I'm 29 (single, no kids, no plans to have kids)

I'm sitting on 3 months of LSL and 3 months of annual leave. I take lots of leave but have accrued heaps through overtime/time in lieu.

I worked out that the take home difference in pay would go from 111k down to 60k. I would probably get even more if I split across financial years but working with the worst case for now.

I spend 55k a year incl. mortgage.

My folks are retired so being able to spend a year with them whilst they are still active seems like a no brainer.

Obviously I'll probably spend more than 55k in the year that I have off (would like to do an international trip or two) but I've a decent savings buffer of 50k.

This'll probably put retirement back by a year but I feel a year off at 30 is worth more than a year off at 55 or 60.

Is it possible to live with just the age pension, if super is already used up and if you own your own home. Has anyone been able to live on age pension alone?

I was just reading the article...since I work from home exclusively now.

I wonder if I can claim my rent....

1, I have separate shed for my home office.
2, my current employer doesn't have office in
Australia yet....( I even asked HR if i can use office sometimes. the answer was "no location yet".....

anyone claim it with similar situation?

I wonder how many homes are owned by foreign investors. Perth and Adelaide nearly on the same level. The government will need more aggressive measures to deal with this issue.

Commonwealth just agreed to lower my home loan from 8.8 to 6.82%.

A couple of days ago, I posted here because I was completely head spun about how my partner and I should organise our finances. We are paid on different schedules, and we were constantly trying to work out which pay covered which expenses. Every month we’d end up dipping into our small savings just to make everything line up.

Thanks to the advice, we now:
- Annualised all of our expenses and worked out our true weekly cost of living.
- Opened a joint account that all of our bills and expenses are paid from.
- Calculated exactly how much each of us contributes from every payday into our expense account and our savings.
- Moved some money from our savings into the expense account to create a cash float.
- Our savings balance looks a bit sad. But now we know the bills are covered, we’re no longer relying on timing our pay cycles perfectly, and we shouldn’t need to dip into savings every month.

It’s taken a massive weight off my overthinking shoulders. Was definitely overthinking it.

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to comment and help.

Sorry if this is a dumb question (21M), but is it just me or is the Australian tax system way more complicated than it needs to be?

The more I try to understand it, the more things I come across- HECS, Medicare Levy, super, deductions, offsets...

Am I missing something, or has it just become really confusing over time? Curious what everyone else thinks.

Even the Big banks have become nervous as the Australian property boom fades

Hey guys, I’m a bit stuck on doing my tax returns and wanna avoid using a accountant is possible, but happy to if needed.

I’ve had a look on the ATO app, and my employer is tax ready and my bank has submitted my interest earnt on my savings accounts. Now I’m trying to figure out how to add my dividends paid. For context, I invest through CMC and only invest in VGS/VAS.

Now my questions are:

1. How long does vanguard usually take to send the pre filled info to the ATO?

2. If I go to an accountant, would they be able to do the dividends part even if I only have the PDFs showing the dividends paid as I don’t want to buy the “tax pack” on computer share

Additionally, this is my first time wanting to claim deductions. My work requires me to makes calls everyday to customers to organise bookings, sending/receiving information and documents and so on.

How do I go about claiming the sim plan and the depreciation on my phone? As I’m with Vodaphone I’ve got my call logs from every month since I’ve started just incase they want proof.

What makes Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide unique, in terms of a micro and macroeconomic perspective?

The recent budget changes seem to have done little to slow down growth in these areas.

Wanting to get started in investing.. I like the look of beta shares for their no fee buys/sells and the ability to facilitate micro-investing, which suits me given my expenses can fluctuate quite a bit.

I have limited understanding of these platforms and how it all works. I opened a Stake account ages ago and never put money in as the minimum was $500, which was fine, just created a bit of a barrier for me at the time. I understand that Stake is CHESS sponsored, but beta shares/beta direct is not. How much should this impact my decision as to which brokerage to use? I would hate to imagine some scenario where things go completely awry and I can't access my funds due to being pooled together with other investors... is there a likelihood of this? Which route would make it more straightforward to withdrawal/sell?

Apologies if this is a highly duplicative post on this thread - thanks!

Receiving a 28k death benefit from a parents superannuation. Relatively small as there was a claim when illness was critical. I did not realise this amount was treated as taxable income compared to the rest of inheritance.

As I am not a dependant or spouse, is there any more tax efficient way to receive this money other than just paying the 37 cents on the dollar? TIA

Commbank has promotion for 5 months with 5.20% savings - i don't think any hoops but after the initial 5 months it goes back down to 2.something% but sharing incase it is useful for someone. I think macquarie is still better for long term savings without any hoops.

Hey everyone,

I'm a 27-year-old in Melbourne and was made redundant from my UX Designer role about three months ago. I've been applying pretty consistently since then but haven't had any luck finding another role.

Because of that, I'm probably going to have to move out of my 1 bedroom apartment (purchased 2021) and either move back in with my parents or into a mate's share house to cut my living costs.

The part I'm struggling with is deciding what to do with my apartment.

• I owe about $120k on the mortgage.
• Local agents reckon I could get around $500–600/week in rent.
• Similar apartments are selling for around $430k, and I paid $420k for mine.

I'm torn between two options:

1. Sell it while I'm close to break-even, bank the equity, and use it to build towards a house deposit in the future.
2. Keep it and rent it out, continue paying down the mortgage, and hopefully have an investment property generating income over the long term.

My gut feeling is to move back in with my parents (or their vacant property in the country), keep my expenses as low as possible, and save aggressively until I'm in a position to buy a house. But I'm not sure whether selling or holding the apartment makes more financial sense. I also don't love my flat all the time, it's lonely and not great for sound insulation from upstairs neighbors.

Curious what you'd do if you were in my position. Has anyone been through something similar?

Recently started buying ETFs. I use Commsec and Vanguard. Realised I have absolutely no clue how to report this on my tax? I'm not selling anytime soon, but I still feel like I should report.

I went to H+R block last year so someone could teach me how to do it, but they said it would cost more to report my ETFs than the profit I made... so they just didn't report my ETFs.

Could someone lay it out really simple for me? (What box do I tick, manage funds? What info do I need from Commsec/Vanguard, and what is auto-filled?)

Every official gov site about this is confusing as all hell.

Thanks, guys.

Another big drop today for silver, almost lost all its gains. Anyone dipping into silver and gold or is it heading for the worst performer this year.

Mine was: Never time the market! Stop trying to pick the bottom. All you’ll end up with is with stinky fingers.

This stuck with me. Been DCAing since 2003 and retired early at 46.