What To Read This Weekend Part 2
Here I am again with some articles for you to read this weekend!
This is actually fun to do, as I’ve always wanted to read a bit more current articles, but have always just been too distracted by scrolling my Instagram feed.
So finding articles to list here makes me read them, and expand my knowledge too.
Anyway, first up we have another great money column by the one and only Frances Cook:
Money Answers: Can I do a reverse Bank of Mum and Dad?
In this particular piece Frances discusses the idea of adult children helping their elderly parents pay off their mortgage to help their finances in retirement.
She raises interesting points, the most important one being open and honest discussion with ALL the family members, not just between the person doing the paying off mortgage, but also their siblings who might have an interest to the property their parents own.
“Less money sloshing around”: What 8% test rates mean for the housing market
You may or may not have hear that the Official Cash Rate (OCR) went up again from 3% to 3.5%.
Official Cash Rate is the interest rate that banks have to pay to the reserve bank to borrow money. This increase in cost to the bank is transferred to us, in the way of higher interest rates when we want to borrow money.
(On the flip side it also means higher interest rates on savings accounts, yay! But still not as high as mortgage rates for example.)
So increase in the OCR means increase in the mortgage rates offered, and therefore increases in the “stress test rate” banks use when they determine if you can afford your mortgage.
Stress test rate is simply a higher interest rate the banks use to calculate if you can afford to pay your mortgage IF the interest rates go up from the current ones.
This article discusses the latest increase in the OCR and how it will affect the mortgage market.
Lotto nightmare: Inside Australian tradie’s $22 million NZ Powerball win
I find stories of lotto winners interesting, and here is another one that is a bit sad, and just proves that having lots of money doesn’t necessarily mean that your life turns out great.
Chance meeting that brought down Melissa Caddick’s multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme
A while back, in late 2020 actually, I was following this story of a lady who had committed a fraud and was investigated by ASIC (The Australian Securities and Investments Commission), but then disappeared soon after the investigation started.
3 months after she went missing they found her shoe with her foot still in it. She is assumed dead I believe at this stage.
It is a quite an interesting story and goes to show how careful you need to be in the financial world and do your absolute due diligence before investing any money with anybody.
This lady had been using someone else’s real Australian Financial Services Licence number to seem more legitimate.
There is quite a bit to this story beyond this article, if you have time I recommend reading a bit more if true crime is of interest to you!
Have you seen an interesting story or a headline this past week? I would love it if you could share it with me in the comments!
