Bruce Brammall - Debt Man Walking: A 10-Step Investment and Gearing Guide for Generation X

Contents

First published in 2009 by Wrightbooks

an imprint of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd

42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064

Office also in Melbourne

Typeset in 10.5/15pt Syntax LT

Bruce Brammall 2009

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Author: Brammall, Bruce

Title: Debt man walking: a 10-step investment and gearing guide for Generation X / Bruce Brammall.

Publisher: Richmond, Vic.: John Wiley & Sons Australia, 2009.

ISBN: 9780731408351 (pbk.)

Notes: Includes index.

Subjects: Generation X Finance, Personal.

Financial security.

Saving and investment.

Dewey number: 332.02401

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Cover design by Popomo

Cover image shutterstock images/Timothy Large and shutterstock images/Robyn Mackenzie

Image on p. 17 Corbis/Deborah Feingold

Image on p. 33 Newspix/News Ltd

Image on p. 53 Corbis/Sygma/Collection Spitzer

Image on p. 75 Universal/Celandine/Monty Python/The Kobal Collection

Image on p. 107 Corbis/Neal Preston

Image on p. 123 Touchstone/Warners/The Kobal Collection

Image on p. 153 Corbis/Bettman

Image on p. 175 Universal/Gordon/The Kobal Collection

Image on p. 193 Corbis/Sunset Boulevard

Image on p. 217 Constantin-Bavaria-WDR/Warner Bros/The Kobal Collection

Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and neither purports nor intends to be advice. Readers should not act on the basis of any matter in this publication without considering (and if appropriate, taking) professional advice with due regard to their own particular circumstances. The author and publisher expressly disclaim all and any liability to any person, whether a purchaser of this publication or not, in respect of anything and of the consequences of anything done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether whole or partial, upon the whole or any part of the contents of this publication.

Dedication

It is possibly the same for other Generation Xers, but every time I hear or read the word dedication I cant stop myself singing Dire Straits Walk of Life.

As the rest of this book is about reliving memories, I might as well open the book by pinching a couple of lines. Next, from the mouth of Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire...

To my family Genevieve, Edward and Amelia You complete me.

Acknowledgements

Unlike children, books cant happen by mere accident. With two of the former and three of the latter (as of 2008), I can speak with some experience there. With a book, you dont get to wake up one morning, wonder a little, pee on a stick and get confirmation that an end product is coming. The kind of book that goes to the printer is not a random one-in-a-billion event.

Books are not the result of the collaboration of a union with just one other person. Im pretty sure 80s political crusader and morals campaigner Reverend Fred Nile would have had a coronary if the number of people who helped create this book were actually in the same room helping to create a baby. Theres a cast as big as Band Aid singing Do They Know Its Christmas?

My darling wife, Genevieve, Ive been spelling team with a u in it. This book wouldnt exist right now were it not for your support. That said ...your lack of 80s music knowledge is both funny and incomprehensible. Did you never listen to songs being back-announced on the radio? How does someone get to know everything about the singers, but nothing about the songs they sang?

To my children. To Edward, who was just 16 months old when the manuscript was finished, The Wiggles isnt the answer to every music question Daddy asks (but more useful than most of your Mums answers). A helpful answer might have been: Hey, Dad, the blue and purple Wiggles were part of The Cockroaches and they sang .... That your fourth ever word was book is very encouraging for an author dad. And Amelia, this entire manuscript was written after we knew someone was coming but before we got to meet you, you gorgeous little girl. Thank you so much for not arriving too early.

Years in the thinking, this book probably would have stayed years off being written had it not been for Kristen Hammond, acquisitions editor at Wiley. Kristen chased me with another concept that didnt grab me at all. But her enthusiasm about my Generation X concept was very encouraging. Kristen, thanks for gritting your teeth, not giving me both barrels and getting through the contract negotiations without your head exploding. Your guidance, encouragement and early editing role were important to the books evolution. That we have such similar memories of the 80s is freaky.

Thanks to everyone else at Wiley and Wrightbooks, but particularly editor Catherine Spedding, Georgie Way, Katherine Drew and Brooke Lyons.

When it comes to unearthing the memories of my youth, I cant decide what is more disturbing: what I had personally forgotten about the 70s and the 80s, or what Gens friends and my friends could remember. Im still searching for laws that would allow me to have my parents retrospectively charged with culinary crimes for apricot chicken casseroles. The memories that werent my own came from a treasured list of people my Gen X brains trust who contributed with their own memories of growing up.

Naturally, as back then, there is a boys team and girls team. And judging by their responses, they grew up in parallel universes. My boys team was, largely but not solely, connected to the Tossers Indoor Cricket Club. Thanks to Simon Smith, Andrew Probyn, Steff Pettit, Tony Spark, David Pringle, Rob Clancy, Brent McMillan, Brendan Cahill, Jonathon Evans, Rohan Christie and Steve Kerr. The team led by Gen was made up of Felicity Hamilton (I was searching for an idiot and you provided the father of them all Frank Spencer), Michelle Coffey, Zoe Kanat, Kimberley Clemens, Sophie Paterson, Liz Wilson, Madeleine Seletto, Edwina Webb, Katie Flockart, Celia Purdey and Odette Kerr.

To the technical readers: my cousin, Danny Brammall, for reading the whole thing and only occasionally reminding me that he knows a better way; Mark Longworth for lending his insurance expertise; and superannuation guru and Eureka Report colleague Trish Power for advice with step 10.

Thanks to Max Prisk for his kick-ass contribution to the back cover, Popomo for the cover, Tess McCabe for Debt Man corporate designs, Herald Sun photographer Jay Town for the back cover shot, and Kate Jungwirth and David King from EKM Legal for work on my contract.

Thanks also to my brother-in-law Nick Lally for his Yoda-like timely and sage advice (The answers you seek lie offshore, Debt Man) that led me to find my Man in Montevideo, Marcos Mark Skayff Scaianschi, who perfected the calculators for the website < www.debtman.com.au > and, as it turns out, ironed out a crease or two in the book.

To the partners Spiros Livadaras, Peter Mattmann, Leonie Ladgrove and Kostas Livadaras and the rest of the crew at Stantins, thanks for your ongoing support.