Airport Transfer: Starting and Ending The Journey

With value for money in mind, I would think at least 4 main considerations below:

1. Who you traveling with ?  Any children or elderly on your group?
2. Luggage: the less luggage the mobile you are…
3. Time available: do you have that extra 2-3 hour, for example, to travel with normal city bus ?
4. Convenience factor: how much comfort you want to enjoy to start/finish your holiday?

Remember, traveling with family, just yourself -or- with your extended family could spell totally different decision in term of the best airport transfer you can choose – even from the same address..

Take The Bus

The cheapest of all, but the most hassle and inconvenient of all. You probably spend less than $10 for each person each way but the inconvenience at least 3 fold:

1. It usually involves multiple bus ride: for Sydney Airport there is only bus route 400 that you can hop in/hop out at the airport terminal.
2. No baggage/luggage area on the bus
3. The time needed is enormous: 2-3 hours is not unusual as the bus can stop in all those bus stop.

Furthermore, it will not always be available at odd hour. For example your flight is 6am in the morning, how do you catch a bus at 2am?

Take The Train

Train supposed to be the best alternative in and out from the airport as it’s not only much faster (dedicated rail, no jam, reliable time schedule) but also can carry thousands of people at once. If train is fully accessible for you, by all mean, this will be the best alternative. Train got enough space even if you travel with big luggage.

However the fare will not be as cheap that you would think. At the moment the far is $15 one way. It will take around 1-1.5 hour from Parramatta station to the international airport.

Take Taxi

From Parramatta, expect to pay $70-$90 one way on normal traffic. That’s $35 per person if there are only 2 passenger.

For family of 4, $80 taxi ride will cost $20 for each – not that so much difference compare to train ride, but very big difference (better) when comparing any other factor. So for family of 4, Taxi is one of the good alternative. Just beware if traveling on peak hour – the meter will eat your money by the seconds…..

For more than 5 person, there will be some kind of surcharge even if you got the mini-van taxi. So for $80 ride, you will need to pay say $120 (1.5 x) and so on.

Traveling with children? taxi that has 2 booster seat for 2 or more child-passenger will be hard to get. You need to specially book it.

Shuttle Bus

Shuttle bus can be regarded as “cheap taxi”. As you will be picked-up/dropped-off at your address with small fraction of the cost. It’s flat rate at about $20 each person (depends on the address). However the annoying difference compare to the taxi: you might happened to be the first patron to be picked up, so you will do merry-go-round around the town to pick up all other 30 patrons from many addresses. Ouch… better watch out.

So as long as you have plenty of time, this method of transportation is good for 1 or 2 people (value for money) -or- group more than 6 (who need to get 2 taxis) – but for family of 4, taxi will be still better.

Drive and Park

You can just take your card with you and your family to the airport and the car is just waiting for you on the way back. Convenient!, but it really depends on the parking scheme that you need to pay. For example: some parking company (park and fly) charge $50 for up to 3 days, then a weekend trip to Gold Coast will cost you $50 and you just have to pay the petrol you consume. This is the cracker deal. But imagine if you need to go for 26 days. At $10 per day, you will be looking at $260 – better catch a taxi isn’t it ?

With more and more competition, a few weeks from your departure, especially in holiday season, check the website of these company if they offer a “cap deal”. For example at this moment (Dec 2010), Park ‘n Fly offer $148 cap (maximum that have to be paid) for travelling on this holiday season (between Dec 2010 and Jan 2010) – with that price, why bother paying taxi?

1 way Rent a Car

Other alternative is to just rent -a-car for 1 day. Do this with big company: Hertz, Avis, Budget, Europcar, etc where you can pickup the car on the nearest branch and drop it off at the airport. Some charge “1-way rental” fee (as you did not return it to where it get picked) but some are not – check your shop. With this you probably can get away with around $60 (including petrol top up) one way for 4-5 people. That’s cheap! ($10-$15 each one way). You can get even cheaper by denying to pay the increased insurance – as the risk is low (no overnight, just 1 drive, etc) but nobody could predict the unexpected.

Driven By Limo

I guess the word “limo” or “limousine” here is a little bit misleading as it’s not always meant a stretch limo (as pictured) – it could be as simple as  a chartered car with the driver (but not taxi).

Perhaps for your surprise, hiring a limo sometimes is even cheaper than taxi.

A luxurious Holden Caprice from Parramatta to Airport can be hired as little as $89 and this is flat rate (taxi will cost you fortune if there is traffic jam, while airport transfer limousine hire is point to point contract). For family of four this is better alternative than taxi – not only it’s flat rate, but the level of comfort and “cool” factor is high.

The stretch limo costs at around $230 one way from Parramatta to airport. Compare this with “maxi taxi” of $170 that I took . I would bet $60 is very cheap as a cost to impress your in-law!! Also, if you are traveling at peak hour, not only it will unleash your joy with those spacious leg room, TV, and leather upholstery, you probably save a little fortune that you will spent inside those crammed taxi ride with the meter. And what will be more bang to kick-start or finish your holiday compare to fully stretch limo ride? (for only a mere $60!??)

Driven By Friend/Family

On dollar value, if you have a friend or family that will drive you to the airport (and even pay for the petrol themselves) then you are the luckiest air-traveler on earth! Especially if they are the one who offer and insist the service – But consider several courtesy/etiquette for the favor:

• offer to at least to reimburse the petrol cost: estimate the distance (use Google Map!), divide by 8 (assuming 8km per liter) and multiply by price of petrol on the day and don’t forget multiply again by 2. Remember he/she need to go back home So, if the distance is 40km, it will consume 5 liter of petrol one way, so you need to reimburse at least 10 liters x price of petrol.
• pay all the add on cost on the way: toll road, parking cost, fine (if he/she got booked), the meal (if involve one)
• you need to buy him/her a souvenir/give of significant value as token of appreciation during your holiday

Conclusion

In the nutshell: (excluding driven by friend/family) – if you travel by yourself or just with your wife/husband – shuttle bus will be your best alternative. For family a rental car would be the best alternative. For extended family or group, rental car or even hiring a limo could be your best alternative rather than mediocre crammed taxi with nothing special.

Note for those travel with kids: a child seat/booster is usually extra cost.

Bon Voyage !!

p.s: what is you favorite airport transfer? Share it with us below…

One of the negative effect if the living cost is relatively very high compare to other city in Australia. Although Sydney is still in top cities in the world to live in (rank 10 according to 2009 Mercer Quality of Living Survey), there are significant price that you need to pay to call yourself “Sydneysider”.

Beautiful Sydney Harbour

Note: all cost will be calculated to yearly figure (1 year = 52 weeks) then all converted to monthly figure.

The Biggest Continuing Living Cost: Accommodation

As bachelor (student included), you cheapest alternative is to “share accommodation” with other bachelor/family. This usually a bedroom for yourself and share everything else (share kitchen, share lounge room, share bedroom – if your bedroom is not equipped with bedroom) – all electricity gas and internet broadband usually included in the weekly rent.

A share accommodation near university or city will cost you on average about $300 per week (highly depended on all the “perks” included).

As couple with or without family, the cheapest accommodation arrangement is to rent 1 bedroom unit (“unit” means “apartment”) or 2 bedrooms unit. In Sydney, the common rental market will be “unfurnished” property – meaning the unit will be rented without furniture. The one usually included in the rental are: kitchen cupboard and stove, dryer, dishwasher(not always) and washing machine (sometimes) only. The rest, you need to buy for yourself and move it along with you as you move to new address. The contract is minimum 6 months (you cannot break the contract unless you pay the whole period or find replacement) – but usually 12 month is the norm.

A decent 2 bedroom units around 30 minutes drive from city cost you on average about $400 per week.

Fully furnished apartment is not common and if there is, usually you will pay premium – beside the hassle that you will be liable if you damaged the furniture.

One bedroom apartment is relatively cheaper than 2 bedroom, but they are harder to find, hence the difference with 2 bedroom usually only $20 – $30 per week which make you consider the 2 bedrooms unit more spacious and has more value for your money.

Renting a free standing house is generally will be around $150 per week more expensive compare to unit. But you have your own backyard/frontyard, can have pet (dog, cat), better lifestyle (you can have BBQ every week with friends), etc

To rent a property you will need to go to a real estate agent (exist almost in every corner of business center), fil some forms and provide 4 – 6 weeks rental as deposit/security or “bond money“. Some reference check and official ID. The payment is weekly or fortnightly in advance.

Buying an apartment/unit for migrant will be a more difficult unless you have the money to buy it outright or just borrow small portion of the money. Currently, thanks to the Global Financial Crisis, you will need roughly 25% of the price to cover for deposit and cost. Meaning, a $400,000 2-bedroom units, you need to have $100,000 cash in a bank and borrow the rest. Then you need to show proof of income (Australia’s employer), proof of saving, credit history, etc. And you need to be permanent resident or citizan. Otherwise your purchase need to be approved by FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) – means: more cost and paperwork.

For more detail estimate of your particular area/suburb, you can start with http://www.domain.com.au/ or http://www.realestate.com.au/

Utility Bill: Water, Gas, Electricity

If you rent a property, the water bill is paid by landlord (so you don’t pay water bill) – but you still need to pay electricity and gas. Some older unit don’t have gas service which will be a disadvantage as gas is cheaper than electricity. Mainly during winter where you need to have heater. Gas heater will have significantly lower running cost compare to electric heater. The same applies to stove for cooking. Choose unit with gas if possible.

Gas and Electricity are billed per quarter (every 3 months). For gas it would be about $100 per quarter (depends really on usage) and For electricity is around $300 per quarter.

For more detail about Electricity and Gas you can start with AGL., Energy Australia or Integral Energy.

So here is the comparison so far:

First Capital Expenditure

Now that you have a place to live, then you need to look at one off capital expenditure that you need to buy.

First of all will be furniture: bed, dining table, some chairs, study table, cupboard and sofa. That’s basic item that you need to have. For 2 bedroom apartments, you can fill out your empty units with as low as around $2000 (check out Fantastic Furniture home starter package) but the quality will not the very best. You can buy more decent basic furniture for about $5000 for 2 bedrooms.
(At UK you can check and get a lot of home furniture at connecthome.co.uk: Shop online for a wide selection of home and office furniture, kitchen appliances and gadgets at low internet prices and fast home delivery service – connecthome.co.uk)

Next to furniture is some electronic basic item that you will definitely need them: TV, Fridge, Vacuum Cleaner and some kitchen goodies.

The other item that really important considering Sydney is a very big place and the public transport – although much cheaper than last year now – thanks to new myzone ticketing system – is still not up to scratch. Having a family car is not a luxury in Sydney – perhaps more a necessity. To see more detail about having a car in Sydney, read: Sydney Living Cost 2010: Car Ownership Expenses

Food & Groceries

If you cook most of your meal by yourself (or your spouse), then family of four (with 2 school kids) will need at least around $500 monthly. Dine out will cost you around $10 – $15 per person. More fancy restaurant can cost you around $25-35 per person. So, with 2 dine out a month you need to spare at least $100 extra.

In Australia, although duo-poly from the 2 major supermarkets: Woolworth and Coles Supermarket still a dominant factor, many smaller player especially Aldi (soon: Costco) have already giving consumer much cheaper grocery prices.

Transportation Cost

If you have a car , the cost of transport is roughly around $6000 per year – see Sydney Living Cost 2010: Car Ownership Expenses – The public transport has been quite overhauled for the last 3 month or so – now with around $48 per week (or around $2000 per year) per person, you can basically do unlimited travel around Sydney metropolitan area. See MyZone ticketing system. Of course it could be cheaper depending on the method of transport and area that you want to travel.

For this article, I assume within a family a parent will drive a car and the other one use public transport.

Entertainment

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Next Page >>>

Entertainment

The fact that Sydney is quite expensive should not prevent you to enjoy live. Go out to the beautiful beach such Bondi, Manly, Coogee, and many other will be the cheapest option as probably you just need to pay for the parking and your lunch. Going to the cinema to enjoy the latest movie will cost you around $20 per person (not including beverage/snack). Kid go to “playland” (Lollipop, Clown Town, Jitterbug, etc) will set you back about $15 per kid.

I suggest to spare at least $150 a month for your family fun.

Internet and Mobile

Internet connection is getting cheaper. With $50 you can get unlimited download (it’s actually 130GB full ADSL2+ speed and 1Mbps shapping after that – 1Mbps shapping is practically very fast , hence can be consider unlimited – see TPG). For mobile phone, there are literally hundreds of plan out there, one of the value is to have post paid contract for 24 months with $29 cap per month that will be more than enough for most people. Three have such plan with very good handset free.

Education Expense

For you with kid on school age education expense is something that you need to be considered. While public school is free, Catholic school will charge around $600 per quarter and private school can charge much much more than that. So, beside the school fee, be prepare to spare at lease $500 per kid per year for uniform, stationary, excursion, etc which is extra from school fee.

For you with kid under 5 years old, you need to pay the expensive child care service to look after your kid while you are at work. Or alternatively one of the parent need to be at home (not working) to look after the kid. The rate of child care center is about $75 a day. The government will refund 50% of them (until certain limit) – so, you need to have enough cash flow while waiting for the quarterly refund. For the calculation on table I will put one school age kid and one under 5 kid.

Additionally, you might need to pay about $25 “after school care” per day, if you cannot pick the kid about 3pm (15:00) from school. This service is also 50% quarterly refunded.

Health and Tax, Health Insurance (Optional but highly recommended) and Other Insurance

Australia is one of the country that has high tax. Average Australian will pay at least 30% of salary to tax office. The maximum is 45%. So, if you are employed with $60,000 p.a salary, expect only take around $40,000 home.

But with the high tax, come the benefit: if you are permanent resident that live more than 2 years in Australia – with some condition, of course – you will be eligible for social security payment (or “dole”) if for some reason you are unable to work. And the best part is: medical facility is generally free.

If you feel sick and need to see a doctor (General Practitioner), just go to a clinic that do “Bulk Billing” and you will pay nothing for your visit. The same thing apply for more serious matter as operation / surgery, etc. Just show your “medicare card” – Medicare also over delivery and other hospital services such blood work, etc. Unfortunately medicare did not pay for your medicine (although some is subsidized). So, prepare to spend around $200 per year to all this cough syrup, panadol, some ointment, etc…

For non resident, say tourist – expect to pay around $150 to visit a doctor and thousands of dollar just to spend a night in a hospital.

So if all medical bill will be generally free, why we need to purchase private health insurance ? Some of the important reasons:

1. If you don’t have private health insurance, the government will charge 1.5% extra from your income as “medicare levy”. So, with $60k p.a you will pay $900 extra tax. If a health insurance for family is $200 per month, total $2400 – then you don’t have to pay that $900. Yes, you still have to pay additional $2400-$900 = $1500 per year for insurance, but rather than giving $900 for government, it is better spend it for your own benefit.
2. You are covered for emergency transportation. The medicare will cover your hospital bill, but if you need helicopter to transport you in emergency you need to pay that helicopter bill – as well as normal car ambulance. If you have private health insurance, you don’t have to worry about this.
3. You have additional “benefit” for day to day health related expenses such as: spectacle or contact lenses, remedial massage, physiotherapy, podiatrist, chiropractor and dentist cost. Although highly depended on the “plan” that you sign up with, these “perks” is quite worth it if you use some of the mention above. For me, since both me and my wife wear glasses, go to remedial massage from now and then, occasional physio due to sport(mostly golf) injury, some chiro treatment for bad sleeping position, regular dentist visit, etc, this “perks” value to more than $1000 per year.

Other insurance that you might want to consider are income protection insurance and trauma/life insurance (especially if you have mortgage) – but as starting point, just use income protection ans life insurance you can pay with your superannuation account. (Your employer will pay 9% – soon will be 12% – compulsory contribution, you just need talk to the superannuation company to start your insurance under the account)

Summary

Above is the summary of all discussion in this article. Note on the last row is the salary projection that you need to ear to cover the expenses assuming 30% income tax.

If you just arrive in Australia for the first time, expect 2-3 months before getting decent job. For some reasons, if your experience was just from overseas, it will be quite difficult to find similar job in Australia. Usually it takes 2 step behind to go 1 step forward. So, in term of money, prepare at least 3 months full cost plus the capital expenditure on your first arrival.

Once arrive in Sydney, first thing you do after a good night sleep in hotel is: go to bank and open account there. The big 4 banks in Australia are: Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and National. Where you open the account is immaterial as you can withdraw and do any other service on different bank. The 2nd step will be securing your home – find a rental place !

Yes, it’s not that cheap to live in Sydney – considering also Australian Dollar is now almost in parity with US dollar. But it’s better to prepare more than living miserably in a great city.
See you in Sydney, soon !

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Reducing our footprint in the environment

Taking easy position ? No, absolutely not. I will explain why below and once you read, I would think that most of you will agree with me. Let’s find out…

Is there Global Warming?

This is the easiest: Yes, there is. It does not need a scientist to prove this one as it is quite easy to show and experience it yourself.

Average temperature goes up, ice in sout and north pole melted, sea level drifted up, morning is not as chilled as 10 years ago, and so on.

The global warming or in more general term “climate change” does exists and real. There should not be any more debate on this one. Yes, there is global warming / climate change.

Is it caused by human?

The skeptic and the believer of global warming can do the debate endlessly and fiercely, but there will never be absolute answer.

I like to use this analogy: go to local beach, taste the water. It’s salty, right? How about we try to make sea water sweet. (Yes, I know – saltiness has nothing to do with sweetness, I don’t want to make it less salty, just to make it sweet) – Let say I will put 100kg sugar on my beach. Will the water become sweet? Is there any impact of the environment ? Well, right after I put 100kg of sugar, surely the water near the location will be sweet, but a few seconds later, the amount of sweetness will not even can be tasted anymore. The sugar is the polutant that correspondent to the polutant human cause to the earth. The sea is compared to the earth itself.

My answer of this question will be: no. I don’t think the global warming is caused by human. Yes, there will be some impact due to human activity,  as there will be impact when I pour 100kg of sugar to the sea, but since it’s too tiny compare to the sea itself, the impact is very minute if not neglectable.

Our earth not to tell our solar system or universe, is significantly too big for human race. Any impact of human activity will be too little to be significant.

On the other side of coin, even if we do something about it, how do we know the impact is significant enough to affect something real? Remember at this moment, human race with all of its knowledge and tools, still not be able to conquer a storm or hurricane. Storm or hurricane is notably local or maybe regional, but certainly not global. What make we so confident that something that human do will affect the global condition of the earth, while we can even do anything that is in much smaller scale?

Two (2) other significant factors that also cannot be ignored:

1. Other planet, such Mars, also showing increase in global temperature. Well, there is no human there ….
2. Don’t forget Ice Age.  A few millions year ago there was a time where ice is everywhere. Obviously all those ice is melted due to some increase temperature isn’t it ? But there was not really too many human at that time? Why it still had the “global warming”?

So, should we do nothing?

Absolutely not. The same thing like that 100kg sugar into the sea. We know it will not impact the sea in general, but can we just randomly throw 100kg of sugar from time to time? No, of course – it’s not right.

The key is: just do what’s right and common sense will prevail.

In more technical term: try to reduce or minimize your footprint in the environment. That’s it.

We know that aerosol is not natural to be in the atmosphere, so if our air conditioner can use something else that’s not poluting the air (regardless of the effect) – that’s  common sense and something that right.

The same logic apply to all other measure: plant a tree for every car sold , use alternative cleaner energy rather than just burn that filthy black coal, use more efficient car to reduce pollution, etc.

Then, what’s the boundary?

In my opinion, the boundary is the limit of goodwill of human nature. As long as something that we do still give you warm fuzzy feeling that you are doing the right thing, keep on going. But if we move to some drastic measure that make everybody suffers, then probably just forget it. Easy example: if reducing 20% carbon pollution by 2020 is consider big thing that need some serious sacrifice and many people will suffer, then forget it. Maybe 10% reduction is already much better than nothing.

At the end, what written above is just my opinion. Who really care about my opinion? Maybe, no one.. but those above said and done, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

If you see some stock chart already, don’t worry this article is not about share trading.

Hindsight vs Foresight

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, hind·sight is perception of the nature of an event after it has happened. On the other hand: fore·sight is an act of looking forward. For easy example let see what happen here:

a Stock Chart (2 years span)

(I intentionally hide both axis to make it as anonymous as possible-but the span is 2 years) Say, point “B” is now. Then your investment of $10,000 made on point A 2 years ago, worth around $13,000 now. (33% from “90″ to “120″). This is the hindsight: the investment made 30% profit in 2 years.

Now, you are in point B will you take your investment or let it run for another 2 years ?  Well, if the next 2 years the investment will be still going up, of course then you will let it run or even put some more money in, but if it’s going to be down you will take it out. But how do you know? Nobody knows. So, how you see the future is the make the decision. Take a pick, now!

Now, let fast forward another 2 years

The chart for 2 years further

The next 2 years, the investment go up for another 16% (“120″ to “140″ :point “C”). So, if you decided above that you will let it run, you have another $2000 profit. If you took it out, you “miss” this $2000.

So, if you “guess” right, now your investment worth around $15,000. Then the same question will arise. What to do now? Let it run? or Took it out? Take a pick !

Now, let fast forward for another 2 years

The chart for another 2 years further

Well, as you can see, should you hold the investment for another 2 years, you have burn all the profit as the investment go back to “90″ level (point “E”). But if you exit just in point “D” (“150″ level) then your $10,000 6 years ago is now around $16,000. But who knows ? That’s the benefit of hindsight.

With hindsight, you can easily say that we should sell on point “D” to get the maximum profit. But as you can see above, it is impossible to know it exactly before it’s happen. (What you should actually do in this case, well tune in to  http://sharetradingbyme.com and you will know the answer.)

(BTW, the chart is the famous S&P500 index from 2003 to 2009 – the complete chart is below)

sp500 index:2003-2009

Make Hindsight Your Friend

Foresight Will Make You Money

I hope at this point you understand fully why you see all those disclaimer “Past performance will not guarantee future performance” on any investment / manage fund ads, because it does not. But on the other side, do not underestimate the hindsight for the fact that it has happened already.

Classic example: There is another recent news that say the property in Sydney has doubled again for the last decade. And people will murmur. “I wish I had that property 10 years ago, it was only $150,000, now it’s $300,000!” Well, that’s the hindsight isn’t it ? You don’t know at that time.

OK, let’s do it the other way. A friend tell you “Hey, you should buy that $500,000 in the corner there, by the time your baby 10 years, it will worth $1 million dollar.” The typical response will be “No way it’s going to be worth $1million” See, that’s the problem you know that within 10 years it can double $150,000 to $300,000, right ? Then what does prevent $500,000 become $1million within the same time span?

What we can do is to make “hindsight” a history lesson. Make hindsight as “something that might happen” or possibility and hindsight will become your best friend.

So from above example the history lesson will be: investment can go up and down, 30% return for 2 year is possible, but 60% loss in a year is also possible. So with this knowledge, what should you do ?

Make Up Your ForeSight

Based on whatever knowledge you have, make a decision what will more likely to happen. Nobody will really know, but you need to decide one. Without decision there will be no action. But once you make up your foresight, i.e: pick or guess what you think will happen, stick on it and act on it.

Then take responsibility. if it goes wrong, it is your own fault because it’s your decision – not somebody else. At least it is your own decision based on the knowledge that you have.

On the other side, if it turns right, it’s because of you and you only – not anyone else. You will be proud of yourself.

In all aspect of your life

The discussion above is not only about investment and share market, it’s about everything in your life. Wants example?

• Should I buy petrol today with price $1.1 /liter today ? or should I buy it tomorrow, maybe it’s going down. Yes, but what if tomorrow the price go up? Go undecided? you cannot afford to, your car will need refill some how. If you think (guess) that tomorrow it’s going to be more expensive, then assume that and buy now. If not, then buy tomorrow.
• Is my boyfriend/girlfriend good enough? What if tomorrow I will meet the right one ? Yes, but what if he/she is the best available already. See no body knows, hence made up your mind. If you think (guess) that he/she is the one marry him/her and stick with it.
• Should I accept this job-offer or wait another month ?
• I should cancel that trip so that accident will never happen – Duh, who can tell?
• If I know I will get diarrhea, I should not eat that meal…
• etc…etc…. you can go on forever

So, without the benefit of the hindsight, you just need to make a decision right here right now, based on the knowledge and “gut feel” that you will adopt. Commit to it then act on it. In severals you will make it wrong, but on others you will make it right. That’s life!

Of course what I am talking here is a Personal Computer (PC)

First and The Foremost: The Processor

Regardless of your purpose for computer,  for play games, running engineering/scientific simulation, play multimedia/movie, or just for typing and general use, the most important component that you need to decide first is the Processor.

Processor -or- Micro-processor to be more precise, is the brain and heart of your computer system. This component is the one determine almost every other component that need to be bought and install in the system. So, as first step you need to short list your processor.

There are only 2 major Processor brands at this moment:  Intel http://intel.com and AMD http://amd.com

At first Intel was the one making the Processor and AMD just clone it. But these days, although Intel still in domination, both company is fighting head to head in advancing the technology. Most processor made by Intel, there usually be the alternative made by AMD.  In general AMD is cheaper than Intel, but since Intel is the market leader, some people chose to go with Intel for better peace of mind. The quality and performance and reliability are similar.

So, go to their website and spend sometime to check what processor is on offer currently matched with your need.

For Intel, they have a page called “Find Your Right Processor” to help. Just choose “Desktop Processor” and currently you will be given 4 choices: i7 Extreme, i7, Quad Core and Core Duo. So basically, “Core Duo” have 2 “core” (processing unit), and the rest has 4 cores. Just by this page you start your process of elimination: single core is out to dtae , maybe also double core. Then probably to last good for quite length of time, you need to go to the one with 4 cores. There are 2 alternatives: i7 or Quad core. You probably don’t want to choose the “Extreme” one since it just paying premium for the same technology – it’s probably the fastest but you probably don’t mind wait a few milisecond more but getting better price, don’t you ?

Then go deeper by getting some of the model number of the processor:

• Quad Core: Q9550, Q9400, etc…
• i7 Core: i7-920, i7-940, i7-940

Define Your Budget

After you know various processor number, you need to define your budget: how much money you will put for this upgrade (do not include monitor, printer or other external unit – just the tower/CPU – Central Processing Unit)

This is quite important step to prevent you “getting emotional” and got carried away with further process.

Research Ebay

The next step is to research Ebay. Go to Ebay http://ebay.com.au (or your country’s version). Just type processor number and “PC” and you will get various offer that you can bid or purchase. This step is not advising you to buy from Ebay or not, this is just to do the market price research. You need to know in general how much is the complete PC based on the processor that you chose above. Use tracking file to compare one another.  For example you can use the spreadsheet here: Excel Version / Open Office Version

Of course you can get some price snapshot from other website or shop, but consider Ebay is where the market all flock into, it will be a good start for your research.

You should be warn that there will be countless configuration that can be on offer, for example: this seller offer 3MB RAM with 1.5TB HDD but the other only 6MB RAM with only 500GB Hard disk, etc. Hence, the spreadsheet above will help you together with the component price (discussed below) to get comparable price among each other.

Finalize Your Configuration

With some info of complete PC above, finalize your configuration / specification:

• How much memory you want?
• What motherboard model you need?
• What casing you want to use?
• How puch power supply you need?
• What and How big the hard disk ?
• Any Operating System (buying operating system during upgrade is the cheapest as it qualifies for OEM price)
• Any special cooler / fan needed for CPU or casing ?
• Any other accessories wanted?

Note to be taken here that unless you know exactly the part/ technology and its variation, combining one part and other just because you feel that’s the best could lead to some compatibility issue. So, you should start with something that has been tested – which is – the configuration reveal by all those seller you compare above.

Check Component Price

Once you finalized your configuration, it’s time to check individualy the price of each component. It’s really important as you will know whether it’s cheaper to just buy from Ebay or store (sometimes!) or assemble yourself and learn (and proud) from it. Here some Australian computer supplier that is well known for their bargain price:

• http://www.itestate.com.au/
• http://www.msy.com.au/
• http://www.pcdiy.com.au/
• http://www.fluidtek.com.au/ (look for some daily combo bargain!)

If the part that you need is not sold by them then either it is too exotic and not common, or it is too early to try to get it (still very new). Either way if you cannot find the item listed by any of those site above, you might do some Googling and find it elsewhere, but expect pay some premium.

Hunt that Parts Down

So, the final part before you actually start the assembling process is : to hunt all those part down ! Take a few days or few weekend to collect all correct part before you start, and get ready to make your own computer !

Hope this helps. Good luck with your research and computer upgrade plan !

Either for upgrading or getting a brand new one, assembly your own PC is not that difficult. You don’t have to be geek or computer expert, just basic understanding and reading this series of article, you will find that it is not that difficult. It will make you proud to yourself and save a bit of money on the making. Of course, if you are computer enthusiast, probably this skill is a must have one.

This is exactly why computer business is spreading like crazy, it is just not difficult. But hanging there could be difficult, as so many competitor on the market, the shop need to slash profit margin to just get order, hence not many survive that long.

The Fundamental

The technology in computer world is really still lighning fast. Meaning the most advance technology today could become obsolete as early as next year. Or on the other way around, something that very expensive today, could be very cheap next year.

Hence, to prevent a frustration that you always be behind (e.g: your computer seems so slow and sluggish) then you need to “future proof” your purchase of new computer. It does not mean that you buy the most expensive thing in the market, no – absolutely no, but you need acquire the latest technology but don’t pay premium (I’ll come back to this later on example below). The goal is to make your new computer survive for the next 5 – 6 years. You might be paying 30% extra compare to if you just buying what is “good enough” today, but it will prevent you to purchase another new one just to keep up.

For example: having memory of 256MB on your computer 5 years ago will be very good. But these days, even 1 GB is not enough for some decent application. Now, if your motherboard cannot really handle more than 1GB, then you don’t have a choice but getting a new motherboard (hence, new processor, etc, etc) – But what if this particular motherboard can still take up to 4GB, then you just buy a new memory chip.

This is what I meant, 5 years ago to buy 512 MB probably will cost you $500 more, but purchased a motherboard that can take up to 4GB could be just $20 different. If you just buy the double memory 5 years ago, you were paying premium . Why? Because the price of memory chip is significantly cheaper over time.

Another example: 5 years ago, having 80GB harddisk in your computer will make people gasps. The “average” was around 40GB or even 20GB. But at this point, having 500GB harddisk is just a norm. If you push to have even 120GB HDD 5 years ago, then you were pauying premium. But , how about if you just take a motherboard that can have up to 4 HDD, then whenever you needed you just add another one.

Purchase or Upgrade a New One

My recommendation, as long as you can still upgrade your computer (just replacing some component with better one and still works) then no need to purchase the new one. In this case you will get the most value of your money.

If upgrading is not really possible or too much hassle, then better concentrate on taking a brand new computer from scratch.

For example: my current computer is roughly 6 years old now (Athlon XP 1800+ on Soltek SL-75DRV5 on 1.5GB memory) – It was a good 6 years running, but at this stage I find it difficult to further upgrade it. For a start, it refuses to recognise 1GB SDRAM (even the low density one) hence I am stuck with 1.5GB from 3 slot. Then lately I keep getting random BSOD (Blue Screen of Death from Windows) with high degree of certainty that it was not cause by software, virus/trojan or even memory. I have changed the Power Supply Unit (PSU) – my reliable Zalman 350W – suspecting those leakage currents from motherboard need more power. It helps a lot and reduce the BSOD significantly, but still not realiable.

The problem is I am doing some live index trading on share market among other things that reliability is paramount. It’s not funny at all when your contract is running and suddenly you need to restart the computer due to BSOD. It could caused thousands of dollar lost in few minutes.

So, after thoughtful consideration, I decided to purchase a new one and make my self the best trading computer at deep discount. The current computer, still running well less some reliability, it a perfect computer for just browsing the net or computer learning for my 5 years old.

So, here is my first step: research the current market.

Strange Idea For Some

For some people, especially from countries where labor is not expensive, the idea of child care or day care could be something foreign. The middle income family (and above) can aford to hire private baby sitter or nanny that sometimes also lives in with the family providing 24 hours care for the off spring.

With this “luxury”, when both parents need to go to work, the children can be left home with their trusted private nanny. Not only that, it is not uncommon for a family to have domestic aider that also usually lives in the home. Hence both the children and general duties are well taken care of.

Imagine that every time you go home, you go home to a clean home, clean children with dinner ready to be serve.  And again, this is just a particular middle income family.

Unfortunately, not for us…

In Sydney where we live (and many other places on earth), having private nanny is something that is very expensive that can be afforded by the super rich only. I would say to have such nanny at least you need to pay that person around $50,000 a year. With both parent working and the average house hold income is around $90,000 a year, then having a nanny is totally out of the question.

Child Care/Day Care is the answer

Average child care/day care in Sydney currently will charge around $65 a day or approx $17k a year. Furthermore, the government – motivated to encourange people to have children for the economy work horse – will give the big help with 50% of the cost up to $7,778 per child per year from their “Child Care Rebate” scheme.

So, a family with 2 children will incure a cost of $34k a year, less $15k+ rebate, a total of $19k. With income tax at 30%, then as long as the salary earn by the secondary income earner exceeds $32k, it will be better for him/her to go to work. (Note: minimum wage is at about $28k – further info check http://www.fairpay.gov.au – university fresh graduate, depends on the field will usually earn at least $45k)

Many Other Benefits

Beside financial reward, I would find by having sent both Clara and Tony to child care when they are 6 months and 2-month year old myself, there are some other advantages:

1. The children learn to socialize. Having friend and enemy, playing, fighting, crying, laughing together, like and dislike certain peer, etc. The kind of skill that will be needed in the real life.
2. The children is exposed to the essential local culture and custom – which may be different with what we do at home.
3. The children is exposed to many viruses and bug. This might sounds negative, but many significant research have concluded that the earliest our immune system is “exercised”, the more benefit it is for the adult life. Longer life is one of the good side effect.
4. The children is also conditioned for school. Once they jump to the real school, children that is from a child care will generally more ready and perform better from those that don’t
5. The children get used to meet and stay with people other than mom or dad. And not totally dependent to their parent. Something that good for their social growth.
6. Having only limited interaction with your children, week end become more special. You can’t wait to play and hanging around with your children on week end

Of course the item above is not all the benefit, you could find something unique from your own.

So, for you that lucky enough to have other family member who can care for the children, maybe it is a good time to consider at least 1 or 2 days a week for your children to attend the child care as “pre school” activities. I would say you will not regret your decision.

Choosing child care/day care.

First the the foremost important of selecting child care is peace of mind. You have to feel good and trust the child care/day care. You need to be comfortable with the people, the location and the current attendee. Just trust your gut feeling. Without this, you will not have peace of mind and will induce guilty feeling and other negative stuff.

After that then you can consider the technical aspect. How many meal is provided, do you need to provide your own nappy or not, is there any special requirement that need to be noted, etc…

One tip that I can recommend is try to select child care that is close to your work rather than close to your home. Why ? If it’s close to work, you don’t need to start too early and leave work too early to drop off and pick up your children compare to if it’s close to home. (Of course, need to be decided first: close to mom’s work or dad’s work…:-) )

Final Words.

So, if you consider to go back to work, just do it… Let the child care/day care helps you. it’s good for your children anyway…. Good luck !

p.s: some asked which child care I use, for first few months Clara attend a K.U center, but then we move to Bountiful Early Learning Center (BELC) until she went to school. tony also goes to BELC.

2010 Version Published !!! >>>

Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge

1. Accommodation

Sydney is one of the most expensive in the world in term of accommodation.  A decent 2 bedroom unit for family with child with at least about 15 minutes drive from the city or university will cost you around $350 per week for renting. This translate about around $1500 per month.

The rent usually is unfurnished, and the main items that you need to cover are refrigenerator, TV, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, microwave

If you decide to buy your home the 2 bedroom will cost you around $350,000 mark.

For more detail estimate of your particular area/suburb, you can start with http://www.domain.com.au/ or http://www.realestate.com.au/

2. Transportation

Having car in Sydney or Australia in general is not really cheap. Despite the fact that you can buy a decent used family car for around only $7000, the yearly cost is quite expensive: around $200 for registration, $350 for mandatory insurance, another $800 for all-risk comprehensive insurance and further $750 for service and maintenance. Petrol is around $1.20 per liter but fluctuate daily. Roughly you will need about $150 per month for petrol. So, total about $325 per month

Go about with public transport is not very cheap either. The weekly pass that cover most of Sydney cost about $55. That’s more than $200 for 1 person.

For more detail information , visit: http://www.131500.info

3. Food & Groceries

If you cook most of your meal by yourself (or your spouse), then family of four (with 2 school kids) will need at least around $400 monthly. Dine out will cost you around $7 – $10 per person. More fancy restaurant can cost you around $25-35 per person. So, budget at least around $500 per month for your food & groceries.

The 2 major supermarkets can be your starting point: Woolworth and Coles Supermarket.

4. Utility Bill

Phone, Internet and Electricity/Gas will be mainly the one you pay monthly. Fixed line line phone will cost you around $40 with average usage. Add that with 2 mobile phones cap plans for around $30 monthly. Then the decent ADSL internet connection could cost you around $50 monthly. (A new decent desktop PC is around $800 if you want to buy new computer)

Add to that quarterly electricity/gas bill around $250 per quarter ‘normal’ use.

Total for utility bill will be around $200 per month.

For further detail you can start with http://www.three.com.au for mobile phone or Telstra for land line and TPG for internet connection. For Electricity and Gas you can start with AGL.

5. Medical Expenses

If you are not Permanent Resident or Citizen of Australia (who entitled of Medicare – Australian health care system), then you have to have health insurance to cover potential health expenses. The insurance will cost you at least around $150 per month. A visit to a general practitioner will cost you easily $40-$100 if you don’t have insurance.

But Medicare with its bulk billing will provide this free of charge.

6. Education/Child Care

If you have children below 5 years old, baby or want to have baby, you need to prepare that cost of child care is ridiculously high. It will be around $60-$70 a day that’s translate more than $1500 monthly. Government will give 50% discount at the moment with some eligibility test, but you need to pay that amount upfront before return to you every 3 month. So, it’s a trade off that you need to assess whether to work (and cop the child care cost) or take care of the kids yourself (and miss the work opportunity)

For primary school/high school: public school is almost free (just some petty charge involve: uniform etc). If you want to enroll to Catholic School it will cost you around $600 per quarter depends on the school. But private school can be very expensive with at least $1000 per month.

So, if you have 2 school kids, probably you need to budget around $500 per month.

7. Entertainment

The fact that Sydney is quite expensive should not prevent you to enjoy live. Go out to the beautiful beach such Bondi, Manly, Coogee, and many other will be the cheapest option as probably you just need to pay for the parking and your lunch. Going to the cinema to enjoy the latest movie will cost you around $20 per person (including beverage/snack)

I suggest to spare at least $100 a month for your family fun.

Final Words

For overseas migrant, one final item to remember is that the tax rate in Australia is relatively high. If you earn $35,000-$80,000 per year, you will pay 30% tax. The highest rate is $45%.

If you are looking for job, the first Australian job (if you’re from overseas) will be the most difficult one. But If you’re not that picky, usually you should be able to find yourself a job within 3-4 months.

So, the summary of living cost can be seen on the table above. Prepare yourself around $3,500 monthly budget with around $9000 for immediate spending as described and you will be at least far from inconvenience.

Hope this helps…

2010 Version Published !!! >>>

This time, totaling $42 billion, the money will be distributed as 5 different packages:

• Tax Bonus for Working Australians of up to $900 paid to every eligible Australian worker earning $100,000 or less. This will support up to 8.7 million individuals. The detail is:
  • A $900 bonus will be paid to taxpayers with taxable income up to and including $80,000.
  • A $600 bonus will be paid to taxpayers with income exceeding $80,000 to $90,000.
  • A $250 bonus will be paid to taxpayers with income exceeding $90,000 to and including $100,000.
• $900 Single Income Family Bonus to support 1.5 million families with one main income earner.
• $950 Farmer’s Hardship Bonus paid to around 21,500 drought affected farmers and farm dependent small business owners receiving exceptional circumstances related income support.
• $950 per child Back to School Bonus to support 2.8 million children from low- and middle-income families.
• $950 Training and Learning Bonus paid to students and people outside of the workforce returning to study to help with the costs of education and training.

Kevin Rudd - Australian Prime Minister

So, next month, April 2009, if you pay tax last year (who doesn’t?), you don’t need to do anything, the government will transfer the money (or send the check) just like the tax return last year. If the family is single income earner (means, only the father or the mother is the one working, not both), there will be additional $900.

Additionally, if your child is in school, there will be additional $950 per child to help with educational expenses.

For detail information, just directly go to this official site.

Will This Help The Economy?

As we know, for the December 2008 quarter, the Growth Domestic Product (GDP) of Australia has shrinked 0.5%. But economist agreed, that compared to the rest of the world, this figure is really good. And technically, by definition, Australia is still not in recession as it need 2 consecutive negative GDP to call it recession. So whether or not this stimulus can stimulate the GDP , we don’t really know. But as a action from government on “best effort” basis to its citizen, I would call this as a successful one already. The money is much more valuable to be spend now rather than sitting doing nothing in “Future Fund”. Remember, all this money is not debt money. This is a accumulation of surplus of tax over the years.

It might not too big, but imagine additional $4000 for a working family with 2 school children. It makes a lot of difference. It means they will have proper uniform, book, maybe computer. Or even they decide it to spend the money for a holiday, it will enhance the family while boost the economy as well. (Go holidaying domesticly , please…)

True, that some family may suffer more from job losses due to the downturn. But then this new stimulus will means so much more for them. Furthermore, with current social security scheme in Australia, at least these families will not be in hunger.

This kind of happening is really a wake up call for all of us to maintain a financial protection (you need to have enough money in the bank to survive at least 6 months without earning).

Conclusion

Although we welcome with full gratitude the help for government, we need to remember that our financial situation is our own responsibility. Have a millionaire mindset and make sure you improve your own financial situation (Read: Improve Your Finance Position: The Big Picture), educate yourself about finance and money, join a like minded community to strengthen your will and set your financial freedom goal. Remember both property and stock market at its very low, there never been a better time to start your investing journey toward your own financial freedom !

Good luck !