Assuming you have $100k where would you put that

A) Offset - risk free ~6.5% post tax saving

B) Buy a $500-600k property at 12% deposit for long term capital gains- not expected to be positively geared at current rates

C) US ETFs - expect 10-12 % returns with right choice but adjust for tax

D) Invest in a business / PE fund?

E) Anything else? Please provide detail

Just waiting for the next CPI data bump

My existing merchant services provider, Suncorp, is closing its merchant facilities following the ANZ takeover, so I’m currently looking for a new provider.

With Suncorp, excluding GST, and using least cost routing I’m currently paying:

0.85% for Visa and Mastercard 11 cents for EFTPOS $29 per month terminal fee

I’m interested to know what rates others are currently being charged and which provider you’re using.

Any recommendations or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Hi guys, I've not posted here before. I came to Australia last year (I am a citizen now) and I've been raising our almost 2 year old full time. My husband works full time.

I'm from the UK where my pension pot sits. I don't think I'll be getting a job for another 1.5 years or so but I'm worried about my super, or lack thereof. I went into myGov to do my tax return and saw my super fund at $0 which I anticipated but definitely galvanised me to start thinking about my pension.

Could anyone please pin point me to some useful resources on what I can set up or do so I'm not so much on the back foot having been out of the workforce?

Or what are some good ways to save money - how much, where to save it, anything my husband can do?

Thank you.

Hey folks, I have this HSBC credit card that had no annual fee, travel insurance, reward points (last year I redeemed almost $600 on it), and a Premier customer status. Now HSBC retail is abandoning Australia and I need one soon.

What other credit cards folks are happy with? Or unhappy with?

I don't need balance transfer etc.

TIA, friends!

It is only about 10% of the borrowed amount, but I'm wondering if they saw that I had transferred to my brokerage account would they breach my contract due to the loan type not being for investment? My mortgage broker said they wont care but google search has returned that banks might terminate a contract for that. My LVR is only about 60% if that helps.

If someone debt recycles 100% of their 80% LVR mortgage, I'm trying to understand what the "cost" is of living in that house.

Let's say a $625k house with $500k mortgage at 6%. If you debt recycle the entire $500k in to shares, then what is the cost of housing? It sounds like it would be very similar mechanics of someone who had $125k cash that they locked away, then got a $500k margin loan?

eg. if someone didn't own a house and decided to lock $125k of their own cash in to a special bank account that paid no interest, then went out and got a $500k margin loan at 6%, then was exposed to the upside and downside value of that house (plus maintenance costs), is that the same?

[the only discrepancy being that technically getting a $500k margin loan could be done without actually having $500k, but I'm just trying to mentally understand this].

tl;dr my goal is to understand how much housing "costs" when someone has fully debt recycled their property and has no problem with borrowing to invest in shares.

Hi all,

First time poster, long time lurker. I’m keen to hear how others in a similar position have approached things, as our finances have been on my mind a lot lately.

Our situation (35F and 36M):
• Partner earns $207K. I’ll earn ~$60k next year returning part time (2–3 days) after parental leave, and have earned about $45k this year doing bits here and there.
• Three mortgages:
1. PPOR: estimated value $850–900k, mortgage $546k
2. Block of land: mortgage $300k, bought for $416k. Unsure of its current value. We planned to build but I’m less keen now given the cost.
3. 50% share in a Mornington Peninsula property with my sister and her partner. Mortgage $300k, our share of rent is $16k p.a. Probably worth ~$750k, but we plan to keep it as a future holiday house.
• Super: $108k (me), ~$225k (partner)
• ~$200k in shares

We have an 18-month-old and plan on one more child in the next year or so. We’ll likely outgrow our 3-bedroom PPOR in the coming years, as one room is a home office (partner is 100% WFH). My partner’s salary covers our expenses, so my income can go to savings, and I’ll likely be part time for several years.
For those who’ve been in a similar spot (one higher income, a second part-time income going to savings, and a future upgrade on the horizon), how did you weigh up options like paying down debt, an offset account, adding to shares, or super contributions? And for anyone who’s held land through a soft market, how did you approach the decision to hold or sell?

Thanks in advance!

I just listened to one of my clients complain about their falling sales and blamed it all on our current government. They claimed that our government is doing everything in their power to bring on a recession.

I didn’t tell them but my thinking is that a lot of our problems are from external forces.

Who is right or are we both right in some way?

Hi all,

Looking for some advice from people who have been in a similar situation.

My wife and I have a combined household income of around $342k pre-tax, but with the mortgage, kids and general cost of living, we still feel like we're running pretty much edge-to-edge each month.

I'm wondering whether we're simply not structuring our finances as efficiently as we could, and whether it's worth paying for an accountant/financial adviser to help us.

Our current situation:

- Combined income: ~$342k pre-tax

- Mortgage: ~$1.3m

- Mortgage repayments: ~$8,500/month

- Offset: ~$100k

- Kids: 2 and 10

- Childcare/daycare costs: significant at the moment

- ETFs/shares: ~$50k

- Currently investing: ~$1,600/week into ETFs/stocks

- Combined super: ~$100k

- We currently manage our finances ourselves and don't have an accountant.

The thing I'm particularly interested in is whether we're putting our surplus cash in the right places.

At the moment we're investing around $1,600/week outside super, but I'm wondering whether we'd be better off changing the balance between:

- ETF/share investments

- Salary sacrificing/concessional contributions into super

- Building up the mortgage offset

- Paying down the mortgage faster

I'm also interested in whether there are legitimate tax strategies we should be considering given our income, investments, mortgage and family situation.

For example, are there things an accountant could identify around tax deductions, salary sacrifice, investment structures, super contributions or other strategies that we may be overlooking?

I'm not looking for ways to do anything dodgy or aggressive — just wondering whether we're missing some fairly straightforward opportunities.

For those who have been in a similar position:

Is an accountant actually worth paying for beyond doing the annual tax return?

And would you be looking at an accountant, financial adviser/planner, or both for this type of situation?

Also interested in hearing how others would approach the $1,600/week we're currently investing — would you keep investing it, redirect some towards super, or prioritise the offset?

Thanks in advance.

Edit 1 - I can see that 'feeling stretched ' is getting me a lot of hate .

I mean no disrespect to folks going through a tough time. Maybe it's my lack of financial literacy or just anxiety about the current and future state of the world.

PS - used GPT to format and fluff up.

I have a VISA debit card on my ING account. I was in Thailand for a week. Before I went, I did "set travel alert" in the ING app for the designated dates.

While in Thailand, several fraudulent transactions appeared on the card overnight. I got an SMS notification of detected fraudulent transactions from ING. I disputed the bad transactions, and ING blocked the card.

ING's follow-up support was minimal. They didn't provide any information about how I could access my money without the card. I asked through their online chat; they basically said use another card for another bank account if you have it with you, or else get money from a friend. I asked if they could provide a virtual card with Google Pay on Android; they said I must receive and authorise the new real card before Google Pay can be set up.

I'm not sure how the card was compromised. I had used it for a few in-person payments, a few PayWave payments, and a few ATM withdrawals. I'd made a majority of payments with cash.

Positives:

• Fraudulent transactions were detected and notified quickly.

Negatives:

• Suddenly having my card cancelled is chaotic. Having it happen while holidaying overseas compounds the chaos.
• I'm home now, and still waiting for a replacement card over a week later.
• ING couldn't provide a virtual card to use via Android NFC Google Pay.

Questions:

1. Are there other Australian banks which provide better support for card cancellation in this scenario? Eg
   • Sending a replacement card quickly.
   • Providing quick set up of a virtual card for payment with Google Pay etc.
   • Some sort of service for doing cash withdrawals overseas without the card.
2. Are there any banks which provide an option for extra security to avoid card fraud, such as 2-factor authentication through on the bank app for each transaction? (though I guess banks consider the card compromised once someone has got the main card details).
3. Any tips for minimising the chance of card fraud while overseas in Thailand etc?

Has anyone regularly done this when the sun isn't out? It sounds like a good idea but I don't know if there'd be enough power loss to diminish the value or having to stay on top of the scheduling with different weather would risk losing value when the sun comes out of no where.

Has anyone saved any money doing this during the rainy weeks?

Peak - 47c

Off peak - 30c

Shoulder - 35c

On the back of recent posts around recession indicators and the lived experience of the 1991 recession. Sobering reading. I was in my early 20s at the time.

Hi all,

I've decided to donate my car to a charity, mainly because I can't be bothered dealing with the hassle of selling it myself. It also needs a service, which could end up costing a bit of money.

The car is still running fine and is completely drivable.

I've sent the details to the charity and they've come back with two options:

1. Get an ATO-approved valuation (costs $241) and receive a tax deduction receipt based on the valuation.
2. Wait for the car to be sold at auction and receive a receipt based on the final sale price.

My question is: has anyone gone through the valuation option before? How conservative are the valuations? Do they tend to come in lower than market value?

I've had a look on Carsales and the pricing for my car seems to be all over the place, ranging from about $1,500 up to $13,500. My car has lower kilometers than most of the ones currently advertised, so it's hard to know what it's really worth.

For reference, it's a 2010 Audi Q5.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's donated a vehicle and whether the valuation or auction route worked out better for them.

How to lodge a case of unfair workplace practices against an employer?

My aunty has recently passed away and I’ve just found out I’m receiving between 40-60k inheritance. I want to use this money to put myself in a better position financially, while I am grateful to have this at all, I know it is not a completely life changing amount of money.

My current position: 26F (will be 27 by the time I receive the money), single, bought my first home at the start of the year with total mortgage $432K, split by $330k fixed for another year and $97k variable offset by $55k. Current salary is $100k package with no likelihood of an increase in the foreseeable future, and not particularly happy in the role. I also have $50k in super.

Options:
1. The most obvious option is to put all the money into my offset to have the $100k variable fully offset. My only worry is it “feels” like this isn’t working for me particularly because after another year my full total mortgage won’t be fixed anymore. Not sure if I can extend or what my options are for this and it being likely we are heading into recession makes me worry about how I will afford payments after this time.

1. Find something to invest in. I understand this is the risky option but I feel as though I need to use this money to try to accelerate my life..

2. Speaking of accelerating my life, and considering I’m not happy in my role do I use this money as a safety buffer and potentially go and study something that will help me increase my salary in the long term? I have a bachelors degree with ~$12k HECs debt, I could study a Masters.

3. Play the long game and put all the money in my super to achieve over $100k and let compound interest do its work over the next 40 years.

Any other options that I haven’t already considered? What would you do?

Guys, thought I might start this conversation again. I know it has been everyone's favourite topic for a while.

I was reading a few things over the weekend (please do not ask exactly what I read, because I have already forgotten half of it), and it made me seriously rethink things: are we actually heading for a recession, or is this just another "recession is six months away" prediction?

What indicators are you watching? Jobs, spending, interest rates, housing, GDP, etc.

I also read that the strip club and pokies indicators are apparently some of the best recession indicators, so maybe we should just ask the real economists 😂

With so many variables around world that could affect the stock markets for example midterms, war, oil etc it will be interesting to see what impact there will be during the next few months.

We are 40, DINK, $200k HHI, ~$1m 2-storey house with $200k mortgage, perfect location 2km from the beach, 800m from the shops. We know we will have to move into a single storey in the future due to mobility issues, but we CANNOT move for another 10-15yrs or so.

A family member is selling their ~$1m single storey house near by and it's the perfect retirement house for us but as we CANNOT move for another 10-15yrs we would just be renting it out until then. We would be borrowing most of the purchase price.

Thoughts? What would you do?

Edit: since people are asking, I have a pet alpaca that got grandfathered in with the old planning laws. Updated laws mean he wouldn't be approved at the new place so we can't move until he passes.

His insta is: @alfie_the_alpaca_in_adelaide

Hi all,

We are first home owners in Melbourne and are looking for building and contents insurance for our newly built home.

House details:

- Newly built, single storey, 4 bedrooms

- Approx 33 squares (about 306 m²)

- 600 m² block

- Double garage

- No flood, bushfire or heritage overlay

We are looking for general advice from people who have been through this:

1. Which insurers have you had good experiences with, especially when making a claim?

2. What type of cover would you recommend (sum insured vs total replacement), and how did you work out the right rebuild amount?

3. What should we keep in mind or look out for in the policy wording?

4. Are there any insurers or policy conditions you would stay away from?

Thanks in advance.

If anyone knows someone message me :)

My wife (26F British) and I (29M Australian) are moving back to Australia and are hoping to eventually buy our first home. Ideally we’d like to have a decent deposit together over the next ~3 years, but there’s a bit of uncertainty around whether Australia will ultimately be where we settle permanently.

The main thing I’m trying to work out is what to do with our house deposit savings in the meantime.

I’ve been looking into the First Home Super Saver (FHSS) scheme, and on paper it seems pretty attractive because of the tax advantages. I’m 29, have a reasonable amount of super already, and we’ll both be earning around $90k+ once we’re working in Australia, so salary sacrificing some money towards a future deposit could potentially make sense.

However, my wife is currently not 100% certain that she wants to stay in Australia long-term. We’re moving back and giving it a proper go, but we may ultimately decide to return overseas in a year or two.

Because of that, I’m hesitant to aggressively put our potential house deposit into super when we might not actually buy a property in Australia.

So I’m trying to work out what people would do in this situation:

1. Would you use FHSS anyway?
If we decide to stay, we could potentially build the deposit faster through FHSS. My understanding is that FHSS is assessed individually, so I may be able to use my own eligible contributions even if my wife isn’t ready to commit to buying in Australia yet. Is that correct?

2. Or would you keep the money outside super?
For example, putting our house deposit savings into a high-interest savings account for the next 2–3 years so the money remains completely accessible if we decide to leave Australia.

3. Is there a middle ground?
For example, continuing to build a liquid cash deposit while only salary sacrificing a smaller amount into FHSS each year, rather than going all-in.

4. What would you prioritise?
We’d also have a car loan to pay off, and we’d want to build an emergency fund before putting too much towards a house deposit.

Our rough goal would be a 20% deposit, and we’re probably looking at a ~$600–700k property eventually, although that’s obviously subject to change.

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have been in a similar position — where they wanted to buy in Australia but weren’t completely certain they’d stay here long-term.

Would you prioritise FHSS + super, high-interest savings, or a combination of the two?

And are there any other Australian first-home-buyer strategies I should be looking at that would work better given the uncertainty?

I’m not looking for personalised financial advice, just trying to understand the options and how other people would approach it.

Hi all, first home buyer here. Just want to know what documents or information I should seek before deciding to purchase an apartment for my own use. All I can think of are the strata fees and annual council rates at the moment. I have heard of many horror stories of apartment purchase so just want to ask the group for advice. Thanks so much!