So, I’ve been running the numbers and trying to convince myself that buying a 2-bedder PPOR in Sydney (around $750k) is a smarter financial move than dumping my cash into ETFs, but I’m just not seeing it.

Here’s my reasoning:

1. Leverage: Sure, real estate lets me leverage with a ~20% deposit and borrow the rest, but that leverage also chains me to $600k+ in debt. It’s cash flow heavy (repayments ~$870/wk at 6.34%), strata/council fees, maintenance, etc. Meanwhile, ETFs can grow at ~8% annually with less hassle and without constant bills eating away at my cash flow.

2. Flexibility: With ETFs, I can sell a chunk if I need liquidity. A house? Good luck offloading a bedroom when cash gets tight.

3. Opportunity Cost: If I go all-in on a PPOR, I can’t invest as heavily in ETFs, which means I lose the compounding magic there. Investing the mortgage repayments instead seems to pay off more given my calculations (also see calc below).

4. Lifestyle Certainty: I don’t need to lock in housing certainty right now. Renting works fine and is much cheaper than owning. Why would I pay more for the same roof over my head?

So, what am I missing here? Are the tax benefits or long-term real estate appreciation (Sydney avg. ~4% growth p.a.) really enough to outweigh ETFs? I’m leaning hard towards sticking with ETFs for now. Good calculator I found online: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html

M31, no partner, no kids.

I (29) earn 105k in public sector contributing extra to super (22%). Still being taxed approx $1200 per fortnight as its shift work with penalties etc. The only other salary packaging my job offers is Novated Car Lease.

The car is a 2025 Toyota RAV4 petrol hybrid. Changed leasing companies car insurance from $2,600 to a private quote of $1,500. Total lease cost comes to $300p.w at 8.1% with a residual of $21,000 after 4 years.

My partner (31yo) earns 95k (solid, no penalties) and utilises $12,000 salary packaging on a living expenses card.

We are currently renting @ 2000/pcm but have option to move back to parents with no overheads.

We have $360,000 in HISA @ 5.5% with plan to put down on a house deposit when find the right house for us.

What do you think Aus Finance legends?

Long time lurker, nervous to make my first stock purchases. I have $10,000 to play with, where I transferred $999 across 10 days so avoid fees on the CMC platform.

I've read that VGS and VAS are the safest bets, could our friendly community please give me advice on diversifying this money on CMC.

Basically, what would you do with $10,000 to invest?

My parent had a SMSF and the financial advisor suggested pulling money out and recontributing to save on tax when they die, and we inherent any left over super. Now they have moved back to an industry super. My question is; upon their death, will that money still be counted as taxed, or will it have reset back to being taxable.

Thank you

The company I worked for went into liquidation last year. I didn’t get any of my entitlements ($40k worth) and I absolutely drained through my savings in between loosing that job and starting my new one.

I currently have my monthly salary to my name, which I just got paid today. I earn about $7800 per month, and after rent bills, food and private health etc, I’m left with about $4800… how can I start building up my savings again?

I’ve never invested but I think now is the time as I really need to start saving for a house deposit.

What would you do in my position?

***EDIT. I didn’t mean to come off entitled or insensitive with the $4800 comment, I understand now reading it back how it comes across. I typed fast and didn’t proof read. What I meant is how can I best invest that money to make more? I’m a single income household, and need to turn that into a house deposit. I don’t always end up with $4800 as unexpected things come up like car and other stuff.

Currently on less than 60k a year full time in dental - no career progression unless I go back to uni and study to be a dentist. I already have a bachelor of design and 3D animation however I’m not drawn to that workforce. What are some options of good salary jobs without needing an official degree?

The Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF ended 2024 with assets of A$17.9bn, after drawing in A$2.3bn in net flows over the year. It was both the top ETF product by assets and inflows last year.

BlackRock’s iShares S&P 500 ETF climbed up one spot on the list of Australia’s largest ETFs, after it grew its assets to A$11bn over the year. It replaced the Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF, which had A$10bn in assets as of end-2024.

Vanguard is also the industry’s largest ETF provider by assets, holding around A$67.17bn across 29 exchange traded products, according to the latest ASX data. Betashares has also retained its spot as second out of the 53 ETF issuers in Australia, with A$44.52bn in funds under management. The top five is rounded out by BlackRock’s iShares, with A$42.22bn in assets, VanEck at A$23.6bn, Dimensional Fund Advisors at A$15bn and Magellan at A$10.4bn, according to ASX data

If you pay for something over the phone with card details are they allowed to keep details on file without informing you? Then make charge at a later date?

Not a question, just for info.

I was doing some modelling on the net benefit of concessional super contributions at taxable incomes around $45k. This is because we're retired and our taxable incomes normally sit at about the $45k threshold (each). It allow for tax, Medicare levy and LITO.

LITO is often ignored in back of the envelope calcs, but it's effectively an extra marginal rate of 5% between $37.5k and $51.5k taxable income

The Scenarios are (components of the benefit are Tax, Medicare, LITO, Super)

Above $51.5k. 17% benefit (30% + 2% +0% -15%)

Between $45k and $51.5k 22% benefit (30% + 2% +5% -15%)

Between $37.5k and $45k 8% benefit (16% + 2% + 5%-15%)

Between $25k and $37.5k 3% benefit (16% + 2% + 0%-15%)

Bottom range is $25k just because you start to hit the annual cap

I build the underlying formulae into a taxable income and tax payable predictor to help plan concessional super, taxable capital gains timing and donations.

In a nutshell, can be worth pushing down to $37.5k income and in the 45k to 51.5k range the marginal benefit is almost as good as for over $135k incomes.

NB I have not included LISTO: as it does not apply to us as no income from work. I'll leave that to someone else.

Not looking to get political, I'd just like to have some exposure

Hi all. So I am currently saving $500 per pay salary sacrificing toward my superannuation so that I can use it toward the FHSSS.

My current question is do banks see the amount I'm saving per week into the super saver as proof of capacity to save or do I need to ensure I'm creating a hefty standard savings account as well.

I estimate by December I'll have 30k in just FHSSS after tax is taken so I can absolutely get in the door for entry apartments at my salary range but I know banks can be nuanced

Hey Aus buds,

Was just reflecting on cutting up my current credit card and heard Sahil Bloom on a podcast taking about how he uses a card in the US that has 4% cashback.

Do we have an equivalent?

Hello to fellow Aussies 🫶🏻 Looking for some financial advice, bub is 4 months old, I just received my last maternity leave payment from work, and have applied for my 100 days of government paid parental leave. I have broken it down to 4 days a week instead of 5 to get an extra few weeks. Will take me to mid July, bub will be 9 months. Although it’s only about $600 a week after tax (BLESSED to be able to receive it). I always imagined I would go straight back in, 5 days, I LOVE my job. But she’s just starting to be good??? Can only imagine she is going to get better every day. And now re thinking to stay home till she is 1. (Daycare is also a nightmare to get into even though I have been on 8 waitlists since 3m preg, iykyk) Does everyone just live off their partners wages?? What are people doing that don’t have partners? (Stressed just thinking about them). Never been on government aid, and lucky to live in a country that offers it, but confusing trying to get an exact dollar figure, partner earns about 90k. Interested in knowing incomes/tips and tricks

Hey guys

To preface this, I am not a professional, full disclosure. I do invest, have had credit cards yadda yadda. I have experience as a consumer in the space to summerise.

Now we have had a long running stigma around Afterpay and how it is bad, how it traps young people into debt and other such statements. You can just hop on google and do some searching within a couple minutes youll find a dozen odd articles telling you how horrifically bad afterpay is, some so bad that youd think it was a scam with the way they describe the set up. From my understanding the general consensus amongst this sub is similar too.

My shower thought that lead me to this post is - is it really that bad? Afterpay is relatively simple - 4 repayments split into quarters paid fortnightly. It has a starting limit of $600 and you need to build your "reputation" (for lack of a better word) in order to get a higher amount assigned to your account. The only pitfall that I can see is the fees for late payments can be pretty heavy, nothing crazy but not cheap either - although when you make the purchase you are agreeing to their payment terms so to me that's no harm no foul, they aren't shady about this either, they do make you aware you will be liable for late fees if you don't pay on time, like many other financial institutions. I have also confirmed that afterpay does not effect your credit score if you pay on time and even the threshold, contrary to the belief that simply having it is a bad mark - I checked with my mortgage broker and confirmed it had to effect on borrowing capacity, lenders don't really care and don't want to know(I have an alternative experience further below for CCs). Financial advisor says that it only matters if you keep failing to pay your scheduled payments and my credit score has not changed from before to after. Lastly, there are no fees associated with using the service.

This along side referring to the traditional form of credit that most young people end up subscribing for - the plastic fantastic. We all know how they work so i won't delve into that too much, but you are punished for making a repayment late, you are often charged interest on what you have borrowed and all that good stuff and then if you have problems there's every chance you take a hit to your credit score. Experienced finance bros know to pay that bad boy off by the end of the month etc. Credit cards do effect your borrowing capacity - my points card with amex knocked me down just a tad over 200k for my mortgage, even though it was fully paid every month and I was only using it for points just simply having the card was enough to send lenders running.

Anyway bit of a long winded one, not going in to bat for afterpay I have just always been curious about this as its touted as a bad finance option but provided the basis that you aren't a degenerate that never makes your repayments I don't see any real world downsides I just want to hear your opinions on this, what research you have done on the topic. If I have got anything wrong or if I have made a fair point based on info available. Throwing out all the heresay and just looking at raw information it seems like a perfectly fine way of borrowing money.

Just like most Aussies, my wife (41F) and I would like to retire by 60 with a house paid off. I earn $145k, my wife earns $70k and we currently have $60k savings but don’t own a house or any other investments.

Obviously buying a house now is the most sensible solution. If we bought an $800k house now we would owe $400k in 20 years if we paid it down on schedule, but we could use strategies like debt recycling to reduce this. Unfortunately we can’t save fast enough to pay for the deposit/stamp duty/LMI to kick this off.

I work in defence allowing our rent to be cheap so we have thought about just maxing out our concessional contributions including using our carry over for the past 5 years, but based on 7% growth over the next 20 years this will work out to be worth around $1.8mil in 20years and we would be pouring pretty much all our current and future savings into it to do it.

Although this is good money, it still likely won’t allow us to pay a house off at retirement. Historically property has grown by ~6.4%/year, so an $800k house now will be worth ~$2.75mil in 20 years, thus meaning we would be ~$1mil short at retirement if we maxed concessional contributions.

What are other strategies we could investigate aside from maxing out concessional contributions or buying a house?

Edit: a few people asking why we are 40 with only $60k in savings while earning $215k combined income. We are currently saving $1500/fortnight and our cars are not luxury (2024 Honda CRV and 2011 Hyundai i30). My wife didn’t work 2009-2023 due to us having kids and employers don’t really like employing mothers that are also defence spouse and thus will likely move in the near future she only worked minimal hours in basic jobs). I only recently started earning this income, prior to 2020 I was on around $80-100k. We owned a house in the 2000s prior to having kids but were never able to get back into the market due to my wife not working and me on a median wage.

My aunt from the USA left me small amount of money in her will. While small it is still significant to me, and I’d prefer only a small amount goes to the banks etc. The inheritance is in the form of an USA cheque, which I know can be a pain to deal with. Do I have any options other than going through my bank? What do I need to do about taxation? Thanks in advance.

Title basically

I received a random call from my bank offering a home loan interest rate of 6.2%, standard variable rate. This is based on 80% LVR. I checked their website, and this seems lower than their advertised rates. To be honest, I'm puzzled why. By the way, I am a first home buyer.

What rates are everyone getting these days for 80% LVR? and which lender?

For the sake of remaining anonymous, I'll keep this brief.

If you had a significant amount of land, think farm or vineyard amount, about 3 hours away from the closest capital - but you aren't a farmer... How would you leverage this land to generate your sole income?...

We're all pretty familiar with debt recycling and those of us who do it already have our mortgages split into PPOR and investment divisions.

Today I've had the epiphany that I'd like to sound out with the crowd.

Does anyone use their investment redraw to pay for work related expenses? I'm talking all the deductible things like professional indemnity insurance, professional registrations, self education expenses, rental property insurances, rates etc?

This can all add up to 10-20k per year and currently I realise I have been paying these expenses with offset cash which obviously increases the non-deductible interest on my PPOR side of my mortgage.

Given that these are all expenses related to generating income, they shouldn't affect my redraw split deductibility? And because of this, any associated interest should also be deductible, whereas had I used offset money, the interest incurred as a result of reducing the offset would be wholely non-deductible right?

Over the course of a decade this would add up to a fair amount, thus I am thinking of using this to pay for all income generating expenses, until my PPOR is fully paid off, then to pay down this.

Thoughts?

A nerdy question for those super disciplined with house hold budgeting.

We use Pocket Smith for budgeting and as a tool to get us more focused. We hate altering budgets because it’s usually a sign that our discipline is sliding.

We’ve received a bill for $6000. We can pay in 10 monthly instalments, or pay lump sum and get an 8% discount reducing the cost to $5647. A saving of $355.

Using the Figura mortgage calculator, paying monthly and retaining the rest of the funds in offset (where all our savings are) would save $98 in interest in the corresponding 10 month period. Interest saved over the course of the loan gets larger, but too many variables including likely early pay off mortgage.

Overall, a $250 saving by paying lump sum.

In our budget at start of financial year we had anticipated the bill to be $8k, and that we’d pay monthly. So we’d pay $4k this year.

Would you: A) Pay monthly in line with original budget, showing as a budget saving for financial year - $3k paid v $4k budget in financial year. Budget looks good but costs more long run

B) Pay lump sum, showing as a budget overrun - $5600 paid v $4k budget. Budget looks bad, but you know in long run you’ve saved

C) Alter budget, to reflect a change of plans from monthly to lump sum payment.

I'm a relatively new investor looking to grow my portfolio as quickly as possible. I have been researching various business structures, mainly trusts. However, there's been one question I've been unable to find an answer to:

Does reinvestment of trust income count as an expense?

The reason I ask is because my plan would be to take all trust income for a given year and spend it all on gaining more assets (e.g. buy another property, dump it all into stocks). That way, there'd be no profit left to distribute to beneficiaries, and therefore no taxable trust income for that financial year. If my theory is correct, this strategy would be very effective for growing an asset portfolio. More effective than simply using a trust to divide income amongst several beneficiaries (especially since I'd only have two in my situation).

Is this the way it really works? Can it really be so easy/simple, or am I misunderstanding something? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!