Jerry_Atrick

And he'll throw in an eyeful of a tower to boot.

I am sure people don't want to drive as far these days as we used to, but the niche I am targeting is probably not so concerned about a 2 or 3 hour drive. For me, the business is more accomodation, with some food and drink, as well as integrated activities.

That may work in Deni for the annual ute muster.. Maybe the Tattersals needs a "Big Schooner" or "Big Pint" out the front?

Ahh.. In that case, emoticons can help where the written word can't 😉

I think (and I stress the word, think) I have been through Mathoura once many years ago.. Don't recall stopping, and it would have been on a drive from Echuca to Deni. Every day I do something like it at work ;-).. Despite my ramblings here, I am reasonably friendly in person to most. I get that quality staff are a difficult thing to procure and even more difficult to retain, especially in more rural areas where younger folk often want to move to bigger centre. And, yeah, I get its hot around there.. Although these days not much hotter than Melbourne, and at least the air is usually drier. Keeping the beer, wine, and bar temperate is expensive, but the pub seems to be kitted with a decent number of solar panels to at least ameriorate the cost somewhat. Don't get me wrong; I would be vey unlikely to purchase it. I was wondering why the motel sold reasonably quickly and while it was not expensive compared to more popular areas, it commanded a decent price... Yet the pub, which appears to be kitted out, has the beer garden and in good order can't get a sniff. The profile of hospitality business I am looking for has to be close to some attractions and has to be at a really good price if I have to add accomodation. This isn't too close to decent attractions. But, I was thinking at the right price, it could be a pet project.

Farq! That is expensive... pints here in London equivalent to $10 - $12

Yes - noticed that.. I think the Edward Rive (more like a creek these days) runs along side it.. Yes, a dying town is probably right.. .Will keep the eyes peeled for other opportunities I think...

Wow.. I would have thought Hepburn Springs and surrounds would be a never ending money spiinner. It is a beautiful part of the world. I recall staying at the Lake House in Daysleford and it was packed and expensive (this was when our then only chold was not even a year old, and staying at my brother's in Melbourne). The accomodation was amazing and of course the setting was gorgeous.. but, I have to be honest, the food and drink, given the cost, was, "meh". We have a similar issue with pubs here, where people who should not be running or in the front of house in a pub buy them, and wonder why they start losign money. I have been thinking of what can be done that the pub in Mathoura. It is not a destination like central Vic and many other areas of Aus. It has some minor tourism from what I can gather. To make it a weekend destination pub would require investment in consructing accommodation. It doesn't have to be fancy, but needs to be good enough to attract the city folk, as does the food. But, apart from a dodgy golf course, not much else on offer there from what I can see. So, big risks and is the potential reward worth it (I wonder if Stephano Di Pieri would go halves?) As a local, I imagine if the other pub is owned by an established local, it will be impossible to compete with.. but I think putting on good, cold, fresh (i.e. pipes cleaned regularly) beer, and decent pub grub shold go some way.. But looking at it, it isn't the profile of place I want, but at that price, it could be worth a crack. I am just trying to see the unique selling point that could be brought to it to make it a goer.

Seems to be OK now.

For the next phase in life, I have been looking at businesses, predominantly in the southern NSW Riverina (or northern Victorian area boardering the southern NSW Riverina) area. I am looking predominantly at hospitality businesses to get a feel for the prices. I know if you are looking solely at those advertised for sale, you are likely to pick up a dud. Good businesses go very quick, especially those where the opwner can employ people and still have a decent return. Now, the reason for hospitality is I have a specific marketing vertical in mind; therefore the nature of the hospitality business is important, as is its profile, offering, and proximity to a number of facilities, as well as accessibility options. The reason for the southern NSW Riverina is proximity to what I think is its larger market. In my searches over the last what must be 18 months, this pub has been for sale for all of them: https://www.anybusiness.com.au/listings/mathoura-nsw-2710-accommodation-tourism-hotel-food-hospitality-restaurant-3309521 OK, the business isn't what I am after, and it is not quite in the location I need. There is at least one other pub in Mathoura and with a 2021 population of 1,002, it is hardly a big enough town to support one pub, let alone two. For as long as I can remember, the pub has been advertised as a freehold going concern for $400K. That is way below I think would be building value, so I am guessing there is some law or coventant stopping it being converted to something else. But, in the same town, this came up not long ago and is already under offer: https://www.anybusiness.com.au/listings/mathoura-nsw-2710-accommodation-tourism-motel-3414944 . Yeah, I get it is probably having revenue and profitability issues.. but it looks like a pub with the right operator can turn things around. I know since e-commerce, the traffic of salespeople has probably dropped right off, and it is probably not the hottest tourist town in the Riverina.. But surely it looks good to turnaroound - or am I missing something?

Well, given the first article, I think if Penny does that, she shoes a nous in international diplomacy not attributable to many others.

I can spot a gap in the market, here. Will have to look up the APRA regs sooner or later, so may start now. Reverse mortages are just long term bridging loans; the interest compounds daily over time, and you will find even a small loan will eek out a lot from your estate if it goes for more than three years. And, while I don't know the regs in Aus, over here, they haircut to the value of the property is huge such that if you live too long, you're in a right mess before you die as the financer owns the lot and can turf you out. Whe nlending, the most imprtant risk factor is your income over your basic living costs, today, and estmated in the future. However, a lender can somewhat mitgate it by locking in longer dated swaps; the rate being higher than shorter dated ones.. which will account for a slightly higher interest charge. Also, the charge on the property will cost as there will be legals involved. Unsecured, it will be very tough to get a loan unless you are free of debe and own your property outright. Again, I don't know Australian law, but over here, before the beneficiaries of a will get their hands on the estate, all debtors must be paid out. If the law is the same in Australia, as long as all the necessary rgulations in originating the loan are complied with, the lender will get their grubby profits. As I said, this looks like a gap in the market. Maybe I will set up Aussie Pensioner Loans. Edit.. I have had to borrow to finish the house, and it is moving nicely to the poitn where I am not sure I want to sell. I spoke to my broker, and I am close to retirement age.. and they say they have no probs fudning me on a 25 year mortgage.. and the pension pot is not quite as high as I would like, yet.

Hey @Admin (Ian).. Site is really slow at the moment.. Hope it's not a DDOS attack

Can you pls repost, @nomadpete; for some reason, I can't find it. In terms of threat to jobs, well, it depends what you mean. AI, like any other technology, is a tool for automation. Automation necessarily means replacing somethign a living thing does with a machine, usually cheaper and more reliably. In other words, automation disrupts the labour market. If we think of cars, if it weren't for the recreational and gambling aspect of horse riding, the horse may well have gone the way of the dodo. Noe, carriage makes, farriers, and those connected to the horsing industry, in relative terms is a small fraction of what it was. However, it was replaced by jobs in the automative industry from manufacturing, to selling, to maintaining, to parts, to customisations, etc. I haven't done the maths, but at least in absolute terms due to the decreasing real cost of owning cars and increasing population, the automotive industry employs many more people than the equine industry, and I am guessing that is also in real terms as the middle classes evolved. The point I am trying to make is that as a disrtuptor, technology will only be a problem for the workforce as a whole if it doesn't create more jobs than it takes away, or there is sufficient capacity in the economy and its growth trajectory to take up the slack. In my days of programming, the more radical papers were suggesting my industry would render global unemployment in the 90% range. It was clearly a furphy for anyone in the industry, because it was more about efficiency than replacing jobs. And the other jobs that were created did not require a masters degree in maths and data and computational science to get work. The AI boom, I think, though, is more problematic for the labour market than previous technology. Most techology was discrete in its application. It was more about optimising the work than replacing a human. As an example, I used to work on enterprise asset management systems in the nuclear sector. It was about helping the engineers, health physicists, techicians, bean counters, warehousing, and even buyers have the requisite information at their fingertips. We did dabble in early AI predicitive maintenance techniques, but most of the cerebral work was carried out by a person. AI is very different. As an example, I put this prompt into Chat GPT: "can you write me a stand alone java program that simulates an aircraft artificial horizon that banks a plane when using the left and right keyboard buttons and pitches the plane using the up and down arrow buttons" Attached is the source code it wrote. ArtificialHorizonSimulator.java If you have java installed on your machine, you can execute this by typing "java ArtificialHorizonSimulator", or on Windows you may be able to double click the file. There is no nasties in it, and you have the source to check, but run iut through your anti virus to be sure: ArtificialHorizonSimulator.class(you will also need these in the same directory): ArtificialHorizonFrame$1.classArtificialHorizonFrame$ArtificialHorizonPanel.classArtificialHorizonSimulator.classArtificialHorizonFrame.class It did have some foibles., the pitch line between the artifical sky and ground didn't move and when you banked, it was a square and didn't fill properly: Pitch is now > 40 degrees: (red is my addition) Bank looks like this: You can see it has a square background, so the edges aren't filled. But it took all of 2 minutes and even a qualified java graphics programmer would have taken a lot more time to get this writing it by hand. So, I then asked chat GPT to moth the sky/land relative to pitch and to fill in the background properly, and then to add an altimeter and directional gryo and show relative indications: It didn't quite get it right: But with clearer prompting, and I guess the paid version. less than 5 minutes to provide this is a lot quicker than writing it by hand. And an experienced developer can take this, put the finishing touches on it, and voilla! The thing about AI over more discrete automation is it can do a myriad of things. At work, we use AI to record meetingds, type up minutes and action points, put them in the Outlook tasks with follow ups. Seems remedial, but companies used to hire juniors to do that sort of thing.. not as many juniors are requied. The front office are now experimenting writing prospectuses and pitches for new products. In risk management and trading, we have been using AI for a while, reducing the need for the cerebral staff. When quantum computing comes along, AI will be taken to a different dimension - not because of any groundbreaking new algorithmic advances, but sheer data processing output. AI won't remove the need for the labour market, but it will be the biggest disruptor, and at the moment, I can;t see what will take the place of a significantly reduced demand for many of the people out there now. @Marty_d's work colleagues are right.. There will be a rise of skilled AI prompters; not because AI woll totally replace the workforce, but as it can ouput stuff far better and quicker than humans, it will fill a lot of roles that plug holes, leading to a significantly reduced demand for people.

I remember when I was working in the US abut 25 years ago or so, there was an ad for some Chrysler that had very long service intervals. A quick search found this forum saying 2 years unlimited mileage but I recall it being per mileage and a lot longer: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=915296 Anyway, apparently the Mini Countryman, at least in Aus, as an "on condition" servicing regime (fast forward to 14:10 of this vid): So, even if older cars have long intervals, I would not buy one second hand with too many miles on the clock. My parnter has a Countryman - same colour - but I drive it the most since 2020, when the ULEZ charge was brought in London, as ours meets emissions requirements and we don't have to pay. We bought it witn 1,000 miles on the clock and touch wood, nothing gone wrong with it with almost 50K miles (not kms) on the clock. Because of the London ULEZ charge, I use it going to London (it is exempt of the charge), so now, most of its driving is motorway miles. However, I ensure it (and the XC90) have their oil changed 6 monthly/5K miles and a service every 10K miles regardless.