patches

It's been a while since I posted in this thread. Probably because I spend all my fun-money on woodworking tool related purchases... that was until this weekend, when I finally bought something bike related... another pair of FiveTens (that makes this my 9th pair over the years 😶) FiveTen Trailcross LT's

Just finished: The Diplomat - Season 3 Slow Horses - Season 5 Currently watching: House of Guinness - Season 1 : Gritty family drama, set around the transition of power within the [you guessed it] Guinness family. Countdown - Season 1 Easy watching cop/FBI style show where a task force saves the world, Nothing amazing, but kills time while I commute to work On the watch list: Down Cemetery Road

I started watching it on a flight and was hooked. Don't know if it was the fact that I work in a hospital (and on occasion with ED doctors and nurses) so found this fascinating (the true-to-life as well as the dramatic/creative license) or just the jetlag but I needed to finish, so ended up binge watching the remaining 10 episodes right through the night. Paid for it the next day though 😅

When you fall victim to the "I don't know what I need this for, but it's such a good deal"... An unused old stock Mitutoyo depth gauge I picked up for around 500 ZARs. The going rate is about 10x that. Other recent-ish additions include: A pair of Knipex Cobras and a Pliers-Wrench A Wiha "electricians hammer". (I was looking for a nice compact rip-claw hammer for the odds-and-ends tool kit)

Fortunately no Stamp Duty in New Zealand. That, combined with the fact that there's no capital gains tax in NZ, is what makes property investment so popular here. We do still have all the conveyancing costs and that though, but the cash contribution the bank gives usually covers that (e.g. approx. $9,000 cash on a circa $1M loan). In Aus you have negative gearing though, so that's a win for you. Here one can only offset investment property expenses (maintenance, interest, etc) against the rental income itself, not one's total income. As for liquidity, I hear ya! We were worried about that too. We could have taken a smaller mortgage, but exhausted our savings. We chose to borrow more, but have that rainy day fund. We also have wiggle room to relax the repayments on our own home if needs be. The advice we've heard over-and-over is "pay your own home down as fast as possible, and go minimum payments on the investment". And yeah, I can second that single storey train of thought. Both the multi-level units we were keen on buying has issues that would have been very costly to fix. We ended up with a 1970s single storey brick & tile unit with a single garage and a bit of garden, in a decent area with good school zones (very important to Kiwis, haha). Could have got a new build for less, but they have very little land, and the land is what actually appreciates over time. RE: Geezerhood plans, that's pretty much what my in-laws did. Bought an apartment as an investment 20yrs ago in a really nice part of North Sydney. When they retired a few years ago, they sold the family home, bought an acreage in the countryside and use the apartment as a 2nd "convenience home" when they need to spend time in the city, or babysit grandkids. So they've essentially downsized and upsized at the same time

Don't worry, we're in the same boat. Refixed our home mortgage, and took out a new mortgage (for a rental property), all at the beginning of the month, so it dropped about 0.3% since then. Not worth the break fee though. As for buying, now is a pretty good time. Better stock is coming on the market, but it hasn't quite started to pickup yet, so prices are reasonable. Interest rates are a lot better than they were 12 months ago. Rental market is down, but the right property will still get tenants. We managed to get tenants within 1 week at 10% above the rental appraisal, so it's not all bad.

One of my colleagues has a few commercial investment properties (along with a residential or 2). Like you say, the yield on them can be great. Additionally, the agreements typically put more on the tenants (like rates, maintenance etc). I did consider going this route, but I don't know enough about the commercial market, especially whether the capital gains are decent or not. My plan was for a 15-20yr investment (i.e. sell to top up my retirement savings). Yeah, for a straight up cash investment (particularly under 10yrs) an investment property is not the best bet. As mentioned above, we've done it for the long haul, plus no cash was required (although we did pay the deposit with savings, even though we didn't need to). With about 60% equity in our own home, we had the leverage, so we figured we'd make that work for us. A former colleague (and current CFO of another organisation) once put it this way. One can save $200,000 and invest it in funds, shares, etc... but the growth is still on $200,000. Or, one can invest in property where the bank will top up the investment to $1M, and the investor can benefit from the growth on that. Yes, the bank wants their pound of flesh (i.e. interest), but the gains are still worth it. Plus banks generally won't lend $800,000 against $200,000 to buy shares or invest in funds. (And when it comes to leveraging equity, the bank will give you the whole $1M, no deposit required). I'm no mathematician, but some rough figures: Again, this is the rough idea. It may not account for all expenses on the property side, but at the same time, it doesn't account for capital gains tax on the investment side (which currently doesn't apply to property, but I bet in 20yrs time there will be a CGT on investment properties). Anyway, the basic idea is there... make the bank's money work for you. Disclaimer: patches is NOT an registered financial adviser or authorised services provider, but just some fool doing Excel sums, and his sums probably need checking 😅

Decided to up my mobile setup with a new tool bag. I have a number of tool boxes and cabinets etc split into various disciplines (e.g. builders work, woodwork, bike mechanic etc), but the purpose of this one is a light, easy access "do most stuff" type kit. It's pretty convenient when handymanning over at the rental or helping friends out with odds and ends. Also stackable on many of my other tool boxes and dolly or dust extractor for wheeling around the place (the above is just an example stack, but even includes a table saw)

After many months in my Amazon shopping cart, I finally pulled the trigger on a little Wera Zyklop set. Whilst it overlaps largely with the Tool Check in function, I got it as more of an alternate option to a ratcheting screwdriver. Has 1/4" hex and 3/8" square drive. The 12x 1/4" bits are stored in the handle The head pivots and ratchets Great little piece of kit!

My wife grew up in Frenchs Forrest, haha! As for commuting though, if your step-daughter moves somewhere on the metro line... that's first prize! 🤩 The Sydney Metro is amazing! Currently 52km+ of new rail. Six new architecturally astounding stations, drastic reductions in commute times, a new harbour crossing... and all built in less time than Auckland has been stuffing around with the CRL 😐

In order to justify a recent splurchase (for which I am still in the dog-box 😐), I've been working on an outdoor play kitchen for the little one. A relaxing Sunday afternoon with the little Festool portable table saw, out on the back deck. Worked a treat (especially the sliding table) when it came to making the door panels for the outdoor play kitchen (still under construction as seen below).

You're right, suspiciously quiet here! Plus I was rude and missed Wayne's question about how a recent Melbourne trip was Riding... sadly no. My bikes are so dusty and lonely. I may even have forgotten how to ride a bike 😅 Most weekends are taken up with kids parties or house hunting (which is painful at the best of times, but extra tricky when dragging a toddler along, or trying to visit open homes around her nap times). A recent trip to Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula did have me considering a change of scenery. As much as I never feel "cool enough" for Melbourne, we had a great time in the city and noticed those extra features it has... ...it's still no South Island though, haha!

@Wayne Potgieter, great bumping into you at in the Koru lounge!

Just finished watching Landman. Really enjoyed it and very binge-worthy!

Also enjoyed Dark Matter. Just the right amount of "thinky" for me. Enough to have questions, but not leave one totally thinking "Wait What?!" like Tenet did 😅 Seen some clips and as a Taylor Sheridan fan, this is right up on my list as soon as I finish Silo (which should be on my commute home this afternoon, haha)