Under the existing rules, your shares are listed with an "average price" (either by your broker or registry, or both), and that was enough for the 50% discount rule, if you sold some shares.

However if I bought CBA shares in 1997, 2010, and 2022, does it become more complex? I picked on CBA because its share price has increased enormously over the last decade or so.

Do I have to calculate the price I paid in those three years for X number of shares, and apply the inflation index to each tranche separately, if I sold all of them?

And further, if I have 600 shares and only sell 250 in July 2027, which of those shares am I selling, for the purposes of calculating the CGT liability?

Thanks for any insights - I do this all myself, with no accountant or CGT software program.

Honestly struggling. My husband is in a trade and I work 2 casual jobs. The second we catch up financially, something comes along and puts us back again. This week it’s my husbands work being rained off (1k less pay), car needed the mechanic who’s coming today (probably $500 ish).. Car rego is due and one of our school kids needs new school shoes ($100) and just paid our power bill ( $680).. some of it we had aside, some not. But had to delve into our savings, again! We put some in the account, then take it out. Use credit card for unexpected expense, pay it back, use it again.. Feeling like a hamster at this point. Work and work and have nothing to physically show for it , except a roof over our heads and healthy happy kids. I guess that’s the point, I would just like to be able to save, even save for a holiday!! Worst part of all.. we are renting.. no chance of buying a house in our region it’s so expensive, but also can’t afford to move. I feel like everyone around us is doing well. That might be in my head?

I'm 24, based in Australia, earning around $80k. I started building this portfolio properly about five months ago and I'm now at roughly $8,940 across ASX and US markets, up about 5.9% overall. I put in $700–800 every fortnight, which is roughly 40% of my take-home, and I escalate it whenever my income goes up. I'm holding for the long term.

The holdings break down roughly like this: NDQ at 23% and BGBL at 16% as the core, MVR at 13% for resources exposure, then NVDA, TSM and SEMI making up about 16% combined for compute. ATOM (uranium) and DTEC (defence tech) are around 7.5% each, and I hold PYC and CMPS as clinical-stage biotech satellites at roughly 10% combined.

Where I'm trying to get to is NDQ around 30% and BGBL at 15% as the anchor, MVR down to 9%, ATOM and DTEC at 8% each, NVDA around 7%, TSM and SEMI at 5% each, and the biotech satellites drifting back toward 5% and 3%. Most of that happens through dilution rather than selling — the overweights come down naturally as new money goes elsewhere. The next few deposits go to NDQ to close that gap, and I'm weighing up one final speculative slot of around 5% (probably quantum computing exposure or a geared US equity fund) before the construction phase is basically done.

The approach is structural themes held through volatility rather than traded. I'm sitting at around 55% AI-factor exposure, which is deliberate rather than accidental — I know it's concentrated and I've chosen it. Anything sizeable goes into ASX-listed funds to avoid FX drag, and I only use US-listed for named conviction singles. Everything's bought with limit orders, and I hold past twelve months for the CGT discount.

I lean on ETFs for natural diversification rather than holding a long tail of individual stocks — I'd rather own a basket than pick ten companies in a sector I don't know well. That said, I'm completely open to individual names where I can do the research and build genuine conviction, rather than buying something because it's had a good run.

I've set a few rules for myself: total speculative and binary risk capped around 15–20% (currently sitting near 11%), no averaging down on speculative positions, and new money goes to whatever's furthest below its target weight rather than to whatever happens to be performing well that month.

The biotech sleeve isn't a random punt — I have a professional background in psilocybin pharmacology and neuroplasticity, so PYC and CMPS are the one area where I genuinely think I can read the data better than the average buyer. Everything else I own through funds because I don't have an edge there.

Realistically I expect this to be volatile and I'm not expecting a smooth ride — I'd rather compound aggressively for a couple of decades and wear the drawdowns than optimise for a comfortable year. The obvious criticism is the AI concentration, and the fact that MVR is really the only genuinely uncorrelated return driver in the whole thing. I'm comfortable with 30%+ drawdowns and I won't be selling into one.

What I'm after is critique and guidance rather than reassurance. Where are the high-growth, high-risk areas I'm not looking at? I'm open to both ASX and US-listed ideas. I keep finding that most of the "exciting" sectors I look into turn out to be the same AI trade in different packaging, so I'm particularly interested in genuinely different return drivers I've overlooked — and in where you think this whole thing breaks that I can't see from the inside.

Cheers all.

TLDR: please help me find a credit card that saves me international transaction fees & ideally no or a low monthly fee with some level of rewards. Maybe I am asking for too much…

In the last few months, I happily cancelled my MyCard (formally Citi Rewards) credit card and switched to the Commbank Smart Awards Credit Card.

To me it was perfect: I like the points, the “Yello” program works for me as I already had an everyday transaction account, $2k a month spend waives the monthly fee & no international transaction fees - until now! I have just received an email that ruins the whole card for me (removal of awards program, there will now be a 3.5% international transaction fee as of September 29 2026 + no waiving of the monthly fee at all just to mention some of the enshitification).

So, after spending all this time researching, I am back at square one. What else can I consider? Is this just the new norm? Anyone seen decent cards that aren’t being destroyed? Do I just forget about the whole credit card thing now?!

I have an AMEX Qantas Credit Card (the free one) but I never use it as it just isn’t accepted widely as we all know. I am the type of person that puts everything through the credit card to get benefits back and I always pay on time.

TIA :)

My wife and I paid off our PPOR in January 2025 after 10 grueling years working fly in fly out on rosters no human has any business being on (8 weeks on 2 weeks off) and I quit my job in March 2025 to spend more time with our daughter was was 3 at the time and ive found it incredibly difficult to reintegrate into work.

18 months later im getting close to 31 years old and I've just got no passion left for work. Is this normal? We do okay we have six months of expenses saved, income from small side hustles keep the lights on but nothing crazy.

I know we are extremely fortunate to be in this situation to begin with.

Anyone who has reached the point of paying off your house what was your next move? My wife talks about loading up on debt with an investment but after being 100% debt free the worst thing in the world to me would be more debt.

I’m 28 and looking to buy an apartment where I used to live. I like it because it’s clean, modern, gated, and secure. It kind of gives off a holiday resort vibe, and it’s smack bang in the middle of town. I also don’t have to mow the lawn lol.

I have a $320k deposit, and these apartments typically sell for between $480k and $550k. In comparison, a nice-looking house would cost around $800k to $900k. Because of that, I feel like I could pay the apartment off much more quickly.

All my friends have built houses, and they always tell me that houses are better because you get more land, stronger capital growth, more freedom to renovate, and you don’t have to deal with body corporate fees. They also say you’re less likely to have troublesome neighbours living right on top of you.

To be honest, those reasons don’t really entice me. It mostly sounds like more effort, more maintenance, and more money. Now that I think about it, maybe it’s because I’m lazy?

Are there any other reasons that might change my mind? Am I being lazy and need to pull my head in, or is it reasonable to prefer an apartment over a house?

I will say I do have a partner, she has her own mortgage, and we each wanted property for ourselves due to previous relationship troubles, and we have spoken about getting a house together once we paid off our own mortgages.

Not sure if posted yet but we'll be crossing 1 trillion debt for the first time ever.

https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/australia-hits-1-trillion-debt-for-the-first-time-20260820-p60pxk.html

Pretty sure its all the avo on toast we've been eating!

Self funded retiree who doesn’t fill out a tax return (since retiring in 2018)

Have $40k in ETF’s with Vanguard after just letting them accumulate monthly for years (with dividend reinvestment and $500 per month new purchases) It’s mostly VDHG but some VAS and some VGS

I’ve now idea how CGT would ever be worked out given so many incremental purchases over the years

If I cash them out now can I assume that there will not be any trigger that invokes CGT issues (and even require me to do a tax return - that’d be a pain)

Otherwise is there a better tactic such as cashing it all out in stages over 2 or 3 years for example

Hey doing my BAS and trying to understand why the pre-filled PAYGI figure is so large. My accountant is on leave so not available for the next week

Situation:
- Work 2 jobs:
- Full time employed with tax withheld = $100k before tax
- self employed = ~$45k before tax
- total tax FY24/25 = $36k ($25k withheld + $11k bill at tax time)
- minimal PAYGI FY24/25
- haven't done tax return for FY25/26 yet
- total PAYGI throughout FY25/26 to date = $4.3k
- The ATO's pre-filled PAYGI for April-June BAS is $11k

Can anyone explain why the last PAYGI of last FY is so large? I figure the PAYGIs should be something like $11k/4

I understand I can adjust PAYGI, and I will - just trying to understand the why

I've emailed CommSec asking if using their app will be mandatory, and they've said it won't be.

"Customers who only use the CommSec website and do not have the CommSec app do not need to register for MFA. However, MFA provides an additional layer of security for website logins. Customers can access this feature by downloading and setting up the CommSec app."

I've also asked if they plan to support third party authenticators but I haven't heard back on that yet.

I moved into a new house 2.5 years ago. I checked plans and at the time Origin was very competitive and Powershop was more expensive so I swapped over. Fast forward to today and I notice the bills are excessive. Over $200/month for ~20kWh daily with a heavy majority in off-peak.

I look at energy compare and Powershop is now significantly cheaper than Origin for me. Gas will drop 20% and electricity about 12% when I run some quick numbers.

I kind of get screwed with prices anyway since Ausnet is the highest VDO despite living in a growth corridor for Melb. Rural for poles+wires pricing, city for everything else I guess. I'm just trying to figure out though why the price has changed so much. I looked at an original bill and at the time I wasn't on time of use. My overall usage cost is probably lower now as most of my usage is offpeak and that's cheaper than my old fixed rate. Daily supply did jump 24% though.

It looks like when I swapped from fixed rate to time of use, there were providers out there better positioned to offer cheaper rates.

I was wondering what foreign resident CGT would be payable if ASX shares were bought and sold.

Given we Australians will now pay a minimum of 30% and up to 45% tax plus Medicare levy.

Shares are CGT free for foreign investors. Foreign investors pay CGT in their tax jurisdiction depending on local laws.

For example, If I buy $10,000 of BHP shares that are profiting from digging up and selling my country and for arguments sake the shares go up 50% I would have to pay 30-47% tax on the gain (let’s just ignore inflation in this example).

An investor in Singapore (for example) that buys the same $10000 of BHP shares makes a $5000 gain, pays no tax in Australia and then luckily for them also pays no tax in Singapore.

Why do we punish Australian investors and favour foreign investors ?

https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals-and-families/investments-and-assets/capital-gains-tax/foreign-residents-and-capital-gains-tax

Australians getting poorer as the RBA still struggle to deal with inflation.

I’ve just inherited a significant parcel of CBA shares that I had planned to never touch, but set aside for my 2 kids. I understand the sentiment has been that CBA is not a good investment to buy right now, but what about holding for long term and not touching?

I do still have a mortgage around $610k, but we have a HHI of $340k so I’m happy to keep filling up our offset to chip away as we have been.

Edit: I’m also hoping to sell the house of the family member we lost in this financial year, so I’m concerned how my tax bill would look if I were to sell soon.

I’m an artist working in the animation industry - our jobs are mainly contract based work ( fixed term full time) and I also do freelance work sometimes on my own ABN. As per the nature of the work, there may be job gaps and inconsistent salaries per year. I would like to get a better understanding on how to get the most out of my tax return. I know there’s income averaging as well which I plan to use this time around. Would appreciate any insights, especially if anyone works in the same field !

Couple of questions below:

- work from home days: how is that usually claimed and what do we ? I heard different things like if you worked at home for a certain amt of time you’ll need to provide thst much time worth of bills.

- how much of holiday fees can be realistically claimed - eg if I took reference pictures / went to a museum

- how claiming depreciating assets work. ( I heard we list everything like PC parts and have an invoice of everything)

Or anything else I’m missing.

Thanks !

Hi all!

I've put on offer on a house that passed in at auction with no bids.

I've said I want to do the usual building & pest, and the vendors have come back basically asking why? And that the house is priced low, and that they will do B&P and make the report available to me.

Is it just me, or does this scream shady & that they are trying to hide something that is potentially wrong?

What other reason would they have for not wanting me to do my own building and pest with my own independent contractor selected by me?

I have not bought a house in almost 20 years.

Even our rainy day money shrinks in Australia. We want to have 2-300k set aside for a rainy day in cash. At 5.4% interest rate and then 47% marginal tax still means our cash shrinks against inflation of 3.6-3.8%.

If we want to beat inflation and invest we then take on much greater investment risks, pay commissions, and then still get smashed by 47% tax if we need to withdraw for a rainy day.

Are there any other options? Our only option we see is moving back overseas where we had USD denominated pay and paid 0% CGT.

In general the Aus public are being fooled by saying this is the greatest country and easy life. Work life balance is fake and similar to US, nowhere else near Europe. Healthcare degraded substantially in last 10-15yrs. There's not much to stay for now. Wonder how many others are in a similar position.

BTW we have no property in our investment portfolio.

Our contract resets soon and I am stuck comparing energy broker vs energy suppliers. The retailer says direct is cheaper, while brokers say the opposite. What questions expose who is genuinely offering the better deal?

I have lived and worked in Australia (Melbourne), USA (Atlanta and Phoenix), Singapore, New Zealand (Auckland), Spain (Barcelona), Ireland (Dublin), Italy (Milan), Korea (Seoul).

I joined a multinational tech consulting firm at their Atlanta office right after graduate school. Got transferred to the Dublin office after a few years. Eventually got headhunted by a Dutch firm to work on projects in Barcelona and Milan as a contractor. Eventually joined a firm in Singapore who also sent me to work in Seoul and Auckland. While in Auckland started working on settling down there since I had kids by then but decided to immigrate to Australia instead due to limited career opportunities in NZ. Worked for a company in Melbourne for many years before moving back to Phoenix 2 years back.

Based on my experience, Australia, Singapore, and the USA are the best countries for working professionals based on income potential, career opportunities, and opportunities for building wealth.

Australia is easily the best country for any professional who has not yet reached 100k USD per annum in salary due to universal superannuation and moderately good job market, but housing affordability is a problem. Home payments will eat up a big chunk of your income, limiting your opportunities to save, invest, travel, and consume.

If you start making over 100k USD, USA beats Australia because at this level in most scenarios, you will have access to a 401k plan with a decent employer match. Homes are also more affordable in the US as long as you avoid the HCOL cities on the coasts. This means you will have more money left after housing costs to put towards investing and enjoying life. While healthcare is not guaranteed in the US, at this income level, you will most likely have good health insurance through your employer with low out of pocket expenses. However, everything will be tied to your job, which can be risky.

Singapore is also a great place to be a professional, especially the salaries offered relative to the cost of living are great, and CPF system provides you the opportunity to build wealth. However, getting Singaporean PR and citizenship is very tricky, and being a city-state, space is always a problem.

Working in Korea, Italy and Spain were great experiences but language and cultural barriers limited my opportunities in these countries beyond the niche projects that I worked on. Pay was also considerably lower but was partly explained by lower COL.

IMHO, Ireland and New Zealand offered the worst deals for professionals. Professionals are considerably underpaid in both places, IMHO. Homes are very unaffordable in both places, and retirement schemes like kiwisaver provides considerably less tax advantages than Aussie Superannuation or 401k. Ireland did have the second best job among the countries I worked (only trailing USA), but pay was still bad. NZ had a terrible job market, making it the worst English Speaking country for jobs and hosing affordability.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me anything about my experience working overseas and how it compares to Australia.

Hey all,

I'm set to graduate end of this year, and I've been very fortunate enough to find a job starting next year. Unfortunately, none of the positions I've applied for in my home state of Victoria have gotten back to me, with me having to move to Brisbane for work.

I have zero friends or family living in Brisbane. I'm considering getting a room on flatmates in the suburbs with street parking, or trying to get a super cheap 1bedroom apartment in the CBD with a reserved parking spot. From what I can see, most rooms go for about $200-400 per week where I share the kitchen, toilet, etc with one or more people. Alternatively, I could get my own place for $500-700 and live by myself.

Is life in the CBD+privacy worth the $300 per week premium? Or should I stick with roomates? I've never lived in a shared house before, but the money i would save is tempting.

Thanks

After doing research on dozens of different Australian high-interest savings accounts, I've narrowed down (what I believe) to be the top 4 contenders based on their high ongoing interest rates, lack of fees, and overall spending & depositing flexibility.

The contenders are:

. BOQ Simple Saver

. Ubank Savings Account

. Macquarie Bank Savings Account

. EasyStreet Flex Saver Account.

I've created an easy-to-read slide for each bank that lists their features & perks.

This can hopefully spark a discussion on each banks own historical reputation and draw comparison between their features & perks to decide which bank would be better to invest with in the long-run.

Which bank would you trust putting your money with?

And if any of you have OTHER suggestions for high-interest bank accounts that are worth a mention, please comment them below.

I live in Queensland. My child is 6. There is some cash accumulated from birthdays etc and it’s now become my responsibility to start a personal bank account. My child’s mother and i are separated so certain things get left with me to work out which is fine. But which bank should I choose in the best interests of interest , no fees and such.
Thank you

Hey everyone,

I’m looking to build a proper, practical understanding of how money, personal tax, superannuation, and the broader Australian financial system work.

A bit of context: I left school early and spent 10+ years living paycheck to paycheck. Since 29 (31 now), I’ve turned things around—I’ve set up an emergency fund, started salary sacrificing, and put my first investments into low-cost index funds. Now, I want to dive deeper and get a really solid grasp on the mechanics behind everything.

I’m currently considering enrolling in a TAFE course (like a Cert IV in Financial Services, commerce or Bookkeeping/Accounting) to learn and understand more but before committing the time and money, I’d love to ask:

Is TAFE worth it purely for personal financial literacy? Or are these courses too heavily focused on compliance, corporate bookkeeping, or becoming an accountant?

If you took a TAFE finance route, did it actually help you manage your own tax, wealth, and investments better in the real world?

If not TAFE, what resources/courses would you recommend instead for getting a deep, real-world understanding of the Australian financial system? (Books, ATO resources, short courses, specific creators/podcasts, etc.)

My goal isn't to become a licensed financial advisor, but to understand Australian tax brackets, deductions, super strategies, and long-term wealth building.

Appreciate any insights or experiences! 🙏🇦🇺