On the Vodafone support forum I was joined by fellow PocketWifi sufferers. There was a posting by M7D Vodafone advisor to load the normally automatic network values with some hard coded values:

Gateway = 192.168.1.1

Netmask = 255.255.255.0

DNS #1 = 203.21.113.40

DNS#2 = 203.21.112.40

Amazingly the hard coded values worked much better. The PocketWifi tended to connect successfully most times, but often I was getting the connection without internet access. Really pissed off, I phoned the Vodafone support. On their terminals the consultant said all should be good. I’d wasted close to an hour turning PocketWifi on and off. The consultant then said I should “reset” the unit. Take the battery cover off and find a sharp pencil to reset the PocketWifi.

With this knowledge, I found that I could fix the internet connection until 5/05/2012 when nothing would help as shown below.

PocketWifi reports no internet access

Next day after moving from East Brisbane to Hawthorne at around 11:45am, trying access Google or Yahoo mail using either Chrome or FireFox browsers failed dismally!!!

The signal level was still 5 bars as I’d had in East Brisbane earlier.

PocketWifi access reports time out

To get a local Wifi connection working, I had to remove the M7D Vodafone advisor hard coded values.
This Optus Wifi works all the time 24/7 without any worries much like the Amaysim broadband driving my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet broadband.

Reboot and disable the PocketWifi, the local Wifi connection works as expected.

Fine, take a drive back down to East Brisbane with the notebook, the PocketWifi connects but doesn’t connect the Internet!

Bugger, drive back to Hawthorne and try again. Everything works just fine.

Either the PocketWifi or local Wifi work without any worries!!!

Why didn’t Vodafone reply to to my forum message where I specifically said the Vodafone network is stuffed?

Why hasn’t Vodafone addressed the PocketWifi trouble at http://www.productreview.com.au/p/vodafone-pocket-wi-fi.html .

So now I just have to figure out how to get rid of my dodgy Vodafone PocketWifi contract.

Dropping the internet has already cost be two $42 online test fees. Brainbench and IKM don’t accept broadband connection dropping so often. They see this and an attempt to cheat the test.

AVOID VODAFONE BROADBAND !!! 

I will definitely get an Optus or Telstra broadband connection next.

Bookmark to:

Employers are now unlikely to provide / encourage training because the that costs money.  So should you think of leaving your current employment, the first thing you should do is update your skills/re-train to the latest fad.

I didn’t do that – just did the spur-of-moment, stuff it and left.

Should have visited Open University or TAFE first.

Very bad idea / action !!!

Your local  impulsive idiot  ;-)

Bookmark to:

Well here in Australia, whilst the country hasn’t been rooted like Greece etal, the country still depends on Europe for exports, tourists and materials.

Thankfully our mate China has kept our resource industry really busy. Behind the seens, China has been buying huge blocks of Agricultural land.

Now to the USA. Sure their reserve bank can print dollars, but doesn’t really help the average american. They’re not buying the Australian Holden cars or visiting our shores like the used to ;-(

The financial turmoil yanks devalued their currency so much so that they have more to get a single Aussie AUD

This mess have increased the number of jobless individuals like myself!!!

The companies that have been left standing have sacked hundreds workers. A good example is Quantas. The maintence staff wanted an increase tracking inflation. CEO said no, strike followed. Workers went back to work to pay the bills rent etc. Now a couple months later they’re been sacked!! Maintenance will now being done outside Australia where labor is cheaper.

With all the unemployed, finding the next job is so much more difficult.

The recruitment agencies – like Hays, Candle, Robert Half  – are now asking way too many questions.

Bookmark to:

Whilst dodging that puddle that’s guarding the driver side you grab the door handle and the f*** door is still locked!!!

Fumbling around for the remote again, the puddle that definitely wasn’t there when you parked the car, invades your sneakers. Jeans are now a mess. The socks are now soaked as the toes attempt an escape through the sneaker air vent.

So with a wet backpack busting your back, the remote gets pressed again and again.

The driver door stays locked.

Bugger! Now in desperation, I took the key – struggled – and finally found the slot that I’d never used since purchasing the Toyota Yaris five years ago.

With the rain still belting down, I started looking for an off street park near my unit.

Parked again, the Yaris remote ignored my wishes again.

Bugger!!!

The sudden loss of remote functionality seemed linked to the battery. Doing some research I found that the car-remotes should last about 5 to 10 years between battery changes.

Since I only use the car maybe once a week, I figured I should be closer to the 10 year interval.

1. Replace the remote battery is easy then supposedly all is sweet.
2. Replace the remote battery and then the remote must be reprogrammed?

So Friday morning I visited the Southside Toyota Service Department in Woolloongabba, Queensland.

They didn’t have a remote battery but could order it for $30AUD. When I mentioned to the salesmen that I really needed my remote, he suggested that I visit Jaycar Electronics Woolloongabba .

I asked for remote battery and got the expected Lithium CR2016 for only $2.95AUD.

From the following pictures should help the first time remote control virgin.

Yaris Remote Control opened up

Now applying a 5mm blade screw driver again…

The coin sized CR2016 battery

With battery replaced, remote light appears but still nothing happens.

The doors stay locked. F***, looks like I’m gonna have to follow the reprogramming steps that were posted by “CTScott” in the forum article http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20865 .

Slightly peeved, I hoped into the car using the actual key. Later I got to the organic markets and pressed the remote lock out of habit and the car locked!!!

Awesome!!!

Then later in the afternoon, I sent remote unlock – great. Got back to the off street park and sent a remote lock.

The Yaris ignored me. Do I have to reprogram or chuck and get a new remote?

Bookmark to:

The captain had said on the PA that only one cruise ship could do this trip at a time. He wasn’t kidding – the cliffs appeared to be within spitting distance !!!

Rocky water edge in New Zealand Fiordland

Along the way, the scenery was absolutely stunning! Next time I should remember to pack some rechargeable batteries ;-(

Fountain running down in the Fiordland

Unfortunately, we had leave the Fiordland for Port Chalmers, 20km from Dunedin.

Bookmark to:

To understand the financial numbers that follow, wrap your head around equity. The equity in the investments are calculated by taking fair market value and subtracting the outstanding mortgage amount.

Taking an investment property for AU$200,000 with a AU$180000 mortgage.

In a nutshell, $180k is controlling $200k investment. The arrangement has a LVR (loan-to-value ratio) of 90% which is possible and reasonably common. A year later in keeping with trends, the $200k is property valuation will be around $210k or more. After another year the valuation will be $220k or thereabouts and so forth.

With this simple example, equity has grown initially from $20k ($200-$180=$20k) to $30k then onto $40k ($220 – $180 = $40k).

Studying numbers above, you’ll notice the mortgage has stayed fixed at $180k.

A fundamental mental adjustment to wrap your head around is that you don’t want to pay off the property mortgage. Real property investors use interest only mortgage payments. Paying off the principle – reducing the $180k mortgage, hurts your cash flow.

Here in Australia there are also tax implications surrounding principle payments ;-(

If you’ve done your homework – research the investment (more than just location, location, location…) – the property is rented at around 5% of valuation or more.

Initially, 5% of $180k has a rental of $9000 per year and at $220k a rental of $11000. Notice how the increase in property valuation has a corresponding increase in rental.

Here in Brisbane Australia, rentals generally increase every 6 months. I hate rental increases, but such is life – my lot ;-(

But we have a mortgage payments, I hear you say!

Mortgage interest on $180k at 7% (average current rate) is $12600 pa.

No worries

There are two schools of thought here in Australia. Positively geared and negatively geared property.

Positively geared means the rental income pays all expenses – mortgage, rates, insurances etc.

Negatively geared the rental income does not meet all the expenses. Whilst this might appear stupid, there are significant tax benefits if choose this path.

How often do you hear tax and benefit used together in one sentence?

The expenses not met by the rental income decrease your 8 to 5 daily grind taxable income. There is also depreciation (visit Depro for a property schedule). Here in Australia, you can also lodge a PAYG income tax withholding variation (ITWV) with the ATO. This reduces your weekly or fortnightly tax giving you the funds required to meet the expenses not met by the rental income.

The current example property will turn cash positive in the sixth – seventh year.

But you don’t want that situation. As a positive income approaches, it should be invested into the next property investment. Acquiring finance – mortgage – for the second, third property etc becomes easier. The banks understand that you are on a mission to acquire multiple properties, so the banks are generally there help so that they get their monthly interest cut.

Once you have acquired couple properties, the mortgage payments rental income positive differential will be sufficient to fund a line of credit (LIC).

The funds that you as investor extract from this LIC (Equity Loan) becomes your tax-free income replacement for the 8 to 5 daily grind. The amount that you can extract or want as an income replacement is determined by the number of investment properties that you’ve accumulated.

Property investment mission accomplished

One day when you decide to clock-out, kick the bucket and die, your family can sell a property or two to settle the investment mortgages or continue with process as described in this posting.

Become a property investor, use NLP to fix mental childhood your issues – broken thought patterns etc, then take your first property investment step – loose your virginity

Bookmark to:

There is nothing like a good debt. If you’ve been stupid enough to get into debt, you’re quizzed as to why you didn’t listen to their years of wisdom. Next you’re told categorically that you don’t need that gizmo – toy! Now pay it down that debt quickly and save on the interest. How could you do something so stupid!!!

You’d think that the lecturing on debt only applied while you shared that same roof with the parents. When you’ve “grown up”, expecting to skip this part and follow your journey – own life, but alas even when you’re thousands of miles away, you still receive that long – inquiring – probing – “interrogation” of a phone call.

“So have you paid it off yet?”. Silence is the only cure ;-(

With the childhood mental concrete frame firmly cast, the very first investment property purchase is hell.

But the financial awareness since childhood does have an advantage. The numbers get checked, analyzed. Glossy property brochures and their spin doctors, prophets fail miserably.

The property investment numbers get re-checked until a warm satisfying fuzzy feeling is born.

With the decision to buy an investment property made and the support provided by TIC, the first investment property is settled.

This property selected,  there’s a sigh relief

The initial property purchase wasn’t painful – it was actually an  excellent education.

No longer a property virgin

So when start you acquiring property – houses, units etc – suddenly you want heaps of debt. The more you have, the better you feel.

This is the complete opposite of the parental indoctrination that was promoted, sold, pushed into a child’s growing spongy mind.

Soon you will not be listening to your parents!!!

In the next post, I’ll introduce scary financial numbers and in the following posting I’ll describe how in a couple years you can lead an almost tax free existence with a respectable income.

Bookmark to:

Pacific Dawn top deck with pool, sunbeds and bar

The ship did rock a little, but no more than a Translink bus cornering while chasing the schedule or finishing the last late night service. Finally, trips are always better on the CityCat when it is turned into an overgrown jet-ski.

The rolling movement of the Pacific Dawn would be less if its breath were larger. The Royal Caribbean International Oasis of the Seas – the world’s biggest cruise liner ever built – is 47 meters whereas the P&O ship only has a width of 38 meters. The extra width probably removes the need for the horizontal stabilizers (and increased fuel consumption).

After three days at sea, without land in sight, New Zealand’s South Island Fiordland appeared in the mist.

Gently the ship Pacific Dawn slipped through the cliffs

Bookmark to:

She was mostly always right and that was just the right thing to do

So a day later, deposit paid, I was booked to take a cruise on the P&O Pacific Dawn from Brisbane across the ditch to New Zealand.

P&O Pacific Dawn cruise ship

More professional images can be found at http://www.cruise-australia.net/pacificdawn.htm

The Pacific Dawn is 70,000 Ton cruise ship (1991), with 11 decks and able to carry 2000 passengers. She has a couple sisters – Pacific Jewel (70,000 Tons, 1991), Pacific Pearl (63,500 Tons, 1987) and the oldest sister, Pacific Sun at 47,000 Tons built back in 1986.

For those who plan of taking a cruise, don’t rush. Boarding at Brisbane harbor was slowed down by a large number of the fossils with hearing aids, walking aids etc. strolling up the gang plank. A floating retirement village, that rocks them to sleep one might say

The other thousand of us without pacemakers cruised up the gang plank into boat, only to find the stores and pubs closed whilst docked in the harbor ;-(

Most of the staff on the Pacific Dawn are sourced from China, India and the Philippines. The entertainment staff do however appear to be from Australia. The nationality split is probably to save a coin and bump up the P&O Cruise profits. How un-Australian!

The woman was all drugged up. Every possible and potential sea-sickness cure was cruising through her veins. It was the law – there was just no way that she was going to be sea-sick.

Now initially, we were expected to depart from Brisbane at 2pm and then cruise for three days to New Zealand’s south island “Fiordland”.

Well, the Brisbane harbor master delayed the departure because of the wind.

Imagine that 70,000 tons of metal could be delayed by breeze. Doesn’t the ship have a couple monster diesel engines to push bulk around through the wave fronts or handle the occasional tidal or tsunami?

The Pacific Dawn left the Brisbane harbor about four hours behind schedule.

In a later post, I’ll cover cruising drug update and the cruise through the New Zealand Fiordland.

Bookmark to: