Mayor4Unley

Here are highlights from Unley's draft budget. See the following 2 links for more information ... Read Mike's comments Read Don's comments Why the link to the commentary by Councillors Mike Hudson and Don Palmer? There's no point to repeating what they have already said. However, I am still annoyed by the successful push by Councillor Michael Hewitson to jack up the rates by a further 0.3% to partially pay for increased landfill dumping fees for recycle waste. I still maintain that the only responsible way to cater for an unknown extra dumping fee (by my estimate to be $250k) is to cancel the Tour Down Under Gourmet Gala and race start that costs a whopping $275k pa. Written and authorised by Bob Schnell, 10 Halmon Avenue, Everard Park 5035

There's so much buzz about Bitcoin and other crypto currencies. So much envy about those making an absolute killing on the crypto currency market. There's so much ups and downs. So much desire to get some of the action. But is it too late or do we just wait a bit and then buy in. To compound the situation, there are approximately 1,300 crypto coins and the reality is that most will become zombie coins; so we need to choose carefully with a huge helping of luck. Yes, there will be winners in the crypto space. However, it may not be Bitcoin; despite being the first. But what would I know? To put crypto currency into perspective and to do a bit of a reality check, here's a monkey story to ponder ... A lot of monkeys lived near a village. One day a merchant came to the village to buy these monkeys! He announced that he will buy the monkeys @ $100 each.  The villagers thought that this man is mad.  They thought how can somebody buy stray monkeys at $100 e...

Each week I receive multiple phone calls from scammers. And they get an earful of abuse before I hang up. They are absolute scum; modern day thieves. The banks are concerned and regularly send out warnings. Here's an extract of a recent communication from a bank ... ... The scam involves a caller posing as an employee of a large telco, utility provider or computer company. The caller will usually advise they are calling you because your PC has malicious software, help is needed to catch a criminal, or to recover an outstanding debt owed to a government body. Callers may become quite aggressive, or threaten you with prosecution, if you do not comply with their request. We strongly recommend you simply hang up if you receive this type of call. If you believe the call was legitimate, we recommend you return the call to the company on a trusted number found in the yellow pages or on the company's website. How this type of scam works: The caller will gene...

Recently I had a solar system installed. The cost of electricity just keeps on going up; so it was time. I did the sums and payback will be 4-5 years; maybe less with future higher electricity cost (especially in SA). Choosing the vendor and installer was pursued over 2 weeks. I listened to the lies and fantasy forecasts and then made a decision on who I felt was best; and then negotiated a bit of a discount. I had my heart set on also installing a battery system eg. the Tesla 6.4kWh battery. No matter the brand, a battery just does not make financial sense; not yet. In the case of the Tesla, it would have cost ~ $10k with a warranty and effective life of 10 years and only provided $6k savings ie. over 10 years I would have lost $4k and the batteries would need to be replaced to give another 10 years life. The cost of batteries is reducing by 14% pa so by my reckoning, adding a battery (with more capacity) will be a better financial proposition in about 3 years. If you want...

Investing a small (extra) amount each week in Super yields a high reward later in life. An example is by a abstaining from one glass of wine (or 2-3 coffees) each week will over 35 years add $50,000 to your Super account. A sobering thought. Imagine if you gave up a little bit of all our extras in life. Then again it relies on the discipline of making a regular extra contribution to Super. According to an article ... It’s a sobering thought that skipping just one glass of wine per week could add almost $50,000 to your retirement fund balance over the long term. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has calculated that if the cost of a glass of wine (an average of $10) was channelled back into a superannuation savings account as a regular, after-tax monthly contribution over a 35-year period, this would add an extra $48,033 to your retirement cash pile. Read the article

Australians lose $45 million to scams in 2015 !!! It is amazing that this year (and so far only over 6 months) Australians have been conned and scammed to the tune of $45 million. That’ll probably grow to $90 million over 12 months. How can people be so stupid? Easily, if they believe in getting a huge reward for nothing. Beware of that person in Nigeria who needs help to transfer funds and if you’re into Internet dating and your new love gets into financial difficulty, then send nothing except an introduction to the scammer in Nigeria. According to The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) … ‘Scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their attempts to get your money or personal details. Scams succeed because they look like the real thing and catch you off guard when you’re not expecting it. Our new Scamwatch website , which is being launched today, has all the latest news and tips to help you identify and avoid scams. By following the advice ...