situation, the ratings agency Standard and Poor's says AIG and a dozen other US companies have collectivity lost the equivalent of Switzerland's stock market value so far this year.Their combined market value tumbled by about $US1 trillion by yesterday, exceeding the $US998 billion value of the Swiss market, which is the tenth biggest in the world.And this is just the beginning of the fallout, with economists saying they've experienced nothing like this.The only comparison is with the Great Depression.US regulators are certain to intervene again to restore calm to protect banks as customers worry about their deposits.

Your photos

Send in photos of what you would like to on sell.
Let's see what we can do to help you achieve this goal.

My home is my castle

Owning your own home brings a feeling of security in these difficult and changing times.
At the end of the day it is the place of rest where you can close the door and lock the world out and enjoy the company of your family and friends.
So no matter how humble or how opulent it is your place to 'get away from it all'

Australia's Federal Treasurer's view

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says the Australian economy is strong enough to withstand what he describes as the worst global conditions in 25 years.However, Mr Swan says there is no doubt that the economy is slowing.Speaking ahead of this morning's release of the national account figures for the June quarter, the Treasurer told Lyndal Curtis on ABC Radio's AM program Australia was facing tough global economic circumstances."There's no doubt the economy is slowing and it is slowing on the back of the global credit crunch, it's slowing on the back of the 10 interest rate rises that occurred under the Liberal Party," he said."But the extent of that slowing will only be clear when we see the national accounts today."Mr Swan says Australia cannot escape the effects of the credit crunch but maintains the economy is in a good position."I think it's important to get this into perspective," he said."There is a lot of pessimism around on the back of the global credit crunch and the impact it has had, particularly on global stock markets."But here in Australia we have many advantages over the rest of the world."
Yesterday the Reserve Bank (RBA) cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent to 7 per cent but Mr Swan would not comment on whether there should be another cut in the next few months."What I except responsibility for doing is putting in place a disciplined fiscal policy, an investment for the future that will promote growth in a lower inflationary environment," he said."If we want to get interest rates down over time we've got to get inflation down."

Rules for playing the game

Our property markets are changing and we are moving into a new era, where the rules for property investment are different to what they have been to date.

The way many investors have invested in the past just won't work any more at least for some years to come and perhaps the old way of investing will never return.
The times are changing and we are in a difficult economic climate and may be heading to a much more difficult situation in the coming year. We need to be alert not alarmed.
It's time to educate oneself,take note of lessons learned in the past and adapt them to a new and evolving situation where all the cards have not been played by the major players. It is not a time to react emotionally but to detach, survey what is going on in the economy and form an opinion that can be put into an option for action.

Stay fluid, attentive, market ready, and put together several action plans that can be put into motion when they are necessary.
Keep the assets you have and protect them.

Why interest rates are going down

YOU beauty. Interest rates have been cut and happy days are here again. For good measure, we've even got petrol prices coming down.Sorry, don't be too sure about that. The Reserve Bank has cut its official interest rate only because times are getting tougher. That's the way interest rates work: they go up when times are good and come down when times are bad.
To put it another way, a welter of indicators - for retail sales, the home-building industry, business and consumer confidence, levels of debt owed by households and businesses, and job advertisements - suggest the economy has entered a steep dive. Now the Reserve is cutting interest rates in an attempt to pull it out of its dive. Let's hope it succeeds and we suffer nothing worse than a brief and reasonably painless slowdown.
I have to tell you, however, that its record of success at this point in the business cycle isn't reassuring. Of course, those home buyers confident of holding on to their jobs during what economists euphemistically refer to as a "hard landing" have little to fear. For them the pressure is off.And the likelihood of recession in America, Europe and Japan suggests that weaker demand for oil in the developed world will see petrol prices continuing to fall for some time. interest rate movements are like cockroaches - there's always more than one. It's likely that this cut in the official interest rate will be followed by at least another one, probably as soon as next month. How many we get after that, however, depends on whether the economy continues its rapid slowdown next year.On this the Reserve Bank was at pains to point to the parts of the economy that are still strong: the further leap in the prices we are receiving for our exports of coal and iron ore, and the continued growth in business investment in equipment and construction.Provided the economy is holding up overall, the Reserve will be reluctant to cut rates a lot further. That is because the inflation rate is still well above the desired 2-3 per cent range.But if domestic activity continues its dive, the Reserve will soon stop worrying about inflation, confident that rapidly rising prices and weak demand can't coexist. In this case it will continue cutting interest rates next year, but this would be a sign our luck had finally run out. SMH 2/9/08

Just a beginning

Everyone is looking for a quick fix to their financial
dilemas. What do I need to do to fix my finances?
you say. This is a global issue
affecting the majority of the world's population.
In order to "fix finances" a firm foundation of
everlasting fundamentals need to be in place.

I will give you my take on this very serious issue
facing us all at this point in time as the world
remains in a state of great flux and uncertainty.

Investment opportunities

While the sharemarket has fallen to its lowest level in about two years - share prices of household names like Harvey Norman, Commonwealth Bank and David Jones are down by more than 30% since November 2007 - there are plenty of investment opportunities out there.Let's put it in perspective. Often when we see prices fall, many of us race in to catch a bargain. When it comes to shares we tend to react differently. If the share prices of well-managed, dividend-paying companies fall, we view them with suspicion and fear, when perhaps we should see them as opportunities.Sometimes share prices do fall for a good reason. It's true that when recessions occur, company earnings will decline and some companies will make losses. Does that mean all companies will make losses? And are we about to enter the sort of recession we saw in the early 1980s and again in the early 1990s? We think not.Growth in the Australian economy over the next two or three years may not be as robust as it's been for the past ten years but we believe it will grow. That's because our population is growing, the world needs the products we sell and Australian companies are reinvesting much of their profits back into their businesses.
The populations of our capital cities are unlikely to shrink over the next five years, so the companies that have been profitably supplying their needs for the past fifty years should continue to do so. There's also been a lot of growth in Asia - so they will be buying our resources and adding to economic growth.Let's look back at what happened after the 1987 crash. From the end of 1987 to the end of 1989 the share prices of all the major banks rose by more than 50% - as did BHP, Rio Tinto, Harvey Norman, Coca-Cola, Caltex, Wesfarmers and QBE Insurance. These were household names providing services at a profit. This is what many businesses are doing now and will continue to do in 2009.While it's easy to be gripped with fear, it's important to look at history and at what makes the market tick. Some share prices have fallen for good reasons; others have just fallen when investors became fearful and sold everything. This is when bargains emerge and investment experts work hard to take advantage of them.

Part 2

Until recently, both these nations were low-cost exporters, providing cheap manufactures to the West. In reality, their main export was low inflation as our clothing and electronic goods became ever cheaper.Now they are becoming self-sufficient economies - similar to the US. Their own economies are fuelling their growth and they are becoming less reliant on exports.Tom Albanese, the head of the mining giant Rio Tinto, doesn't exactly see eye to eye with BHP Billiton's chief executive Marius Kloppers on much.But the one thing they do agree on is China. Both see continued strong economic growth for years, and even stronger growth in the appetite for metals.Metals are one thing. The real change being wrought on us is in energy. And it is energy - or rather the cost of energy - that will determine our future.It was energy that started the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago - when we first started burning hydrocarbons in the form of coal. And it was energy, in the form of oil, that sparked the transport revolution a century ago.
You'd have to be blind not to notice what is going on now. It's all over the news, it hits you in the hip pocket every time you pull in at the petrol pump.Pfff, we've had oil price spikes before, I hear you say. But the oil price shocks of the 1970s were caused by an artificial restriction of supply. This time around, the spike is being driven by demand. And if you ask any seasoned oil explorer, even they now talk about peak oil being just a few years off.Peak oil is the point where we are on the downhill run in known supplies. There is still oil out there. But it is in ever deeper water, in more politically unstable areas or in tar sands where the cost of extraction has been so high it has been uneconomic. Some of it will be developed, which will stabilise prices and perhaps even push prices temporarily lower. But supplies are finite and demand is soaring.Think about our energy use in the West. Take an average Australian of a century ago and compare him or her with us in terms of our energy consumption. We've got electricity on tap, 24 hours a day. We ride around in fast fuel-guzzling cars. We leave home and land in Los Angeles in 16 hours.Until recently, several billion Chinese lived as we did a century ago. Imagine their energy demands rising to our levels and you'll quickly figure oil prices aren't going to return to the levels of a year ago.Add to that the damage we are doing to the environment in the form of greenhouse gas emissions and the extra costs of pricing that damage through carbon trading.So is this the ultimate disaster scenario?Not necessarily, according to a recent issue of The Economist. Higher oil prices make alternative energy sources more viable - biofuels, solar and wind power. And if money and expertise are invested in those areas, they will become more efficient, more economic and maybe, just maybe, lead to a bright future. But prepare for a lot of pain along the way. John Edwards

Part 1 2008 a critical year for Australia

The stormclouds are gathering. Our market has plunged below 5000 for the first time in two years, oil prices are soaring, America is in (unofficial) recession and the Reserve Bank is clearly worried about the home front.After years of partying, many believe it's time for the inevitable hangover when gloom and doom replace the exuberant optimism that just a few months ago seemed as though it would never end.But how much of this is just another cyclical downturn and how much of it is related to a more permanent shift?I'm going to go out on a limb here with a couple of bold predictions. I think we are at a pivotal point in history; that we are witnessing the early stages of a massive shift in the global economy, in the balance of power and in the way we live.Australia has become a barometer for these far-reaching changes. We are being pulled in opposite directions as we send vast quantities of resources off to China while a virus that started on Wall Street and spread across the US and Europe has infected our financial system.In years to come, it's quite probable we will look back at 2008 as the year in which everything changed. And most of the changes being wrought upon us relate to energy, our use of it and its cost.There are several powerful forces at work at the moment; some cyclical and some far more fundamental.Let's look at the cyclical ones first. The worst credit squeeze in history is under way. Give it follows the biggest debt binge the world has ever seen, it's not surprising. On top of that we have a recession under way in the US. On their own, those events are not particularly worrying. Markets and economies go up. And then they go down. What is worrying, however, is that in the early stages of a recession, Wall Street's biggest financial institutions already have been forced to go cap in hand to the Middle East and Asia for emergency funding.And that's where we come to the more fundamental and permanent changes at work on the global economy.What is happening in China and, to a lesser extent, India is akin to what occurred in North America in the 19th century. Back then, the balance of economic power shifted from the Old World to the New World. It's happening again now.There are differences - vast differences - in this new shift. Unlike the rise of North America, China and India already have vast populations. And as these populations move rapidly from Third World to First World, they will demand more resources, to live the lifestyle we enjoy. TBC

story by Ian Verrender from the business section of the Age "The Year everything changed"

Not good news with property values falling across Australia

Plummeting property values have prompted warnings Australia is heading for a one in a 100 year slump. New figures from property analyst Residex showed house and unit prices in nearly every city and rural centre fell in June, News Ltd reports. The last time all states fell at the same time was just before the Great Depression. The slump is affecting the top end of the market as well as the lower end.Residex chief executive John Edwards has warned of tough times ahead.
"It looks like we're moving into a one-in-100-year event," Mr Edwards is quoted as saying.
"It points to a situation where unless the government and Reserve Bank take action Australia could move into a recession."The only other times this has ever occurred are before we have moved into severe recessions."The Residex statistics come at the end of a gloomy week for the Australian economy.Official figures released last week showed housing construction fell for a fourth consecutive month and demand for loans declined by a quarter in the four months to the end of May.Higher petrol prices and interest rates, and the share market slump also saw consumer confidence drop 51 per cent to its lowest level since 1992, when the economy was recovering from recession. Mr Edwards said housing markets in different states usually rose and fell at different times.
"To see an adjustment going on a wholesale basis across the whole of the nation is incredibly unusual," he said."Never in my lifetime have I seen so many converging negative events." Residex reports the current median house value in Sydney is $573,000, down 1.05 per cent in June compared with 1.81 per cent for the three months to the end of June.The falls are happening all over Sydney. While property values in Sydney's battler suburbs in the west and southwest have been dropping for some time, homeowners in well-off areas are now being hit.Among the 20 worst-performing suburbs for houses are the wealthy northern enclaves of Whale Beach, Clontarf, Palm Beach, Elanora Heights, Clareville and Mona Vale.
While Plumpton, near Mount Druitt, was the worst-performing suburb, with negative capital growth of 5.74 per cent in the three months to June and 1.96 per cent in June, Whale Beach came in as the third-worst performer, with negative growth of 3.73 per cent and 1.14 per cent, respectively.Maria Cassarino, from Richardson and Wrench Seaforth, which covers the Clontarf area, reported fewer people had attended open houses in recent months."This time last year we were getting 30 people though a property and now we are getting five," she said.While Seaforth usually had low turnover, Ms Cassarino said the types of properties that had sold after four to six weeks were taking much longer.John Gavagna, principal of Residential Real Estate at Mona Vale, said there had been a slowdown in sales of properties over $1 million, as buyers were more cautious.RP Data's director of property research Tim Lawless said what happened in the coming months would depend on inflation.He showed some optimism, although he said values would probably fall further in Sydney this year."Coming into 2009, it's likely - and it depends on what happens with interest rates - we will start to see some value improvements return to the market, albeit relatively small," he said.It's the same story for units, with Casula the worst-performing suburb with negative growth of 1.8 per cent in the three months to June, and 0.55 per cent in June.Suburbs such as Milsons Point, Double Bay and Greenwich are also among the poor performers.And Sydney rents rose 15.29 per cent in the year to June, the biggest jump in the country. The average Sydney rent is $490 a week, a jump of $65 from last year. Article from Ninemsn

Looks like we're in a mortgage recession Australia!

Sales of mortgages continue to fall, prompting Australia's biggest mortgage broker to declare the nation is in a "mortgage recession".Australian Finance Group (AFG) says a count of mortgages brokered by its nationwide network fell sharply in June.The AFG Mortgage Index dropped 9.2 per cent to 5,939 mortgages in the month from in May, the company said.Over the year ended June sales fell 22 per cent, building on a 31.5 per cent fall in the May year.AFG, which has 10 per cent of the broking market, said its data showed that mortgages sales nationally had now had two successive quarters of negative growth.This suggested the market was in "mortgage recession", after sales fell from 23,143 at the end of the December quarter, to 20,543 in the March quarter and to 19,755 in the June quarter."We are calling it a mortgage recession," AFG general manager of sales and operations Mark Hewitt said."Interest rates are higher and the cost of money has risen because of the sub-prime crisis in the US, which has spread to the rest of the world."It means borrowers are really sitting on their hands and holding back in terms of major purchases like buying a home," Mr Hewitt told AAP.The 5,939 mortgages AFG sold in June totalled $2 billion, down from $2.6 billion a year ago.The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has raised interest rates four times since August last year and the official rate now stands at 7.25 per cent, its highest in 12 years. At the same time, the commercial banks have raised their rates independently of the central bank, to offset their higher funding costs.Mr Hewitt said, with the RBA less likely to raise rates again this year, he was hopeful that the decline in mortgage sales had bottomed out."We're hopeful it has bottomed out or very close to bottoming out," he said."We're not forecasting anything but very modest growth over the next 12 months."The AFG data showed also that the average mortgage size increased by 7.5 per cent to $341,000 in June, from $317,000 a year ago.The biggest mortgage increases were in South Australia, which was up 13.5 per cent, and Queensland, up 11.7 per cent.New South Wales followed with mortgage size growth of 7.6 per cent, then Victoria with 6.1 per cent and South Australia with 2.6 per cent. Growth was steady in Western Australia.Mr Hewitt said the overall rise in the average mortgage size reflected bigger loans at the well-heeled end of the mortgage market."The upper end of the market is proving the most resilient - that is, buyers with significant equity in their homes and investment properties," he said."Many people who would normally be taking out smaller or medium size mortgages just can't afford to."AFG's figures showed also fewer people were taking out fixed rate loans, indicating most borrowers thought interest rates are likely to remain steady or fall.The proportion taking fixed loans fell to 11.5 per cent in June, from 13.7 per cent May.Demand for standard variable loans rose to 40.8 per cent, from 39.9 per cent.

Ian Usher

Unlike Ian Usher I am not interested i n selling my life. I am happy with this "work in progress" as I am learning many new things along the way.
The latest study I am undertaking in the field of property development is creating a "Rich life Mindset"
Regardless of what you have whether it's millions or zip, if you have a poverty mindset then thats where you remain.
So, Ian Usher, I ask you a question.
Will you be "wealthy" after you have sold your life or will you still remain poor?

New home sales

HIA chief economist Harley Dale said higher interest rates and rising petrol and grocery prices were affecting housing affordability and "at best" new homes sales would remain flat during 2008-09. The state with the biggest fall in April was Queensland, where new home sales slumped 9.4 per cent. For the three months to April, sales were down 7 per cent and were 14 per cent lower than in the year-ago period.In contrast, West Australian sales jumped 21.8 per cent in April. For the three months to April, WA new home sales were down 11 per cent and were 9 per cent lower than the same period a year earlier.Housing Industry Association WA executive director John Dastlik said it appeared the WA housing market had stabilised. WA's second biggest home builder, Dale Alcock, said falling house and land prices in the past few months had lured back first home buyers.New home sales in NSW eased 0.4 per cent in April and fell 4 per cent for the three months to April, but were 1 per cent higher than a year ago. In South Australia, sales climbed 14.7 per cent in April but were down 5 per cent in the three months to April.

from the Sydney Morning Herald

Bleak outlook for petrol prices.

Leading expert Richard Hindburg has predicted that oil prices will go over $200/barrel in 2 years (I predict much sooner than that) as global oil reserves have already peaked and production will (or already has) started to decline. The only answer to this situation is to redesign the economy to use less oil and allow the use of alternate technologies where oil or any other non renewable resource is not allowed.
But will our money based governments and economies allow such a drastic change to occur?

Job V Investment

Very few millionaires achieve their wealth from savings earned from a high paying job. In fact, it is difficult to get rich from your work. What are they doing that you're not?
The reality is that most millionaires are either investors or business-owners, not employees.
Saving your earnings to reach the $1 million mark is almost impossible. The low rates offered by banks, combined with rising inflation, make saving a poor strategy to reach the seven figure threshold. There is a reason that very few people ever actually save their way to a million dollar net worth.
The millionaire mindset expresses a completely different ideology towards an investment.
Millionaires look for the best possible return with minimal risk, while most investors simply look for the best returns. Wealthy people spend money differently... The millionaire views each and every purchase like an investment. They purchase assets.
Millionaires do work, but not for money. They work on systems, ideas, concepts that can leverage their time.
We all have one thing in common with everyone else... The same amount of time available.
Most people in the seven figure club got there by earning more than they needed to survive for
a number of years, while supplementing their fortune with consistent returns from quality
investments. Remember, the investor can make an infinite amount of money each year by putting money to work.
On the other hand, the employee who "saves money" is left with a job that can only pay so
much per hour and offer so many hours. Your opportunities are slim in the professional
world, but huge profits can be obtained with each investment dollar.
The investor can earn more in a year with a modest retirement portfolio than can be made
with a college education! Furthermore, future growth in earnings by investments is set by you.
Each time you roll your money over year after year, your principal grows, and the yearly
payouts rise as well. Very few professions accommodate for a 12% pay increase year over year.
Ultimately, there's only one solution. You either understand the fundamentals of investing and work towards becoming excellent... Or you can whinge and moan, working for a living for the rest of your life. Be prepared to put your ego aside, admit to yourself that life is not going as well as it should and start investing in your own financial intelligence now.

Will there be another interest rise?

Soaring food and fuel prices and interest rates have forced house hold grocery spending to be cut, the biggest cut in 20 years. Declining retail sales and softening property purchases, weaker credit growth is evidence of demand growth slowing under pressure from the tightest financial conditions in more than a decade. This evidence may be sufficient for the Reserve Bank of Australia Board to leave interest rates on hold. Food prices have soared by 12% in 2 years. The hospitality industry has been hardest hit with sales plunging by almost 6%.

Business visas

China is restricting business visas. The Chinese have been angered by the anti China sentiment from the west over Tibet and in retaliation anti west sentiment amongst the Chinese is growing. Foreign business people have been told that their business visas will expire on July 1, 2008 and as such must leave the country.
How can this impact on the Australian economy?
Taken to extremes if trade with Australia is cut drastically we will have to start relying on our own ingenuity and granted that prices will not be as cheap as products from China but I believe our quality will be superior and we will have a resurgence in new businesses and entrepreneurial projects.

Property prices forcast to rise by 40%

Have you heard of Frank Gelber from a company called BIS
Shrapnel? Probably not but when a developer wants to put
up a 50-storey building or a 200-lot subdivision, they
go toFrank and he does a feasibility study as to whether
it's a smart thing to do or not... Based on a host of data.
The prediction: Property prices forcast to rise by 40%
But at this point you may be wondering as to whether Frank
is on the mark here.Especially when you hear that clearance
rates have dropped by 20% in the last -6 weeks. Past
prediction has been that Interest rates will rise and they
have. Owner-occupiers will be wary and stop bidding and
they have. Owner-occupiers will put their cheque-books back
in their pockets and keep paying the rent... That's what's
happening right now. Vendors selling their homes will have
to consider all offers or take property off the market...
Look out for this.
Rent will explode, especially in Sydney... This is
already taking shape....So with all that said, it is a
great time to be a property investor. Here's why...
The increase of interest rates has put the real estate
market into a holding pattern, which means a lot of
people are sitting on the sidelines, choosing to wait
before they buy or build property.So here the window
of opportunity presents itself to negotiate with
panicing vendors and pick up some hot deals.
So the game is starting to favour the investor.
With rents sky-rocketting, all real estate investors
should start building positions to take advantage of the
next 5-year boom cycle.

The traditional way to build wealth

Building wealth — some people use "get rich quick" schemes others pursue transactions they might otherwise never consider.

To accumulate wealth over time, you need to do three things:

• You need to make it. This means that before you can begin to save or invest, you need to have a long-term source of income that's sufficient enough to have some left over after you've covered your necessities.

• You need to save it. Once you have an income that's enough to cover your basics, you need to develop a proactive savings plan.

• You need to invest it. Once you've set aside a monthly savings goal, you need to invest it prudently.

Are billionaires a breed of their own?

Empire builders like Bill Gates and Sam Walton aren't just great businessmen. They are bona fide revolutionaries.

Self-made billionaires don't dominate industries — they transform them and spawn new ones. That takes more than intelligence, courage and luck. It takes divine-like vision.

Billionaire entrepreneurs are "not working within the confines of the current market," says Gerald Kraines, chief executive of the Levinson Institute, a business consulting firm in Jaffey, New Hampshire. "They're anticipating things much further afield. You have to see spaces that no one else sees."The world's self-made billionaires certainly have vision in spades, spanning everything from how computers work to how people shop. But the ability to see around corners isn't the only quality that separates the very accomplished from the stratospherically wealthy. To crack the US$1 billion barrier, you need total, unwavering belief in your vision — and an immutable will to pull it off. "[Billionaire entrepreneurs] need a deep passion and a point of view about the future," says Peter Skarzynski, chief executive of Strategos, a Chicago-based consulting firm that advises global companies, including Nokia and Whirlpool. "They fundamentally believe that they have a better way to solve a set of problems than how they're being solved now."Billionaires also have a seemingly ravenous appetite for risk. It's hard enough for many of us to muster the courage to abandon our cubicles and start a small company, let alone build an empire. And while the risks pile up as businesses expand, billionaires have a confidence bordering on arrogance that checks their fear and doubt, says Skarzynski. Are you a born billionaire? Before you tackle a serious growth strategy and all its attendant hassles, ask yourself some hard questions at the outset, says executive psychologist Debra Condren, who has worked with big names like 3M, Chevron and Hewlett-Packard. most important one: Why go big at all? Are you looking to cash out in a sale? Enamored of the thought of having your own stock ticker? Suffused with competitive desire? Whatever your reason, get a grip on it before you decide to kick your zealous pursuits into high gear.Next, ask yourself if you are willing to make tough decisions for the growth of your company. If you have an intense loyalty to the small group who helped get things off the ground, understand that those folks may not be able to come along for the ride. If you're not comfortable supplanting (or firing) them, stay small. For entrepreneurs who prize their independence, ask yourselves how much of it you're willing to give up. As the demands mount, both your schedule and decisions become less your own; worse, you may have investors and board members to appease. "It becomes very hard for company founders to accept that they are no longer the real boss," says Carl Robinson, a psychologist who works primarily with growing, middle-market companies. Like holding forth in public? You'd better, because companies of any significant size need a public face. Entrepreneurs who thrive on public performances--weekly meetings, shareholder gripe sessions, even television interviews--have an easier time than those who shun the spotlight. "You need to have the ability to fill a room and inspire people," says Condren. If public speaking isn't your thing, but you're still hankering to grow, find a confident substitute who can sell your story. Not only do you have to be able to communicate, you need a knack for building consensus. In most cases, the bigger your business, the more input you need from those around you — and that means being willing and able to marshal them to your cause. Have a my-way-or-the-highway mentality? Can your growth plans. In the end, chasing billionaire status — and not crashing along the way — is as much about knowing who you are as it is about knowing how to nab new customers or manage inventory. Who knows? Maybe a modest $100 million might be a better fit.

Slump offers bargains for investors

Some unloved stocks are now a third of the price that they deserve to be and the share market rout presents bargains for retail investors and corporate predators, analysts say.Cheap share market valuations have led to strong merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, particularly in the resources sector. The the most recent example is the Lihir Gold/Equigold NL combination announced on Friday, and a takeover bid by Indophil Resources NL for Lion Selection Ltd announced on Thursday."And we're going to be more of this, there is no doubt," said independent analyst Peter Strachan.CopperCo Ltd, which is merging with Mineral Securities Ltd, was a prime example of a company now priced at a third of its value, he said.Mr Strachan said many companies were trading at bargain basement, bottom-of-the-cycle levels."They're probably three to five per cent from the bottom in any continued downward movement, which I think we're going to get," Mr Strachan said."The stocks that stick out are property developers and property trusts, and also financials: the main banks, Suncorp-Metway and ANZ particularly."Those stocks have fallen 50 per cent."I know there will be profit downgrades from the banks ... but I still think, if you take a two or three year views, those stocks are looking particularly cheap."Mr Strachan said oil and gas producers such as Petsec Energy Ltd, Arc Energy Ltd, AWE Ltd and Roc Oil Company Ltd represented extraordinary value."Petsec ... would spit out the same amount of cash as you would pay to buy the company in about 14 months."While not yet producers, oil and gas explorers Otto Energy Ltd and Nexus Energy Ltd were also good value, he said."Any company that's got oil and gas assets, as opposed to undertaking pure exploration, looks cheap."Mr Strachan said the energy sector had lost favour with investors due to a lack of recent exploration success and operational woes at projects including AED's Puffin field and the Anzon Australia Ltd-operated Basker Manta Gummy joint venture.Mr Strachan said a string of high profile dusters - dry wells - included Adelphi Energy Ltd's Sugarloaf project in the United States and others in Mauritania and China's Beibu Gulf.He said some companies servicing the resource sector offered better value than others, with GRD Ltd, RCR Tomlinson Ltd and Monadelphous Group Ltd being the top picks.Among this sector, the most expensive stocks included United Group Ltd, Leighton Holdings Ltd and WorleyParsons Ltd, he added.
He said BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto Ltd, which comprise 20 per cent of the S&P/ASX 200, were highly priced."If Rio goes back to $80 and BHP goes back to $28 to $29, we'll see this market back at 4,800 points, and that's when I'd be looking to pick up some stock."In a research note on Sunday, brokerage DJ Carmichael said the companies that were merging were acquiring targets with large sums of cash."This makes sense in these difficult times of raising debt to build large projects," the brokerage said.
As for future M&A targets, DJ Carmichael singled out Murchison Metals Ltd and Mount Gibson Iron Ore Ltd, as potential targets.Murchison has cash and liquid investments of about $190 million and Mount Gibson, $120 million.
DJ Carmichael also pointed to Troy Resources NL, a 60,000 ounce-a-year gold producer with $80 million in cash and an enterprise value of about $100 million.Not only are companies including Moly Mines Ltd facing deferred project development as financing arrangements become increasingly hard to complete, new floats were drying up, DJ Carmichael resources analyst James Wilson said.While retail investors should be making the most of the current fire sale, they remained averse to risk, Mr Wilson said.There were "bargains galore" to be had, he said.

Investors in the market

Whether or not there's another rate rise or two this year - and the Reserve Bank obviously hasn't made up its mind yet - it'll be relatively short-lived.

In which case investors, attracted by rising rents, might wade into the market.

This will be helped by the fact that Self Managed Super Funds are now allowed to borrow for property so long as they structure it in the same way as an instalment warrant.

Currently, house prices are dropping in the mortgage stress areas of Sydney and Melbourne and the Financial sector is feeling very shaky and uncertain of it's future.

Where are we now?

LYDO Developments
a guide to creating wealth and keeping it.

We are in the last phase of the "Boom" where extreme wealth is transferred from the ignorant to the informed