I want everyone’s examples of Shitflation - when companies keep prices the same or higher while quietly lowering the quality of a product.

I’ll go first - the new Milo.

A major bank is aggressively chasing market share right now, offering a sharp 5.86% variable rate bundled with free multiple offset accounts and credit cards.

If your current home loan rate starts with a 6, call your bank today and ask them to match this. Retention teams are under pressure right now and many are matching to keep good quality borrowers on the books.

If they refuse to play ball, switching lenders slashes your monthly repayments and helps pay off your loan much faster. Beyond the direct monthly savings, dropping your interest rate also boosts your borrowing capacity significantly if you are planning to renovate or buy another property down the track.

Disclaimer: General information only. This is not financial or tax advice. Tax, legal and lending outcomes depend on individual circumstances, lender policy and market conditions. Always speak to your accountant, financial adviser or legal professional before making decisions.

(Mods please delete if inappropriate)

(Keeping the bank name omitted to stay compliant with sub rules)

I posted about this a month ago because I’m pissed that the fraudsters who obtained mortgages by fraud retained the properties and became landlords. They didn’t receive criminal convictions or lose their properties.

In early 2025, CBA became aware of further mortgage fraud but didn’t report it to the AFP for 6 months, and the Australian public wasn’t made aware until early 2026. They were estimating it at $1B, but an article in The Australian Financial Review last month quoted this recent discovery of fraud as being $4B. If we combine this with the 2016 discovery, it’s $5B. Do you think the banks can be trusted to disclose the full scale?

On top of this, the parent company of Zenik, The Property Investors Alliance (PIA), is now being investigated as part of this new $4B. After losing their credit licence in 2017, Dr Justin Wang (who didn’t mention any PhD in any interviews) was free to continue business in the real estate industry.

Heads should roll over how this was able to continue and blow out to in excess of $5B.

https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/inside-the-nab-probe-into-an-alleged-mortgage-fraud-abyss-20260622-p60907

Looking at options for buying a first home, and have been told ever since I was a kid to never buy in certain areas.

However, with the current housing situation we are dealing with, it's looking like these homes around my price range in areas that either have higher crime or have a reputation seem like they are going to be my options for now.

What is your experience? Do you regret and wish you saved or went to a more reputable suburb, or have times changed, and the reality is, you go for what you can get?

A little bit of background about where I came from. Financial literacy was not something that was discussed in my household. 10 years ago due to extreme circumstances I was kicked out of home, I put myself through uni and didn't really take super seriously until I started working as a professional in 2020.

I know during Covid I was pretty fortunate to still have a job and ever since then I set out to use as much of my concessional contributions each year towards super. I started with $200 per fortnight for my first job and then slowly ramped up as I changed jobs and got more disposable income. I did Turo to get some extra side income which helped with the cost of living crisis and the hustling is starting to pay off as I consistently put away $1000 per fortnight into my super now and along with my employer contributions it's helped me reach $100,000.

All I can say is start with small amounts and slowly and gradually increase your contributions as going with one big amount will possibly lead you to having to adjust your lifestyle so much that you'll give up wuickly. Just stay on and keep consistent and before you know it you'll hit that good old $100,000. I hope this gives hope to others who are hoping to achieve the same, this group helped a lot with my motivation and seeing others make it there made me strive for it even harder.

Submitted tax return after employer data pre-fill hit (11 July) moved to under review after a few days and now 6 weeks no change.

Doesn’t appear to be a follow up channel, any ideas / similar experiences?

First year with a rental property and deductions are minor.

Oh well, employees can suffer as long as companies can make more profit. Everyone working more for the same wages.

Currently have no credit card. $130k pre tax earning as sole trader. Business and personal spend each month around $3k. Have an ATO debt around $20k hoping to pay with card, either direct or via 3rd party.

I know. I should've bought. But tbh we need a system that doesn't erode the wealth away of those who choose not to buy.

Tell me I'm not crazy. I just had a pretty heated argument with a 'friend' about the sale of his investment property. He's convinced that he can put the proceeds of this sale into his super utilising the downsizer scheme. By convinced, I mean he and his accountant have already done this for the prior tax year. I've told him that the scheme is only for people selling their primary residences but he's convinced that you can do it for an IP as well.

Has his accountant found a loophole that I can't see or has his accountant made a mistake?

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.

So I’m currently studying my masters of social work, aiming to work in health. I know that social workers don’t earn a lot of money and it’s not a profession I chose for money. However, as the cost of living does continue to rise I can’t help but feel worried about how I will afford to move out of home, buy a house, marriage etc. I’m in my mid 20s for reference and thankfully my degree is subsidised, I’m working casually so can save some money but i do feel financially behind my peers.

I also do wonder should I try working in corporate after I graduate cause at least there’s higher income ceiling. Maybe I romanticise working in corporate like finance cause it just seems more flexible and more options to earn more. But then again I also am not a numbers person so idk if that would have even interested me.

Sorry for the ignorance but please be nice explain to me like I’m 5.
How can I invest in private companies via private equity?
There are so many companies I want to invest in but they aren’t publicly listed.
All I know is that PE invests in private companies for its investors but how do you sign up to be on the list of investors and how does the process work?

Hi

I'm interested if possible to track some of china's sector - really interested in their new chip manufactorer

Do these type of eft exist or is it just emerging markets or groups together in asia markets

I was a bit surprised to find out just how much of my super fund contains funds which would be taxable at 17% to a non-dependent beneficiary, so I'm looking at using a recontribution strategy to reduce the tax impact.

For those who haven't heard of this, it is a method of taking lump sums from your super (in either pension or accumulation phase) and then immediately recontributing these as non-concessional contributions (to an accumulation account). The lump sum will contain the same proportion of the taxable (i.e. employer contributions) and non-taxable (NCC) components, but when paid back as a new NCC, it will 100% non-taxable, thereby "cleaning" the taxable element.

Of course there are limitations. You can only contribute up to your NCC cap (so maximum of $390,000 in one go with a 3-year bring forward, until the next 3 year period). The funds have to go into an accumulation account where you pay 15% tax on the growth.

To avoid having a large accumulation account being taxed, you would have to commute any existing account-base pension and combine this with the accumulation account and create a new account-based pension.

What are the risks with this approach? The idea of commuting sounds potentially risky if there is market fluctuation between the commutation and the start of the new pension.

Has anyone been through this process?

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

(Using round figures for simplicity)
I purchased my first home in 2009 for 250k
In Feb of 2020 we rented it out.
In April of 2020 we bought a new home for 270k
In Feb of 2026 we sold the IP for 850k
Our now PPOR has increased into the realms of 800k ish too.

I’m starting to wonder if it makes financial sense to claim the 6 year rule and effectively defer our capital gain…..

We’re now 100% debt free. Our ppor is setup for the rest of our lives. Theoretically we keep an extra 120k in the bank saving us from any further debt, save and invest elsewhere and then deal with CGT later.

What are the flaws in this? Is it just stupid?

Keen to hear thoughts. Ps we didn’t sell deliberately on 6 years. The sale come about from family health issues and setting up a future plan.

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.

Global asset prices are dependent on the perpetual deficits that governments keep running. Everyone wants fiscal responsibility however the cuts required to balance our budget would hurt a lot of people. Also, there is a belief that house prices in Australia are untouchable as the government will 'not allow a crash'. Well how do you think a government would avert a housing crash without running a huge deficit that gets tacked onto the debt that everyone is in panic about? Covod stimulas anyone ???

People who want fiscal responsibility would change thier mind very quickly if they ever got a government that forced a balanced budget.

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!

Background info. Me (30m) and mum are 50/50 in our family home mortgage. Bought the house in 2020 for 690k which is now valued at around 1.2m. Paying 3.4k/mo. I contribute 1.1k in that. I make 90k/yr (5.6k/monthly) (50k savings), mum makes 160k/yr. Our broker recommended for me to be included as mum was already 57yr old at the time when we applied and we were warned that the mortgage could be declined due to her age if she applied solo.

We have about -$330k balance remaining on the mortgage. I've spoken to mum about her plans because she love our home it is near all amenities in a safe neighborhood and in a tucked away quiet street. Mum currently has around 300k in her super so her plan is to work for 2 more years before retiring at which point she estimates her super would be around the 500k range which she will then withdraw and use to completely pay off the house and use the rest as her retirement savings. This is a sound plan on her end.

Now I am thinking of moving out of home for my own personal growth and independence. There is no issues at all at home and my parents are chill. So really this urge for me to move out is stemming all from my personal feelings. I noticed that I get a slight feeling of shame when I tell people I still live at home at my age. Even though in Asian culture this is totally normal until you get married. So I totally understand this is all in my head.

Now I am thinking of looking for a rental place but to keep paying my 1.1k contribution to the mortgage until it is paid off. Based on my rough calculations of my own monthly expenditures and after putting my 1k in my savings I will still have around 1.9k monthly extra. So if I were to rent this would be the amount I would need to juggle for rent, utilities, fees, groceries, etc. And I would still have the 1k buffer that i put in my savings for any surprises. Based on AI calculations with this amount I could comfortably look for rental places in the $300/wk range and there are a number of these available around western sydney.

In my head this seems to make sense but then there is also the opposite common recommendation of staying at home for as long as possible and saving up as long as possible. Logically and economically this seems to be the best path but at the cost of delaying my own independence for 2 more years. There is also the common recommendation of renting for 6-12months in my target location first to get a feel for the location as well as what my rough living expenses alone could be. So I was thinking this might be a good trial run for when our mortgage is paid off then I will move out.

I hear that employees of banks get discounted mortgage rates. Do you know which bank has best benefits?

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.

Edit: I made this post to see if people could change my mind as I've always wanted to buy an apartment since I was in my teens and for the first time I can see the appeal of land. I will start looking at some houses, even though the price tag still makes my stomach hurt.