For every 10 great business ideas only one will be a true success. Which one will be successful? The one with the best marketing program.

The most effectively marketed businesses are generally the most successful, which comes down to the person driving the business. It doesn’t matter how great your business idea is, if you can’t market it, it probably won’t be a success.

It comes as a bit of a shock that Australia’s 40 per cent increase in food and grocery prices over the last 10 years is the biggest of any major industrialized country.

It’s easy to blame the market dominance of the two major supermarkets but could it be that we as consumers are just lazy rather than savvy shoppers.

Over that same decade Australian real wages rose 50 per cent, which was also the biggest jump of any major country in the world. Commsec economists reckon because wage growth has outstripped inflation, Australians aren’t under financial pressure to be smart pressure and we haven’t been putting enough pressure on retailers to deliver better prices and bargains.

There’s a school of thought out there that people who are really bad at managing their money and finances have a subconscious fear of becoming wealthy. These are the types of people who are always paying late fees on bills, overdrawing bank accounts and generally just not following the difference between what they earn and what they spend.

Look, I’m no psychologist, but it’s either a subconscious fear or simple disorganisation. Either way, a change of mindset, as early on in life as possible, can actually make a big difference in the long run.

Australians are enduring a housing affordability double whammy of high property values and high rents. But there could be an interesting alternative.

The Australian residential property market currently defies all investment fundamentals and is likely to stay that way… for the time being.

Compared with the rest of the world our property prices are 10-30 per cent more expensive. House prices overseas have plunged over the last year but ours have stayed steady (and improved in some areas) while a shortage of rental property has kept rents up.