...Black pen on white paper to kick start the approval process. Fairfield City Council red tape process will takes approximately 10 weeks.

Next stop, colour and interior selections.

...Parents have the greatest joy when their child reaching life's milestone.

...Past and present work email addresses.

snguyen@GlueLtd.com
snguyen@GlueLtd.com.au
scott.nguyen@FostersGroup.com.au
scott.nguyen@OriginEnergy.com.au
snguyen@Woolworths.com.au
scott.nguyen@WesternPower.com.au
scott.nguyen@Jemena.com.au
nguyens@RedRock.net.au
scott.nguyen@Genworth.com
scott.nguyen@Stryker.com
scott.nguyen@ASIC.gov.au

...Luke Nguyen has been attracting alot of good media lately, due to his popular Luke Nguyen's Vietnam food travel TV show on SBS. Don't know him personally, but I'm very familiar with his family restuarant business.

Both Luke Nguyen and Khoa Do are doing a great job at promoting our childhood home Cabramatta.

There are hundreds of other individuals who are living and working ambassador for Cabramatta, myself included. All making the effort to change the national perception from a drug-ethnic capital of Australia to culturally diverse location. But most of all, I love it because it's a great place to find the best of Vietnamese food.

Photo courtesy of SBS.

...Today is the birth of Future Think Pty Ltd. It is a legal entity to provide consulting, technology and systems integration services to corporation with the core principles of:

• Identifying and isolating new trends.
• Pragmatic approach to complex situations creating useful advice for clients.
• Delivering technology in combination with human intellegent and judgement.
• Delivering technology to enhance human relationship.
• Thinking further ahead.
• Questioning our dogma and assumptions more often.

...Richard Watson, author of Future Minds (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2010), made a great observation on the Information Age. We need context as well as text.
We need to understand principles before we can more to application.
We need breath and depth not just superficial facts.
Unless we know how things can relate to each other we just have information.
For knowledge we need to understand connections and for wishdom we need to understand consequences. Source: The RSA Event

...My mother in-law gave me this Jade Laughing Buddha when we engaged.

There's a saying that jade protects the person who wears it, and a crack or break shows a time the person was protected by the jade.

Now it has becomes my priceless procession.

...Astronomers has discovered an Earth-sized like planet capable for sustaining life. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book will soon be a non-fictional.

...I am finally back in Sydney. No more year-long interstate project for while.

There are afew things on my to-do list this summer:

• Rock climbing
• More time for fishing
• Take the newphews to the Treetop Adventure Park
• Sand Boarding at Port Stephens
• Get paperwork for house construction approved.

...I've been reading on the topic of parenting, to prepare for fatherhood.

Greg Hunter argued that: "...as far as boys are concerned, modern society is botching the job of parenting."
(18 New Rules of Fatherhood by Greg Hunter, Australian Men's Health, March 2009). It's true. Let's face it, modern society judge you based on how much you earn. Family balance is somewhere at the bottom in the priority list. I'm determine to change the pattern to have a balanced lifestyle.

In the new house, I will reserve one room to be the library, it will be the hub of the family activities.

...We have done our homework and finally decided build with Masterton Homes. We've selected the Sirocco 7 design for the following reasons:

• Single storey - for future friendly (www.yourhome.gov.au)
• Large bedroom - because 1/3 of our time spent in the bedroom
• Good use of space - tidy and elegance design
• Good feng shui - because cultural
• Good airflow - it feels comfortable every room in the house
• Facade design - new, simple and elegance design
• Price - enough for our pocket

Here are afew online tools I find useful.

• Envisage - help to in design concept and colour selections.
• PhotoMaps - up-to-date satelite images.
• Homeone - forum to share progress with other new home builders.

...There are many guides available online or consults conveyancing solicitor. This post details my own experience and contacts through the buying process - I am borrowing 80% of the purchase price for a vacant land, which I intended to build soon after.

My conveyancing solicitor is Tracey Tran at Legal Life Lawyers, because she personally went through the same process of purchasing vacant land and building. You can avoid alot of financial mistakes by following someone else's footsteps.

1. Do your math (properly) - make sure you have an accurate and detailed budget which takes into account all expenses associated with property purchase, including stamp duty, council rates, and other fees.
2. Do not stretch yourself to your limit - make sure you fully understand the impact of your regular spending levels on your new budget, and allow room for interest rates to rise or for some unforeseen additional spending. Consult your lender or financial planner if you have one. For me, my wife does all the maths because she is good at keeping record of our money.
3. Make changes to your lifestyle - a mortgage is a big commitment and you may have to make changes to your regular spending practices if you are to meet your repayments with ease.
4. Take the time to consider a variety of product alternatives - think very carefully about the product offerings and how this relates to you and your spending habits. There are a number of products on the market and its important that you find a product that best suits your needs. InfoChoice website will help you find the right product for your circumstances. If you are borrowing more than 80%, you will need to pay mortgage insurance.
5. Consider options - such as a 100% offset account to help you repay the loan faster and avoid the very expensive costs associated with long term debt. Choosing fortnightly repayment can reduce your loan by 6-years!
6. Back to basics - managing a homeloan is a big commitment, and it's important to be realistic about what you agree to borrow and what you can afford. Your leader will advise you how much you can borrow factor in your expenses and current debts.
7. If you are in trouble, ask for help - if you do not think you can keep meeting your mortgage payments, contact your lender immediately. Do not wait until your lender is forced to be involved in facilitating a solution. In many cases, a proactive solution can be negotiated if your lender is given the opportunity to work with you. At the end of the day most lenders would rather try to help you through your short-term issues and keep you in your home. Why? Because broker get commission of 0.66% upfront for each homeloan application and 0.22% monthly for the life of your loan. My broker is Paul Nguyen at Specialist Home Loans, this is my second homeloan with Paul and I'm very happy with his prompt service.
8. So you found a property, what's next? - use your negociation skills to get the vendor to agreed on a purchasing price. When the property is enlisted with the agent, there is always a $10k-$20k margin on top of the actual price for potential buyer to bargin. Don't rush, do your reasearch on your chosen location for at least 3-months. We hunt in Canley Heights, Cabramatta, Canley Vale and Bankstown for 18-months!
9. Review the contract - once the agent understands that you have real intention to buy, ask for a copy of the contract. Give the contract to your conveyancing solicitor to review and address any concerns. Terms of contract may be amended, ask your solicitor if you are not happy with certain conditions.
10. Exchanging contracts - once you are happy with the contract, ask to inspect the property as many times as you wish. When you place the 0.25% deposit with the agent, the cooling-off period effect immediately. You have the allowed period to seek formal or unconditional approval from your lender. Within this period the you (the Purchaser) can change your mind and stand to lose the 0.25% deposit, but the Vendor can not change their mind. Read this article for more details.
11. Payment of deposit - upon the lender's formal approval in writing. You can purchase a bank cheque address to the real estate agent for the remainder of the 10% of the purchase price.
12. Settlement - when you are the first homebuyer, you are entitles to the NSW Goverment First Home Owner Grant. Otherwise you have to pay stamp duty. Your conveyancing solicitor will assists you through paperwork in this process. The remainder 10% is payable to the Vendor, based on his/her instructions.

Remembering that purchasing property is your biggest liability, your property will remains the bank's asset for the life of your mortgage (the term mortgage comes from the Old French words mort, "dead," and gage, "pledge").

So be smart and "pay off your homeloan before making any other big investments."

...After more than a year of searching we've finally put a deposit onto the contract for sale of land. It's a nice 650m² block of land in Cabramatta. We chose this option because there wasn't any house on the market that meets our criteria.

Thanks to my negotiation skills, the tax-free incomes has seen my saving account grown by 600% in the last couple of months.

One of the fundamental advise when it comes to money is - "pay off your home loan before making any other investment is the smartest thing to do."

...They say a picture's worth a thousand words. Under inside this old wooden restaurant lies an unforgettable conversation.

...Still baking.

...Weekend away for two in the Blue Mountains. Get lost in colour of Autumn and early morning fog.

I like the new Nothing Like Australia campaign by Tourism Australia. If I new earlier, I would have entered the competition.

...One of the many reason I like reading reports is to get the facts straight from the source without the media spin.

Despite much hype, the 2010 Federal Budget and the Goverment's response to the Henry tax review have resulted in few significant structural changes to the tax, superannuation and social security systems in Australia.

Sumary of the key annoucements:

• Individual will only need to include 50% of interest income of up to $1,000 from certain investments in their tax return.
• Taxpayer will have the option to claim a standard tax deduction of $500 in 2010-2013, increasing to $1,000 in 2013-14.
• The personal tax cuts announced in the 2009 Federal Budget have confirmed, these changes are higlighted in bold below.

...A wiseman once said - "love grows stronger with time."

...My dearest friend is getting marry with my wife's friend. One more to go.

...Went for first round interview with Macquarie Bank, things are looking positive. They'd agreed for the second interview next Monday.

...A visionary disussion on intellectual ideas can help to steer Vietnam partnership with China and the US.

Key note:

• Political suppression will cause intellectuals to leave the country.

...I'm very impressed at Virgin Blue Airline service for Gold members. I accidentially cancelled a flight and they were able to reinstate my booking at now extra cost.

...The conversation over lunch was an interesting one.

A friend noted that the American way of running business is to outsource everything. So obligation is shifted to the service provider responsibility. Case study: Walmart, Amazon, etc

TCS, India largest outsourcing company. The business model for TCS is each three cycle, they hire fresh graduates and use internal key people in the company to train these cadets. They are innovative, energetic, work long hours and highly commited to their work. However, if they wish to leave earlier that the three terms they will have to payback the training cost.

In Australia, because Labour Goverment favouring the lower class, laws are created to prevent entrepreneurship, making it very difficult to get funding to startup businesses. Tax is one of the highest in any developed country. So most people choose the safe passage by running a self employed or cash business. Investing into property is also highl rewarding, Australian goverment is giving tax breaks for depreciated investment properties.

...After reviewing the Deutsche Bank Research paper, Understanding Vietnam: A look beyond the facts and figures by Tamara Trinh, as part of my on going research for insight on Vietnam's economy. It got me started thinking on an idea.

I code name this project Professional Service Sourcing (PSS). Each week I will set myself an agenda to investigate on a given topic that will part of the project roadmap.

...This year I want to walk the path of entrepreneurship.

An interesting article Should You Be An Entrepreneur? Take This Test by Daniel Isenberg got me thinking.

...A wiseman once said - "only stupid man marry twice."