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Happier and wiser investor

I have taken your advice and stopped being lazy about the interest rate on my investment property.

I have had a residential investment loan, capital and interest, since December 2013. The interest rate was 5.17% and I thought it was a bit high, so I walked into my local bank after going online and checking other institutions’ interest rates and asked what they could do. They immediately dropped the rate to 4.54%. (Not the cheapest but not the dearest, either.) How easy was that to save some money?

I was guilty of inertia and just couldn’t be

Hotspots in the west

I love reading Money and have gained a lot of valuable knowledge and insight but every time real estate is mentioned, particularly good investment suburbs and regional hotspots, Western Australia is never even mentioned.

I would love to know where our good regional investments and hotspots are. Carilyn

Ed’s note: Look out for our February Top 50 Share Buys and Property Hotspots. Our property expert Terry Ryder will no doubt have a few picks in WA. This year he noted Joondalup bothered but am now a much happier and wiser investor, thanks to your magazine.

I thought it would be too hard and time consuming to change but, hey, everyone should have a go! You may as well have the extra money in your pocket, not in the bank’s!

You may get a pleasant surprise, as I did. Kevin

Ed’s note: Don’t be too hard on yourself, Kevin. I recently did the same thing and, as in your case, all it took was a phone call. Why didn’t I do this earlier?

as one of the standout precincts in WA. You’ll be able to read more in February as to how this tip panned out. See also page 96 in this issue for Peter Koulizos’s tip.

Unfair Medicare slug

My son recently changed jobs. He was on a medium income, but with a payout of long service leave and accrued annual holiday pay it took him unexpectedly a few dollars over $90,000 for last financial year.

I had assumed the Medicare levy surcharge was charged at a penalty percentage for the amount over the relevant threshold, which is reasonably fair and equitable, but it

is actually applied to the whole amount once you are over the threshold. This means if you earn $90,001 you pay a 1% surcharge ($900) but if you earn $89,999 you do not pay the surcharge at all.

Because you earn $2 extra the government takes an extra $900 off you. How can anyone in the government or ATO think this is fair and equitable? How can you write a law that does that? Then parliament and the senate approve it and the ATO implements it without anyone recognising its stupidity.

It is difficult to maintain respect for a system that is so blatantly unfair and a government that shows no desire to make it fairer. John