topic Re: Risk taking in Community Spirit

Risk taking

martinw-48 — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 21:49:49 GMT

I'm not a gambler.
I don't buy Lotto tickets.
Cham recently said that those who own their home could take out a line of credit to capatilise on the current market.
As someone who has failed at everything they've attempted except for achieving home ownership I feel it would be stupid to risk my one success to achieve something that doesn't drive me anyway, gaining money.
More money would be great but I have more money now I'm not paying for the roof over my head.
My girlfriend spends $100 a fortnight on Lotto.
I know she's had two big wins totalling fifteen thousand but in the ten years I've known her that's cost twenty six thousand.
In my mind I'm eleven thousand in front

Re: Risk taking

martinw-48 — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 21:55:56 GMT

Thing is this is actually something I can't do anyway because when I had my heart attack I added my sister to the title to prevent unscrupulous members of my extended family from making any claim on my house and she won't let me borrow against the house but I'm still interested in what others think and would/are doing

Re: Risk taking

davidc4430 — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 21:56:38 GMT

gambling is a mugs game, for every 'winner' there has to be a zillion losers

they dont just give money away

Re: Risk taking

springyzone — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 22:13:29 GMT

I agree with you. Don't risk the roof over your head.

I only own one property but have a friend who has something like half a dozen investment properties and a couple of others she owns outright.

She never risks their home. When she is going for another loan, it is one of the other properties that is on the line.

Personally, if i were you, I would never borrow against your home for money. Buy only what you can afford in cash. That's pretty well how I live, anyway. I don't have the latest in cars or furniture or anything but what i have is mine and I can sleep easier knowing we have no debts of any kind. It frees up money too when there is no mortgage.

Now re lotto. I consider myself a bit of an expert there.

I ran the Tattslotto syndicate at work for 20 years.

There were about 35-42 people in it each year and we all put in $1 a week.

I bought tickets that were approximately to that value, just slightly under actually. It is hard to do it exactly to the cent as prices on tickets are odd amounts etc

But anyway, we had a little win about every 4-5 weeks. Div 4 or 5. So maybe $12-$30 back for every $140-$180 spent? Something like that.

Tattslotto is like poker machines. They are tweaked to give a certain percentage back in prizes, it is a mathematical principle. So even if you put in $1 and get 80c back, you might feel good but actually you've lost 20c. Then if you continue gambling, inevitably, you will end up losing it all. Unless you are one of the statistically very rare species that wins a first div. That's what everyone hangs out for though, isn't it!

In all my 20 years of spending $35-$40 a week, we only ever had one bigger prize, a div 3. That was about $1500, from memory and we got it twice (system ticket I think).

Tattslotto is fine for a little flutter with friends, as long as you know it's a mug's game & you're probably giving away your money. A superannuation savings plan it is not.

Yes, you're $11k in front. If you had $50 a week to spare and religiously saved it in a special account, you'd be much better off.

Re: Risk taking

springyzone — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 22:19:38 GMT

By way of a PS about Lotto.

Because the work tickets came to slightly under what I was being paid, plus we had some winnings through the year, in Dec I would add it all up (deducting the cost to pay for tickets over the Xmas holidays) and then divide it between syndicate members.

Usually it came to about $20-$30 per person.

Staff were absolutely rapt with that, coming as it did just before Christmas. But of course, they had spent $52 a year to get that.

But, I had a lot of very happy people on my hands at the end of the year.

Re: Risk taking

martinw-48 — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 23:21:13 GMT

So springy, what you've said pretty much supports the old adage that it takes money to make money.
Of course like any rule there's always the exception

Re: Risk taking

ecar3483 — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 02:48:16 GMT

Using the house as collateral doesn't sit well with me.

It's like jumping out of perfectly good, working airplanes, ha ha.

If it works for you, I'm happy to stand on the sidelines and applaud, politely, but it's not something I could see myself doing.

For some people it's an unacceptable risk, for others it's a golden opportunity...

Now if you'll excuse me I've got five bucks riding on how long it'll take a cockroach to climb a wall...

I could come out of this with twenty bucks...

I'd be in the money! (And I'd probably end up blowing the lot on groceries, ha ha)...

🙂

Re: Risk taking

brerrabbit585 — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 02:56:36 GMT

I don't know whether they do reverse mortgages in Australia but you'd be better off with one of those than borrowing money against your home. They wouldn't suit everyone but I've thought about enquiring myself. When I get the pension I'll have a lot more money and could pay it back again, assuming you can do that. If I can't, I'd still rather have the money to use now than to live like a pauper just so my heirs can have a good time squandering everything.

Re: Risk taking

brerrabbit585 — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 03:01:05 GMT

Doesn't 45% (at least) of the money put into tattslotto get kept by the govt to put into the hospital/medicare system? It could be a higher figure now but I'm sure it was 45% years ago. I tried to tell someone this back in 1990 but she refused to believe that the odds were stacked against her and that on average people could only ever expect to get back half of what they put in.

Re: Risk taking

icyfroth — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 03:05:32 GMT

@martinw-48 wrote:
I'm not a gambler.
I don't buy Lotto tickets.
Cham recently said that those who own their home could take out a line of credit to capatilise on the current market.
As someone who has failed at everything they've attempted except for achieving home ownership I feel it would be stupid to risk my one success to achieve something that doesn't drive me anyway, gaining money.
More money would be great but I have more money now I'm not paying for the roof over my head.
My girlfriend spends $100 a fortnight on Lotto.
I know she's had two big wins totalling fifteen thousand but in the ten years I've known her that's cost twenty six thousand.
In my mind I'm eleven thousand in front

Martin. Mate. To each their own.

Cham does things his way and he lives a full, interesting, and to him, enjoyable and fruitful life.

You do things your way and are living your life to the best of your ability. Reading your posts, not too enjoyable, but hey, everyone has play with the cards dealt them. I get that.

If I were you, I wouldn't be risking the house either.

Re: Risk taking

icyfroth — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 03:06:38 GMT

Anyway. I won $18.00 in last week's Powerball.

Re: Risk taking

martinw-48 — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 03:09:25 GMT

Brer, I've been getting by on a low income since '93.
My house is worth very little.
Purchase price was twenty thousand.

Re: Risk taking

the_great_she_elephant — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 03:13:17 GMT

I was supposed to win $15,000 in a raffle yesterday, but somehow they must have overlooked my ticket.

Mr. Elephant and I own our own home and there's no way in the world either of us would consider usng it as colateral on a loan to play the stock market.

Re: Risk taking

icyfroth — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 03:24:05 GMT

@the_great_she_elephant wrote:
I was supposed to win $15,000 in a raffle yesterday, but somehow they must have overlooked my ticket.

Mr. Elephant and I own our own home and there's no way in the world either of us would consider usng it as colateral on a loan to play the stock market.

Totally agree. Neither would I.

There's enough homeless ppl living on the streets, or in their cars thank you very much!

Re: Risk taking

debra9275 — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 03:31:02 GMT

@martinw-48 wrote:
I'm not a gambler.
I don't buy Lotto tickets.
Cham recently said that those who own their home could take out a line of credit to capatilise on the current market.
As someone who has failed at everything they've attempted except for achieving home ownership I feel it would be stupid to risk my one success to achieve something that doesn't drive me anyway, gaining money.
More money would be great but I have more money now I'm not paying for the roof over my head.
My girlfriend spends $100 a fortnight on Lotto.
I know she's had two big wins totalling fifteen thousand but in the ten years I've known her that's cost twenty six thousand.
In my mind I'm eleven thousand in front

we have an "open line of credit" against our house... we took it out years ago in case we saw another property we wanted to buy, but instead I used it investing in shares.... most of the shares I've sold.. ( we still have some left) and we still have a very small loan on that account... but i wouldn't recommend it to everybody as the banks charge a much higher interest on these loans

reverse mortgages are probably OK as long as you don't intend to pass your house onto children... as ultimately the bank will own your house ( to the extent of the money you've borrowed against it in a reverse mortgage),

Re: Risk taking

kopenhagen5 — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 03:31:20 GMT

A bird in the hand.................................

Re: Risk taking

lionrose.7 — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 04:32:13 GMT

I bought a $30 ticket this week because powerball was $50 MIL

I only get a ticket now if it is a big one.

2 people won, not me 😞

Re: Risk taking

shoppingbag* — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 05:31:59 GMT

My rule is to never ever risk the roof over your head. I believe in Murphy's Law (whatever can go wrong, will go wrong) It is a wonderful secure feeling to own your own home. Most get rich quick schemes are high risk or scams and even if not, why risk your most important asset?

Re: Risk taking

kopenhagen5 — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 06:07:24 GMT

I didn't win either lion...............................but I guess I need to buy a ticket.

Then again I won $20 by not buying one.

Re: Risk taking

martinw-48 — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 06:33:27 GMT

Same here kopes