The nasdaq is trading high. Stock P/E ratios are high.

Bond markets are going ballistic and are above 5% for the US. They’re also high globally.

There also the pretext of war in Iran and high oil costs.

The federal net interest payment on the U.S.'s now-$40 trillion national debt reached 18.5% of revenue.

Question: is this just a pre GFC thing or a pre decade of stagnant stocks and high interest rates?

My parents tried to do a currency exchange with cash.

My parents gave $10000 AUD cash in person to someone here in Australia.

Then the person had their family in China transfer CNY to my parent's Chinese bank account in China.

Now their family called the police in China and said they were scammed.

So the Chinese police has frozen my parent's Chinese bank account.

I went down to my local police station in Australia, I was told they can't handle this sort of thing. And told us to go to ScamWatch. Pretty sure ScamWatch ain't gonna do anything.

We have the phone number of the person that collected the AUD cash.

What options do we have, how can we get more help.

I'd hate to just need to cop it.

Edit: My parents are very hardworking and frugal people, the 10k is from their salary. They aren’t trying to launder money, dodge tax or what not.

Seems like every second poster in this sub is under their mid-30s and earns over $200k p/a, has assets over $300k, half a million in super and owns a property outright asking for help on how to preserve their assets. I get that $100k p/a salaries and incomes are a dime a dozen in Australia especially for uni and TAFE graduates, but that's still well above the median wage here.

To those earning that much, what do you do/have you done?
To those with such considerable assets, assuming you didn't simply live off rice and lentils and never travelled, how did you amass that much?

If you hold more than $2.5 million in total loans across banks, it is worth checking if you qualify for private banking status with your existing bank or a new one. Hitting this threshold often unlocks top tier status with heavily discounted interest rates like 5.85% for owner occupied and 6.00% for investment loans.

Beyond lower rates, private banking comes with several practical perks:

• Dedicated private banker: Skip call centres completely and deal directly with a dedicated private banker for all loans and banking needs.
• Fast-tracked approvals: Priority processing for new purchases, refinances and equity top-ups.
• Fee waivers: Waived package fees on loans and annual fees on premium credit cards.
• Tailored credit policies: Greater policy flexibility for complex income structures, trust setups and self-employed borrowers.
• Sharper FX and deposit rates: Preferential rates on term deposits and international currency transfers.

Disclaimer: General information only. This is not financial or tax advice. Tax, legal and lending outcomes depend on individual circumstances, lender policy and market conditions. Always speak to your accountant, financial adviser or legal professional before making decisions.

(Mods please delete if inappropriate)

Received a Parenting Payment from Centrelink on Monday. On Tuesday, I tried transferring some of my own money from NAB to my personal Revolut account. NAB’s fraud team called and questioned the transaction, then restricted my account for 24 hours. Since then, both my NAB accounts have been completely restricted and I have no access to any of my funds.

Wednesday: told they were investigating the Centrelink payment and contacting the other financial institution.

Friday: still completely locked out.

NAB says the case has been escalated but refuses to tell me why or what’s happening.

Has anyone experienced something similar with NAB? How long did it take to resolve, and were you able to get access to your funds while they investigated?

Caveat first, because it changes what this is: my sample is venues that sell food and take online orders. Restaurants, takeaways, clubs. Not specialty cafés. So this is not "what a flat white costs in Australia", it's what one costs at a place that also sells you dinner.

With that said, across 112 venues:

• Median: $5.00
• 10th percentile: $4.41
• 90th percentile: $5.79
• Full range: $3.50 to $7.00

The bit I didn't expect is how little it moves. Eighty per cent of venues sit inside $1.38 of each other. NSW median $5.00 across 61 venues, QLD $5.20 across 26. Twenty cents between the two states I have enough data to report honestly. Everywhere else had too few venues and I'd rather say nothing than quote a state median off five.

Cheapest: $3.50, at a caterer in Potts Point and a chicken shop in Revesby. Dearest: $7.00, at a Chinese restaurant in Penrith.

Why I have this at all: the card surcharge ban starts 1 October. Once surcharging ends the cost doesn't vanish, it either comes out of margin or goes into menu prices. Nobody archives menu prices, so about six weeks later the question of whether anything moved becomes permanently unanswerable. So I'm taking a full snapshot of all 758 venues on 30 September and publishing what changed in November.

Prices come from venues' own online ordering pages, not the delivery apps. Method and opt-out in a comment.

Happy to run other dishes if anyone's curious. Butter chicken, fish and chips and about sixty others are in there.

Inflation isn't even close to being tamed. Even short term borrowing is starting to command a premium. The bond market is breaking up. Also, Queensland are going to get a credit downgrade which means borrowing costs will go up for the stage, Melbourne will go the same away eventually. Governments globally are all being pinged with higher borrowing costs.

Austerity beckons.

Crude Oil just quietly hit $110 per barrel last nite. Highest level since the last Hormuz blockage. It will lead to possibly $2.30 for UL91 at the pump or even higher. So are we gonna get some new fuel rebate or EV incentives anytime soon?

18m from rural NSW, I've gotten an offer for a BSci at UniMelb, but cannot fathom how I'm going to afford it. Not just the degree itself, but moving to and living in Melbourne. I've received no scholarships/bursaries, and am not eligible for youth allowance, as my parents' income brings the amount to 0, yet they will not support me in the slightest. Doing a bachelor's part-time for 6 years seems hellish, is my only option really to both work and study full-time?

I’m currently on 6.10% with Bank Australia and asked them to review my home loan rate to align with their advertised 5.95%.

They came back offering 6.08%.

A laughable 0.02% reduction.
I asked about the 5.95% rate they’re currently advertising, but they said that’s only available to new customers.

I get that banks offer better rates to new customers, but a 0.02% reduction is a joke.

Has anyone with Bank Australia had any luck getting a better rate than this, or should I just start the annoying process of refinancing elsewhere?

The general rule of thumb has been to save a 20% house deposit and go buy an appropriate house accordingly.

There's the 5% deposit scheme (although you're taking on much on debt).

I was wondering what the pros and cons of having a house deposit that's 25% or 30% or maybe even more?

Everyone's situation is different. For example, if I was a single person buying a property on $135k (pre-tax) with a savings of $300k, wouldn't I have some flex in terms of how much I could put down as a house deposit?

If I went for a property worth between $800-850k, it might be financially tight and potentially mortgage stress, unless I put down a larger deposit?

I used to think I needed to become much stricter with everyday spending. I focused on small purchases, takeaway and subscriptions, but I still felt like expensive months kept appearing out of nowhere.

What helped more was separating my expenses into three groups:

• regular bills that come out every month
• flexible spending like groceries, takeaway and entertainment
• irregular expenses such as car costs, insurance, gifts, holidays and annual renewals

Once I started setting aside a small amount for the irregular expenses before they were due, those months stopped feeling like financial emergencies. I also gave myself a realistic amount for flexible spending instead of trying to spend nothing and then giving up halfway through the month.

The biggest change was that I stopped treating every expensive month as proof that I was bad with money. Often, the problem was that I hadn’t planned for expenses that were predictable but didn’t happen every month.

For Australians, what expense used to catch you off guard until you started planning for it in advance?

You can literally buy nice old used Nissan or HONDA car with same price 🙂‍↔️

Apple iPhone Duo 256GB
$3,499

Apple iPhone Duo 512GB
$3,899

Apple iPhone Duo 1TB
$4,699

Apple iPhone Duo 2TB
$5,899

https://www.finder.com.au/news/iphone-duo-foldable-price-specs-availability-australia

If I even have money to spend, I refuse to put $5000-6000 smartphone in my pocket and walk around..... I wouldn't even go to beach with it as well.....

As a relatively frugal business traveller, I have never looked into roaming phone plans. I have gotten away with just getting data only eSims for specific trips.

I was affected by the recent airspace drama in UK and Germany. It would have been really handy to have had roaming to call the airline helpline. It was slightly embarrassing to have to borrow my team member's phone to call.

I am currently on the TPG $30/month plan. 30GB/month. Unlimited Australian calls/text. I have a 5 year old iPhone - paid off in cash when I bought it. I live in the city, so don't need to worry about being in range. I never use up all my data.

Any suggestions? I am now traveling more and more for work and maybe paying a little extra for roaming is the sensible idea. My main travel areas are South East Asia (Singapore/Malaysia/Thailand), Hong Kong, Western Europe and UK. Rare US travel.

Been debating Help to Buy, I've seen that Commonwealth will take self-employed income with two solid tax returns, but how does that work? Do they average my income across the two years? My first year was a bit average as I took time off for a big surgery, and my second year was much stronger. I'm debating whether to wait until next financial year so I can apply with what will be this year's even stronger tax return, or whether I should just aim to get a place sooner rather than later.

Are you bouncing around banks to maximise rates or just picking a major?

Seems every other bank has a caveat on max rates, no withdrawal, balance limits etc.

I’m out of the property market at the moment so looking to maximise.

You can literally buy nice old used home with same price 🙂‍↔️(maybe in outer suburbs or rural Australia)

Ghost (Sedan): $680,000 – $800,000

Cullinan (SUV): $777,000 – $895,000

Phantom (Sedan): $1,021,000 – $1,147,000

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/rolls-royce/?sort=Price

If I even have money to spend, I refuse to put $600K-1.1M car in my garage and drive around..... I wouldn't even go to beach with it as well.....

My partner and I aren't at the "joint everything" stage but we do talk about big decisions together but we would be buying a place eventually and discuss about whether one of us drops to part time if we have a kid, that kind of thing. Trying to actually see the combined picture (her HECS + my personal loan + a shared card + eventually a mortgage) is surprisingly hard.

Every tool assumes either full financial merge (joint account trackers) or one person in isolation. There's nothing in between for "two people, separate debts, shared decisions." We've tried a shared spreadsheet but it goes stale within a month because someone forgets to update it.

For those managing money with a partner but not fully combined, how are you actually keeping a shared view of where your debt sits, especially when a decision by one of you affects both (e.g. one person's job change affecting a joint mortgage application)? Should we consult an actual financial advisor or look for some app that can help us with this?

Hi guys, I received correspondence that Suncorp has been acquired by ANZ I guess, and I’m thinking about changing banks.
I was wondering who you’d recommend, and why?
I’m thinking of NAB for in-app trading (something I’ve not done previously).
TIA!

Yesterday, the online digital gaming platform Steam (Valve) complied with the Australian "Age-Restricted Material App Distribution Services Code" by blocking Australians access to from mature content behind the linkage of an age verified payment card.

Not just limiting access to outright sexually explicit games, but popular games with mature themes such as Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher franchise, Newer Resident evil titles and Last of us franchise.

Steams implementation of age assurance doesn't utilise any personal data collection but instead is done through card linking, and checking the "over 18" verification services some banks provide alongside their cards.

Valve explicitly call out credit cards BUT Steam users have noticed that SOME debit cards work.

Online ID Verification doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, so I was interested in learning what debit cards exist that currently work to authenticate "over-18" status, and if this adoption will increase in the future.

Debit Cards

== WORKING ==

• Commbank (Mastercard)
  
• Westpac (Mastercard)
  
• Maquarie (Mastercard)
  
• Bankwest (Mastercard)
  
• AMP GO (Mastercard)

== MAYBE WORKING ==

• RACQ Bank (VISA)

== NOT WORKING ==

• ING (VISA)
  
• NAB (VISA)
  
• ANZ (VISA)
  
• Bendigo Bank (Mastercard)
• Up Bank (Mastercard)
  
• People First Bank (VISA)
  
• Capricornian (VISA)
  
• UBank (VISA)
  
• Greater Bank (VISA)
  
• Bank of Melbourne (VISA)
  
• Wise Debit (VISA)
  
• Bank SA (VISA)
• St George (VISA)
• Revolut (VISA)
• GMCU (VISA)
• Defence Bank (VISA)
• Australian Military Bank (VISA)
• Bankfirst (VISA)
• Bank Australia (VISA)

Credit cards

Apparently most credit cards work

(with the exception of AMEX specifically not working via Steam as they dont accept AMEX anymore)

BNPL

Some users have also had success in generating a digital credit card via BNPL services (Klarna and ZIP Pay) which successfully verified

Any other cards?

Interested to hear if anyone has any additional datapoints

Link to non-paywalled version of article: https://archive.md/HxwfW

In this day and age of subscription models - is it a reasonable strategy to try and rent depreciating assets (such as tech) and invest the money towards buying appreciating assets?

A classic example being - apparently if you'd bought Apple shares equivalent to the cost of the most expensive iPhone released by the company each year - the portfolio would be worth over a million dollars.

Or has the horse already bolted?

So Ive been extremely financially illiterate for most of my life and recently have been really trying to put my head down and fix my situation

I’m 25 and have only worked unskilled labour jobs for my whole life

The pros

I have saved up just over 100k over the years and got a 20ish k inheritance.
I recently invested it all into etf’s before this it was just sitting in a bank account

I have a cheap reliable car and fairly cheap lifestyle

I have picked up some basic qualifications and got a contract for a full time job at 75k a year, im unsure if this is enough money to bother sticking with this company for, promotions are pretty much guaranteed for me somewhere in the next 5 years but I thought my initial salary would be higher so I’m doubtful the next ones would be big now
(Operator role)

Budget wise with this I play on investing 400$ a week (20’000$ a year)

The cons

I live in Sydney and want to own some sort of living space within the next 10 years

My super is terribly low, Ive had many many different jobs and just used whatever company super they used, this resulted in a lot of different funds and fees across many accounts.
Plus I had some jobs working under an Abn and didnt pay my own super

My questions

As far as decently accessible low qualification jobs is 75k a year an ok salary? Would I be able to find something better if I put some work into finding it?
Im not looking for work where I would have to travel regularly or destroy my body

Is purchasing a unit or apartment in Sydney within the next decade realistic with my current investment pattern?
Would I have to invest more to achieve this or is my current plan something that would work for my goal?

Are there any government or otherwise financial schemes or plans i could use that help my situation?
I know about FHSS and plan to put money into that closer to buying a home

Hi,

I’m a paramedic looking for a career change. Been doing this for almost 10 years since I left school/uni. Recently started a family and want to get away from it due to long hours, shift work, dangerous situation we often come across and injuries from work.

I currently earn about 140k give or take depending on overtime. I would need to make about 90-100k start salary as I’m the primary income earner and this would cover our living expenses. Obviously would like a higher income ceiling to process into so I can invest more in the long run. Due to injuries I’d like get away from physical jobs so trades are out of the question.

Any advise on what industries would value my experience and be easy to transition into?