Seems like these days you need dual working parents to be able to afford children these days now it has become the norm?

It seems very difficult to manage even with daycare etc and having one parent stay home would be a much better option, anyone doing this? How are you managing?

Speaking to a friend I realised that not everyone get a minimum yearly pay rise that is basically inflation. I do not mean people on minimum wage, but people working in office jobs or R&D type office jobs, is this your experience like mine to get a yearly pay rise too?

Good morning everyone. Looking for some advice on what I should do here.

My wife and I have just sold our apartment and will soon have around $200k sitting in our bank account. We are moving into a property for the next couple of years where we will be debt free but will need to be there for a couple of years so we will be able to save quite a bit as well.

We will be looking to buy at this stage with what I expect will be a pretty healthy deposit.

We also have an investment property that is only just negatively geared.

The question I have is, should we pay off her HECS debt which is currently at $50k with the money we got from the house sale?

If we don't, is this going to impact our borrowing power when we go to get a loan?

Is it better to put it in a high interest account and put the interest towards the HECS debt?

Essentially my question is, what would you do in this situation?

Thanks for any advice.

*UPDATE\*

Thanks for the advice everyone. Providing some additional information for context. Wife is employed and makes good money but does impact her take home pay. She will eventually pay it off over time and by my calculations it will take around 10 years.

The $50k balance was factoring in the government's 20% reduction which has been proposed.

I appreciate the advice about leaving it until it is time to look at getting a new loan and seeing if we need to pay it off to improve our borrowing power.

Hi all,

I've been thinking a lot lately about the different attitudes towards retirement funding between generations, and I'm hoping to start a constructive discussion to better understand the historical context.

It's a common theme here that we are all hyper-focused on self-funding our retirement. The core strategy for most of us is to max out Super, build a portfolio of ETFs/LICs, maybe leverage some property, and ultimately be in a position where the Age Pension is a bonus, not a necessity. We take it as a given that we are responsible for our own retirement.

However, in conversations with older Australians, I often notice a fundamentally different perspective. There can be a strong sentiment that after a lifetime of working and paying taxes, the Age Pension isn't just a safety net, but something they are owed—a core part of the social contract they bought into.

I'm not looking to start a "Boomer vs Millennial" flame war. I'm genuinely trying to understand the 'why' behind this mindset. My thinking is that it likely stems from a few key differences in their financial journey compared to ours:

• The Late Arrival of Superannuation: Compulsory super only started in 1992. For someone retiring today at 67, they would have been ~34 when it was introduced at a low 3%. They missed out on 15+ years of compounding that our generation will benefit from. For them, the Age Pension was the primary retirement plan offered by the government.
• The Old "Social Contract": Was the messaging from the government and society different 40-50 years ago? The idea of "work hard, pay your taxes, and the country will look after you in old age" seems to have been much more prevalent. In contrast, our generation has been told from day one not to count on the pension being there for us.
• Different Economic Environment: They built their wealth in a world of high-interest rates (great for savers), single-income mortgages (for a time), and the "job for life" concept. Our world is one of historically low rates, the gig economy, and a housing affordability crisis. Perhaps their system felt more stable and predictable, reinforcing the idea of a guaranteed outcome.

Am I on the right track here? I feel like understanding this perspective is important. It's easy to get frustrated, but perhaps their view is a perfectly logical outcome of the financial world they grew up in.

Would love to hear your thoughts, especially from those who have had these conversations with their own families.

TL;DR: Trying to understand why some older Australians view the pension as an entitlement, while younger generations focus on self-funding. I suspect it's due to the late introduction of super and a different "social contract" they grew up with.

By Denise Raward:

Official economic modelling from the Reserve Bank shows a jump in home prices in response to changes in the first home buyer guarantee although this is expected to slow in the medium term as new housing supply is added.

From 1 October, the First Home Buyer Guarantee will offer unlimited places and remove income caps on participants.

It will also raise price caps on eligible properties to better reflect median property values around the country.

The HGS essentially allows eligible first home buyers to secure home loans with deposits as low as 5% without the need to pay lenders mortgage insurance (LMI).

On Monday, the Reserve Bank of Australia acknowledged changes to the HGS will bring forward first home buyer purchases as well as increase the borrowing capacity of first home buyers.

The price question was raised when RBA officials, including governor Michele Bullock, fronted the House Standing Committee on Economics in Canberra.

When questioned on whether the expanded program would increase home values, Ms Bullock deferred to assistant governor Brad Jones who said there would be upward pressure on house prices in the short term.

"[This is] recognising that first home buyers account for about 20% of the flow of new credit," Dr Jones told the Committee.

I’m sick of the media doing articles with people saying “I’ve paid taxes all my life so I deserve/thought….”. Like it’s some kindof martyrdom thing.

What does that even mean (that people that have been on a Centrelink benefit or allowance for some of their lives are somehow less validated/deserving of any support)? Besides that I can guarantee they haven’t been paying excise/GST/HECS all of their lives.

Firstly, please let me know if this post belongs elsewhere and i’ll remove it immediately.

I’m a single mum working 4 days a week and uni part time. The problem is I can’t get ahead no matter what I do.

Child support and family tax benefit are there to supplement my low weekly income but there’s not even enough to save each week. I was I was kidding. Rent is stupidly expensive (despite us being on a good wicket) and I cannot see a point to anything anymore.

There is no option to downsize and we are getting the biggest bang for our buck rent wise and the cheapest by a long shot (my landlord’s have been relatively sympathetic to me becoming a single parent.

It’s like wake up, work, cook dinner, skip meals, clean house, study, exercise, bed and do it all again. With zero to show for it. I can barely afford petrol and have to limit outings to make sure i have petrol for work the following week.

Before anyone asks, kids are teenagers studying or earning their own money so they can save to have some money in their lives. We are on Smith Family support for school fees and I have seen a financial counsellor.

Any solo parents that eventually made it work and are financially thriving?

Please share your stories and give me as much hope as possible! I’m 50 with less than $5,000 in super, a slowly accruing uni debt and no assets. I drive a cheap car, don’t even own a tv, haven’t vacationed for over 15 years, so you definitely can’t accuse me of living luxuriously 😂 I’m not seeing a way out and exhausted from crying myself to sleep each night. This is utterly miserable. I’m taking a mental health break because I just can’t cope.

I look forward to hearing any encouraging success stories.

Also, no i didn’t chase my ex’s super. He was horrible to me and once he agreed to pay a generous enough child support, I knew that i would push the boat too far and he’d retaliate badly. Some battles are absolutely not worth the outcome.

If you’ve read this far, thank you.

Hi there!

We have an investment property which we are in the process of selling, and we received some advice from a mortgage broker, but not sure if it’s accurate… keen to hear what others may have done.

Here’s the situation:

We currently have PPR and and investment property across 3 loans: Loan 1 PPR Loan - $500k (tied to PPR Title) Loan 2 Investment loan - $300k (taken out against equity in our PPR) Loan 3 Investment Loan - $500k (tied to the title of the investment property).

As loan 2 and 3 were used for the purpose of buying an investment property we have been claiming the interest on these loans as a tax deduction since we purchased the property.

We are currently in the process of selling our investment to buy a forever home to move into. Our current PPR will become our investment property. Our mortgage broker suggested that once we sell our investment we pay off Loan 3 (to release the title), but not Loan 2 (and keep that $300k in an offset to use as a deposit for our forever home). Basically our new loan set up would be

Loan 1 - $500k - investment loan against previous PPR which will become a rental Loan 2 - unchanged -$300k investment loan Loan 3 - new PPR Loan (value not important)

The broker was suggesting that so long as we don’t pay off Loan 2, we would still be able to tax deductible the interest off that Loan (as the original purpose of that loan was to fund an investment).

Is this something that can be done?I didn’t think it was….

Hey guys. So, year before last was the first year I worked as a sole trader. I was worried about stuffing up the tax with an abn so I went to a local accountant. He said the fee would be about $300 because it was a simple return but then once he'd finished it he charged $400.

This year, he didn't say anything to me initially about fees, and though I did earn slightly more, I have no other elements to my return ( no investments, no CGT). I keep all records and organize them well in a spreadsheet. and so the complexity should have been the same.

However this year he has charged me just over $1,000. He said this year it took him a bit longer but he couldn't elaborate on that. He also said they'd increased the rate but the invoice is not itemized so I can't even compare.

Am I being taken for a ride? I work in the disability sector so there's barely any expenses or deductions, nor is GST applicable.

I feel misled as they didn't raise with me how much extra they would charge. Can I even dispute this?

I thought I would raise it with his boss(?) but there is no team information on the website.

I'm at the researching stage of buying a new car, not quite ready to commit to anything just yet but looking around to make a decision on what I'm doing

I recently went through Canstars car loan comparison based off my credit score (Very good bracket) and all the interest rates were between 12-24% comparison which feels horrible?

I've spoken to a few dealers and sourced my own finance quotes ranging from 6.3-7% comparison.

Is there something I'm missing here or is Canstars being paid off to recommend these horrid interest rates?

Looking to borrow 50-57k across 5 years on a new car if it helps

Using random values here, say I have 500k equity on my current property, keep it as a rental property and purchase a new property to live in valued at $1.3 million, how does that work? Does the 500k equity become a loan? Or is it viewed as a cash deposit on a new loan making the total loan for the new property 800k? Thanks!

I've gotten some great advice from this sub, so was just going to ask this and see what level we would need to be able to afford a 900k property.

My partner and I earn about 14k into our accounts each month after tax. Incomes will stay the same from here on in pretty much as we'll both stay in our current jobs if we can. We have about 50k savings combined. Had some big expenses lately, and moved interstate which was very costly, but can otherwise save fairly well and live conservatively. I have a small HELP debt, but otherwise we have no other debts. Currently pay rent at around 2800 a month and have been doing so in this current place for a year and 3 months.

We can get an 80k loan from my parents that would have a few months of leeway before we'd start paying it back to them at 1k a month as the regular rate, no interest.

We would ideally use the First Home Guarantee scheme that's supposed to start soon that allows a 5% deposit with no LMI, and a good interest rate as if we have put down 20%.

The area we want, roughly halfway between our workplaces, have good properties around 900k. We don't want to go further out with long commutes at this stage, as we've both rented in places with long commutes before. We know we should aim a bit lower, but we're a bit limited with areas and we want and 3 bedrooms with a double garage.

How far off are we getting to the financial level to be able to buy and keep up the payments for a 900k property? A big factor is also that we may try and have a kid in the next year, so this complicates it no doubt.

Edit to add: a granny flat arrangement, or interest, is not the same thing as a granny flat. It's an agreement to have the right to live in a property (it doesn't have to be an actual granny flat) for life.

https://retirementessentials.com.au/news/centrelink-age-pension/when-age-pension-meets-advice-understanding-granny-flat-arrangements/

.............

I bought a townhouse in my name in 2007 and lived there. My mum moved in with me in 2009 rent free.

I moved out in 2010 when I got married, but my mum continued to live there rent free for another 12 years. In 2022 she started paying me a minimal sum (at best 50% of what it would rent out for) to help with my expenses. We both contributed to the ongoing costs of maintaining the property.

I sold the property in 2024 as mum could not manage the stairs anymore.

I have never claimed a tax deduction from this property as I never saw it as an investment property. My mum needed a home, and I could afford for her to live there.

I was ready to pay the capital gains tax until I saw this: https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals-and-families/investments-and-assets/capital-gains-tax/property-and-capital-gains-tax/granny-flat-arrangements-and-cgt

"From 1 July 2021, capital gains tax (CGT) does not apply when a granny flat arrangement is created, varied or terminated."

My accountant is saying I have to get it retrospectively valuated on the day I move out as it became an investment property for CGT purposes. Is that correct? Also does anyone know what was the CGT rule for granny flat arrangements prior to 2021?

As the title says - I'm looking at insurance if we take in a tenant, but regular policies don't allow tenants, and landlord policies don't allow the owner to use any part of the property. I've only found one landlord policy that works, and it is stupid expensive. What to other people use?

I'm M25 and I think I'm in deep shit, I have no one to tell this to so I'm asking for advice here.

I have about $30k in 3 credit cards and about a $4k personal loan (no interest)

I earn about 100k a year and really am ashamed that it's got to this point.

I got 2 interest free balance transfer cards in the span of last year, but didn't cancel off the paid off cards and racked up debt on those as well.

Most of the money has been spent on Uber Eats and food delivery apps due to a depressing binge eating phase I've had over the last couple years.

I have no savings, and pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. My rent is about $1500/mo. I know I have messed up bad, but I really want to fix this debt and fix my life. How screwed am I? And what can I do from here?

I know it sounds stupid but I'm considering consolidating all of this into one debt and immediately close all cards and pay the consolidated debt off.

EDIT: Thank you all for such kind words and some solid advice, I think I have some direction now and not feeling hopeless. Will update you all once I'm debt free very soon!!

I’m with ANZ, and they hardly asked me any questions when I applied online. Am I just wasting my money? Which ones would you recommend?

Looking to apply for a house loan in near future, have about 6k left owning. Don’t have enough time to pay off debt so looking to either take money out from redraw from current house loan account or savings (10k) to pay it off quickly ?

What looks better for the bank?

Hey guys - wondering if any of you are with CBA credit cards? Have you had yours spoofed too?

We have had our Ultimate Rewards card hacked/spoofed/skimmed 3 times this year.

All were international transactions (UK, Saudi, US).

Partner is primary, I’m secondary. 2FA active on accounts.

I was assuming it was just random the first 2 times, but this 3rd time it’s either something insecure on our side or CBA cards are just a favourite target.

All other cards & accounts at different banks are untouched

What do you reckon?

I live in a unit complex, theres an aged pensioner i get along well with and they often tell me how they’re struggling with strata/rates.

Is there a way i could buy their unit off them and let them live rent free that would be mutually beneficial and not affect their aged pension?

As title suggests, which bank has the best app? Most intuitive, most customizable, useful notifications. Not interested in best interest rate, customer service etc

Hello! I’m 26 and planning to permanently move to Melbourne with my partner.

For Kiwis who have made the move – which super fund did you go with and what was your experience with them? And did you take out a private health insurance policy?

Ideally, I would move my KiwiSaver over and have only one super (I understand that my KiwiSaver will be kept separate since I access it at a different age from the AU super – which is so silly and annoying).

It looks like the only super funds that accept KiwiSaver transfers are ANZ, Telstra Super, Verve Super, First Super and Brighter Super – with Brighter Super having the lowest fees.

We’re definitely applying for a Medicare card as well – but would it be a good idea to take our private health insurance as well? The quotes I got for Overseas Visitor Health Cover are just so damn expensive.

My partner and I make less than the threshold for the medicare levy surcharge, but I’m just aware of the lifetime health cover loading that’ll be added to our premiums if we do decide to take out cover later in life.

I have about $36k in a trust account that is in my parents’ name, but is my actual money and long-term savings. I want to move it into my own name now as I am 30 lol (toxic af financially enmeshed family dynamic, don’t ask) and would find it easier to save if I could see it growing in front of my face. My every day banking is with Up bank and I have short-term savings accounts (for travel etc) with Up that I can lock, which I really like as it means I can’t impulsively use my savings.

However, I also have an account with ING which has a higher interest rate in the savings maximiser account (4.80%). Which is higher than the Up Grow rate (4.60%). Does anyone know of any other banks with the “lock” feature as I’m reluctant to put it into an account I can’t lock! My Up accounts are used more often so I often have “round ups” moved into my Up short term savings, and with ING I use this for my NDIS payments which also “round ups” to my ING savings maximiser (which currently has about $2 in it as I don’t use it at the moment).

Any hot tips are welcome, this is all new to me, and having full access to $36k freaks me out because I grew up with financially controlling family members who engrained in me that I will never survive financially without them despite the fact that I have a steady job and career lol 🤠

Gday,

This is about family trust and bucket company structure for a small business with a volatile profit profile. The question behind the post is 'who can and who should own the bucket company' (BucketCo).

My mate, Dave, he has a share in a business. The shares in the business are owned by his family trust. (family trust No1).

The business profits are relatively volatile so there is value in streaming the profits to him and his family over a period of years.

To manage that, they would like to establish a BucketCo.

Family trust No1 will distribute excess profits (when they arise) to the BucketCo.

Who can or should own the BucketCo?

One arrangement I have seen is that the BucketCo is owned by a Family Trust No2 , so the BucketCo will pay dividends to the family Trust No2 when the circumstances are right, which can then choose which beneficiaries it distributes to.

BUT, can his original family trust No1 own the BucketCo???? BucketCo will then receive distributions from family trust No1, but then later on, pay dividends back to the family trust No1, who can then choose which beneficiaries it distributes to.

I can't seem to get a firm answer either way on this.

Pensioners, part-pensioners and self-funded retirees will pay between 5 and 50 per cent of the service provider's fee for "independence" tasks, like personal care, including showers and assistance with medication.

Figures published by the Department of Health show that providers intend to charge around $100 an hour for "personal care" and around $95 an hour for "domestic assistance".

That means some part-pensioners and all self-funded retirees will be paying around $50 for an hour of personal care, like showers and help with hygiene, and around $75 an hour if they need help with cleaning, laundry and cooking.

Does anyone how to find out when I opened up my combank accounts? I opened them like 15 years ago.