Hooray!! Cheap fuel!!!

Well, cheaper than a few weeks ago when the cost of petrol was about 150 cents per litre.

I pulled up to my local petrol station to get some petrol into the car, and I had a feeling that I haven't felt in a few years. It was like an old friend visiting and saying "Hello, I haven't see you a while. I hope that I can stay for a few months."

My service station was selling petrol at 102 cents per litre. This is the cheapest petrol I have purchased in the last few years.

Actually, there is not much point to this article except that strange deja vu feeling of living in an era where petrol was less than a dollar a litre. Hooray for cheap fuel!!.

Now where is that jerry can....

Talk About Debt

I recently received an email from Matt, the editor of TalkAboutDebt, bringing my attention to a UK based website call www.TalkAboutDebt.co.uk. I like the title as it encourage people who are in the debt to start talking about their problems. So I had a better look at it.

TalkAboutDebt is run by a group of bloggers who have, in the past, been in debt and are able to provide some dialogue about their debt experience.

It is good to talk about your problems as it allow the problems to be acknowledge and then for it to be tackled. TalkAboutDebt provides a forum, in their "Questions and Answers" page, which your debt problems can be discussed. By using the forum for the discussions, your anonymity is retained.

The thing to watch out for with TalkAboutDebt is that the advice provide is generally only useful for UK based debt.

It has a page where it lists a range of companies that are able to provide you with profession advice on getting out of debt. Most of the companies feature provide a free financial planning service to help you get out debt.

As with most information on the internet, beware of the information that you received, and double check it against another source. However, from what I can read information on TalkAboutDebt, it appears to be sensible and logical.

In summary, TalkAboutDebt provides another source of information, however, just beaware of the information that you received or read on it.

Fixing our interest rate - a retrospective

Back in February this year, we fixed our home loan interest rate for the the next four years. Now that we are coming up to the one year anniversary, and falling interest rate. It is interesting to find out if we have made the correct decision.

One of the things that fixed interest rate gave us was a peace of mind. Like the many mums and dads out there, I don't really have a clue on which way the interest rate is going. At the time when we fixed the interest rate, it was on the way up. Looking back on it, it pretty much hit the top and is starting to plateau. However, we missed about two interest rate increases. Furthermore, the fixed interest rate gave my wife and I a peace of mind and some certainty on what our monthly mortgage payment is going to.

Now that interest rates are on their way down, we are considering re-negotiating a new loan. However, among the fees that the new loan will incur is an re-establishment fee, which will be about $600 to $700 and mortgage insurance if the new loan amount is more than 80% of the loan (a few thousand dollars). A calculation will need to be made to determine how much will be save and the saving will begin when the fees are taken into account.

During the reconsideration of the new loan, we are not going to limit ourself to our current bank. Perhaps we should consult a mortgage broker to see if they can secure a loan with a low cost.

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Movember 2008

Hi All,

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'm growing a Mo. That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about tackling men's health issues and being proactive in the fight against men's depression and prostate cancer.

To donate to my Mo you can either:

• Click this link and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account

• Write a cheque payable to 'Movember Foundation', referencing my Registration Number 1608361 and mailing it to:

Movember Foundation
PO Box 292
Prahran VIC 3181

Remember, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.

The money raised by Movember is used to raise awareness of men's health issues and donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative. The PCFA and beyondblue will use the funds to fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and depression.

Did you know:

• Depression affects 1 in 6 men....most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
• Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who will die from breast cancer annually.
  

Imagine if one of these men could be your father, your brother or your son.

For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the details at Fund Raising Outcomes.

Movember culminates at the end of month Gala Partés. If you would like to be part of this great night you'll need to purchase a ticket. The ticket can be purchased at Gala Tickets.

Thanks for your support.

More information is available at http://www.movember.com/.
Remember to make your online donation via this link: Donation

Movember is proudly grown by Holden and Schick.
Movember is proud partners with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative.

Where to go for the freebies?

What could be better than getting something for free? I would certainly would want it, but where do you find all these free things? Doing a Google search with the keyword freebie brings up 7.9million hits.I have come cross three place that. Some of the hits only provide links to promotions like "get a Free iPod if you click on this advert, and then only if you and then of your fiends sign up for an online survey and ....blah blah..", I think you know what I mean.

Having said that, I have three sites that are has quite reliable information about freebies, what to do and where to go etc.

The Freebies Blog - This is my favourite in getting what is going for free. What I like about it is that it also has pictures of the freebies received.
BuckScoop Forum - BuckScoop has a forum for freebies. This is good as it is a forum and many users would provide feedback on how good the freebie is. This Crispy Creme freebie is a good one, stirs out the patriotic blood. :-)
Whirlpool Forum - Whirlpool also has a forum of freebies. Similar to the BuckScoop foum, it has reader feedback, however it does not appear to as active as BuckScoop's forum.

The two forum sites are mainly focused on Australian Freebies, while The Freebies Blog are mainly Australian and American.

Does anyone else know anymore of these sites?

The twin's mums just lost an unreasonable case.

A few months ago, I wrote an article about the parents of an IVF twins suing their obstetrician for implanting two embryos instead of one, causing a set of twins to be born.

Well, the case has been settled in favour of the defendant. This article from The Age has some details on the case.

Apart from the ridiculous amount money being sued for, the following quote stunned me.

"The court was told the twins' birth mother had lost her capacity to love and the couple's relationship suffered as they became mired in everyday tasks associated with raising two children."

Having read this, I get the feeling that this set of parents have lost (or perhaps, never gained) the notion of being parents. Not only have the mums blessed with children via the amazing IVF program, they have twice the amount of enjoyment with the twins.

I am not saying that having twins is an easy job. I have a young toddler myself and I can imagine that a pair of twins will be even harder, but as a parent, I will never lose the love for my son.


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High fuel price costs jobs

About two weeks ago, when I was waiting for my car to be serviced, I had an interesting conversation with the mechanic at the car dealership. It goes something like this.

me: "Did see the price of petrol today? It is getting pretty high."

mechanic: "When I drove in to work this morning, I saw about $1.70 per litre."

me: "I hope that it goes down a little in the next few weeks"

mechanic: "Well, I think the damage is already done. Some of my mates had to quit their jobs because the petrol prices are too high."

me: "Really?!?"

mechanic: "Yeah. They had to travel about an hour to work, and the cost of petrol is around $125 per week. They just couldn't afford it."

At that point, I start the feel how lucky I am to be working about 5 minutes drive from home. In a city like Melbourne where the suburban sprawl of extremely wide, it is quite common for workers to travel for more than two hours each day between home and work. The lack of public transport to service the widening suburban sprawl does not help these people.

The mechanic went on to say that his friends would have got more money in their pockets if they went on the dole, or unemployment benefit, however they manage to find similar jobs closer to home.

If I was in a similar situation, I probably would have seriously consider this option as well. In the current economic climate, having enough money to provide for your family the number one priority.

What would you have done in a similar situation?

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