Sydney Maco

Most families were made up of Mum, Dad and two kids, these days things are changing.
Our parents came here, some without anyone they knew, let alone family of their own.
We have to acknowledge that they did it tough, both parents working, paying a mortgage, leaving the kids with older women who didn’t work. Having more than two kids was uncommon in those days, maybe if the dad desperately wanted a boy, or the Mother desperately wanted a girl. What’s happening today, how many kids are people having ?

Our generation has very little to worry about these days compared to past generations. We have parents that can help with looking after the children, even if they work, they can still be of some help. We have well paid jobs, don’t need to worry about a roof over our heads or food on the table. Something tells me, a lot of us these days take all these things for granted.

It looks like the family makeup of a typical Macedonian Family here is Sydney is becoming polarised. We have two extremes, many that have just the single child, and many that have 3 or more children, everyone else is having two children. When you think about it, it’s only logical, given the affluence of our times. It comes down to how much self indulgence we like, and how much we are willing to sacrifice.

On one hand you’ll have those that like to continue going to cafes daily and continue sports/business interests as opposed to dedicating more to the family. Then you have those that out of abundance, see that they can support a larger family and know that the more love you share around, the more love you get back. People I talk to about family size typically say, we’d be happy with one boy and one girl. Others say doesn’t matter what we have, as long as they’re healthy … And it’s true, but deep down, dads want boys and mums want girls.

My theory about family makeup is as follows; The more the better, and I’ll explain why.

A dad that only has daughters will always have that feeling inside him that he’s missing something. He can’t bond with his daughters, etc. In fact later in life, he will feel great distress when they begin dating. On the other hand a mother that only has sons will also feel something missing, someone to chat with, go shopping with, dress up, etc. Then when their boys get married, they may feel the rivalry with their daughters-in-law.

A family with both boys and girls allows both parents to experience life fully, both positive and negative. A mother with both boys and girls will have someone to chat and shop with, and will also have a rival when her son marries. A father with both boys and girls will also have boys to bond with, and his daughters boyfriends to deal with.

If a couple decides to stop at one child (and I don’t mean those that cannot physically have more than one child), they only get half of what life has to offer. Couples that decide not to have any more children after 2 or more boys only, or girls only, are in a similar situation.

Based on probability alone, the more children a family have the more likely they are to have both boys and girls. We all know of an example where a family has 5 boys, or 4 girls, etc. This thought alone has frightened many couples off once they’ve had two or three of the same. There is of course more at play than just straight probability when you consider one couple in isolation. Overall, things balance out, for example x percent of couples have either all boys or all girls, the other y percent have both boys and girls. In a large enough sample, the breakdown by gender of the first group will always be 50-50, same with the second group. The split between the two groups is the big question, I suspect it’s not as large as we may think, probably 20-80, ie 20% have all boys, or all girls, the other 80% have both. The stats would reveal all, but I don’t have these yet.

According to the ABS 2006 Census Data, there are some 34,000 Macedonians in NSW, and 37,000 in VIC. I’d be interested in getting some stats by age and gender of the Macedonian population in Australia, particularly Sydney. I’ll write about findings once I have these.

The bottom line is, the more kids, the better your chances of having a family made up of both boys and girls, then you can truly experience everything that life has to throw at you. In the end it’s all good, some men are destined to have only girls, some women are destined to have only boys, these are rare, much more rare than you may think. I will prove this with stats, and encourage you all to have more than just one or two children.

They say that timing is everything. Everyone’s circumstances are different, and something that’s wrong for most people, might be right for you. If for example a family with 3 kids living in a 2br unit need to move into a house, now is the right time for them to sell. Remaining in the 2br unit longer may present an opportunity for a house maybe $20-30K less if they wait another year. But can you put a dollar value on the difference in giving the kids a comfortable home and yard to grow up in during that time ?

Investment in property is meant to be totally devoid of emotional attachment. The minute you form some emotional attachment to a property, you know that you have strayed from a sound investment strategy. Unrealised losses can be a real pain to bear, these can make you miss other opportunities, simply beacuse you can’t face selling up. Capital gains tax is the ransom that the government hold over your property, you cannot avoid it. It’s ever increasing with time, and it’s more painful the longer you put it off during your lifetime.

When you’re buying remember that the agent showing you the property is not working for you. They are working for the vendor. For example when a couple go to see a house, sometimes the wife doesn’t realise this and expresses her excitement in front of the agent, this reduces your bargaining ability. Agents don’t tell you the truth ever, doesn’t matter if you’re selling or buying. They tell you what they want you to think in order to manipulate you in some way. For example if selling, they’ll promise top dollar, you’ll sell this place in a week. After you’ve signed up, the’ll tell you the bad news, you may have to lower your expectations, the market isn’t quite that good right now. If buying by private treaty, they’ll overstate the price, if it’s going to auction, they’ll understate the price.

I hate auctions, except for ebay ofcourse. By ruling out houses listed for aution, you’d effectively halve your options these days. I still think the auction process leaves much to be desired, and that these opportunities are for either the extremely strong willed, or the careless. Now I see auctions as another possibility, you just have to move a lot faster. There is always the option of making an offer prior to auction. Provided your finances are in order, with pre-approval to a given amount, and you line up the necessary inspections.

Taxes are a fact of life, we can try and hide from them, but sooner or later they will catch up with us. Some people manage to get away with paying no tex, it’s so obvious when you see them. The objective is not to get away with paying no tax, but rather to live a comfortable life not burdened with the thoughts of being victimised. It’s sad when you see someone go through life feeling a victim of society. I’ve seen people in their 50s who still havn’t snapped out of it.

Why are houses so over-priced in Sydney ? Here are some reasons I’ve come up with;

- Overly-eager lending including low-doc loans, etc
- Increased spending by consumers during a period of low interest rates
- Media hype, including renovation shows, etc
- Big push from negative gearing by investors to minimise income tax
- First home buyer schemes which just get factored in by the market
- State Government land taxes
- A generation that wants a 4br with ensuite and study at age 25
- Parents contributing towards the purchase

A correction in the market is imminent, those with exposure will get burnt.
There has been a steady deflation in house prices in the last 12 months, despite this the government and the media remain in denial.
When we think of it sensibly, is a 4br house with 2 garages and no eves sitting on a 450m2 block 30Km from the city worth busting you balls for the next 20+ years. At under 8% p.a. interest this is currently below the radar, but soon it will all surface.

So property in Sydney is tricky at the moment. On the positive side, I’d rather be buying today, than 2-3 years ago. Finance is readily available to almost anyone, so there’s no excuse there. My advice is to make the agents really work for their money, don’t give them an easy time. Make them sweat during negotiations, you have the upper hand, take advantage of this. It’s your money they’re after (even if you don’t have it all today). They are not there to give you moral support, or help you decide between one house or another.

This is true in many ways, more so when our culture and heritage are at stake, fortunately we are in a country where we can freely retain these. This great freedom can easily be dismissed by first generation Australian born Macedonians while raising their own children. Some questions immediately come to mind, for example;

• Private or Public
• Secular or Christian
• Convenience for parents or sacrifice by parents
• Co-educational or girls/boys only
• Supplement with after school or Saturdays

Obviously a large factor in schooling is cost, this to a large extent will determine whether you chose to send your children to a private school vs a public school. Having gone through the public system myself, I can say that it was definitely character building, the challenges faced have more than made up for the standard in teaching. For example we had a Biology teacher for our Year 11 and 12 Physics class. A very nice man, but he couldn’t work out how to use a protractor to measure an angle. This challenge for me turned out to be a blessing, I ended up learning physics on my own using notes from students in the other class and self study guides.
Being Macedonian Orthodox, one challenge faced during primary school was scripture. The Greek students had their own scripture classes, the Christian students had their own, the Hindi, Buddhist, etc. We were placed in the non-scripture class to just sit there and be supervised by a teacher who would read the news paper. Again this challenge has turned into a blessing where I studied the bible on my own, and continue to do so today.
Some parents go to extra-ordinary lengths to get their children to school, others are happy for them to walk to the nearest public school. School can be treated like a continuation of early child-care by some parents, who enjoy the convenience and like to leave everything upto the teachers.
I can understand the reason why parents would object to sending their children to a co-educational school, they have the best intentions in mind. But I feel that through my own experience, it’s not as bad as they may think. The problems they’re concerned about come about from the children that attend that school, regardless of whether it’s co-educational or not. Some could even argue on the other hand, that it’s no co-incidence that Catholic School Girls have a reputation.
Saturdays typically involved going to Macedonian school at Newtown. It’s the reason that I can now read/write Cyrillic, and speak Macedonian with people outside of my dad’s village. I have often thought it would have been better if I did something else on Saturdays like soccer, or piano lessons, etc.
Currently I’m faced with this decision on a school for our children. When I see some of the youth that hang around at Bankstown for example, I’m deeply troubled. I’d like to see my children go to a school where they are not subjected to the mindless impulses of these lost kids. At the same time I feel that with a lack of real-life experience, and over-sheltering they will be less likely to cope in the real world. I feel that it’s very important for our children to attend a school that teaches the values we have as Christians, and not some one-size-fits-all school where anything goes.
As a Macedonian community we do not have private schools for our children to attend and grow up together. The only compromise I can come up with is an Anglican school which uphold the same Christian values that we have.
My argument can be summarised as follows; We wouldn’t send our children to an Islamic School for example, based on the difference in values alone, even if we weren’t familiar with the vast theological differences. Why then would we send our children to a school with neutral values, accommodating to all religions ? If cost is the factor, then we’d need to supplement their education with scripture outside of school.