We bought a 25 acre block, I don’t know, maybe 10 years ago. There was no stamp duty on the block or on building the house, but I guess things could have changed.
I, like you, came from nothing, but it did me the best favour. I had to economise or literally starve. Still, all my life, I try to live my life the old fashioned way. I detest waste. Every item of furniture in our home is vintage or antique, passed down through our family.
I think the only new things are our bed, fridge, washing machine and some new bedding. I hate new things, they are not made properly and we live in a plastic, throw away society.
We have lent our kids, some of them anyway, money. But we had a line of credit and they paid the interest. We had no spare cash. But particularly the youngest daughter, bought and did up crap property with a loan from us, she made money on all of these. We helped with the Renos and had great fun.
But now we have sold the farm, not for a fortune, we want to gift them something. One cheeky Grandson rang us up from England and asked us to “lend him some money” as his boss was thinking of selling his landscaping business. Me, the one with the business head. Told him to do due diligence on the business, find out why he was selling and if he came up with a good proposition, we would “lend him the money” at the interest rate which we would pay. He went very quiet after that lol. He is an irresponsible young man, honest to God. His suggestion of a loan was basically a gift, no way would we do that.
He has now found a woman in her mid 40’s, he did not fancy having any kids, he is late 20’s and wastes all his money after work at the pub, ridiculous.
Oh well. That is the attitude of some of the younger generation nowadays.
