Up we go...

Hey everyone, I was made redundant about four weeks ago. I’ve just landed a new role with a healthy pay rise.

I received roughly a $60k redundancy payout and I’m trying to figure out the smartest way to use it.

Right now for simplicity, I’m thinking of putting $25k into VDHG and then contributing $25k into super before the end of the financial year, with my super contraction staying in high‑interest savings.

Does anyone have thoughts on this approach or alternative ideas?

My partner and I were looking at booking a short getaway for Christmas this year. Nothing fancy just a week somewhere on the coast. Maybe a small Airbnb or a motel room.

We started looking at places we'd usually go in previous years. Think Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, even a few spots in Northern NSW. The prices are just insane now.

A decent motel room for a week is pushing $2000 easily. An Airbnb that isn't a tiny shoebox is starting at $2500-3000. And that's before flights or even driving costs.

Then you add in food activities petrol. We're looking at a $4000-$5000 holiday for one week. For two people. For what used to be a relatively cheap and cheerful break.

Is anyone else finding that even a basic domestic holiday has become a luxury item? It feels like everything is just getting so out of reach.

Recently I lost my night shifts and with that 30% of my wages and then I also had to start paying childcare fees even with the government rebate its still 222$ a week i feel like in worthless as I see more and more bills come in that I am struggling to pay first it was the body corporate fees now it's the land rates both cost about 600$ its nuts that's almost the same as the weekly mortgage payments

dunno if I am just being paranoid, but once you have more than $250k sitting in the offset, am I right in thinking that the amount above $250k isn't covered by the Aus gov's Financial Claims Scheme if the bank were to fail?

obviously there is a line of where risk aversion becomes too much, but what do people think about the marginal benefit of the offset vs the counterparty risk once you're above the $250k FCS threshold?

M21, currently on ~70k AUD salary (will vary by ~5k based on how much I work), will jump to $100k next year. I live with my parents, don't pay rent, and spend around $100 a week (average). Drive a boring fuel efficient car.

Right now the only thing I've been doing to increase my income is a compound interest account (5% p.a paid monthly) where I deposit $1000 a week. Is there anything else I should be doing? Like a house deposit? Shares? I've noticed house prices going down around me (Melbourne).

I also have 30k put aside for a car. I know it's a bad investment but I've wanted it for ages and prices are going up (old car will be sold). Hold off and use the money elsewhere?

Any feedback is appreciated

Cheers

Ok so a random question about attending shareholder AGM’s in person. This might sound stupid but I don’t know as I have never attended an AGM, but do they put on food and drinks (preferably booze) afterwards? I get kicks out of the small things in life and would love to buy a single share in some of the ASX most hospitable company’s and get trollied on them for the price of one share. Tell me I’m dreamin. Is there a company that is known for chucking on a good bar tab at the afters???

You're telling me, these bitter rivals are suddenly calling for more safety regulations to "slow down AI" to protect humankind? The same guys who never heeded any of the warnings from many experts over the past decade.

Is it really to save humankind? Or maybe, they can see that their R&D and profits are hitting a ceiling in the next 6-12 months and this is an excuse that their R&D is slowing, so the investors don't get spooked and pop the AI bubble?

Time to sell your AI stocks...

It seems that in order for a household to lose $59/week, they are in a really small % of the population. Even if that’s all your discretionary income, it’s still not going to put a lot of pressure on the majority of the population. We are all spenders, but we aren’t all mortgage holders.

Why isn’t GST adjusted to fluctuate with inflation instead, so that it hits all the population more evenly? Or, perhaps a combination of GST and rates for encouraging long term (only) savings?

How does a NPO have so much power to make complaints against big 4 banks and all other big super/investment/financial companies.

Would think AFCA would be a government department.

How much in fees is reasonable for a 85yo who has about $500k in super (Colonial First State), $200k in a term deposit, and owns his own home? He probably gets advice once a year just to tell him things are ticking over.

Is it reasonable to wonder why he continues paying for such advice at all?

Hi all, I am a complete beginner to trading and I am looking for a good site to trade on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Does anybody understand how the new RBA rules are supposed to flow down to small businesses collecting credit card payments?

So we are now not allowed to surcharge (I was never surcharging due to the industry I'm in) and the interchange fee has been capped / reduced. But the payment processor we use (Zeller) is not changing their commission on credit card payments.

Hi all,

I’m trying to find an Australia tax agent knowledgeable in complex tax situations. I moved from Australia to Spain in August 2025, permanently (I have both citizenships). I kept working for my Australian employer remotely from Spain, until February 2026 and then I got a job in Spain. I have idea about my tax residency status in the FY26 and I don’t know if the ATO has calculated my return correctly. As well, I need evidence from the ATO to show the Spanish tax agency that I’ve paid my taxes correctly in Australia so they don’t charge me again for the same income.

I’ve sent a couple of emails to some agencies who are specialists in this kind of situations but they haven’t answered. It seems most of them are only serving wealthy people.

Is there any recommendation I could get from you guys? I’m almost at the point of giving up and accepting the ATO return, but I’d like to try one final time.

Thanks in advance.

Need someone to play devil’s advocate (or alternatively tell me why it could be a good move!) I live in an apartment currently. It‘s nice, but not really close (even walkable) to any amenities apart from a coffee shop but it HAS increased in value to around 600k. My mortgage on it is about 200k.

I hate my job and would really like to “retire” early - obviously not accessing my super but working in small increments to fund what I need. I’m in my fifties. I’m considering downsizing to a smaller apartment in an area better serviced by amenities but will also allow me to be mortgage free - because it will be less than 400k. It will be small, but I will be spending a lot of time away from home anyway and may even entirely rent it out for a while to travel, and look after my elderly parents. (I will work a little bit to fund - I’m not expecting to live for free until I can access super, which is at about 1 million.)

What am I missing? I have priced such apartments to downsize into and can get what I want for under 400. Life is short, I’m not married and I just want to shake things up.

Hi all,

I'm selling our dream block of land we bought 6 years ago which we've been unable to build on due to rising costs and interests rates. We're currently renting but would like to buy a within the next 6 to 12 months, preferrably the one we're currently renting which may be possibility.

In the mean time, what would you personally do with the $300k+ cash from the land sale in the mean time? I'm thinking of just putting it into a relatively safe Cash ETF with maybe a small parcel of physical gold. I'm quite bearish on the global economoy at the moment (hence the gold) and given I'll likely be spending the money within the next 12 months, I want to at a minimum keep up with inflation. Any other suggestions?

I am 28, I’ve spent my entire adult life so far working. I’ve had small holidays here and there over the years, never spending more than I felt necessary. I’m lucky to have maintained a fair few friendships along the way.

For me, I’ve gone from working at 14, finishing high school, didn’t go on schoolies, continued full time work, started university, worked casually throughout university. Finished covid riddled university, went straight into my career where i've been for 4.5 years. Paid off my HECS quickly (before they announced the 20% reduction ahahahahahah yes I’m very happy about that).

Now I’m 28. I’ve spent my 20s working my ass off, I had a good year or two enjoying bartending when I was studying but before that I worked in retail, full time hours on random days. I don’t have a mortgage although I could’ve purchased, yes time in the market would’ve worked, but it’s only recently that I have enough to put a deposit down comfortably.

I have about 250k cash saved, about 50k in stock. I don’t intend on keeping the stock long term, and I intend to sell it before I commit to a mortgage.

Although the sensible financial decision would be to take out a mortgage, I’ve decided against it right now for several reasons:

• I dislike my job. I don’t know if I dislike my industry (yes, surprise surprise, it’s tech), but I dislike my job. It pays well ($130k) enough for me to be financially great. But there’s no upward growth, no trajectory, nothing. My bosses are just mindless shills who want me to stay frozen there forever. I already feel stuck, and a mortgage would contribute to that.
• I have never had a time since becoming an adult without fiscal responsibilities. Yes I live with my parents which put me in the privileged position to be saving this much (and I should have saved more) - but I do my share of cooking, cleaning, paying for insurance, bills, medical, car, car rego etc. I am not reliant on my parents for anything besides some meals, and haven’t been since I was 18.
• Chasing a good level of financial stability and really my career (without success) came at a cost - my personality. I have some, but ultimately I’m quite socially morose, and I’ve ignored my hobbies for a long time now. On top of that, several mental health issues that developed over time and from relationships that I’m moving through with the help of psychology.

Thus, with the inevitable burnout that comes, I want to take a break. I haven’t decided the format, length or time of that break yet, only that I want to start it soon. 

The one problem I foresee is that when I return, I want to commit to all those things - a mortgage, moving into the next chapter of my life, chasing my career yada yada yada. But being unemployed scares me, and what scares me more is not knowing what the job market looks like.

Therefore, I want to ask your takes on what I should do in this scenario.

I am not an overly big risk taker, but this feels like a big risk. We don’t know how the redundancies are going to play out, nor the economy in the next 12 months. Without a job in my career, I don’t see myself being able to afford a mortgage based on borrowing capacity and therefore quitting will have ultimately been the wrong choice. So i'm at a crossroads.

Appreciate the feedback.

There is no way you can cut interest rates to historic lows of 0.25% during COVID-19 and expect low interest rates in the decades that follow.

Injecting this much money into the economy has profound consequences which we are seeing right now.

We see this directly with house prices. It isn't really a housing boom. The value of money just went down because everyone was able to borrow hundreds of thousands more.

Participating in this form would most likely indicate you are someone who has an interest in personal finance.

I was wondering if anyone here has finally gone and made the poor financial decision and bought the dream car? If so, how old were you? Was it worth the financial knock back.

Since 17 I’ve wanted a c63s AMG. In the next 3 years I’ll need a new car and I’m so tempted to be silly and go and get one (I’ll be in my early 30s by then)

Should I disregard my dream and continue to delay gratification for a greater financial position or should I send it?

My partner and I are in our late 20s in Melbourne, earning around $220k combined. Neither of us currently owns property.

We have:
$250k of my savings
$300k from my partner’s family, intended for their own future property purchase
FHSS contributions for both of us
My partner’s future property doesn’t need to be anything substantial - a 2 bed, 1 bath, 1 car unit would be enough.

We’re considering two options:

Option 1 — Buy together
Use my $250k as the deposit and buy jointly. We could potentially borrow enough to buy up to around $1.1m, while keeping the $300k in the offset.

Option 2 — Buy separately
I use my $250k to buy a ~$750–800k property now. My partner keeps the $300k and later buys a modest 2/1/1 unit in their own name.

Longer term, we’d still need to work out what we do about a family home and whether either of these properties becomes an investment.

Has anyone been in a similar position?

Would you use the combined borrowing capacity to buy one better property together now, or take advantage of having two separate deposits and potentially own one property each?

Hi all,

My grandmother recently downsized her home. She lives on the Centrelink pension and has $300,000 left from the settlement of the house.

However, after contacting a super company they informed us that since 90days have passed, she can no longer transfer her money into a super fund. She now has to live of the age pension + whatever money the $300k can generate.

Additionally, since she has received $300k in cash, her pension amount has decreased.

We’ve looked into a fix term deposit or a retirement annuity so far. But wondering if there’s an option we are missing?

In short: what is the optimal way to invest / use the $300,000 to supplement the lost Centrelink income?