It all depends on where you end up. Trying to live with $250/wk will be near impossible in Melbourne and Sydney (rent is that much, if not more). $250/wk gets you a long way in Hobart and Wollongong.

This just in : interest rates cut to 6%, 1% cut. RM trading at 2.48 to the AUD. My money changer will take 1.10 for SGD. I don't know if it's bottoming opt or not. AUD went up 0.05 against RM 45 mins after rate cut announcement.

Anyone who thinks there is a recession better look at the property market through. Finding a place is near impossible, as no one is selling or renting (in anticipation of the rate cut).

You must be damn far from the city to find a place for $250/wk. 45 min commute one way maybe?

I don't  know about Sydney and Melbourne, but my experience in Brisbane and anecdotal evidence from Adelaide is that no one is selling and/or renting. Rents may further stabalise or even go down. Thus making it near impossible to find a place.

People are hanging on, waiting for the rate cut and the subsequent interest rate cut to be passed on by the banks. I'm not going into the whole debate on whether banks will pass on the rate cut: suffice to say, people will start shopping around. 1%  is a damn lot.

Recession in Australia? Are you kidding? Not when they still seem to hit something everytime they dig a hole in WA and QLD. The issue right now is more of keeping the surplus rather than worrying about a possible deficit.

AUD selling at 2.56 today... it's such a nice change after being 2.8/2.9 for most of the year... hopefully it doesn't shoot up again at the end of the year like it usually did in the past.

SGD is going strong, almost 1 to 1 now.... good news for Sporeans over here... no wonder they can spend like crazy Bad news for me since it means I'm doing electives there at the end of this year...

Hey, thx.. The site is helpful. Ya, RMIT did have a temporary place for us to stay, well, will it be that risky? cause i thought uni notice board usually have a lot of ads about accommodation.

I was looking around at the map of melbourne that day, and thought of budgeting, so went online and look for share rental price, and I do not know where to stay as far as convenient is concern, so I hit this question up. Well, probably somewhere near the city or st.kilda? parkville? I dont know how far it's to travel from let's say st. kilda. that's why I wanted to know where am I suppose to stay.

How much do you guys spend a week for everything?

---

Added on October 7, 2008, 6:58 pm

Nope, I have not been to melb before. I will be at city campus.

Hey thx a lot, that's really informatics, just the thing i want... I actually thought of walking distance to uni. but then how much does it cost for u to travel down by train?

Which mobile phone service operator you guys use? Optus, 3 Mobile, telstra?

optus and vodaphone.

Telstra always charge extra payment!! Although, you have pay for the previous bill.

Hi there! I am a newbie here. 
I am going to further my studies in Macquarie University next year...seems like there is no one from that university except for y@m@d@_iToE.
Anyway, this thread is very informative in some ways.    Hope to get more information from here so that I will be ready for a new chapter of life next year! 

Planning to get an used car in Melbourne. Any recommended place?

Wait a minute, I am trying to buy an used car. Not renting.

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?...&submit=Convert

Currency Conversion Results
Symbol Australian Dollar Exchange
Rate Malaysian Ringgit Bid Ask
AUDMYR=X 1 Oct 8 2.2896 2.2896 2.2896 2.2922
Add to Portfolio   Set Alert   Download Data

I really really really love the exchange rate now

aud sharp drop today......get you parents to quickly buy some tomorrow......

It's 2.286 now.

swt swt swt... y i din wait for the 1st tuesday of the month...dummy dummy,...T.T

?
oh that's when the RBA have their board meeting... normally they'll release media statement after that bout their target cash rate...

is it a good thing the currency drop??

ya...  i agree.. good timing for parents to send next semester/year's fee..    

bad timing for us who worked our ass out during the semester and want to bring back AUD to msia and exchange to RM to enjoy our holidays back home....     

yeah. hate it so much!! not gonna use telstra for the next sem. Must always remember to keep the receipt in a folder. 

---

Added on October 8, 2008, 9:49 pm

   
Nice! make me feel so relax!
I saw one adv quite similar with this but can't remember when i saw it.

Rebounced overnight:


But it is a refershing change from it being at 3.01 for most of the year.

It's more than just refreshing at 2.3 for me, it's an opportunity!

Oh shoot. And to think that I've recently purchased a car when the rate was 2.8.

Mazda2 Neo. 

Haha. Both a gain and a loss I guess.
Got a cheap price from the dealer then, he said that the offer only lasts till end of September.

hey KV why not good oso??? as in inflation and etc??? pardon my shitty economics....shouldn't recession = less public spending = less inflation??

damn i wanna be a singaporean now....can start dumping SGD into AUD!!!

---

Added on October 9, 2008, 2:14 pm

hmm im not sure but usually they got this free on-roads offer so that usually saves u about 1k-2k right?? and from my experience usually the offers all hover around that figure....like they give u fleet price but no free on roads.....give u rebates but no free on roads n etc.....

but holden's current deal seems quite attractive....99cents fuel cap.....but now that the oil price is dropping....mayb its not that useful.....but still pump prices arent as low as the world crude oil prices....damn!  

Woaaaaa Rich ...

Anyways, I think the exchange rate is at 2.3 now ... And I heard it will end this year on par with USD.
What do you think ? Time to throw in some money into Australia?

fark la...if only im rich.....initially i wanted to dump my AUD into USD mid year...coz it was almost equal once...like 90++ cents.....but i dun hav to much available cash...need to pay rent n etc......if not i can make like $300+ for every AUD1000 'invested'

hey KV i dun get wat u mean leh?? which econ kawan from clayton?? cantik pulak tu......nak kenal!!!

---

Added on October 9, 2008, 8:50 pmbtw KV u from tahiti?? i wanna go too!!!

Commerce people forecast that by the end of the year. AUD will equals to USD.

I just listen to what people are saying, so no solid statements here.

But I think it's going to go down even more. My lecturer said the Lehman Brothers case is just the beginning.
After learning how money comes into the banks, I have a bad feelings about what is going to happen next.

And Australian reserve banks are throwing huge sums of money EVERYDAY so that nobody go bankrupt. by the millions ...

NOTE: These are all I heard from my lecturer. True or not I have no idea. Sounds true. AND No legal advice here. You understand that you take whatever I am saying at your own risk.

i hope not.. coz that's when im gonna change my hard earned AUD to RM..   

I'm expecting a 6 weeks of downward shits EDIT: and recover next year.
But who knows ... Nobody expect the Lehman brothers thing to come so early.

Lol...I have already gotten my placement in Macquarie University. I am under scholarship. So, can only choose from the list that I am given. 

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Good support at 2.30 to 2.50.

Erm, isn't Macquarie University located near Sydney?

mahathir came to sdyney myer yesterday..anyone went to greet him?haha

No.

He was in Melbourne yesterday at least.

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=363933