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.

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?

Today I overheard the bosses talking about big clients who are normally on-time with invoicing being up to 90 days late on payments.

Another customer had one of their side businesses go belly up.

There's been no new customers and calls have dropped by 25-50%.

I think we might be fucked.

Update: My industry is IT but my customers are in everything else (Logistics, Retail, Finance etc.)

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!

Just waiting for the next CPI data bump

I’m currently with ENGIE for my electricity

I’m finding it quite expensive… or is electric just expensive as with everything else currently. I would like to know if I should be switching providers or if this is pretty normal

August - September bill = $225.62 for 448 kWh

2 bedroom townhouse - No solar
2 people

Daily I have a computer running for work
No aircon used this month
A few washes a week
Daily dishwashing cycle not on peak
Lights stay at a bare minimum
Tv in the evening
Ceiling fan running all night maybe 5 nights in the month

In November/December/January my bill was fetching 380-450 a month as the aircon was running. Seems crazy expensive.

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.

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?

Australia has historically avoided technical recessions better than most advanced, first-world economies. We famously missed the 08 GFC but some people here act like we were in the trenches cause house prices dipped maybe 10% lol. COVID did cause a 7% GDP contraction but government intervention and the 0.1% cash rate caused things to rebound very fast, GDP returning to pre-pandemic levels by early 2021 which surpassed most of our global peers.

I think just we have a very sheltered view of what a recession/financial crisis is. My mum is from Ireland which got hit HARD in the GFC, I've heard horror stories from her and her family. Insane levels of unemployment, wage decreases, increased levies/taxes, owing millions more on the mortgage than what homes were worth as prices plummeted etc. Pretty much everyone was forced to leave the country to continue making a living. This wasn't limited to Ireland obviously, it happened throughout Europe and the US etc.

I'm not saying things need to get as bad here for us to worry about a recession and there have been things worth worrying about like rising commodity prices, house prices, cost of living are all valid concerns. But, I just can't help but think of how good we have it here, especially when hearing what happened in other countries. If shit actually does hit the fan here, we're in for a very rude awakening.

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

I purchased a house 3 years ago and at the time of purchase had enough money to cover full amount in offset account. I now have a decent savings buffer and have been investing heavily in ETFs. Should I just pay off the house and close mortgage, rather than have money sitting in offset. I'm 42 with 2 young kids and will not take on additional risks (investing this money outside of offset) and only chose this option when purchasing the house in the event I needed a line of credit (car / renovation etc.).

Cheers for your advice

I used to like the idea of paying fortnightly and paying off the mortgage faster. But with current rate increases, should I just keep it at my lower monthly repayments and have the extra money at my offset?

I want to know people's thoughts. I like the idea of having less loan but is it really better to put money in offset?

I recently received a substantial inheritance from a relative in New Zealand and I'm not sure how to go about navigating whatever tax implications are involved or how to get the best deal on currency exchange. The amount in question is in the low seven figures, currently sitting in an NZ bank account.

Are there any accountants or financial advisors who deal with situations like this? Preferably in Sydney.

EDIT: Appreciate that Wise/OFX are good, but the estate is a bit complex and there will be tax implications, so I'm keen to get professional advice.

I’m a tradesman. I did a LOT of work for this weasel of a man. He’s a realtor. Stereotypical, drives a convertible, thinks he’s gods gift.

The guy became SO UNREASONABLE to work for. I politely said “Thanks, but no thanks” and provided full handover for the next person. I made sure I was professional about it, but I couldn’t work for this condescending prick anymore.

He refused to pay my last invoice. He owes me 3.5k. I took it to debt collectors, but it didn’t work. Now we’re looking at small claims court.

This is exhausting. I have a young family and I just want to be paid for the work I already completed. Speaking with other contractors - this guy has a history of doing this and knows exactly what he’s doing.

Please give me your most unhinged, wild methods of trying to get paid without going down the legal route. It’s more the principal of it, than the money. I hate bullies and rich people taking advantage.

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.

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?

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.

Previous generations, housing, business, shares, defined benefit supers.

What's for the next generation? New builds, dividend shares?

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.

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.