Year: 2011

Australian and New Zealand Real Estate – Where to?

A quick Q&A regarding my last post. “Jake the truth” mentions that my thinking might be representative of a contrarian indicator. I prefer not to bother myself with who is saying what, why and when, until and unless I’ve reviewed the data first. In this respect I have a number

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Why Not to Buy Your Own Home!

Home ownership is the most popular religion of the 21st century. It’s even more popular than stupidity and that’s saying something. If you wish to become a pariah amongst your fellow natives simply tell them that owning a home is not an investment, then tell them it’s potentially one of

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Diaspora

My childhood years were misspent in Southern Africa where since ancient times (1960’s), prior to gracing my parents with my presence, the educated, ambitious and most talented often left the region for markets such as the UK, Europe and to a lesser extent the US. There were many who took

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Ideas are Just a Multiplier of Execution

A good friend of mine met up with Derek Sivers in Singapore earlier this year and instantly turned around and said to me, “Chris you need to meet Derek, he’s completely on your wavelength and you’ll get on well.” In 1998 Derek founded CDBaby.com with $500 and sold the business

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The Next Bubble to Burst – Student Loans

Scott is entering his senior year at a university in Boston, majoring in Business Administration and Finance. He is looking to enter the hedge fund industry after graduating. I first met, and was impressed by Scott due to a proactive, value driven approach he has adopted to secure employment after graduating

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Random Lessons Learnt So Far…

Life is nothing but a great adventure. I’d like to share a cadre of things I’ve learned along the way.  I hope I learn a lot more… Give good people a chance but don’t be cavalier about who you provide your value to. There’s no sacred ground here. If people

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Betting on Cornered Cats

Early stage companies are always going to have upsets. Financing falls over at the 11th hour, a software glitch puts their entire launch in jeopardy, biological waste is dumped on their doorstep, resignation of a director, fraud and theft from within the company (yep, been there), a new government regulation alters the

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Direct Democracy Is The Way To Go

That we live in both exciting and dangerous times should be obvious to anyone not living under a rock. London’s cities are on fire, Europe teeters, Japan manipulates, intervenes, and the US…well the thugs now investigate S&P. Not that I care for S&P but its amusing nonetheless. Downgrade, how dare they! Politics

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