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You’re 27. Settling down with your girlfriend and thinking about marriage. You have both just moved into your first home that is a great investment for the future. Property is safe, and with the help of the First Home Owners Grant that the government offers, you have managed to get a $26,000 deposit after paying your stamp duty and other fees. Not bad on a $300,000 house! It’s a relatively small loan by today’s standards, with just $274000 owing to the bank.

I’ve been harping on about the house price crash for a long time now and basically the only people that believe me are my beautiful fiancee and my future brother-in-law. I think he does anyway..

You don’t have the believe me, but just consider the possibilities after buying your house:

1. You lose your job almost immediately. Don’t say it can’t happen. Private enterprise is on average firing 10 to 15 per cent of their staff. While production line workers are losing their jobs, many high income earners are too. Lawyers, finance workers, those of us in IT. No skill-set is exempt, although some are more resilient than others.If you lose your job, what happens next? Do you have enough in the bank to make your next repayment? Banks are less lenient with renegotiating loans at the moment. Non-performing loans affect the banks’ credit rating, so they aren’t going to scratch your back if you’re not scratching theirs.Then what? You can sell up, and you may lose $10,000 as you have to sell quickly. Things could be worse though…
2. It’s the end of 2010 – house prices crashed over the last year and a half. You and your now wife worked hard to pay your loan down and the principal is sitting at $267,000. Only problem is that your “$300,000 property” is now worth $240,000. The full value of the government grant has been lost (and then some), and it looks like things will get worse with future house price values dropping in the future. If you keep your job it’s not ideal – you’re paying off a loan that is bigger than your property is worth. Don’t say it doesn’t happen – 1 in 5 home owners in New Zealand with a mortgage are in this situation.
3. The crash has happened, but now you’ve lost your job. You and your wife have no choice but to move back in with your family and the house has to go. It’s sold for less than the market value at $215,000 as a quick sale is needed. You now owe the bank $52,000 and have nothing to show for it. Many others are declaring bankruptcy. It’s a hard decision to make though.

Now while all of this might be a complete farce, it might be entirely possible.

On the flip side, what is the worst case scenario about waiting to buy a house? House prices may not crash (although I don’t believe this), and you probably won’t lose your job, but unless you have nowhere to live, there is no benefit of buying the house early. Prices won’t go up unless there is a new First Home Owners Scheme and it is bigger than in the past (which I doubt, as the Government will just run out of money, and as soon as they do there will just be a bigger crash), so you aren’t going to ever “miss out”. Now is the peak of the market.

I realised a few years ago that I like to be well insulated. By that I mean I like to avoid possible issues or conflicts, and I do this by planning around these situations. While my fiancee and I bought land a few years ago, if I knew what I knew now we never would have. I was one of the sheep who listened to our parents and it seemed like a great idea at the time. The property is acreage, and we will live there one day, but for the mean time we are happy to live with my family and pay off as much of the loan as possible. After two years we expect to have paid 90% off of the principal.

My only suggestion is for others to do the same. Stay away from debt when you can see the storm coming. Don’t buy high and sell low, do the opposite. Now is the time to save and do your planning. When the storm passes, be ready to get out there and use your preparation to set yourself up.

Aside from your family and close friends, nobody cares about you in this world. Don’t let yourself be burned by the media, government, real estate agents and so on. Do your own research, don’t dismiss people like me who tell you to look at your options, and make an educated decision. Take care in your decisions and insulate yourself from being burned during this recession. After all, if you make the wrong decision, you are the one that will be wearing it!

Do you ever just need something to get you motivated again after you’ve been in a bit of a rut for a while?

Admittedly I haven’t been in a rut lately, I’ve been much more awake and “with it” than normal really. However over the last week or so it’s been raining a fair bit, and it’s been hard to sneak in a quick ride to get my fix. I made the decision yesterday that after I spend this week getting organised, I’ll be back on my riding schedule regardless of the weather.

This morning I woke up and decided to ride to work anyway. Usually if I’m in a rush I will ride half way, and then jump on the train to get to work as quickly as I can. It’s still enjoyable but it’s all a bit hectic and you don’t get to take in the world around you as much. Today I rode the whole way and just took my time. Got a few “good mornings” from others and said “hi” to a few passers by. It was a nice ride in, and after an hour and 15 minutes of riding to work I was really happy.

Sometimes we plan a lot for the future – major plans. Some people are overweight and want to get completely buff. Others are just finishing school and want to be rich enough to have a mansion and a Ferrari. Clearly these sorts of plans are big tasks and are going to take some time and effort. But what about in the mean time? You might be happy once you’re buff but are you going to be happy in the mean time while you are trying to get there? Will your attitude in the mean time sabotage your long term goals?

The quick wins are the small things that can put a smile on our face.. Even if it is just for 5 minutes! They keep us happy and motivated, and ready to tackle something else.

My example for today is riding to work. I was having trouble getting motivated to ride to work up until now, but on the bike today I’m just so re-energized and ready to go!

Make sure in your life plan you include some quick wins. Who knows what they might be… It could be a goal to cook a new meal. Maybe a challenge to do an extra 5 push-ups. Anything!

Use your quick wins to stay positive and motivated, and keep you moving towards your long term goals.

It’s been pouring for the past week, and while the rain stopped last night, this morning the cold set in. There was a frost on the front lawn which for me is a telltale sign of it being truly cold.

I’m giving myself one week to get sorted for winter. I’m a bit disorganised this year as I’ve had a few years off from commuting year-round, but now it’s time to get it all started again.

My bike is pretty much perfect for the winter commute. It’s single-speed so cleaning the drive-train is easy, and there are less parts to replace when they wear out. I have an awesome set of lights to use when I need to – two for my helmet and two for the handlebars. It’s like daytime when I use those things!

One thing I am missing though, is mud guards – known as fenders pretty much every where else in the world. I had some on an old bike that I had but sold that a few years ago. I should be able to get these by the end of the week with some luck. Fenders are the difference between being covered in crap from the road, or being clean when you get to work. Not all that “cool” but there are times to accept function over form.

Keeping warm and dry is another thing. I’m fairly well organised here, but really need some long knicks for the winter.

For those thinking about commuting during winter on their bicycle, I’d suggest the following:

• A weather proof drive-train (single-speed or internally geared rear hub)
• Mud guards (fenders)
• Quality lights to see and be seen with
• A backpack with waterproof outer layer
• Quality waterproof jacket
• Winter clothes – depending on how cold you have the options of gloves, skull cap, base layer gear, etc.

There are more things to think about, but to me these are the basics. Riding in winter is really empowering. Not being beaten by the weather makes you feel really good about yourself, but it is hard to get started. Next week I’m tackling the beast. No excuses.

About two months ago I read “The China Study”, and came to the conclusion that I should be eating a lot more fruit and vegetables. While I try and eat as well as I can, I believe that one of the main reasons why I don’t eat as much fruit and veg as I’d like is because of the quality that we get at the shops here in Adelaide. What concerns me is that apparently we have it pretty good here! It must be very hard for some people to eat well in places like London.

I came to the conclusion that starting my own veggie patch was the go, so my family can eat that bit healthier and hopefully we can grow some better tasting food too.

I found a spot in the yard that has three retaining walls around it, and purchased some straw-bales to lay across the front to act as another retaining wall. After filling it with organic loam we now have a raised bed. For the past two months I have been composting all of our organic waste with some straw and soil and that is going quite well. Unfortunately the rain got into it over the past few days but I have since sorted that out to keep it a little drier and warmer during the heavy rain season. While a slow process, composting your scraps will produce a great organic fertilizer for your plants and is well worth the effort.

Last week I bought some seed trays and planted broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts in it. After just one week I have some very strong looking seedlings. After another couple of weeks I will transplant these into the vegetable garden. Direct into the ground I have now sown carrots, lettuce (mixed), silver-beet, spinach and snow peas. I will encourage the snow peas to climb up the fence using wire.

My tips for starting a veggie patch are:

• Unless you have great soil, starting with a raised bed is much easier. Buy some organic loam to get you started.
• Compost all of the organic waste you have. It’s free fertilizer and is made by nature. It’s the best for your crop!
• Do some research as to what to grow and when. Gardenate is a great website for this.
• Start small and enjoy the process rather than feel the burden of a massive veggie patch. Go bigger when you are ready.

Sort of following on from my post the other week, “The Great Outdoors”, spending the time outside in the garden has been really enjoyable. Maybe because as a kid I was always outside – my dad was a landscaper and loved working in the garden – I would always be outside helping my parents in the garden.

Working with the environment just charges me up and gives me so much energy. Watching the plants grow is an exciting process and very rewarding too. It’s little “wins” like this in life that makes me a happy person. Try it for yourself. It’s a bit of work getting setup but well worth the effort.

I just spend the past half hour laughing my head off at a series of hilarious videos on College Humour. Work has actually been a ridiculously big let down today but I don’t care now that I’ve had a good chuckle.

I’ve heard people say that “laughing is good for the soul” before, but I’ve never really given it much thought.

On the whole, my fiancee and I are happy people. Things rarely get us down and on the whole we are fairly resilient people. I really think that a lot of this comes from the laughs that we have together and with others. As a couple, we are always joking around the house and saying funny things. We joke around with our family, and now that I think about it, our circle of friends is slowly turning into a group that can take a joke, rather than people that will always take your jokes the wrong way.

Obviously there’s a time and a place for some good laughter, but sometimes you just need to look on the bright side of life and have a chuckle. It costs nothing, it’s portable and anyone can do it! Laugh a little.