Help me to Retire

I recently purchased an Apple iBook Mac laptop to let myself be more mobile around the home with my wireless network and when out and about and traveling. The problem I came across after purchasing this was the lack of software support for Mac’s in the Charting area. I tried running my PC charting packages on my new laptop via Virtual PC, but it was so slow and kind of defeated the idea of getting a Mac in the first place.

So after a bit of searching around I came across Trade Strategist. This charting package was built from the ground up for Mac’s.

It features:

• Can use downloaded stock data, with no fees or subscriptions
• Access to non-US stock data
• Access to free Foreign Exchange rate data
• Calculates around 40 basic functions and indicators and 40 advanced ones
• Export data to other applications, such as spreadsheets
• Combine functions and indicators into trading strategies
• Runs backtests for multiple strategies and stocks together
• Generate signals from strategies to guide real-life trading

This is a great product for all you Mac users out their I definetly recommend it. So whats it cost I hear you say? $67 for the Pro version and $40 for the Standard version with no ongoing costs and online support. Pretty damn cheap as compared to most others!
Check it out.

The answer, is actually less than you might think. A million dollars just doesn’t go as far as it used to.

I’m sure you’ve often thought to yourself, if I just had a million dollars I’d buy the house of my dreams. A huge mansion on the beach with 20 rooms etc… Well, in some parts of the world this dream is still very doable, but in many of the worlds most popular cities you might have to settle for a 1 bedroom apartment!

Personally, I like the look of the Central and South American offerings. Ocean views, my own swimming pool, and of course the maids residence.

Any way you can check out just what 1 Million $US will buy you around the world over at forbes.com.

Check it out in Pictures or the Video.

This question remained in a state of confusion, mystery and frustration for me for several years.
Just like most new people to the world of property investing I didn’t even consider structure when I bought my first property. It was just put in Joint tenants, 50/50 mine and my wifes. Years later when I sold this piece of land it cost us thousands of dollars in extra capital gains tax due to the lack of structure set up. Also at risk during the whole time I owned this property was everything my wife and I owned. If we had have been sued for something happening on our investment property, everything we owned would have been up for grabs as we had no asset protection with the property in our own names.

As I’ve outlined above, the 2 main advantages of setting up a structure for your property investing and not putting them in your own name are:

1. Tax benefits
2. Asset Protection

So when I say structure, what do I mean and what types of structures are available?
This is originally where I got confused, and it is still very easy to get confused as you will be told many different ways by different people. Basically the structure options that are available are:

• Company
• Trusts (there are dozens of types)
• Discretionary (Family Trust)
• Unit Trust
• Hybrid Trust (A cross between the above 2)
• Self Managed Superannuation Fund

With a Company, you pay a flat rate of tax of 30%. It offers some asset protection, but losses such as negative gearing are trapped in the company and cannot be claimed by the individuals. You also miss out on the 50% capital gains tax discount after 12 months.

Self Managed Superannuation Funds are a type of trust that are very usable in property investing, but I’ll go more into detail with them another time.
Trusts: A discretionary or family trust also trap losses in the trust not allowing you to claim negative gearing.
A unit trust I believe allows you to claim negative gearing but is not flexible in the way you can disperse income like a discretionary trust.

This brings us to the Hybrid Trust. But not just any Hybrid Trust, the trust that took me all these years to find and locate and one I actually purchased and am using is called strangely enough the Property Investors Trust. It is a Hybrid trust that allows you to claim your negative gearing and also disperse any profits to whom ever you like within your family, either by blood or marriage relations. The trust also does not expire in 70 years like many other trusts. This trust is built from the ground up for property investing.
In Australia there is one place that sells it as they set it up and copyrighted it. You can get yours from Chan and Naylor Accountants. The cost isn’t cheap ($1700), but over many years will save you thousands of dollars. To become a Chan and Naylor customer you must also first complete their financial health check assessment ($395) to see where you are and to create a plan for your future. I found that very worth while and exciting!

For better asset protection, you may find you are recommended to create a company to be trustee for your trust, this will add another $1085 to your bill, but may save you everything you own in the future.

After speaking with Chan and Naylor they may recommend something else for you, but the above is what I ended up with, and if your only doing property investing, you will probably end up with the same structure.

Remember, you need to set up your structure before you start acquiring property as it is expensive to move ownership of properties later. If you already have investment properties in your own names, don’t worry, just speak to the guys at Chan and Naylor.
I hope this has saved you several years of confusion. Head on over to Chan and Naylor’s website for more information.

This list has been compiled by Colin Twiggs from Incredible Charts.

They are the top ten trading books that have influenced him in his life so far. Some are serious reference books, while others are narratives recording a persons trading experiences.

Here they are:

1. Stan Weinstein: Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets
2. Mark Douglas: Trading in the Zone
3. Alexander Elder: Trading For A Living
4. Edwin Lefevre: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
5. Thomas Bulkowski: Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns
6. Thomas Dorsey: Point & Figure Charting
7. Nicolas Darvas: How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market
8. Jack Schwager: Schwager on Futures - Technical Analysis
9. John J Murphy: Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets
10. Edwards & Magee: Technical Analysis of Stock Trends
11. Van Tharp’s Trade your Way to Financial Freedom - New version out soon!

Colin Twiggs has reviewed all these books over at The MoneyBags.com.au site, where of course you can part with your beloved money and purchase all these books on line.

So go on, get reading!

Wise Owl is yet another company that provides investment advise on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Wise Owl Provides:

• Every Sunday, you get at least two equities recommendations for the week.
• These are accompanied by a concise strategic summary.
• You also receive more detailed information such as insights into the Quantitative and Fundamental Analyses behind each recommendation.
• If you want even more, you can also access Wise Owl’s Technical Analysis information, as well as Open and Closed Portfolios which you can use as a trading tool.
• Underlying all of the above are risk management strategies to maximise your sustainable, long-term wealth creation.

Prices for a yearly subscription to Wise Owl start at $790 a year.

For Christmas if you sign up for the free 2 week trail of their equities report you are put in the draw to win a Veuve Clicquot travel pack, a Panasonic Plasma TV, or a delicious Xmas hamper. One lucky person will also win a day learning the secrets to success in the markets with Senior Analyst at wise-owl.com, Phillip Shamieh.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over and sign up for this great offer. 

Can a successful business be started up and made profitable with only $100? This is the question that an aspiring entrepreneur Carolynn Duncan is finding out.

For the month of December, Carolynn will be testing concepts she’s been learning in her entrepreneurship class, as well as from her local business community.

Limits of her Experiment

A budget of $100, 30 days, and she must go to sleep by around midnight every night.

Minimum Goal

Set up a well functioning business, pay all business/personal expenses for the month, and make at least $100 back in order to (possibly) start a next Hundred Dollar Business in January.

Core Business Ideas to Test

1. Networking
2. Negotiating
3. Money Is The Last Thing Needed to Start a Business
4. Be smart
5. Be focused
6. Keep it balanced
7. Franchise the business
8. Be Resourceful
9. Get Around Obstacles
10. Think Virally

The above is a great list to use for any business.
To read more on this experiment, check out her site.

If you open a CFD trading account with CMC Markets before the 22nd of December you will be gifted with $1782.00 worth of free training CD-ROMs.

What do these CD’s  cover i hear you say?

• Trading Australian Share CFDs
• Technical Analysis
• Short Term Trading Strategies
• Psychology of Trading
• Foreign Exchange CFDs
• Trading International Share CFDs

The 6 CD ROMs will give you over 20 hours of information regarding CFDs and contains full course notes on each topic covered.

This is a great opportunity to get yourself into the markets and get a free education that you can refer to anytime you need. If you already have an account with them, get a friend or relative to sign up. It’s a $1000 minimum account opening deposit.
Remember you can take your cash back out at any time you want.

Check out the offer here.

Investors Direct was started by Bill Zheng in 2001. They are primarily mortgage brokers, but specialise in only providing finance to property investors and developers. They do not provide finance for home buyers (live in).

Investors direct can help you in these areas:

• Financial Strategies
• Application Approval
• Loan Processing
• Re-Financing
• First Time Investors
• Experienced Investors
• Property Developers

The one thing I found that was great with these guys is when you first contact them you provide them with all your current financial details and then they have a meeting with you either face to face or over the phone. The meeting isn’t just for telling you what you can borrow etc, they go right into what you want to achieve with your property investing and help you plan how to do it with finance.

Investors Direct are also the only company in Australia able to bring you the Cash Flow Mortgage. This mortgage basically allows you to captialise some of you interest over the first few years back onto your loan so you can afford to own high growth low yielding property. And with high growth property the idea is that the growth in your property over the next few years will far out weigh the differed interest. This loan is available for Full Doc and Low Doc.
The loan is explained in much more detail at this web site: http://www.cashflowmortgage.com.au/
I highly recommend you check this mortgage out. If you are struggling with a negatively geared property, this mortgage could be your life line to able you to keep your investment and not have to sell.

Investors Direct also offer a mentoring program, monthly seminars and a free monthly newsletter with great articles that you should defiinetly sign up for. Click here for all the details.

These guys can help you take your investing via finance to the next level!