Happy new year! Well, almost. Since we’ll be seeing in the new year – 2012 – very shortly, I thought it was time for me to write down some new year resolutions this week.
BY VANESSA DE GROOT
There were lots of things on the list, including trying to improve my golf game and become a professional cyclist, seeing as I was recently given a new bike, but I also had lots of financial goals on my list.
One of my goals is to save as much money as I can, which is something I would imagine many people around Australia would be putting on their list. We all know that Australians have been saving for a while now and given the results of recent surveys, it looks like that trend is only going to continue.
People are still worried about what’s happening in the global economy and they’re being cautious, so they’re saving their pennies in case something goes amiss closer to home.
But while I’m planning on saving money next year, another of my goals is to buy at least one investment property. I think there’s still some quiet time ahead of us before the market really takes off, so I plan to take advantage of that.
But is that really the case? I was interested to read a story over the weekend in which hotspot expert Terry Ryder predicted a property boom is just around the corner. He believes “people who spent this year living in fear of the Europe crisis, the affordability crisis, the cost-of-living crisis and the what-if-home-values-collapse-like-they-did-in-the-US crisis will rapidly develop a panic urge to buy real estate” and that most will have already missed the best opportunities to set themselves up for capital growth.
Ryder believes the best opportunity is right now, before the year is out and 2012 begins.
Unfortunately I’m definitely going to miss the boat there, but I’ll still buy in 2012, as the best time is really when you can afford to buy, right?
While writing my new year resolutions this year I looked back in my little book at my resolutions from previous years and one thing struck me – I’ve never really recorded how I was going to achieve my resolutions.
So this year I’ve decided to change all that. I’ve come up with some basics of how I will achieve my goals – especially my financial/investment goals – and I plan to go into even more detail. After all, having a plan and sticking to it is really the way to be a successful property investor.
I hope that will help me actually achieve my goals, as in the past I’ve failed to do this and sometimes I’ve really missed the mark.
So tell me, what are your goals for the new year? What do other Australians out there want from 2012? Do you think it’s going to be a good year for property?
Vanessa De Groot is the deputy editor of Australian Property Investor magazine, www.apimagazine.com.au
