Mailbag, incl: Why can’t we have fixed-rate mortgages? November 15, 2026

Scott Phillips (0:04)

Welcome to Motley Fool Money. Yes, it's Sunday. Yes, it's special.

But I'm not the sort of bloke who's going to bang on with some sort of baseless alliteration or talk about Andrew's feats of strength or prowess. I'm not even going to ask what strawman.com is because everyone knows it's Australia's premier online investment club. That's not this sort of podcast. We are serious people. We are just here, just the facts, ma'am, as the famous TV show goes. There's no carry on, no ranting, no funny business. We're just here to make finance boring and disinterested, aren't we, Graeme?

Andrew Page (0:33)

Well, I mean, it's pretty dry to start off with. Let's be honest.

Scott Phillips (0:39)

They took what was dry and made it desiccated. That is not going to be the Motley Fool Money podcast ever, and certainly not today, this Sunday. Andrew Rampage, of course, is the man who started strawman.com and runs it to international fame and glory. I'm Scott Phillips, and I work for the Motley Fool, and we are doing this podcast. If it's your first time here, strap in, because, can I say, this is not like what you expect. I have to say, Ram, one of the things I really appreciate most when we get feedback from listeners, I mean, obviously, they have to bend the knee and kiss the ring, but the other feedback we get, which is just like, hey, I thought this would be boring, you guys make it fun and interesting, and I really enjoy it. And I thought, you know what, if we can make finance and economics interesting and investing, that's half the battle, right? Not because people aren't capable of doing it themselves, but making stuff accessible is kind of what it's about. For years, it was nameless blokes in suits, blue suits with ties, sitting behind desks telling you how hard it all was. If we can make it kind of accessible and interesting, then we've done a good thing, I think.

Andrew Page (1:32)

Yeah, I can't promise that there won't be a ton of repetition, but...

Scott Phillips (1:37)

No, in fact, we can promise there will be.

Andrew Page (1:39)

We can promise there will be.

Scott Phillips (1:40)

If you're new to this podcast, be prepared. If you've been in this podcast a while, you are prepared, you know exactly what's gonna happen. So feel free to do what you need to. All right, so you have a question from Pat?

Andrew Page (1:50)

You can, but just quickly first, your volume is very low.

Scott Phillips (1:54)

I don't know.

Andrew Page (1:55)

Yes.

Scott Phillips (1:56)

Okay.

Andrew Page (1:57)

If you were in a different setup or not.

Scott Phillips (1:58)

No, I'm literally in the same place I was. Pull the microphone closer to me, is that any better?

Andrew Page (2:02)

A little bit.

Scott Phillips (2:03)

Check my audio is being picked up. Yeah, it's showing. I think it might be your receipt volume actually, mate, cause it's showing up on my little, little measure thing, you know, those things that bounce up and down to do the volume. It's well in the green going into the yellow, into like the sixth, seventh, eighth number. So unless something's changed, I suspect it's being received okay. If you can hear me, okay.

Andrew Page (2:21)

Maybe, maybe we'll cut this little section out, but I thought before we go to, cause I was desperately clicking around beforehand. Like, is it me? Is it me? I can't see that I've changed anything, but just-

Scott Phillips (2:32)

Since Friday's episode?

Yeah. There you go. Good thing is we have such high production value as this will never hit this part.

Andrew Page (2:37)

Okay, great.

Scott Phillips (2:39)

Good. Shall we get on to a question from Pat then?

Andrew Page (2:41)

Yes, let's do that.

Scott Phillips (2:42)

I mean, if you're having trouble hearing me, let me know cause we can always change it, but hopefully it'll be okay.

All right, Pat says, Hi gents, I apologize if my email has been misfired, but I am part of the generation that suffers from technical selective literacy. We know enough to find out half of the information we need. And although you mentioned the correct email on the show all the time, it gains about as much traction in my head as a 1994 phone number, and Google was very little help. As Andrew might attest to, AI function for Google is currently at a stage where even if the information it shares is incorrect, it's very enthusiastic about passing it on. So I'll close my eyes and hit submit, and if the email gods shine favorably on me, my ponderings may make it to the show. They did, Pat, they have, and for anyone who's wondering, info, info.full.com.au.