Our financial planner is interested in chooks, gardens, and pizza; he’s a Christian and a solid, dependable member of his church. A couple of years ago, my husband and I met with him to talk about backyard fruit trees, home-grown eggs and how to extract our superannuation from the stock market. We had serious qualms about how the market operates and how our money was being invested. Therefore, we wanted to set up a self-managed super fund...
To read more, click here.
And don't forget to check out the rest of the December 2014 issue of Manna Matters, with articles on the real estate market, household covenants and establishing a health retreat for Yolngu women.
The gorgeous illustration is by Shelley Knoll-Miller.
god youre smug
ReplyDeleteYour last anonymous comment was also on a post about the street (I presume it was you - same criticism). Why are you so bothered by stories about people who like to share their lives? My stories are not prescriptive; my truth is not your truth; but why does my truth, and the way I express it, grate on you so much? And given you hate it/me, what keeps drawing you back? It's a tiny blog, and hardly required reading. A few things for you to ponder.
DeleteThank you for this - it's really good to read how you thought this through and the neat thiings you've been able to do. Thank you also for introducing me to 'Manna Gum' - I'd never heard of them but I'm now a subscriber :-)
ReplyDeleteWe're still at the stage of paying off our own mortgage, but I'm daunted when I think about the decisions we'll need to make when that's done and we start saving for retirement.
We do have some money in 'ethical' funds (I really like the idea of supporting the productive sector, even though they're far from perfect). Our emergency funds are in a cool 'ethical' bank that supports a lot of things we like, but it's a tiny institution (less than 1000 depositors) and we heard yesterday that they've had to call in the receivers, so that's the end of that.
We've also talked over the years about the possibility of buying a particular house on our street when it comes to market. It's a state house, and the government is selling a lot of them off at the moment. We're pretty sure they'll sell this one when it's current occupant dies as it's all the things they say they don't want any more. We're interested in it as it's literally the only house in our street (of 100 houses - lots of them infill) that has a front lawn without a high fence. This has made it the site of our annual street parties. We'd really like to keep at least one such house on the street (and it can't be our house as we're three houses back from the street). We don't really know what we'll end up deciding to do when the time comes, though, And we really like the lady who lives there, so we hope the time won't come too soon, either, although she is pretty frail now..
Our 'ethical' funds invested in BHP - but I gather others do much better.
DeleteOur street is slowly becoming an infill street, too - so many residents are tucked behind other houses and enter via the back laneways etc. Good for limiting the size of a city, but not so good for trees and chats. Good luck with your thinking and dreaming about that other house!
It is an interesting challenge to try to live in ways that reflect our values and then find ways to share what we find and talk about it. You don't sound smug to me - but then maybe I sound smug, or idealistic or crusading to others. I love reading about your discoveries anyway. Jean
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jean. Maybe I sound smug, maybe I don't, I just wonder why someone keeps reading the blog and making the same comment! Why not read something good?!
DeleteSince being introduced to Manna Matters through this post, I've not only subscribed but have been reading through their back issues from the beginning. I was very challenged by a story from 2009 that made me think maybe we shouldn't be saving for our retirement at all, but should be giving that money away. I've blogged about my thinking at:
ReplyDeletehttp://martinheather.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/retirement-savings-vs-feeding-hungry.html
should you be interested. Still not sure where I stand on this, but I am/we are certainly seriously considering giving that money away,,,