Money

“In this world,” Benjamin Franklin famously declared, “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” A few hundred years on, corporate Australia seems hell-bent on making a liar out of him.

Death is still holding out -so no need to fear a business-suited army of the undead just yet—but the taxman has well and truly been given the slip, with billions of dollars from the public purse funneled through loopholes, lurks and perks.

Treasury figures have revealed that over the last decade more than half of all companies paid less than five per cent of their total income in tax: a far cry from the hefty amount individual taxpayers are slugged.

Continue reading "Debunking the myths of corporate tax" »

Does your new model six-cylinder car make you happier? What about that new in-home cinema, complete with HD-TV, surround sound, and reclining couches? You think so. How about the holiday you recently took with the family?

Unfortunately, as humans we are not that good at predicting, understanding, or acting in a way that makes us happy.  This lack of knowledge is even more pronounced when it comes to the relationship between what we buy and how happy it makes us. 

Have you even considered how happy various purchases you’ve made have actually made you? 

Continue reading "Money probably can buy you happiness" »

I recently attended the opening of the Templestowe Community Bank in my electorate. As a result of more than two years hard work by local traders and residents, the village has a bank for the first time in over a decade.

The branch was the 248th to open under the Bendigo Community Bank umbrella, one of the great local success stories of the past decade across Australia.

As the big banks closed their branches, and forced people to use ATMs and online services, many local communities lost an important institution. In some rural areas, this was devastating. In most, it caused considerable inconvenience to local residents.

Continue reading "Save money this year because thrift isn’t a four letter word" »

Have you ever thought that you were being taken for a ride on petrol prices? Well, you have!

So how are you being ripped off? It’s simple really – once, of course, you know the games that can be played by the big oil companies and Coles and Woolworths.

Let’s begin at the retail level.

Continue reading "Coles or Woolworths you get screwed either way on petrol" »

Last week we held a public event we call Sydney Conversations – a series of talks we host where, with the aid of a panel of speakers, we get to look closely at a topic that’s making the news, and get the news behind the news, so to speak. 

Our Conversation was around the topic ‘How much is enough?’. The idea was to look at the link between money and happiness, or money and unhappiness as the case may be. 

The Happiness Institute’s Tim Sharp talked about the sources of happiness: he said that having meaningful and purposeful pursuits is the path to happiness, coupled with the quality relationships we have in our lives. That happiness had nothing whatsoever to do with money.

Continue reading "Finding happiness in the middle of a crisis" »

The worst kept secret in the gambling world is the statement “the house always wins”. No casino on Earth hides this fact. In fact, they seem to proudly embrace the mantra as an open challenge to morons. And surely in the realm of unashamedly unfair advantages, Lotto is the mother of them all.

There’s an old saying in the poker game, “If you can’t spot the sucker at the table, then the sucker is you”. In the Lotto world, the saying should be “If you’re not the extraordinarily unlikely winner of bucketloads of cash, then you’re an idiot”.

As the Oz Lotto draw that stopped the nation entered its final week and the jackpot hit Def-Con Ridiculous, reportedly half of the adult population of Australia flocked to pay their idiot tax, salivating like St Bernards over the impressive $106 million bone, in the vain hope of striking it rich in the biggest possible way, and being able to tell their bosses once and for all, to shove it.

Continue reading "Win a truckload of cash or just be an idiot" »

Read it here.

I’d like to think I would be yacht shopping this morning, wearing a cravat, and being followed around by someone I’d hired specifically to top up my champagne flute.

But they’ve gone to work! According to a Lotto spokesperson:

When they got the call this morning solidifying their winnings, they said ‘I was hoping to hear from you this morning’.

They’re a Gold Coast couple so based purely on postcode there’s an increased likelihood $53 million isn’t all that life-changing. But I doubt it.

I’m especially happy for the other guy, who’s being playing Lotto for 20 years and plans to give some of the money to charity.

What would you be doing? Would you be at work?