Reading Time: 2 Minutes What’s up lock down people! Been a while, for which I offer my humble apologies. Unfortunately, we’ve had a personal setback relating to a close family member during this time, coupled with MiniFrugalSamurai being ever so cheeky – has meant many things have taken a backburner. But not investing! Been dabbling a bit here and there recently. Mainly in the stock market and crypto space. It’s going… OK to tell the truth. But not as OK as a friend of mine who shall remain nameless. Kevin, oh I mean, he-who-shall-not-be-named, was exposed recently as the owner of this: W T F ..read more

Reading Time: 3 Minutes Sorry, sorry – I know I’ve said that I’ll get back on the blogging horse buuuuut things have been a bit crazy at the moment. Not only is Old Sydney Town in the midst of an intense lockdown, we’ve also had to juggle multiple professional and personal thingymajiggys. But that’s no excuse right! Funnily enough, the blog has seen a substantial increase of new readers whilst I’ve been away… so um… maybe I should not post more? To all the new members and readers – WELCOME! So today, I wanted to do something which I haven’t done for a while, and that’s to introduce another spe ..read more

Reading Time: 2 Minutes Hello everyone! Gosh, it feels so long since I’ve clickity clackity-ed on a blog post buuuuuut… I’m back! Been a full two months since the last one, and as I’ve read somewhere that it takes about 66 days for a new habit to form – I didn’t want to lose my writer’s touch. Mind you, it’s not such a bad time to get back into writing – as today is day 1 of ANOTHER lockdown in Old Sydney Town. Sigh, this nasty COVID business just won’t go away eh? Kinda like a nasty bug you can’t shake off when you have the er, flu. Anyhow, what have I been up to in the last 2 months you ask ..read more

Reading Time: 2 Minutes Howdy everyone! Apologies for being AWOL but some BIG news – we have a new addition to the family! Please welcome… MINIFRUGALSAMURAI. Dem cheeks! Ain’t he cute? Just like his old man haw haw. Suffice to say, MrsFrugalSamurai and I are run off our FEET (explains my AWOLness). I love it though. Honestly speaking, I think that there is nothing more special than to raise another human life. It’s given me a new sense of purpose and y’know what – puts a lot of things in perspective. Truly, when they say that family is number one – they were referring to your own kids. Raising ..read more

Reading Time: 3 Minutes “And SOLD, to the young woman in green”. “BANG” goes the gavel, as it comes crashing down… to the applause of the crowd. Yep. You guessed it. It’s another bumper auction result from what is Sydney, nay Australia’s biggest past-time. That is, having a sticky-beak at your neighbour’s property auction. This time, the property in question was a street over from ours. But First, To Set The Scene. MrsFrugalSamurai and I had viewed this one at it’s first mid-week open about 3 weeks ago. It was a standard 3 bed/2 bath/1 car on a sloping block, freshly landscaped and renovated ..read more

Reading Time: 2 Minutes A couple of days ago I celebrated my Birthday. It wasn’t a milestone age or anything like that – just one of those humble, hardworking numbers you have to get past in order to reach a milestone. However it did remind me that I am well and truly in my 30’s, and approaching the period of one’s life where things start to become a bit tricky. You know, where you start to enter “middle age” and the next phase of your life. Strewth! Where does time fly eh! Ever the sentimentalist, I’ve been searching far and wide for some guidance regarding how to navigate this delicate perio ..read more

Reading Time: 2 Minutes Gosh, has it really been over 12 months since an unseen, unheard, unknown virus caused never-before-experienced levels of panic and terror? It has. It now seems oh so long ago but 2020 will forever be remembered as the year in which the world, as we know it – changed. Mask wearing, travel bans, working from home – these phrases all entered our colloquial mainstream. I thought it best to revisit some of the lessons which I have learnt from those turbulent days of March and April 2020, more so as a reminder for myself than anything else. In no particular order, here goes ..read more

Reading Time: 2 Minutes Strewth! What a few days it’s been. I hope everyone’s been staying safe and under cover during these intense rainstorms. Yours truly was caught out when I went to grab some Vietnamese beef noodles for MrsFrugalSamurai – because she “wanted it, so there”. Lucky I know how to swim. The things we do for love. Speaking of, Sydneysiders love for all things property seems to be back in vogue. I read this morning that our property market is absolutely dominating right now. I read this too. Or at least auction clearance rates are, with this weekend marking the 7th in a row wher ..read more

Reading Time: 2 Minutes Hello all! Some of you have commented on the fact that I’ve not been posting much regarding our own investment journey lately. Have we slowed down our buying journey? Yes. Have we slowed down our investment journey? A resounding no. Now regarding the first point, I am fully aware of this, but the reason is simple. The reason we have slowed down our buying journey is that frankly, I don’t see any value where it makes sense to buy anything. Don’t confuse activity with productivity has been one of my biggest takeaways on this journey. Property values are at all time highs ..read more

Reading Time: 3 Minutes Recently I was perusing the required reading material that is the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter. If you don’t know what this is – basically it’s the shareholder letter Warren Buffet writes each year since 1977. Every year it’s a hot topic of debate and there’s gems a-plenty. This time, he discusses a lot about his mistakes which I think makes him unique in the market – in that he talks more about his failures than his successes. Editor’s Note: Incidentally I never trust a person who only talks about their wins, never their losses/learns. Anyone who has been investing ..read more