can anyone shoot any holes in this ?

question is somewhat tongue in cheek, as i know there will be different opinions

firstly, i've just joined the site after lurking for a while as its time to take control of our family finances. To date, we've just been doing the paying off the PPR thing, and i am also a shareholder in my employer (privately owned business).

We have 320k equity in our PPR and in are now in the process of refinancing with a transactional offset account + equity loan to allow us to use some of the equity for investment purposes.

We've been looking into the IP thing, and my gut feel is that things are a little overheated there, and while we would grab something if a bargain came up, we arent just going to enter into the IP thing for the sake of it, and given that we already have exposure the residential housing market in the back of my mind i like the idea of diversifying somewhat. We are not interested in Trading, and really see ourselves as passive investors.

So i am leaning towards the below plan :

- use equity loan (6.7%) to invest in ETFs (Australian Shares) with a small minimum investment (say 20k) and monthly additional investments (5-10k?). We would be prepared to invest 100-150k in this manner. We would also potentially buy some direct shares (to 50k max) in addition. (i have yet to research our best way of entry...either timing the market, or DCA - i am leaning towards the latter)

- share holding will be in the lowest income earners name (the missus). The equity loan will be in joint names, as is the PPR loan.

- we will continue to repay home loan interest and principal (offset account), but just not as much as we did in the past, the interest on the equity loan will be deducted from what we would have paid on the PPR loan, and the remaining amount will go on to PPR.

My thoughts are that its a realitively safe approach, we arent looking to get rich quick, and just want a good return over the long term.

So what do you guys think, is this a reasonable plan for the semi conservative investor? from an income standpoint, we are able to meet our PPR P&I requirement (having PPR fully offset in 10 years, based on 8% rates) with about $600/week left over to service the equity loan.

 

A couple of points straight up -

1. You can't get away with having the investment loan (equity loan / line of credit) in both names and the share holding in one name. If you did then you could only claim a tax deduction for the interest on the falcon-gentle's half.

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Since she is the lower income earner, this is not the most effective method (at least in the first few years when the investment is negatively-geared).
It may be simplest to have both the loan and the shares in both your names; in the first few years you are not getting the maximum possible tax benefit of the interest deduction, but further down the track when the dividends are out-stripping the interest, you'll be in front... and in the very long term (retirement!!) you'll be income splitting.

2. The equity loan should be interest only and all your surplus should go into the offset account to work on the non-deductible interest of the PPoR loan. (Given your risk profile, paying interest only is a good option... lower risk than capitalising interest).

I see no problems with the ETF approach if you intend to be a passive investor, just take the dividends and put them into your offset account (definitely not the equity loan!)... this way you'll pay down the non-deductible debt faster and maximise the long term tax benefit.

Regarding timing of the share purchases, if you're looking long term then you could consider mixing market corrections with DCA... eg put in $2k per month and then additional $10k each time the market corrects 10%.

 

Great input Rod_WA, thanks a lot for that. Makes a lot of sense.