The housing cost conundrum

Jesus did not get into home buying, but many Christians, young and old, do face that challenge and it is getting harder. Buying a house can be a lot better than burying money  in the ground or putting it on term deposit.

The combined impact of house price and interest rate determines a monthly loan repayment on a home loan. So if interest rates are low, as now, people can pay more for a similar home than we did but the repayments still remain similar to when we borrowed @ 11.5% p.a.

But the house price never varies from the day of purchase, whereas the interest rate can rise. So it is not that simple! Paying a higher price for the house with low interest rate borrowings to begin with, poses a far greater risk to the borrower.

If the interest rate were to rise from 3% to 9% on a $700,000 loan the interest would rise from $1,750 a month ($21,000 pa) to $5,250 a month ($63,000 pa), quite a difference.

Assessing how much to pay for a house is not as simple as looking at the quoted monthly repayments unless the interest rate is fixed for the term of the loan.

For home buyers, a touring holiday of inland cities and towns in their state might reveal a beautiful environment where housing is a quarter of the price of capital city housing; people are nicer because the population is smaller and people get to know their neighbours and communities; the air is cleaner and healthier; there are more wide open spaces for children; the land is flatter and better suited to walking or cycling and solar power is abundant.

Just holidaying is fun anyway as well as interesting and informative. It may also open new horizons.

We are always happy to provide professional assistance based on Christ’s teachings, whether it is dealing with banks through GBAC, building strength for political persuasion through Voters Network , running political persuasion campaigns through FairGO or helping organisations gain political leverage through their membership via our Peak Body Voterlobby

A Christian driven Democracy

Votergrams helped bring Australian David Hicks home from Guantanamo Bay. Those who want Julian Assange to be tried and dealt with in the UK  or Australia should use Votergrams to help Aussie MPs persuade their US counterparts.

That some jailing is failing in many cases to prevent crime is self-evident. If interested in backing the Justice Reform Initiative to find more effective solutions for our safety, please email greg@fairgo.org with “Cut crime” in the subject line. I will get back to you. It will not happen without substantial voter support which is most effectively conveyed by Votergram!

Those wanting greater choice of vaccines can make their views known by Votergrams to the most powerful people in Australia – all federal MPs. Votergrams are the most cost-effective means of influencing government.

As Christmas approaches it is worth thinking about what we can give to improve the lives of the least advantaged Aussies and how that will also improve our own lives. Australians have unique tools and strategies available to them through FairGO, Voterlobby, Voters Network and Votergrams. Power and influence spread over the Australian people is the least corrupting and most effective of all.

Instead of huffing and puffing about blowing China’s Taiwan house down if the USA wants us to, we might be better to use our trade as a negotiating tool. We buy a heap from China that we could subject to high tariffs as they did to our wine and we export a heap of coal and primary products to China that we could  stop. Talk and trade are a lot better bargaining chips than bombs and battleships.

Come on Christians, come on. Flex your muscles and guide the government. It is your country. You pay the taxes. You elect the politicians to represent you. Ask properly and you will mostly receive what you want if it is fair and good for others too. Don’t leave it all to God.

Democracy, like Christianity is not for spectators, but participants.

You could help stop corruption, neglect and incompetence spoiling our Australian dream – just by getting a tiny bit involved!

Would you please consider sparing 5 minutes a month (an hour a year) to share your Christian perspective on issues that interest you?

How much corruption, neglect and incompetence in government can you tolerate before it seriously damages all of our lives & those of children and grandchildren? We are all busy, but our democracy is driven by those who get involved, for those who get involved and those for whom they care. Just as Pilate was driven by the self-interested crowd chanting “crucify”, Australia is also driven.

At present, due to voter neglect, Australia is driven by the rich and powerful, the media barons, politicians, political parties and political donors, all primarily for themselves. Most people, quite logically, think of themselves first.

600 Australians already work, free of party politics, with FairGO and Voters Network or use Votergrams to help politely and persistently guide our parliaments along an honest and fair path. But there are 16 million voters in Australia, so we need more than 600 people to share their views on what should be done.

Please join Voters Network, voters.com.au/join.php now and do your bit for Australia. It is free and funded by member donations and fees for services, no government money!

Matt 9:13 “It is kindness I want , not animal sacrifices.”

But what does Christ’s comment on what God wants tell us in respect of our criminal justice system?

How does society treat the victim and the perpetrator relative to one another? Should we spend more of taxpayer money on the offender than on the victim, as often happens?

What do we seek after a person is found guilty of a crime of violence?

Revenge? Punishment? Rehabilitation? Protection from that person?

What will produce what we want in the best way?

If we see these questions relevant to what Christ had to teach us, we need to consider the questions in relation to what we expect government to do.

In a democracy the parliamentarians seek to please the voters in order to help them and to be re-elected. That works well for everyone, provided the voters tell their MPs what they want.  Unfortunately even dedicated Christians often omit to do that.

The result is that society does not benefit from Christ’s wisdom. I have a friend whose son was shot and killed by thieves. He hated those men who killed his son, but on discovering that they could not read at all well, he took educational books to them in gaol to help them learn to read and so become more educated and able to live better lives when released. That is kindness.

If Christians do not effectively let MPs know what they want done. It most likely will not be done. MPs need to hear it from individual Christians, not churches. They know what churches want. What they need to know is what voters want.

The best way for any Christian to do that is to send a Votergram to every Member of Parliament. It is an extremely inexpensive way to influence society as Christ asks us to do. Votergrams are provided by Christians to help democratic societies to work as God would like them to work. Jesus did not expect the Government to do the work. He moved around, did it himself and urged others to do the same.

God has given us this magnificent system of government – democracy – that lets us all influence what our governments do. We need to invest our time skills and money to use what He has given us and ask Him to help us do our bit rather than solve the problem for us.

“Take up your cross and follow me” he said. Votergrams make a very light cross that can help us move the “mountains” of government.

The Democratic Power & Glory come from time, money and effort.

Very little in life comes free and good government certainly does not, as is obvious, no matter how much we believe that it should.

I once trusted and believed that it did. Now I know that’s Nonsense! When I think about it, it was the same in Christ’s time too.

These prime groups exert pressure on government to do what they want:

1.The rich and powerful, generally looking after their own interests.

2.The lobbyists for large publicly listed corporations or large vested interest organisations.

3.The media pushing the interests of its owners and advertisers.

4 Political party members and executives on whose support MPs depend for re-election.

5.Party donors who do not even have to mention their donation when seeking favours. That is understood. They are careful to provide good reasons in writing to prove it was nothing to do with their donation.

6.The individual Members of Parliament themselves.

7.Vocal Voters in the electorates who get to know their local MP well.

8.Those who send Votergrams to convince every MP that change is needed and explain why.

9.Those who are empowered by FairGO’s strategies and services to help them influence government

10 Members of Voters Network

Politicians can only do the will of the community if individual community members speak up themselves. That is the only way politicians can be sure of what the community wants.

Organisations and the media frequently claim to speak for “Australians”, but very often they only speak for some. There are organisations that I have or do belong to that lobby for exactly the opposite of what I want government to do.

To have a say, receive a fair go and enjoy good government, a voter is well advised to use one of the services linked above. Then they and all Members of Parliament will know exactly what they want done and why.

The FairGO Formula favours empowering individual voters, because that is the least corrupting power there is. Do you have a concern? When you want to fix it, try FairGO! It strategies are based on Christ’s teachings and they have proven very effective for 35 years. I was called out of my Chartered Accountancy practice to help voters build the sort of fair, kind and just society that God wants, without empowering myself anymore than anyone else.

Why you should re-finance business and farm debts!

You probably remember that Solomon said “The borrower becomes the lender’s slave”. It is good to avoid that if you can.

Banks have been forced by government to give borrowers a lot of lee-way with loans during the covid 19 pandemic. Soon they will look to get those loans back on track. But there is a hidden danger for borrowers.

Loan contract terms will have been broken even though the bank has allowed it. Experience shows that banks often use that later as an excuse to appoint a receiver or foreclose.

By re-financing you can start the loan all over again, afresh with no defaults to your name and you can extend the loan terms to let your business or farm recover slowly.

At GBAC we help clients find the best and most appropriate loans for them. We do not accept brokerage from the bank as bank mortgage brokers do. We work 100% for the borrower.

Once you have a couple of new banks offering you suitable loans as re-finance, then you can put that proposition to your existing bank and see if they will refinance you on the same terms. They probably will, but only because there is competition for your loan business from other banks. That is how they make their billions. Then you can choose who you go with.

Give us a call if you want a hand. 0428 417 496

Government Guarantees Home Loans

How good are our Federal MPs. No sooner had FairGO alerted each of them by Votergram to the “Mortgage Lenders Insurance” big bank scam, than they got busy and solved it with a government guarantee home loans for borrowers.

We are lucky to have such responsive and helpful MPs. Don’t be misled by negative media.

GBAC Advisory learned of this Big Bank scam and successfully defeated one Big Bank to help a young Queensland couple. Then FairGO took it up with MPs.

The Good Samaritan acted immediately

Leeton hospital would not have lain idle for years if one person in Leeton had sent a Votergram about it to the NSW Parliament.

Nor would Sanjay, robbed of $100,000 in a home purchase settlement scam have been unable to get help from nab, AFCA or Police.

Nor would children have continued to be sexually abused by a swimming coach because authorities would not act.

Votergrams unlock the power of parliament for the people. That is how to get authorities moving!

Votergrams are an effective way to ask and receive

Two groups harmed can’t get authorities to act. One group does:

1 Sanjay Joseph, scammed of $100,000 in a home purchases transaction (SMH 6/10/21), which he mostly recovered, says he could not get the assistance he needed from  nab, AFCA or Police.

2 Elite swimmers claiming to have been sexually assaulted as children by their swimming coach  could not as adults get action by authorities.

3. 8 teenage girls with pre-booked and paid seats on a country train were refused their seats and put off the train in the central west by the conductor. Following  Votergrams to 130 state MPs a senior rail executive visited the father  who organised the trip to apologise and the conductor was called before a disciplinary tribunal and cautioned or sacked.

Votergrams are easy, cheap & effective. MPs become the Champions of the people when asked properly by Votergram .

Aboriginal voices to parliament

“Ask and you will receive” said Christ. To my amazement in 1986 when I invented Votergrams, those Australians who asked their MPs by sending Votergrams, did indeed receive what they wanted. Was it my accountant brain or divine inspiration? Jesus was a very practical person and His teachings gave us lessons for life.

“Do for others what you want them to do for you” and “Love your neighbours” with its Good Samaritan story, seem the most appropriate to our responsibility to God in respect of our Aboriginal First Nation fellow Australians.

The “First Nations voice to parliament” will be in due course determined. Meanwhile most thinking Australians can see that in terms of money, housing, health and education services Aboriginal First Nations people are suffering multi-generational PTS from rape, child kidnapping, murder and land theft at the hands of early governments and settlers. Few of us would survive that well.

The market value of land stolen at gun point from the Aboriginals who owned it, is booming like never before. How does that “Advance Australia Fair”?

What puzzles me is that each Aboriginal First Nations Australian has for 35 years, like every other Australian, had access to the very effective and inexpensive Votergram service to take their requests, suggestions, needs, ideas and criticisms, directly to each of the 227 Federal MPs.

Yet none have used it to have an effective voice on matters that affect them. Why Not?

Recently the service has been offered to them free of charge but still none have used it as a Voice to Parliament. Why?

The most effective voice to parliament is not necessarily that of a non-voting organisation to ministers. It is a voice from many individual voters in many individual electorates to each and every Member of Parliament. That sends a ballot box message and it gives each of 227 Federal MPs a chance to initiate what is wanted.

Votergrams have been offered to the Aboriginal First Nations people free for all of 2021