Time to Move

We've been packing up the house for the past week as tomorrow is moving day.

Well, to be more accurate, my wife has been doing an amazing job, the boys helping at the periphery and yours truly has been determining the value of items and memories versus things we don't need.

You need someone ruthless to do what I am doing. There is no room for sentimentality but I have turned several blind eyes to the hoarding of others in the household.

When they think I can't see what they are doing, assorted items find their way into a storage box instead of the bin!

We've only lived seven years in our current home. It was designed and built by us and intended to be a 'forever home'. It has been a wonderful place to live but our lives are changing which means we need to make changes too.

The current place is too big for just the two of us and it's empty a lot of the time as we have commercial interests that often take us out of Adelaide. This meant we had to have help with the garden and the pool plus the regular household maintenance.  

That might have been okay if anyone used the garden or the pool but we didn't.

Hence the (huge) decision to sell, move into a smaller rental property while determining what's next.

It's an interesting and challenging decision and one we will take our time to finalise.

Part of the decision making process is impacted by the world around us. You all know I think it has gone crazy but what that really means is still largely a guess.

We do know that governments  have an insatiable appetite for your money and the easiest way to get it is by taxing fixed assets (like property). We also know that society is so over-leveraged that we are in the midst of an unsustainable debt bubble.

When this bubble pops, the leverage won't be available to bid up the price of assets. It could be a matter of being left with an overpriced dud that no-one can afford to buy anymore!

On the counter balance, the expectation is that real assets will provide a much better store of value than cash or bonds. At current interest rates, cash is the dud asset but it is likely that inflation will eventually rear its head again and real interest rates will be driven higher.

Inflation will drive real asset prices and interest rates higher. That won't be a problem... until it becomes one.

Contrary to popular belief, debt does actually matter, especially when the things get a little tougher. The Great Reset agenda purports to wipe out all debt which is what governments desperately need. They can't afford to keep on the debt treadmill but nor can many others.

There will be a lot of change in the years ahead and anticipating what is to come and how best to benefit from it should be front of mind for all of us.

In any event, we've made the first substantive decisions (to move) and now have a year or two to contemplate what we should be doing next.