The Finance Show With Joe

S2E9: Is It Too Expensive to Have a Child in 2024?

• It's Simple Finance • Season 2 • Episode 9

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Is it too expensive to have a child in 2024? Fertility rates have plummeted in Australia's capital cities i.e. where most people live. The leading theory is that things are simply too expensive to consider a child with rental payments and mortgage repayments reaching record highs and the significant cost of childcare services. 

Elsewhere, the Crowdstrike outage bricked over 8.5 million computers worldwide affecting services like banks. Millions of people couldn't access their own money thanks to many banks' insistence on a digital only service. This outage has many questioning whether a digital only economy is the right decision. 

Western Australian renters will be celebrating after new laws were passed allowing them more freedom to make small changes to their homes and keep pets all with the approval of their landlords. 

All this and more on the latest Finance Show with Joe. 

Follow us for more property news and mortgage advice!

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Joe:

Is the world finally ending, or was it just a Microsoft glitch? Have rental prices affected fertility, and is WA's rental reform going to be followed by the rest of the country? Catch today's episode of the Finance Show with Joe.

Michael:

Welcome to the Finance Show with Joe. He's Joe, I'm Jess, I'm Shcmo. We're going to be talking about CrowdStrike, fertility rates and rental reform, but first, obviously, crowdstrike.

Joe:

So I walked into Coles and I thought like it was Terminator 2.

Michael:

Judgment day.

Joe:

I uploaded a photo on my Instagram and I literally I couldn't believe it. I walked into Coles and I saw a poster drawn in crayon, like they didn't even have, like nice crayon.

Joe:

It was crayon that said cash only,

Michael:

and you weren't even buying a banh mi or anything.

Joe:

No no. That's the only time I ever see cash only, I wasn't in Cabramatta I wasn't at my barber, I was at Coles, and I never have cash on me, neither my job as a mortgage broker. Okay, we get paid digitally by the banks. Money goes straight into our account. I digitally by the banks. Money goes straight into our account. I don't see cash.

Joe:

No, neither. But just by chance I had a few hundred dollars at home okay, in cash from birthday presents earlier in the year and they were stashed away in cards, all right, and I was like, okay, I'll open this, and I had to drive back home.

Michael:

I was surprised they weren't on stuff under your mattress or something.

Joe:

I'm not that Lebanese, I'm not that Lebanese, but I literally had to go home and I had to open up my cards and take cash out. To be able to go back to Coles and pay for my groceries in 2024 was not something I would imagine would ever happen?

Michael:

No, but it does sort of expose the weaknesses of digital finance, doesn't?

Joe:

it. It definitely does. So the story is Microsoft was having an update.

Michael:

No, okay, it actually had nothing to do with Microsoft. Okay, nothing to do with Microsoft, it's all CrowdStrike. So CrowdStrike, that's basically like cyber protection, basically, okay, they released an update for their own software that crashed 8.5 million computers around the world. It was a bad update.

Joe:

Yeah.

Michael:

They noticed it quickly, but then to fix it you need to do it manually. Obviously, it's going to be a bit difficult when there's 8.5 million computers around the world, so they had to, you know, talk to everyone's IT person.

Joe:

The part to us that we really saw affected because we work in banking NAB was down, cba was down, the big four yeah. Macquarie Bank, okay, it was outside of the big four. It was a lot of the major lenders and then it was like the second and third tier lenders that people don't like. That was still able to work.

Michael:

Weren't using CrowdStrike.

Joe:

Guys, maybe sometimes using the majors isn't a good idea like we recommend I don't know, I'm just going to put that.

Michael:

It was funny as well. A little Easter egg I was watching Formula One Grand Prix and the Mercedes team used CrowdStrike, so their computers were down as well. You could see it on the pit wall. They just had blue screens. What? During tests? Yeah, I think it was during practice on the Friday, yeah, and they couldn't. Well, I mean, the car could run. They just like the screens and stuff, like their data wasn't working, but 90% of the-. Well, yeah, their practice sessions I don't think were very useful. Oh my God, that's hilarious.

Joe:

Just to divert from that, I wish we could talk about Formula One, for an hour. Just to divert from that, this does raise a massive question about digital banking.

Michael:

Yeah, and just security and safety. You can't access your own money if something like this happens. This is unprecedented. This has never happened before on this scale.

Joe:

Yeah, and we've seen a lot of news reports in the last 12 months ANZ moving to cashless, macquarie Bank moving to cashless. You know a lot of these major banks. They want to move to cashless so that they could track money better. The ATO can track money better and they can essentially make sure that people are paying their taxes on time.

Michael:

Also, they can essentially make sure that people are paying their taxes on time. Also, they can put their fingers in every single pie and then also sell your data.

Joe:

Well, that too. And then another big thing is the merchant charges. So when you go to an ATM or you go to not so much an ATM, but when you're buying from, I want to say, the bakery down the road and it's under 10 bucks, they have to pay a fee in order to be able to have that transaction go through. It's like 12 cents, so it's like 0.12%.

Michael:

Yeah, I think it's around about 10 cents.

Joe:

And then? So what that essentially means is, if we move to digital banking, mainly whoever owns the terminal okay, whether it be Stripe, whether it be CBA, whether it be NAB whoever owns that actual FPOS terminal is making an extra 12 cents on every single transaction, Every purchase, which is the reason why they want to move to digital banking. But we saw the effect One update can crash an entire system.

Michael:

And CrowdStrike's been around for a while. It's not like they're not a respected software company.

Joe:

Yeah.

Michael:

Although their reputation has certainly taken a massive hit now.

Joe:

Huge If I see CrowdStrike somewhere. I never knew what CrowdStrike was.

Michael:

That's the thing it was. We didn't even realize how a part of the world CrowdStrike was and just in their software and where it was, because it was protecting against cyber attacks. That's why airports and stuff use it.

Joe:

And it became infamous very quickly. Sydney airport was shut down.

Joe:

Yeah, Melbourne as well, there were delays in flights down, yeah, melbourne as well. There were delays in flights. There were delays in trains, I'm certain as well. But one other issue we found was settlements. For a transfer of title to occur, there needs to be a PEXA workspace, so a title. When you buy a property you buy the title deed that says I own this, which means I own that land. What we saw occur was, at 3pm, settlements weren't going through. Thankfully I had two settlements on Friday, one at 1230 and one at two After 3pm.

Joe:

People weren't able to actually get their property and grab the keys and you were having conveyances on the seller's side saying why are you delaying settlement? You're supposed to come in and they're like we're not delaying anything, we've got the funds, we can transfer it. And then the blue screen of death would pop up. So we saw banking not only get affected on the oh I can't pay, fpos side, but we also saw them get affected on the mortgage side. I don't even know about the institutional banking or the corporate level of finance, you know, with the big transactions. But for that to happen at the low retail level, with the mom and dads and, you know, people trying to buy their first home, just normal people, yeah Just normal people.

Joe:

It's a massive effect and it does raise the question should we move to a cashless society? Well, clearly not, and I used to be against it. I like cash. I'm Lebanese. At the end of the day. Okay, I don't use it that often, but I understand its purpose.

Michael:

I understand.

Joe:

I have a friend. He's a great guy. His name is Dimi. God bless him, love him with all my heart. Dimi goes to the ATM every single week and he will withdraw $250. Okay, outside of his salary, that's $250. He puts in his wallet and that is his coffee money. That is his spending money. That is, I'm going to 7-Eleven and I'm buying lunch money. That is his Really good way to budget. He's a tradie. It's a fantastic way to budget because he knows at the end of the week if he has spent too much money. He now knows okay, I've spent too much.

Joe:

These are the locations I could go for lunch. I could go to the local bakery and I could grab myself a sausage roll and a coffee and that's going to cost me eight bucks. It's going to keep me full for the whole day. I can go to the Vietnamese bakery we mentioned it earlier and I can grab myself a banh mi for like 10 bucks. Yeah, okay, and you'll be full, and you'll be full, and they're fantastic sandwiches. I've said it time and time again Food tours, cabramatta Got to go. I'm now starting to think to myself this cashless society isn't it's like 99% not a good idea anymore.

Michael:

I was against it before, mostly because you don't have control over your own money. Even like really rich people, money doesn't exist anymore, Like they have these huge amounts but they don't have those amounts. It's not like they have like a Scrooge McDuck vault that they dive into.

Joe:

That's exactly right. I just kept thinking Terminator 2, Die Hard 4, all the great movies and I was like, oh my gosh, Skynet is here.

Michael:

I mean it's been around for a bit. Like you know, all the little pods and stuff that listen to, I mean our phones, listen to us. You know you always get that ad. You're like how did they know that I was looking to buy this when I was talking about this? Because they listen.

Joe:

Let us know what you guys think. Society, or should we actually be moving?

Michael:

to more of a cash society. We see japan function quite well and they're 99 cash uh, I don't know about like that that high, but yeah, it's mostly cash they're mainly a cash society and they're considered one of the most advanced societies in the world yeah, look, it gives you more control. I think it's fine to like just have it split down the middle because there is a convenience in having a digital. Yeah, um, it just can't be only thing we have.

Joe:

But we need to move on to our next topic. This is a serious topic, which was a pretty damning article that came out this year.

Michael:

It's a damning report from the ABS and stuff like that.

Joe:

So the fertility rate has dropped in major capital cities as people have to decide between rent and having a kid.

Michael:

It's not even just rent, it's even just mortgages and stuff, just everything cost of living and interest rates, like. I've even had this conversation myself.

Joe:

I'm having it with my wife. Yeah, my wife is a doctor. I'm a mortgage broker that owns my own business, and we are having the conversation of can we afford to have a child?

Michael:

Yeah, because not only that, like you both have to work, because that's just how it is nowadays. So then you got to pay for childcare at some point, which is someone's salary every year, and all you're doing is working to pay for that childcare and then plus all the additional costs.

Joe:

Diapers aren't cheap. Baby formula is extremely expensive.

Michael:

Clothes that they grow out of, and then you have to buy more.

Joe:

There's a whole bunch of things, and one of the major things that came out of this I think it was a KPMG report the closer you were to a CBD, the less likely you were to have a child. They noticed in Melbourne Melbourne CBD itself. I think it dropped by 0.3%. There was something about 0.3 in there. But if you went to the regional CBD which was Geelong, you're more likely to have kids and that is such a major impact. The central business districts are where people are expected to go and make money. It's where people are expected to be able to produce.

Michael:

It's like the old timey market. It's where you go. You know I'm taking the potatoes out to market today.

Joe:

Okay, I wasn't expecting to get that.

Michael:

I don't know why it was Irish either. Jesus Christ, I don't know where your brain went, but like it's 100% true.

Joe:

I have clients from Wollongong yeah, okay, that will have three kids. I'll have clients in Sydney that are like I have one child and that's it, and that's it, and no, we're not considering having a second. We're seeing a lot of single and we're seeing one or two child households.

Michael:

We're not seeing the three, four kids anymore. Who can afford that?

Joe:

It's just Lebanese people that get paid in cash, but that's another story for another time. But but we see, like it's such a significant thing, and the government. This actually brings up a whole other point to me, which we've spoken about before. But the government is letting in a mass amount of migrants to compensate for our low fertility rate.

Michael:

So let's put this in numbers. So the fertility rate, in order to sustain a population and continuously grow at a reasonable rate, is at 2.1 2.1. Every couple needs to have at least 2.1 kids. Okay.

Joe:

This decimal is named Frank Exactly.

Michael:

You've got two and a half kids and a dog. Where it's currently at is 1.6 nationally, but we're heading towards a trend that it's going to be 1.45, which means our population will continuously decline. We do not have enough babies to replace. It takes two people to make one person. That's not going to replace you. That's going to affect jobs in the future. It's going to affect the availability of labor in general. Skilled or not skilled doesn't matter.

Joe:

Japan's facing this issue. Japan's facing this issue. China has faced this issue in the past. But I think they're pretty sweet now.

Michael:

With over their one point they're going to have an issue after their one-child thing because once they get into the well, like once they're working and they're like the main demographic, there's not going to be enough of them. It doesn't matter now because they're replenishing those numbers, but basically the one-child thing I think they've admitted. Yeah, it was a mistake.

Joe:

Yeah, 2.1 down to 1.45. The huge issue with this is aging population, yeah, which we all study at school. A lot of retirees, current retirees, depend on the pension, which is government funded.

Michael:

Yeah.

Joe:

They didn't bring in superannuation until 22 years ago.

Michael:

I was like four. Forget how old I am sometimes.

Joe:

But I think superannuation was a compulsory thing around 2001. Okay, where people, where employers, were forced to pay for their employees' retirement or help them build their retirement fund. So somebody would get their salary and then 11% of that would go to the retirement fund and then the retirement fund would take that money and grow it at 10 or 11%, depending on what it is, and by the time you retire you'll have, you know, 300, $400,000. But there's a massive gap. I'm yet again. I'm in the mortgage market. I've said it time and time again. We have these 40 to 50 year olds that don't have that much superannuation.

Michael:

And this is when the renting stuff comes into play.

Joe:

Exactly, and where does the pension come from? The pension comes from taxes. We just had a tax cut. We just had a tax cut. Now, whilst this is more money in our back pockets, which is all well and good depending on who you ask, because we all know my opinion on this right now okay, it's going to increase inflation, interest rates are going to go up again, yada, yada yada, but what is going to end up happening is either taxes are going to increase or we're going to have another high level of migration well, it's going to be the migration thing because it's more of a population thing, and this is something that isn't um, it's not exclusive to australia.

Michael:

This is happening in western western nations across the board, or developed nations, I should say um, because it's not limited to the West, yeah, develop nations in general. Basically, at this point, both parents are working. Both parents are under greater financial stress as things get more and more expensive. They have to work more and more and this, that and the other, that there's just no time to have a kid.

Joe:

So what do we think is going to be fair and a solution, Cause right now communism looks great to me. Smidgen of communism here and there. Socialism just a smidge, I'm not talking full socialist party.

Michael:

I don't want to be.

Joe:

Argentina or Venezuela.

Michael:

Well, Argentina's gone full libertarian with it. That's what they're experimenting with, because they had a socialist government for the last. I'm not big into Argentina so I don't really know, but I did know they had like a socialist-leaning government before this so they went full libertarian, which is basically complete deregulation of everything. The government's not doing anything for you except like run basic economy and structure of things. We'll see how it plays out. I have no idea. There's never been a libertarian government before.

Joe:

Which is another insane thing, but you know I don't want to get into Argentina. This is a finance show with Joe, based in Illawarra.

Michael:

But I definitely think and I think we're already seeing this happen sort of across the board again People are angry in general over the quality of their lives is decreasing and everyone's starting to notice, and it's not just poor people, it is now the middle class which is continually shrinking.

Joe:

I think we now need to seriously look at the way Australia is built, now more than ever. We've been talking on this show for the last three to four months. There's been a lot of doom and gloom. This is a serious doom, okay, like fertility rates dropping by 0.7%. That means 70, our country is basically being replenished by 70% less than what it was previously. Yeah, essentially this. That means our country is basically being replenished by 70% less than what it was previously.

Michael:

Yeah, essentially this isn't the first time it's happened. This happened in the 70s as well, but the 70s also weren't a good time for the economy. It was also a recession for developed nations as well Oil crisis and stuff like that. So maybe we're being a little too reactionary right now because things are a bit rough. In the post-COVID sort of stuff, it's sort of figuring things out as economies trying to keep growing, but the way they're growing is by, like, bleeding their people.

Joe:

And I just I think we need yet again government reform, I think there needs to be less regulation and I think there needs to be crosses and checks around what the government is spending money on.

Michael:

Well, yeah, that's part of that corruption watchdog that they talked about earlier.

Joe:

Yeah, I'm all in on the corruption watchdog. I mean.

Michael:

I think the only people that aren't in on it are the ones in parliament. That's it. I'm pretty sure it's a bipartisan. I don't know anyone that's like, yeah, no, the government should be able to do whatever the hell they want. No one should tell them what to do Should.

Joe:

I run for office.

Michael:

I don't know, man Give it a go.

Joe:

Give it a red hot go.

Michael:

I would hate to work in politics personally, Like that's no, not for me.

Joe:

I just think to myself, if I was in, and the way that I would say is the first thing I would be doing. I think the Romans said it best, and the only reason why I know this is because of the movie the Dark Knight. Okay, where, when you're bringing in politicians, you should be bringing them in kicking and screaming, not because they want to be politicians, but because they are the smartest people to do so.

Michael:

Yeah, it really depends on the person too, because there is the idea of, like the reluctant king, yeah, whereas the person who doesn't want to rule is the one who should be ruling, but there's a reverse to that.

Michael:

Whereas the guy who doesn't want to rule really doesn't want to rule and doesn't, and then things just sort of fall apart. So it's not perfect, but the idea. Anyone who goes into politics has already got a good opinion of themselves, so to speak, and they have a fascination with the idea of power Because you've got to put up with a lot of stuff and you've got to have a lot of drive to do this. You don't just sort of I mean, if you've got to know a lot of money, yeah, you can just fall into it. But generally speaking, why do people want to be politicians? That's the question I ask. Is it because they want to help people?

Joe:

I'm sure some of them do, but no, I don't think it's the majority. Not a single one of them wants to help anyone.

Michael:

No, I'm sure there's some idealists that exist, that are out there. I just don't think it's the majority. I think most people are after money and power.

Joe:

They start as the idealist. By the time they're in a good position. It's money and power.

Michael:

Yeah, we see examples of that constantly. But anyway, this is a finance show.

Joe:

I want to hammer them, no but I just genuinely think we and I've said it time and time again we're going to see so much more bankruptcy in the next six months.

Michael:

Yeah, I mean, people are just going to keep doing it harder and harder.

Joe:

People are going to do harder, we're going to have a lower fertility rate, we're going to have more migration and you're going to have a lot more senior people NIMBYs being like not in my backyard, but it's going to be too late by then.

Michael:

I think, yeah, honestly, the local councils kind of just need to get some balls and piss off their electorate. I know that's not what you're supposed to do as a politician, because you're supposed to represent them.

Joe:

Yeah, we've got one more story that we need to cover and we do hope that we actually see this across all Australian states, but Western Australia has brought in their rental reform, yeah, which is.

Michael:

Okay. So basically you get a little. You get a bit more like basic human rights as a former renter. So basically, with those rent rises that happened all across nationwide, you can now in WA you can only raise your rent once every 12 months which is pretty reasonable, I feel. Because, yeah, the market does change. Rents do need to go up.

Joe:

There is a symbiotic relationship between landlord and renter so landlords can only increase rent by every 12 months. Yeah, pets are mostly allowed pets are mostly allowed.

Michael:

Obviously there's like they keep saying like we have reasonable conditions and within reason. So basically it seems like it's they can't stop you from having pets unless they have a good reason to not let you have a pet, which for a lot of people is a big deal. I know when I was looking for rental properties, we had to cross off a few things because they were like yes, you can have pets, but it's going to cost you an extra $30 a week or something, or straight up, no, you can't have a pet which is fair.

Michael:

Look, at the end of the day, it's the landlord's place. You could, you could. I reckon it's reasonable to come up with like some sort of deal, like some sort of negotiation, because, yeah, your dog, you know, might be great and really well trained, but you're not going to live there forever. The next person's dog might chew up the walls much, tear up the carpet or destroy doors and stuff like that because it's poorly trained. You don't know that, yeah, hence you talk, you negotiate funny.

Joe:

You mentioned that we bought a second golden retriever on the basis that our first one was so good and, like the second one, is so bad. She's more disciplined when we're around, but when we're not around she's so much more naughty, cheeky. No, it's not cheeky. She's eaten my couch. Her poo was full of leather. She's destroyed all the landscaping.

Joe:

She has literally destroyed my house. She has decreased the value by God knows how much. There's hair everywhere because now she's finally getting rid of her summer coat oh sorry, her puppy coat and the adult coat is coming in. I completely forgot how hard golden retrievers could be, and now that I've got two of them, she revs him up. He's old. He's like I want to sleep, but she revs him up and she gets the puppy energy right out of him again.

Michael:

Now imagine that, and it's not even your dog.

Joe:

No, not even my dog, not even my house.

Michael:

Well, like, exactly. But like from a landlord's perspective. Like you put up with that stuff because your dog, you love that dog. Now it's a landlord with you don't really know your tenants, you don't know this dog. All you know is the dog's ruined a lot of shit.

Joe:

Yeah, that's exactly right. And then the last thing is segue away from the older retrievers that segue away from the older retrievers, uh, that we can now make minor modifications in rental properties, yeah, which you've got. Had a past experience with you, discussed it on last episode yeah, it's just like so.

Michael:

Basically, you can now, again with your landlord's permission because it is their property at the end of the day put up pictures on your wall. You can put up fly screens, you can put in that, um, well water saving shower heads, and stuff like that, which I don't know why a renter would do it, considering they don't pay the water bill.

Joe:

What I'm seeing is WA do, and I can't believe it, because their housing market has been booming. We talked about it last episode. They're still the highest-growing state right now, at 1.8%. But what they're doing is they're actually forcing investors out of the market. They're pushing investors out because they're like nope, you can't increase rent every six months, it has to be every 12. You want to have a rental property? Fantastic Pets have to be allowed Within reason Within reason. You have to allow somebody to have their pet dog if it's a well-behaved dog.

Michael:

Look at the end of the day, these are normal. These are people who want to live there. Like it's an investment to the investor, but it's a home for the people who live there.

Joe:

Yeah, I think Manny mentioned it on our last episode with him and he was talking about WA really wants the owner-occupied people to come in. Yeah, and good on them. We've seen it, I've said it time and time again WA is investing in their city, they're investing in sport, they're investing in local entertainment, they're investing in property. They want to see it grow and it is growing.

Michael:

Yeah, and it's working, yeah, in a good way. It seems like they've got some long-term thinking going on. It doesn't seem like short-term profits are the topmost of mind.

Joe:

Yeah, they've got their eye on the target of. We want to be Australia's I don't want to say most prominent city. It's always going to be Sydney and Melbourne.

Michael:

Yeah, there's too much history.

Joe:

There's too much history there, but they've got such a massive advantage, being on the same time zone as Perth not Perth as China, because it's such a lower end of the market we are seeing the migration happen. Yeah, probably call off investors and allow more people to migrate there. It'll allow more people to purchase and occupy.

Michael:

Which is what they want. You don't want like those empty apartment buildings for investors. No one lives in them.

Joe:

Yeah, exactly.

Michael:

Like, if no one wants to live there, what's the point? Yeah, you've invested all this money and now you've just got empty buildings. That accumulate wealth, I guess? Yeah, but if no one is buying them or no one's interested in even being in and around the area, then then no, you're not going to accumulate wealth.

Joe:

So here's some question I want to ask you, and you can drop a comment below Do we think that other states will follow?

Michael:

Depends on how much public pressure there is, because recently there's been a lot of public pressure from renters after those post COVID. Basically, just how everything sucks Like they pay ridiculous amounts of money but they get nothing from their landlords Again, not every landlord. There are many decent people who are landlords, but there are also many who are not.

Joe:

I've got a client recently who purchased an investment in Queensland in 22. And I will never forget this phone call because she was the first person that has said it to me in six months and I've got a lot of clients.

Joe:

I've got a lot of clients. I've got a lot of people I work with day to day. I'll say oh, how much rent. We have to do a fact finder. So I go how much rental income are you collecting on this property? And she goes well, it should be 600, but I've got it at 480 because I don't want to be a C-U-N-T to my tenant yeah, cause there's, there's, there's the economic reasons for doing things.

Joe:

Then there's a social reason, and that was the first time in six months I had heard that comment and God bless her. I can't, oh, damn it. I said her I'm not going to mention names, but God bless her because she is probably the only landlord I can think of. That thought that everyone else is thinking I've got to make mortgage repayments, I've got make electricity and I should have more money in my back pocket, which isn't a bad way to think. At the end of the day, you've got one life to live. You want to make sure that you live it in a comfortable way, but when you have landlords like that, they're very far and few in between. Seeing WA go to this reform is forcing people to be those kinds of landlords.

Michael:

Well, it's just forcing people not to be exploitative, because right now there's just not that many protections for renters in New South Wales.

Joe:

When you have BlackRock, one of the largest investment firms in the world, going to local auctions to buy houses okay, and they're bidding against mom and dads with families. These sorts of laws need to come into play.

Michael:

This is what I mean. Yeah, there's a limit, like you know, everyone's all about, we're all about making money, all that sort of stuff. It's a finance show, after all, but there is a way to do these things, shall we say, ethically.

Joe:

That's such a big thing to say. You can make money ethically if the government puts in the right rules and regulations for you to do so.

Michael:

Yeah, and you know we made this argument that maybe they have done that and that's part of the regulation which is stopping dwellings from going up. I don't think that's true. I think that's building regulations, not like rental regulations. Yeah, not 100% on the building stuff, but at least with the rent stuff. Like anytime you want to take anything up or something's gone wrong, you have to go to the ombudsman. There's no just like simple law. I know a lot of people that were getting those rent rises and they were like, yeah, but we've been asking for these repairs for two years. At this point you still haven't repaired these rentals, whereas, like, why should I pay you more when you can't? You won't even fix this. I live here, this is my home, but I'm not allowed to fix it.

Joe:

Yeah.

Michael:

So, yeah, just things, that there are things that make sense economically and there are things that make sense in practice. Yeah, sometimes what works on paper doesn't work in practice, which is, you know, communism, like on paper, like it makes a complete logical sense but it doesn't.

Joe:

It clearly doesn't work out because the human condition you come up with many things- and this is the philosophy show with Michael, but I agree with everything that you're saying. I like the rental reform as someone that's an advocate for people to buy their first homes, for people to be able to accumulate wealth, for people to be able to build themselves up. I would rather that happen in a sound, economic, ethical way that is fair, where if you are working harder to make more money, you deserve it. I don't like the black rock coming in and buying properties and hiking up the rent. It was like that medicine that happened in the states where?

Michael:

oh that martin scli guy?

Joe:

Yeah, he went and he bought this medicine and he hiked up the price by 2,000% or something.

Michael:

Yeah, I think it was like HIV medicine or something.

Joe:

It was no, it was diabetes, diabetes.

Michael:

Fuck, so that's even worse.

Joe:

More people so many people have diabetes. They hiked up-.

Michael:

Especially in America.

Joe:

Yeah, and then they finally came in and said no, nobody's allowed to do this. Yada, yada, yada. I like WA, I like the fact that they're doing this. They're building an owner-occupied society where people take care of their properties, and I hope that we could see the same in New South Wales, victoria, adelaide. The reason why I hope so much is because you won't have people outbidding each other by $250,000, $300,000, hundred thousand dollars, creating these inflationary prices. At the same time and I'm going to finish on this note I want to see the government allowing more builders to enter the market with less regulation, to be able to build more dwellings so people can afford to live in New South Wales again.

Michael:

Yeah, just building on that to close off, victoria, I think, is on that track A hundred percent. All their prices are going down, the growth is going down and the rent is going down and investors are becoming less interested, which is great for the people that actually live there.

Joe:

That is exactly right. So let us know what you think about WA's rental reforms, and let's finish off on that. My name is Joe. That is definitely some schmo.

Michael:

Don't listen to a word I say

Joe:

and if you need any help with your finance, visit us at www. itssimple. com. au Almost forgot my own website there. You can also reach out to us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and we hope you've enjoyed this episode.

People on this episode

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Joseph Daoud

Co-host
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Michael Lozina

Co-host