GENC3003 Week 8 Journal

Now, the course will come to the end, I have learned a lot of theoretical knowledge. I think I should have a plan for my future, short-term and long-term goals. Recently, I want to successfully complete my bachelor degree. When I start my master degree, I want to find a job for experience in the same time. I want to invest a property with my boy friend this year and rent to students. Through expense-tracker, it clearly recorded my consumption condition, so I decided to start saving my every dollar. When I completed the university, I will apply for permanent resident to gain the rights that local citizen owns. This course taught me how to invest, how to save money, how the taxation works, how to get the benefit, how to protect ourselves. Every time when I learned from the slide, I will talk to my boy friend, my boss, my parents and my friend. I thought I know more than my friend, and get a lot of useful suggestions from my boss and family.

GENC3003 Week 7 Journal

Another problem is that we have had a sense of investment, but we do not have enough funds. At the moment, the only investment that we can think about is property, but the capital payment has to be paid by our parents. In addition, we should choose a potential unit which can rise in price, so if the price of this unit increases, we can sell it out. I asked my boss about the area of the property, boss told me that he thought buying an apartment in the city is a good choice, because many people but limited land, which is mentioned in Part 3-unit 11c. However, we cannot just consider its advantage; disadvantage should be taken into account as well, because one coin has two sides. Recently, my boy friend and I talked to our parents on the internet, they thought it feasible, but they still have some worries. After all, we are young, we will be wrong. But they agreed us to consult some organizations, and provide some relevant information to them, and email to them. Now, we have started this work, to find consultant, to contact with finance company.

GENC3003 Week 6 Journal

Due to the fact that we are international students, so if we want to invest in property, the bank may not lend money to us, which is difficult to us. I won’t say it unfair, because local citizen should be entitled to privilege. However, it is really harder to us to buy a unit or apartment if we just graduated, but want to stay here for development. My boss talked to me that I can find finance company, they may loan money to me. My boss has a discussion with me about my after-graduation salary. For example, if I work in an office after graduation, the salary we supposed to be $1000/pw, so $4000/pm in a very ideal condition. If my boy friend has the same salary as me, the total amount is $8000/pm. We buy a two-bedroom apartment worth $400,000, and we pay 20% capital which is $80,000, so the remaining loan is $320,000. If we plan pay off the loan within 10 years, we have to pay to the bank $32,000 annually, which is almost $2666 per month, not including the interest. If we assume the interest rate is 6% per month, the total amount is $2825 per month, almost equals to $3000. Hence, $5000 is left. Then, if we buy a car without loan, only including monthly gas and any other fees, we just estimate $500/pm. The average strata, council and water fees are $500/pm, so $4000 left. Living expenditures including buying clothes, dining out, food, appliances and others are supposed to be $1000/pm. Therefore, we only can save $3000/pm without children. If I want to buy some luxury or have a holiday, this money cannot be saved. Therefore, how can we make a better life? Sometimes I am confused about the future, because I want to make a wonderful life without considering money. I have to do business, I must invest, but now I do not have experience, so I have to learn theory first and then apply it into practice.

GENC3003 Week 5 Journal

Now, I am still a student in university, doing bachelor of architectural studies. I imagined that I can become a famous architect. But my father told me, “sometime dream is a dream, you can achieve your dream, but you need to make a lot of efforts.” I have interested in architecture since I was 14 years old. I promised to my father, “I will do it! I will do it best!” He said, “Don’t say it easy. It is not like that.” I answered confidently, “No worries, I will insist.” However, I am quite confused about it, not because I am not good at it, but because I want to make money, make more money, do my own business. Maybe I was too impulsive at that moment, maybe I still love architecture at this time, but actually my mind has been changed, has been affected by a number of things that I met, heard, experienced. I think I will take much more factors into consideration than before, because I have to grow to recognize the society, face the society, and know some rules about this society. I am still thinking what kind of business that I can run, what aspect that I am familiar with. Part 3-Unit 9 mentioned that the first tip to investment is to invest in what I understand. It is very necessary to understand what I will run, how does the company generate profit, what is the past financial performance. Running a business is not that easy, which need to do a great number of jobs to research, consideration, and emergency solutions. Additionally, a key understanding is the fact that return equals risk.

GENC3003 Week 4 Journal

From part 2-Unit 8a, the pie chart illustrates that most of the taxation is from individual income. After reading “calculating tax”, it can be found if taxable income is over 180,000, almost half of the income will hand to government for taxation. So how can we avoid tax or minimize the tax? Income splitting is a way to avoid this. I asked my boss about the tax, his wife is an accountant, so she told me how to avoid the tax. Annually, accountant will calculate the business’s profit and the amount of the tax. Then, the accountant will tell the business man how to minimize his taxation in an implicit way, such as changing a new car, which means to promote consumption in some extent.

GENC3003 Week 3 Journal

After reading the part 2, I seemed to know about different types of insurance that I never knew before, such as life insurance, health insurance, dwelling insurance, vehicle insurance. In unit 6, it mentioned that “never lie to an insurance company”, which I think is honesty. My boss ever told me that there was a customer in our deli shop that pretended to be a gimp for gain the insurance. However, the insurance company employed a private detective to observe him, at last, they know that he lied. Consequently, he cannot get any insurance from this company; also he cannot be trusted by any other insurance companies as well because his honesty has to be suspected. Possibly, it may lead to a more serious consequence. Therefore, from this lesson, I learned that we do will get the most benefit from the insurance company if we really have some difficulties in some unexpected accidents. Tell the truth is a sensible way to both of us.

GENC3003 Week 2 Journal

This week, I discussed with my boss about saving during leisure time. Saving is another important way to financial planning, but my boss told me that earning is better than saving. He said, “Saving is to save 1 dollar or 5 dollars, and you cannot save 50 dollars in one day, but you can earn 50 dollars in one day.” Therefore, my boss’s concept is to earn rather than save. He told me that I cannot spend savings on investment because it is not a majority, and I can only spend my savings on holidays, buying a car or buying clothes, which are all little money. Hence, if I really want to invest, whatever in shares or property, I have to use a great number of money to earn more benefit and gain much more profits. However, saving or not depends on the situation. I do not know whether it is right or not, but at least it is my own opinion. Sometimes, if it needs to save, we should save the most. When we earn, we should earn the most. We are supposed to save,in the meantime, we should earn.

GENC3003 Week 1 Journal

This is my first time to choose a commerce course called "Personal Financial Planning". I think I had some common sense about my personal financial planning before, but after I began to learn this course, I think I know little. I do not have any sense of specific knowledge about investment, variable interest rate and fixed interest rate of property. However, the reason why I choose to learn this course is because I want to improve myself, I want to plan my future, I want to do my own business and I think I have a brain of financial planning. Hence, after I finished week 1’s part, I know about it a little, but I know it is just a beginning. Afterwards, I talked to my part-time job’s boss about investing in property. He strongly agreed my opinion and then he helps me to calculate my boy friend and my five years’ rent. Finally, we find that if we buy a unit worth 400,000, and we can loan about 80% from the bank (because we are international students), so the five years’ rent equals capital payment. Now, I discussed with my parent about buying a property, they think it is a feasible method, but I still need to know it in details, such as high entry and exit fees, mortgage payments and so on.