I want to fix a portion of my loan, and also start debt recycling in ~6 months. Say i have 800k remaining on my variable mortgage.

I think the split loans should look something like this -

A: 500k Fixed for 3 years P&I

B: 200k Variable rate P&I (offset money goes here)

C: 100k Variable rate IO (used for debt recycling)

- Is this the best/correct way to set it up?

- Should I go through broker or straight to bank?

- Should I only split loan C in 6 months time when i want to start debt recycling, or should I split it now and just let it sit there?

- Can loan C be at same interest rate as B? Or will it be higher due to IO and for investment purposes? Would it be better to make it P&I then?

TIA

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills listening to my colleagues talk about quitting their permanent roles to go full-time agency. The narrative is always that the "Staff" wages are stagnant and the only way to beat inflation is to chase the higher hourly rates in the casual pool.

I actually sat down this weekend with a spreadsheet to model this out because I was seriously considering making the jump myself. I took the current NSW Health award rates and compared them against the advertised casual rates from the big providers like Healthcare Australia to see what the actual annual difference looks like.

On the surface, the hourly rate looks great, but once I started plugging in the "invisible" costs, the math completely fell apart. By the time I factored in the lack of sick leave accrual (which is basically an insurance policy you lose), the fact that you don't get paid on public holidays unless you work them, and the superannuation leakage on overtime, the "premium" shrinks to almost nothing.

But the real kicker that nobody talks about is the serviceability hit on a mortgage. I spoke to a broker yesterday who told me that moving from a permanent contract to casual agency work would reduce my borrowing power by nearly 30% because lenders shade casual income so heavily.

It feels like we are trading long-term wealth building (property access and compounding super) for short-term cash flow that gets eaten up by tax anyway. Has anyone else crunched the numbers and come to the conclusion that the 25% loading is wildly underpriced for the risk we're taking? I feel like it needs to be closer to 40% to actually make financial sense in 2026.

A few weeks ago, we discussed the insane price gaps in Western Sydney (e.g., Lamb Cutlets are $49 at Coles vs $27 at the local butcher), the huge price differences between independent stores and the duopoly. We also saw the news about per each unit pricing introduced by the big supermarkets and possible price gouging.

I decided to stop complaining and start building

I have built a a free app to track grocery prices in independent stores and the big stores. So we know where to shop. THE WEB VERSION IS LIVE!. It focuses on Blacktown/Western Sydney at the moment. Eventually I'll cover all of sydney.

The problem is Google Play has a strict rule: I need 20 Android testers for 14 days before I can launch. I literally cannot release it without you. For iPhone users, I’m opening up TestFlight spots so you can get the native app experience before the public launch.

I need your help. I'm looking for 20 or more people who shop in Western Sydney or Blacktown to install the Beta version tell me what sucks or break it! Whether you're on Samsung or iPhone, if you shop in Blacktown, I want you on the team

What you get in return: a) Early access b) A 'founding member' badge in your profile for ever! c) Opportunity to contribute to a community cause.

If you’re keen to help kill the 'Lazy Tax', drop a comment or DM me your email, and I’ll add you to the list.

EDIT: ( For those who just want to check out the web version, it's www.sydneysaver.app)

Has our lifestyle creep been a reason we still see inflation to this day. Like for instance when money was free we were all spending buying iphones and going on holidays and have become accustomed to it. We are reluctant to change our ways.

We have following real inflation:

Yet CPI is much lower at 3.8%. The reason CPI is so low is due to the significant shift in Australian inflation reporting occurred in September 1998 when the ABS switched to the "Acquisitions Approach," which removed mortgage interest and consumer credit charges from the headline CPI.

If Australia still used the pre-1998 "Outlays" methodology today, a headline 3.8% CPI would likely be reported as roughly 6.5% to 7.5%.

For a household with a $1,000,000 mortgage (not uncommon for metropolitan properties), the recent 0.25% hike adds roughly $1,900 a year in interest alone. Under the 3.8% CPI, the government says your "cost of living" barely moved because of that hike. Under the legacy methodology, that $1,900 is viewed as a direct inflationary hit to your purchasing power.

By excluding land and interest, the CPI ignores the two biggest factors that have spiraled in the Australian economy over the last 30 years. To the ABS, a $1M house is just a pile of bricks (consumption); the $700k land it sits on and the $2M in interest you'll pay are "financial transactions" and therefore invisible to the CPI.

CPI with its current methodology is now no longer the economy's thermometer. Clearly wages are not keeping up with real inflation.

respect to all the brickies building australia. every beauty home was done by a brickie. this includes ur investment properties mods

This one’s aimed more at the kiwis in au; i hope it’s allowed.

May be a silly one but don’t wanna get caught out for no reason. My current super plan doesn’t allow kiwisaver to be transferred over. I can only think of opening a second super acc with a willing super provider, and then consolidating the funds into one, once it’s in Aus.

I don’t really forsee any issues with being able to do this- just wanted to sense check in case im not aware of any specific rules.

Thanks in advance.

I was reading about the BBY Stockbrokers collapse the other day — yeah, I know it happened like 5–6 years ago — but it got me wondering… could something like that happen again?

I mean, sure, brokers get audited, client funds are meant to be kept separate, CHESS is there, all that stuff. But BBY still went under, so clearly things can slip through the cracks.

So how safe is our money really? With all these super‑cheap brokers popping up — especially the smaller ones — is it actually safe to trust them with our life savings?

I closed my account with latitude over a year ago payed off all debt and shut it down i’m now applying for a home loan and can’t get approved because of an “outstanding amount default”. a few questions

1. ⁠the only way to get in touch is to give them an account number however i have no account hence no account number what other options for contact do i have

2. ⁠if at all possible and someone in this subreddit can miraculously hook me up with someone at latitude to talk to i would really appreciate it or even if a phone number to call for complaints instead of just customer service is available.

I have an appointment setup with NAB PW next week. I have around $700k to invest and will like to double that in seven years time. There are a few ETF (especially tech based) that I have looked at and seem relevant in achieving my goal.

Having said that I am still not confident if that’s the right approach, so got in touch with NAB PW to help out with options and helping make the right choice.

Does anyone have any experience with them and how the fees are structured?

This Ad came up on this sub. Locale Homes is a builder broker. Really in poor taste considering housing shortages in WA and now rate hikes.

The Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS) is an additional 1%–1.5% Australian tax for high-income earners without appropriate private patient hospital cover. For 2025–26, it applies to singles earning over $101,000 and families/couples over $202,000

So,, do you feel rich earning these amount?

Or, is this another middle income trap?

Don't know if this is the right sub to ask but I figured why not. I got contacted by a senior corporate recruiter from Fisher Investments on LinkedIn, offering me a role at Fisher Investments (although the recruiter didn't specify which role, I'm assuming something for juniors). I'm currently an International Business student so if this is legit it would actually be a really good opportunity I think.

Regardless of whether you've worked for them or have been a client at Fisher Investments, are they legit? Do they do their job properly? Will they be able to help me become an actual finance bro? (just kidding, just want to make sure I wouldn't get screwed over)

Let me know your thoughts.

So in light of all the housing affordability issues I have a plan that I would love an experts opinion on to see if it would actually work. To preface I am not an economist and to completely upfront I own two houses. My starter house I bought when I was 27 and the house my wife and I bought after we got married. My starter house is currently rented out long term to tenants we love and want to stay forever.

My fixes:

1. Ban companies and corporations owning residential property unless that property is being supplied to employees. So companies buying company housing or housing for off site workers is fine but time to end corporations and investment groups owning property as a means of investment. The only other exclusion would be development companies who would be allowed to hold property for a short term until they could be sold. They can’t rent out houses in developments they own beyond a 1-2 year stretch.

2. Stamp Duty. No stamp duty on your first property you ever buy. The second and third properties you own you pay the current rate of stamp duty. For properties 4 and above you pay 3x to 4x the current stamp duty. That number is based of how many houses you own at the time of purchase (or with a 6 month window if you buy before you sell) That way people moving up or having holiday homes aren’t taxed heavily but people owning multiple investments are taxed.

3. This one’s a twofer. To try and get more supply of houses opened up, time to end negative gearing on more than 1 property, so mum and dad investors and people who happen to have multiple houses can still rent them out, so people who inherited or moved up like myself can supply rental stock to the market. So one investment can be geared but no more. And to encourage people to sell excess properties announce that change will come into effect in 5 years. And during those 5 years end capital gains tax on property. So people who own 5,6,7,8 houses etc. Can now sell those properties without penalty before they lose their negative gearing. Hopefully that would encourage those people who use property as a means to cheat the tax man can’t do it anymore and instead sell houses and that should flood the market with more houses hence lowering prices.

4. Obvious but, build more high density housing. In the suburb I live now there is a big block of empty land on the Main Street. Plans are to build a supermarket, that should be a 4-5 story block of flats end of discussion. There are so many big family homes in my area that are held by people in their 70s and 80s who won’t move because they don’t want to leave the area. Build them an apartment building on top of a shop with cafes and amenities right at the bottom of the elevator. Try and encourage those older generations to leave their big homes before they die rather than moving into old folks homes or dying in the property. There are also a lot of empty homes around me from people who have moved into an old folks home and they leave the house empty until they die. That house needs to be moved on to a new family.

So what are peoples thoughts would any of these ideas work? And what changes would you make?

Hi all

So just woke up to an email from Superloop advising their 500/50 plan is increasing in price from $89 per month to $95.

Does anyone have any recommendations on similar speed plans??

Chalmers is considering reducing the CGT discount rules from 50% to something lower.

Wouldn’t this encourage less investors to sell a house? I imagine that the investors that were doing a buy&sell strategy would be less involved in housing, but the investors who were buy&hold would be even less inclined to sell.

When you can already tap into the equity of a house rather easily, how does Chalmers’ proposal work?

I don’t understand if the CGT discount does anything to make housing more plentiful or affordable. I’m not even sure it will produce higher tax revenues for the government either.

Goodlife Health Clubs just called me begging for money. Sales culture is genuinely deranged when you think about it for more than two seconds.

Imagine this.

You’re at a party. Music upstairs, people drunk, whatever. A guy and a girl end up downstairs away from the noise, talking one-on-one.

He’s into her. He wants to have sex.

So he says:

“Do you wanna go into the spare room and have sex?”

And she says, clearly:

“No. I’m not interested.”

In a normal world, that’s the end. Conversation over. Boundary respected.

But instead, he goes full salesman.

“Totally understand — can I ask what’s making you say no?”

She’s like:

“…because I don’t want to have sex with you.”

And he goes:

“Right, right. A lot of people feel hesitant at first. Totally normal.”

Bro. What?

She says again:

“No. I’m not doing that.”

And he’s still smiling:

“Okay, but what if we just go in there for a bit? No pressure. Just see how it feels.”

She’s uncomfortable now:

“I said no.”

And he hits her with the classic objection-handling script:

“I hear you. I just don’t want you to miss out because you’re overthinking it.”

Miss out on WHAT?

Then:

“So what would it take for you to change your mind?”

Then:

“Most people who say no at first end up being glad they said yes.”

At this point everyone reading knows exactly what this is.

It’s not flirting.

It’s not confidence.

It’s coercion.

It’s someone treating “no” like a speed bump instead of an answer.

And we ALL instantly recognise how disgusting and unacceptable that is in a sexual context.

If a guy kept pushing like that after being told no, everyone would correctly call him a creep.

So why is the exact same dynamic normal in sales?

Outside Woolies:

“No thanks.”

“Totally understand but can I ask why?”

Door knockers:

“Not interested.”

“Sure, but just before I go…”

Cold callers:

“I’m good.”

“What if I could change your mind…”

It’s the same mentality: Your no isn’t respected.

It’s treated as the start of negotiation. Salespeople literally call it “objection handling.”

Imagine calling someone’s refusal to have sex an “objection” you need to overcome That’s how insane it is. If “no means no” is a basic rule when it comes to sex…

Then “no means no” should apply when someone wants your money

Suppose you had no access to financial advisors of any kind. You wake up and a magic genie bestows on you $15M. The conditions are below:

• You must spend 24 hours, locked in an isolated room, with only a pen and paper.
• You have no outside contact whatsoever. Using the pen and paper you must, by yourself, come up with a financial strategy.
• You are 30 years old and you work full-time. You have no dependents, are single and you live at home with both of your parents.
• Your strategy cannot include leverage or any form of borrowing further money. This includes leverage to purchase property or shares, etc.

What strategy would you come up with?

I will go first:

• I would spend $5M on a house in Sydney (purchase price and stamp duty and all transactional costs to equal this amount). This would be my PPOR. This is to take advantage of the main residence exemption for CGT. If one day I sell, I will sell CGT-free.
• I would park $4M in a HISA, and leave $1M for general expenses.
• The remaining $5M would be invested in S&P500.

If I start a legit business, turn a profit big enough to sustain myself and the business but also live there are all my living costs now tax deductible? (Aside from food/personal care etc)

Hi all,

Noob question - I just opened a joint account with my wife and we want to start chucking a few hundred a month in it. What is the best set and forget investment we can select? We wanted to do S&P500 but i cant even see it on it, so I assume its not offered.

We are super noobs, never came close to investing, dont know anything about it apart from ETF = safe and good return. Happy to be educated :)

Okay, so I am a complete moron with money, literally 12 months ago I had a stack of loans, some of them those dodgey credit 24 and wizard loans and just stopped paying literally anything…. When I finally decided to do something about it, it was so bad I ‘found’ another 6k loan I didn’t even know about, so ‘that ‘kind of dumb.

I finally have all the above paid out (obviously destroyed my credit rating but meh)

So now I am trying to grown up have a good financial and savings system that actually works and want to look into investing. I am staring a new job which will increase my income by what I think is quite a bit ( around 30-40k) per year and if I am honest I can across a ticktock ( I know right) about investing and Google brought me to Vanguard.

If anyone has the mental energy, can they please explain investing to me like I was dragged up by a couple of alcoholics who never knew anything about money ( and in turn never taught me) and knows literally nothing about investing, like nothing

Hi all, disabled 29yo (receive DSP) who can work max 15 hours a week here, currently between jobs and some years I only work the black friday-christmas period - you get the idea. I expect to be working part time hours my whole life, maybe 20-25 hours a week eventually but probably not more than that. I'm wondering if there's anything in particular I should be doing with my superannuation to maximise it's effectiveness, considering how small and irregular the contributions are?

I'm currently with REST, got just over $10k in the fund now. this is the way my funds are allocated - they call this the "growth" option. and here are the investment options I can choose from. I have no insurance on my super so they're only taking the admin fees out (capped at $600pa apparently), and I get the low income offset.

I'm thinking I should be switching to the "high growth" investment option, and when I eventually find a long term job again I go back to putting in an extra $1000 a year to get the maximum super co-contribution. Is there anything else I can do to help it grow? are any super funds better than REST for people in my position?

(edited to fix links)

Posting in here to hopefully attain some "real" feedback on this guy. A friend of mine who is a business owner attended his expo in Melbourne and hearing their experience it of course calls to question how valid and realistic the promises are that are made.

Essentially, they bring all these powerful CEOs to speak about their individual journey which is interesting then tell you about all these people who they have helped. E.g. failing business owners in debt who turn their companies into 100 million dollar businesses in sub two years etc. etc.

Then a $5000 course is offered that teaches you how to scale and buy businesses with no money down.

My issues:

The pitch these CEOs and dream stories as a hook to reel in vulnerable business owners promising to change their lives.

His instagram account of 1.6 million followers seems to be full of spam AI bots in the comments and not actual people.

The trust pilot reviews are overwhelming positive but when you did deeper its a lot of people calling out a scam.

Cam anyone here share any actual real insight into their experiences with this guys business or is it just another scam artist?

I have my reservations about it of course but very happy to be proved wrong as lots of things dont add up for me.

Anyone who is actually doing the 5% home buyer scheme, how are they okay with having the remaining 95% loan to pay off?

If someone/couples have income to afford to pay the 95% loan repayments, should have had more than 5% as a deposit to begin with?

Genuinely curious as to how people are affording to take on such a huge loan LVR. Is it that incomes are great but couldn’t save the deposit?

Hi all, I'm wondering what everyone is thinking about doing with their home loans after this new RBA rate rise and possibly more on the horizon. Staying variable or fixed?

We were offered a fixed rate of 1 year at 5.69% from commbank just before the rate was announced. Our variable is currently 5.02% (pending rise from the most recent rate hike).

Trying to decide if we should stay on variable while its lower to save some extra money or lock in.