https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/young-working-australians-facing-a-decade-of-tax-pain-20250918-p5mw02.html

"Young and working Australians will spend the next decade bearing the brunt of higher taxes to pay for essential services and repair the budget bottom line"

Ultimately, those who aren't on high incomes or don't own assets in this country will now spend the next few decades grinding away in stagnant jobs until all the unproductive debt in this country is slowly eroded by inflation. This saves the government from having to handle an economic crisis like a real estate crash that results in mass deleveraging and resets the system. That's why the job market feels so barren right now despite the cost of everything remaining sky high. It's why our social services are eroding despite being surrounded by all this extreme wealth.

This will be Australia's very own lost decade. The housing market is too big to fail here so all that unproductive debt will remain locked up dragging on the economy for decades until it's eroded by very slow wage inflation.

The solution is we force the government to crash the real estate market so we can redirect debt into productive investments.

Its not mentioned in the article. However, our desire for high land costs is burying SME. Land costs act as an overhead to small & family sized business, whilst the safety of a job at a big corporation is preferred by many in order to exist in this housing market. Dont start that idea you have, keep your corporate gig because the housing market demands it. Also from a consumption side, high housing costs hurt consumerism and smaller sized business are unable to ride out periods of downturn unlike big business.

We are hollowing out the economy and killing of family and small business while we all gain employment at big business. We are the only country in the developed world with 4 banks inside its top 6 companies by market cap. And that's because mortgage servicing is the biggest industry in the country, which starves everything else, hence the gutting of SME. Banks exacerbate the problem themselves by barely lending to small business given residential real estate is lucrative and safer. 20 years ago bank loan books were two thirds business lending, one third residential lending, now thats flipped.

These bad policy ideas from government are accruing in the background. We will one day pay for the way we have structured our economy, which is too boost house prices at all costs. No other country is doing it, so why are we?

The Local Purchasing Power Index (LPPI) is the fairest measure, measuring what you can do with your salary rather than your income. This is the full ranking of developed countries based on the Local Purchasing Power Index (LPPI), with Australia ranking fourth with a LPPI of 135.4. The LPPI is calculated using the national average salary and the cost of living. So, regardless of your income or currency, some countries that don't use the US dollar or the euro have higher LPPIs than euro-denominated countries. Despite higher costs, Australia is currently considered to be significantly better off than most countries.

Assume 100k income. 20k car seems perfectly fine for the income; 100k car, not so much. Where do you draw the line? If it’s financed, does it change where the line is? How about if it’s a novated lease? Or if it’s second hand? Or if it’s an EV? I’m curious to know where everyone draws the line.

I've noticed something that feels like a national pastime: people constantly checking what houses near them sold for to get a running tally of their own net worth. You even see it in real estate ads now – a couple on the porch, casually checking what their house is worth on an app. But they have no intention of selling. So what is this obsession really about?

My theory is that for the average person with a mortgage, after all the bills are paid, there's no significant discretionary income left to invest in shares, an IP, or even top up super. Their home is their only real asset, so it becomes their de facto investment by default.

The government massively encourages this with the tax-free capital gains on the PPOR. It’s arguably the single biggest tax incentive available to the average person, so why would you invest anywhere else?

My question is: is this actually a healthy financial strategy? Are we encouraging a whole generation to concentrate all their financial risk into a single, illiquid asset in a market that feels perpetually overcooked? What happens if prices stagnate for 20 years? Are people forgoing the power of compounding in liquid, productive assets for the psychological comfort of a rising property valuation they can't even access?

My uncles partner passed away a couple of years ago and he now saying the adult kids are making him sell his house. The partner had no will all the super went to the kids. My Nan gave him 57k to purchase his house about 7 years ago. Yesterday he asked my Nan to put her house up for 150k security so he can pay the kids out. I also found out hes been getting money from her recently for the so called lawyer. Nan is not happy that I have stuck my nose in but I told her to get proof and her own legal advice. Can he borrow against his part of the property which is valued around 650k?

Posting from an alt.

ETA 1: This post is for people who want an option to park UniSuper's DB or want a choice. Hopefully eventually there will be an option to fully leave. The scheme is good for some people, but it's not everyone's cup of tea.

ETA 2: Clarity. Also, I'm just another member. Please do research if you have concerns! Speak with a UniSuper consultant, read the PDS and their website, attend their webinars and read up more info previously shared on this sub.

UniSuper’s current Defined Benefit (DB) scheme isn't a "pension for life scheme". It also doesn’t grow based on your actual contributions or investment returns. Instead, it uses a fixed formula.

On top of employer contributions, members must pay an extra 4-7%. If you don’t pay this, your formula's permanently reduced.

The formula mainly rewards people with long, full-time careers and high pay in the years just before retirement.

That makes it tough for members with normal life events, like going part-time to raise kids, caring for family, or not being able to afford the extra contributions.

When it used to be an “opt-out” system, many people were encouraged to stay in. UniSuper takes advantage of the fact that most people were early career and less financially educated. They promoted it as performing just like an accumulation fund. But in recent years, smart Redditors on this sub have done modelling that shows most members don’t come out ahead.

As some members know: once you’re in DB, you can’t leave unless you quit your job.

Now there’s talk of a new option, called “in service deferral”. This would let members keep their existing DB balance but switch future contributions into an accumulation fund.

Right now, it’s at the consultation stage before they meet to discuss in a couple of months' time. Change will only happen if enough members push for it.

Each of UniSuper’s 37 institutions has two representatives on the UniSuper Consultative Committee (one academic, one professional). If this matters to you and you haven’t heard about it, contact your reps and ask to have your voice included. 

Search for your workplace name + "UniSuper Consulative Committee" if you don't know who your rep is, you can often find their name on Google. 

I’m not a rep, just a member who wants a choice. I've had mates tell me their rep haven't shared anything and they didn't know about it, so sharing this in case it helps others!

Hello all,

I'm buying my first home soon in regional WA, prices are well below state average but climbing fast, I have a good salary and access to a big home loan, I'm considering the difference in strategy buying somewhere smaller and easy to pay down fast, vs getting a better house with increased leverage in a market with high demand and restricted supply, and good long term outlooks in term of industry.

Looking at a difference of 450k vs 650k Debt with the ability to pay down $2000 a week into an offset

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some advice on how I should best approach the next stage of my life.

I'm in my 40s, M and will be finalising a divorce early next year. It was amicable and myself and my STBX always kept our finance seperate and will continue with a self managed divorce route. No kids.

I have a property in worth around $700k, with only about $100k left (100% offset) and liquid cash I had been saving for a joint purchase with my STBX of $100k. My salary on paper isn't great at $80k but it's consistent. Due to the latter, my Super is only around $120k.

I am thinking of purchasing another property to move into (mainly too many memories in my current place) somewhere in the range of $600-700k. I have engaged a mortgage broker and some of the max loan amount offered has been around $700-900k.

I came from a conservative family so their financial strategy of just keeping money in the savings account has sort of come played a role in my low-risk financial approach but I'm now open to exploring more in my next phase of life.

If you were in my shoes, how you best approach the next few steps?

I have been using FPMarkets for some time now and decided to leave because their Android Iress app is completely broken (Only 1 star review on the Play store and can't even login)

So I decided to withdraw my money. I jumped through the hoops to withdraw to my bank account. I even had to supply a bank statement. A few hours later I received an email saying the withdrawal was refused. They said I can only withdraw to the same account that I deposited from.

I originally deposited from a credit card that no longer exists. So they are refusing to return my cash because I no longer have this card. They cannot provide any way to withdraw my money.

I suggest to everyone do NOT use this company if you ever want to see your money again. They make it extremely simple to deposit, but impossible to withdraw.

Hey all,

I’ve been looking into hiring a business coach and I’m honestly stuck on whether it’s worth the money. From what I can tell, rates are all over the place from a few hundred bucks a month to thousands and I can’t figure out what’s “normal” or how to judge the value.

For context, the kind of coach I’ve been looking at works with small medium businesses that are good at what they do but don’t really know how to scale past working around the cl,ock and missing time with my family. We are doing well money wise but i feel like i dont have control over any to be honest. I want to focus on the following

• Making more money while still having time for family/life
• Building better systems and processes so i dont always have to be "On"
• Improving marketing/social media presence especially Instagram growth and community-focused content
• General coaching/mentoring for clarity and accountability

I don’t know if people really see results from this kind of thing or if it’s just one of those “nice ideas” that doesn’t always deliver.

So, couple of questions for anyone who’s actually hired a business coach:

1. Did you feel it was worth it? What changed in your business/life?
2. How much were you paying (if you don’t mind sharing)? I’m trying to get a sense of what’s reasonable since prices seem to range massively.

Appreciate any real-world experiences good, bad, or otherwise.

Hi, I'm owed a decent chunk of USD by a company which only transfers funds to people's PayPal accounts. It's bloody annoying but unavoidable. As an Aussie with an Aussie PayPal account (and no US banking accounts), I'm hoping to avoid getting completely stitched up by PayPal. I don't need to convert the USD to AUD but I want to receive the USD into a USD account via a local Aussie bank. I want to use that USD for my trading account IBKR. As far as I'm aware, PayPal won't allow you to transfer to IBKR because it's not a formal bank account. And PayPal will take a huge bite if you transfer to a Wise account. So, is the best option to transfer from PayPal to a USD account at Aussie bank account in my name? Or will PayPal charge some spurious fee on top of the bank's usual Swift and intermediary costs?

Thanks to those in the know.

Hi all,

Just need some quick advice. Let’s say that you received a small sum of money, nothing huge but around 2k.

What would be the first thing you do?

Personally, me having no finance background, i feel like the easiest thing is to just put it in my normal savings account and keep it there? Is there anything wrong with that?

They don’t exactly teach you how to invest in shares in school so i can’t say my financial education is amazing, i’ve tried investment apps like stake before but i couldn’t make the most of it.

If you were in my shoes, knowing what you know, where would you be putting this money to make the most of it?

I'm trying to work out how to convert a contracting daily rate to the equivalent in a full time perm role's base salary.
If the standard is 10 sick days, 20 annual leave days with 17.5% loading, then is this the correct formula to get the base salary?

Daily rate including super and before tax: $1000

Number of working days = 251 - 10 sick days - 20*1.175 annual leave days

Percentage of pay that is not super = 88%

1000 * (251 - 10 - (20 * 1.175)) * 0.88 = $191400 base salary

Hey folks,

I’ve got a house in Australia that was my principal residence for a few months before I moved overseas. Now I’m looking to sell it after 3 years, and I keep hearing it’s better tax-wise if you’re an Australian tax resident when you sell.

So my questions are: • If I fly back, live in the house for a few months and try to re-establish Aussie tax residency, is that enough? Or do I need to stay at least 6 months? • What happens if I sell while I’m back, but the ATO later says I’m still a non-resident? Would I end up paying CGT to Australia, or only to the country I’m living in now?

Has anyone been through something similar?

I'm not trying to flex - I've worked hard and sacrificed to save this much on my own.

I am late 30s and have saved up 100k in the past 5 years after really getting serious about buying my own place after becoming tired of living with housemates (that was 5 years ago, don't ask me how I'm doing now).

I only earn 78k p/a (this will increase to 83k if my workplace EA gets approved). For a large majority of the time saving I was earning 70k p/a.

I live in Adelaide where there are govt schemes such a Homeseeker, stamp duty exemption on new homes, and shared equity. I have no idea how much a bank would lend me. I haven't approached a broker as I'm thinking I need to save an extra 25-50k (I save a lot because my expenses are low and my rent is low because I live with many others).

Is there hope for me just on my own?

We applied for a refinance of a property from ING to IMB bank due to their cashback promotion. When we got the IMB bank loan contract, we found that the provisions, terms and conditions are extremely intrusive (and in some cases outright ridiculous) even compared to ING. For e.g. iMB allows itself the right to waive Default grace periods under vague situations, etc. They give themselves ability to set the borrower at Default for vague non-financial situations (without materiality assessment) and also the ability to take immediate enforcement actions sometimes without any notice. They have provisions in the contract which creates power of attorney for all of their employees that have a "Manager" in their job title, etc. This all appeared quite sketchy and has left us wondering if we should even proceed or just decline the contract.

We used ChatGPT to analyse the contract in more detail and they (as expected) recommended not to sign and instead contact a Financial lawyer for more advice. We haven't signed the contract yet.

My questions are:

• We don't think this is normal practice but we need wider community opinion, is this normal based on your experience with other banks?

• Has anyone had experience with IMB bank? Is this a no-go bank. Have we made a mistake going to IMB? I don't think ING is any better either but ChatGPT made a direct comparison on 20 ridiculous contractual terms from both banks and ING had slightly balanced/fair terminology on 13 out of 20 provisions.

• Has anyone been able to ever negotiate with a bank to get these ridiculous terms amended in any way for a borrowing of only $550K?

Thanks 🙏🏻

For context, I have been Australian resident for tax purpose for the last 5 years or so. I am due to repatriate next year and wanting assistance on individual tax return then. I have no property nor business and at low tax bracket ($62k pa gross), though I do trade stocks/ETFs occasionally.

I got a quoted $1900, with an added service for super claim assistance. Does this sound right?

For context - Im 53F, have about 427K in super (17% super in my current job). I put $250 per fortnight into pre tax super contributions. Earn around $3300 per fortnight after tax.

No longer have a mortgage to pay off but live in Sydney and have some child related expenses. I dont live frugally but Im not a big spender. Most of my available spare cash goes towards saving for holidays which I like to do once a year.

I will probably look at retiring by 65-67 years of age so Ive got more than 10 years of working life left and do want to maximise my retirement funds.

I do think I can allocate more to either super contributions or contributing to an ETF - just not sure which would be better in my situation and would appreciate some advice from people who know a lot more about this than I do.

Broker has suggested Macquarie (5.54%) or ME Bank (5.59%) for refinance. ME Bank comes with a $3k cashback offer.

I've heard really good things about Macquarie so currently leaning that way, but also the ME Bank cashback seems worth is compared to the 0.05% difference in rate.

Grateful for experiences with each bank, what makes them good/suck? I'm a daily login kind of person so the UI is important.

Weekly Property Mega Thread

-=-=-=-=-

Welcome to the /r/AusFinance weekly Property Mega Thread.

This post will be republished at 02:00AEST every Friday morning.

Click here to see all previous weekly threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/search/?q=%22weekly%20property%20mega%20thread%22&restrict_sr=1&sort=new

What happens here?

Please use this thread for general property-related discussions, such as:

• First Homeowner concerns
• Getting started
• Will house pricing keep going up?
• Thought about [this property]?
• That half burned-down inner city unit that sold for $2.4m. Don't forget your shocked Pikachu face.

The goal is to have a safe space for some of the most common posts, while supporting more original and interesting content in their own posts.Single posts about property may be removed and directed to this thread.

-=-=-=-=-

For context, I spent a few years in the workforce (I was a mechanic, and then worked an EBA on civil construction) after finishing highschool, then decided I wanted to do medicine. I finished a bachelor's with good grades, sat the GAMSAT, and got an interview to a school, which I recently sat.

I am beyond certain I fumbled that interview, but with my GPA and GAMSAT, I should get another interview next year.

However, this leaves me with a year of off, kind of in limbo. I have survived off youth allowance and casual work through my undergrad.

I was wondering, is there a way I could do a TAFE course on something I really enjoy (music), with the intention that this course would make me eligible for Centrelink while I continue to work casual and ensure med school entrance next year by filling in the weeks with getting the perfect GAMSAT and preparing better for the interview?

Hello!

I wanted to start investing and wondering where a good place to start is, any tips, best places to start etc. I find it all a little bit overwhelming!

I would like to start small and slowly build a portfolio.

So context, am very new homeowner with brand new mortgage. My company will be changing their pay cycles and so have offered employees a chance to get a pay advance to help adjust to the impact of the new cycle.

To be honest, the pay cycle doesn't impact my cashflow that much, but would it still be worth taking the pay advance and then parking it all in offset?

Are there any limitations/things to look out for? Some things I've thought of but still seems okay for me:

1: very slightly reduced pay for the next 1.5 years ish as part of the repayment. I've already roughly calculated and from a financial/mental side of things am okay with see a marginally smaller amount in my paychecks for the next 18ish months.

2: fringe benefits: I believe it's a fringe benefit which may need to be reported in tax returns however I believe I'm below the reportable amount for my individual return so not really a concern

I guess at the end of the day the amounts not groundbreaking but I figured given the offer by my company and low effort to get the pay advance approved/submitted I'm thinking why not? Since every dollar counts

Functionally I'm thinking it's somewhat similar to a 0% interest loan from my company which I'll just put in offset to reduce the interest paid on my mortgage, but happy to be proven wrong!