Personal Blog of Karen Wheller http://www.karenwheller.co.za Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:32:47 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.karenwheller.co.za/blogpost/how-to-avoid-electricity-arrears-and-reduce-consumption.html It has been made public and final that Eskom has been approved a 31.3% increase in electricity (http://www.prepaidmeters.co.za) tariffs from the 1st of July 2009. This is less than the 34% which Eskom asked for. Eskom asked for an interim increase of 34% in tariffs until it finalizes its’ financing plans. However, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) approved only 31.3% at this time and also reduced the time to 9 months for this interim increase. The decision for 31.3% constituted 25% increase that was project by NERSA in 2008 and 6.3% on inflationary count. The 6.3% inflationary count is lower than Eskom expected. When Eskom submitted the requested it calculated inflationary count at 9%. The increase itself is really 4 times higher than the current inflation rate; hence it stands to reason that both consumers and businesses are very unhappy about such a large increase. That said it is to be remembered that some municipalities will put an additional markup in addition to these increases, which in effect makes the increase in tariffs even greater than the 31.3% which is only the increase that Eskom was approved. The 31.3% also included 2 cents per kw/h environmental levy on non-renewable energy... blog - blogpost Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:00:00 +0100 http://www.karenwheller.co.za/blogpost/landlords-negatively-affected-by-electricity-price-increases.html In May the South African media announced that Eskom Holdings singed a loan agreement of 530 million Euro, which is about 6.1 billion Rands for its’ capital expansion program. Since 2007 many have said that electricity (http://www.prepaidmeters.co.za) may increase in the next few years by as much as 60%. With Eskoms new loan developments it all makes sense why such assumptions could turn out to be very accurate, or even a very low estimate. It was also mentioned that the loan is supposed to be paid back over a period of 12 years, but that said, it looks like consumers will start paying for this immediately because it appears that Eskom has hopes of finalizing an integrated funding model by the end of its current financial year and has, in the interim, requested a 34% tariff increase from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) for 2009/10. blog - blogpost Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:00:00 +0100 http://www.karenwheller.co.za/blogpost/treoc-way-cover-story-on-fm-by-ian-fife.html In the FM Cover Story was The New Paradigm the Treoc Way is Down. You can read it here: THE NEW PARADIGM The Treoc Way is down [had to remove the link because FM removed the article]. My only question is: why did it take so long for people like Ian Fife to voice this? Treoc has been around for a very long time and Robert Kiyosaki in one of his visits to SA told Coert Coetzee the system is doomed to fail (because of the large shotfalls etc.) At any rate, I hope investors that burnt their fingers in this learnt a few lessons and will carry on building property portfolio in a sustainable way and those that didn't invest yet, have tons of lessons to learn from the past several years to ensure they don't make the same mistakes as others did. There is nothing for free out there, not even property to buy for free, no matter how many claims and systems some gurus sell to the public. In my opinion any person that wants to invest in property should invest first in themselves and learn about this asset class and learn financial management before they even... blog - blogpost Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:47:14 +0100 http://www.karenwheller.co.za/blogpost/residential-property-market-is-still-on-its-way-further-down.html It was brought to my attention that there are even more predictions about real estate going down for another 2 years or more. Can this be true? As with any prediction, it can be true as much as it can be wrong. But, in essence for real estate / property (http://www.propertyinvestornetwork.co.za) investors that have purchased correctly – this does not matter at all. Never did and probably never will. Sure any investor can buy one or two wrong properties in their portfolio that don’t make much money, but one “sour lemon” has never been the “end of days” for any property investor. Unless, of course there is the “but” again, and the “unless” again…. those are the only properties that the investor holds. Then this could be a big problem. So, why in essence it doesn’t matter where the market goes? Read More: Real Estate Still Going Down in South Africa (http://www.propertyinvestornetwork.co.za/articles/property-investing/residential-property-predicted-to-still-go-further-down.html) Property Investor Letting Workshop (http://www.propertyinvestornetwork.co.za/campus/blog/property-investor-letting-workshop/) Calculating Residential Investment Deals (http://www.propertyinvestornetwork.co.za/campus/blog/calculating-residential-investment-deals/) Commercial Property Investment (http://www.propertyinvestornetwork.co.za/campus/blog/commercial-property-investment/) Mastering the Installment Sale (http://www.propertyinvestornetwork.co.za/campus/blog/mastering-the-installment-sale/) Mastering the Buy-to-Let Offer to Purchase (http://www.propertyinvestornetwork.co.za/campus/blog/mastering-the-buy-to-let-offer-to-purchase/) Getting Started as a Property Investor (http://www.propertyinvestornetwork.co.za/campus/blog/getting-started-as-a-property-investor/) blog - blogpost Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0100 http://www.karenwheller.co.za/blogpost/can-you-become-financially-free-fast-with-property-investing.html Investing in real estate is not a new path to financial success. It is a well worn path and it is so well worn because it is such an effective way to make a great deal of money in a relatively short period of time, if you buy in the right time – more about this just now. But you have to be a forward thinker to make any serious money in the buying, selling or renting real estate. The objective is to buy low and either sell high or have loads of rental income that you can live on for the rest of your life. That means that you must have the knowledge and understand markets extremely well and a few other things such as simple legal concepts and some tax and structures etc. Some will say that you have to make educated guesses. I say you have to know your market and be knowledgeable enough to make sound and educated decisions. There is always risk in any decision, the world does not work in 100% absolutes, but what would you rather risk 100,000 or 1,500,000? It doesn’t take much thinking to say that 100K is far safer to risk... blog - blogpost Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0100