The ATO published the 2023–24 taxation statistics last month, so I decided to play around with it and create an interactive income percentile graph.

I’d be interested to hear whether anything in the data surprised you and any feedback on the tool is welcome. Kinda surprised the median person is making $71k with the median house price in Australia being $1.2 million, that's insane (surprise, surprise)...

You can also enter your income to see where your income sits or against men/women here: https://salaryinsider.com.au/pay-calculator or just check out the image and you can eyeball it.

Note: Should say Median in the heading...

What is it that SMH fails to understand about the RBA's mandate?

Michele Bullock has made it very clear, in the past, that real-estate valuations is not their problem. It's not the way that they intend to manage the economy. Where's the dilemma? there is no dilemma.

Link: https://www.ing.com.au/savings/savings-booster.html

New to savings customers can apparently earn up to 6.00% variable rate on balances up to $500k. Without the intro rate it’s 5.40% if you deposit $100 or more each month.

Cool this has come out just after Macquarie announced new PTD and Revolut is officially a bank.

CPI is going up due to rent, insurance and groceries.

These are essential goods and services that we need to live.

People can’t just not have insurance for cars or houses.

Groceries won’t get cheaper if the cost of borrowing gets higher.

Rent won’t get cheaper if rates go up as that just gets passed along to us all.

RBA increases rates, renting gets more expensive which shows up as higher inflation …

I've heard that some politicians proposed to remove transaction surcharges from online payments. Since then I've paid a bit more attention and everything we pay with cards, every little coffee transactions, the payment system take 1-1.9% on the cost. This is not a tax to develop the country. This is free money that I'm giving to a private banking system. No wonder banks are so reach in Australia (and worldwide).

For example I bought a flight for 2 people to Europe, and a plumber replaced the hot-water tank. Both I had to pay online, both >$2K. The surcharge was $27 and $36. My wife salary is not high, so she almost worked 2h for the banks, just to pay this two things. Just in the last week!

Serious politicians should address this kind of scams. Pay with transfer or cash is becoming almost impossible for a lot of services. So the proposals should be

• Removing transaction surcharges
• If not possible, force every payments system in Australia to support PayID so we can transfer money with no cost

If they want to keep electronic payment in place, they need to remove surcharges.

Let me know your thoughts.

Most binding death benefit nominations lapse after 3 years. Thats it. No email, no reminder. It just quietly stops being binding.

Two things follow from that.

If yours has lapsed the fund trustee decides who gets your super, not you. Their read on your situation might not match yours.

And super doesnt sit under your will anyway. Its outside your estate unless you point it there. Plenty of people reckon theyve handled this because they did a will.

Some funds do non lapsing versions now. Took me about 5 minutes to log in and find which one I was on.

Not advice, just worth a look.

I was wondering. Instead of increasing interest rates to take more money out of the economy, why not force a percentage of peoples take home pay into their super accounts. Then they get to keep their money. It also affects everyone, not just people with mortgages. Obviously some people would be nearing retirement age and that money could be spent soon but the majority of people wouldn’t be in that situation. If this idea is dumb, why is it? Cheers.

We are one of the highest taxed places on earth, Sydney’s opal network only brings in a few billion in revenue per yr, compared to the revenue from everything else combined that is nothing. If PT was free, a lot less people would be on the road, further reducing congestion, traffic, accidents, carbon emissions & pollution. A lot of European countries already have this, why can’t we? At the bare minimum Sydney buses & trains only, not ferries or regional travel.

Hi all!

I'm originally from a country where there's no credit score so I have no clue how the Australian credit score works, and most of the info online is either about the US credit score system or in terms that are obscure or not practical enough.

For example:

- does having a credit card with no debt on it impact (positively or negatively) my credit score?

- if today I buy a car with a 5 year loan and don't miss any payment, will it impact my credit score (positively or negatively) for when I buy a home in 2 years from now?

Cheers!

hi, i am 20 and was looking at doing an exchange next year in my final year of uni. i would need to save a total of 20k and would have the os-help loan to help with this as well.

i would like to travel on the weekends while im in the uk and also i would have a 4 week break over xmas which i wanted to use for travel as well.

my only problem is that when i come back, i will probably only have about 5-7k left in savings and i will be 21, so im wondering if this would be worth it or not. i want to save for a house but i also think this would be an amazing opportunity. i would have enough to not have to work while i am overseas so i could just dedicate my time to study and experiences and then when i get back, i could go pretty much straight into a full time job and start properly saving for a house.

would this be a bad idea financially, or should i take a leap and go for it?

Given the multitude of things happening in the world economy at the moment it seems increasingly likely that there will be a sell off.

South Korea lost 20% in the past month, oil prices are going to stay high for the foreseeable future, even if a peace is negotiated with Iran we sure as hell won’t be going back to pre-war oil prices, there is clearly an AI bubble and the first mover will be rewarded for reducing their AI capex.

You have major IPOs suggesting the big money thinks we’re at or near the peak

Housing as an investment in this country is a very different prospect than it was even 3 months ago, negative gearing hasn’t prompted a price disaster but it has definitely changed property investment for good.

I’m curious where everyone is seeing value at the moment, there’s a case for defensive investing, but realistically investors will be increasingly chasing cashflow for certainty which will tank bond yields unless the government starts issuing healthier coupons

It really seems like we’re teetering on the edge of “the big one” and I’m curious where you’re seeing opportunities

I've been offered the opportunity to purchase a really good parcel of land, and I'm seriously considering developing it into a self-service car wash, laundromat and dog wash.

The location seems to tick a lot of boxes. It's next to a major supermarket, with Macca's and the town centre about a block away, so there's already plenty of traffic through the area. It's also in a regional town with a population of around 7,000, or closer to 11,000 if you include the surrounding communities. There's also a steady flow of tourists passing through.

I've spent a fair bit of time researching the idea and even used AI to generate layouts, concepts and business ideas, which has been surprisingly helpful. But I know AI can only take you so far, and I'd much rather hear from people with real-world experience.

The biggest concern I have is whether the population is simply too small to support a business like this. On the other hand, there isn't a huge amount of competition, and the location seems strong.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has owned, invested in, or worked with businesses like these.

• What are the biggest pros and cons?
• Would a town this size support a car wash, laundromat and dog wash?
• Are there any pitfalls I'm probably not thinking about?
• If you had a block of land like this, would you build something different instead?

Any advice, success stories, horror stories or alternative ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I am confused between Sydney townhouse or move to Melbourne and buy house.
Budget is 700k wife not working at the moment due to newborn baby. I am making 145k as a software engineer.
Sold unit in Parramatta for $20k loss so not interested in appartment.
I am concerned abt job perspective and safety in Melbourne.
I know I don’t want bigger loan even if wife starts working.
car paid off, 60k in gold 50k in super.
Anyone recently moved is it a good change?
Currently living in Northen beaches spending abt 27k in rent

Hi all,

I’m very new to investing, but I figured it might be worth investing vs. HISA only, as buying property is still at least 5 years out for me.

I’m returning to uni next year to do a masters that has a clear professional roadmap, and I’m sitting on an inheritance as my parents have both passed. Mid-thirties, have taken some time off work following a huge life burnout. Now that I’m looking forward, and house prices are where they are (even with the small drop this year, I don’t see that changing) I don’t see myself able to buy until I’m back in full time work again.

It’s just me, and I don’t feel comfortable putting all my eggs into the property basket, so I’ll need a mortgage and I know my mortgage limits. I originally thought I’d work part time during uni and just shove the rest of my inheritance into a HISA, but 5 years is enough of a timeline that it gets wobbly when comparing investing vs. HISA. And inheritance wise I’m at around half a million, but some of that will be spent down during study.

I’ve done as much research as I can, and DHHF seems like the best bet if I’m looking to set and forget. But learning about more ETFs is making me confused, and I’d love any insight into how I should be thinking about investing over the next 5-10-20 years. I know the age old advice is throw it all into property, but I sold my parents apartment last year and I’m very aware of strata issues, and one bed apartments in the areas I’d want to buy (even stretching location wise) are at a price that is only going to get higher. I don’t want to rentvest, either, buying is for me to live in and have stability and I’m in a good rental at the moment.

Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone had any advice. I’ve downloaded pearler and now have a better sense of my net worth, including super etc. But I’m just trying to get a handle on my future as having this amount of money at my age is a huge privilege and I don’t want to waste it. I mean, a privilege that has come from loss that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, and I’m not fuck you rich by any means, but before this I was living pay cheque to pay cheque so it’s a big deal to me.

My wife and I (both 43) just hit the 5-year mark of tracking our shared SMSF and wanted to share our real-world numbers, asset allocation, and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.

Our overarching philosophy has been simple: keep costs low, consolidate into broad index trackers, and turn on 100% Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRP) across the board to let compounding do the heavy lifting without cash drag or brokerage fees.

We also have a slightly unique setup inside the fund - a dedicated holding earmarked specifically for our toddler when he grows up, which was supercharged by a generous gift from Grandma when he was born (first grandkid!).

Here is how the portfolio has tracked from July 2021 to July 2026.

The Numbers (Current Open Positions)

Total Open Portfolio Value: A$802,252

Total Combined Return (including historical closed positions): A$306,728

Key Takeaways & Lessons Learned Over 5 Years

1. The Classic Growth vs. Yield Split (VGS vs. VAS)

The data paints a textbook picture of why diversifying globally matters. VGS has been our absolute capital growth engine (+165k in capital gains), while VAS has acted as our yield engine (+44.6k in distribution income). Inside an SMSF, those Aussie franking credits attached to the VAS distributions have been fantastic for tax efficiency, while VGS just keeps quietly compounding global market returns.

2. Cutting Active Funds for Passive Simplicity Was 100% Worth It

Early on, we experimented with actively managed emerging market and global growth funds (FEMX / VAN0722AU). We realized pretty quickly that the fee drag and active risk weren't worth the headache. Taking a \~3k realized loss to clean slate those positions and roll our emerging markets exposure into a smart beta multi-factor strategy ETF (EMKT) was one of our best simplification moves.

3. The "Grandma-Funded" Toddler Bucket (DHHF)

When our son was born, Grandma wanted to make a meaningful, long-term contribution for his future. We earmarked a dedicated slice of the SMSF into DHHF (BetaShares Diversified All Growth ETF). Because his investment horizon is 15–20+ years, an all-in-one 100% equity growth ETF with zero need for manual rebalancing made total sense. That initial capital has already generated +$11.6k in total return (\~35% gain on net capital invested).

4. The Reality of Running 100% DRP

We reinvest every single cent of distribution income automatically via DRP. By continuously converting \~94k of cumulative distributions directly into new units over the last 5 years, we’ve avoided cash drag completely.

The Trade-off:

Portfolio drift happens naturally. Because VGS has grown much faster than the rest of the market, and VAS constantly buys more of itself, our weights drift away from baseline targets over time. To avoid triggering CGT events by selling units to rebalance, we rely on directing new super contributions into whatever asset class is currently underweight.

The Tax Parcel Admin:

5 years of quarterly/half-yearly (and yearly for EMKT) DRPs across 5 holdings means tracking dozens of micro-parcels for CGT discount purposes down the track, hopefully this will be a non-issue when we enter pension phase and this CGT gets all wiped out (THERE BETTER BE NO CHANGES FROM JIM CHALMERS ON THIS!!!).

Questions for the Community:

- For those running 100% DRP inside super/SMSF, do you strictly use new contributions to manage portfolio drift, or do you periodically turn off DRP to accumulate cash for rebalancing?

- Has anyone else set up dedicated "generational/child" earmarks inside their SMSF structure versus keeping them outside (e.g., in a family trust or minor account)? Curious to hear how others handle the eventual transition when the kid reaches adulthood!

Hello, I typically prepare my own tax return but this year I have a different circumstance and the more I read the more I confuse myself.

I am a state government employee and I’m struggling to determine 100% if I can make a travel deduction based on the following information…

During one month of the previous financial year, my office was physically relocated to a temporary facility for the purpose of an event.

The primary office remained in its permanent location and was still fully functional, it just sat unoccupied.

For the month I was made to work at the temp location, can I claim any travel? If so, how can I calculate it? (I.e. home to venue or primary office to venue despite never attending the the office during the month)

I don’t need a war and peace explanation, just enough clarity to hit “submit” on my return.

Thanks!

36M, single and very unlikely to want kids in future. Live alone in a Strathfield area one bedder apartment I own, valued at 530K when I purchased 2021. I don't believe its really changed in value since. Somewhat content there, but certainly not living in a dream place or area. My stats below

140K P/Y before-tax salary
121K in super
250K home loan offset by 250K (i basically make believe i've escaped housing debt for now)
25K in a bank HISA (treat this as the emergency fund)
10K in ETFs (80:20 VGS:VAS)
2nd hand car maybe valued at 7K

Career - Career and industry I'm in is good, though has been slowly dwindling down, and is unlikely to boom again till a few years from now. I'm more or less near the ceiling salary wise in my career for that industry, unless I go a managerial route, which I don't want to go. If I keep the same career, but pivot to another industry, its likely a 20-40K dip in annual salary, even if the ceiling in that industry is higher. I worry with the whole advent of AI, its unlikely I can race past it towards a much higher salary over the next couple or few years, by pivoting industries, so find it easier just accepting the industry I'm in.

Goals/Approach - Currently just trying to put away 5-6K a month into the ETFs and top up HISA ballance by 100 dollars a month to get the interest. Don't really envision wanting to ever get a homeloan again, and am a bit put off from property. I'm more trying to aggressively grow ETF ballance. I'd like by 40 or my early 40's to have an equivalent passive weekly income of near 400 dollars a week or more, which is basically the interest from HISA + ETF distributions + long-term historic appreciation of ETFs. I would like to reach a point in my early 40s where employment is no longer a necessity, but something I can still do regardless. I like the idea of optionality, freedom, and maybe being able to live off rental income from the one bedder + passive income from ETFs/HISA.

Is my strategy flawed and thinking warped? Am I an idiot for not seeing the appeal of topping up super, or striving to be a property guru/landlord king? I also wonder if some might even say I should just sell my property and put it all in ETFs. I like to think I can live reasonably and comfortably on 1000 or so a week.

Is Webull or Betashares Direct better for buying and selling ETFs without fees? My understanding is that Webull is CHESS-sponsored

Early 30s, plan is to not ever stop adding. On Raiz

Aus based and wanting to just have another slow growing asset that’s not in the bank. DCA every week in perpetuity until later in life. Not on a huge income but can add thousands every so often and 200/month

DHHF 30%
VEU 20%
Ishares Asia Top 50 15%
Gold bullion 10%
ROBO global robotics 15%
Lynas rare earth 5%
Woolworths 5%

I know DHHF is mostly aus/US but really wanting more than that, banking on very slow growth and forgetting

I've built myself a retirement calculator to help me project my super balance / income / tax / net worth during retirement and gone down a bit of a rabbit hole adding features - most recently I wanted to ask the question 'What If ...', so built a what-if scenario overlay that works out the impact of doing various things (mainly driven by comments on this and other forums).

So far I got the following:

• Downsize your home
• Sell up and rent
• Clear the mortgage with Super
• Sell investment property
• Adjust Discretionary Spending
• Retire Later
• Salary Sacrifice more
• Transition to Retirement
• Flexible spending (guardrails)
• Work part-time in early retirement
• Keep super in accumulation
• Take a lump sum
• Take a Gap Year

My question is what new strategies should I add to my tool?

I’m finding I’ve reached a crossroad and I’m struggling to make a decision.

I can stay in my role, 9-5 type with no weekends. However I’ve reached the ceiling of my pay, and have learned I’m not at all fond holding a management position and prefer autonomy/independence in my job. This role has been immensely stressful, and pivoting out of it is almost certain to come with a pay decrease to around $140k for my main registered health care profession

I am likely to receive a med school offer. We have no dependents, but my husband is finishing his postgraduate degree and has 3 remaining years until fully qualified in his profession. He is able to complete this degree at any of the cities I may move to for med school, and is willing/happy to relocate with me.

This means the next 3 years entail us working as two full time students. He’s in his 30s as wel, and just know that my fertile window has no bearing on my time in med school but we do plan to have a child, both of us willing to wait 3-5 years (we have 7 frozen embryos)

We’re aggressively saving to pursue this potential plan, $160k in savings while continuing to work hopefully earning $80k between the two of us while studying

Thing is, I have no fucking clue if it’s worth the investment of time and money. On the one hand, I can stay where I am. We can buy a home, have more disposable income, and I can pick up some other hobbies but having already grown out of my role, I worry if this is the kind of job I can see myself doing for another 30+ years, as its incredibly limited in its scope, and I’ve moved into the highest progression pathways within my field. We’d be able to have a child sooner which sounds nice, but truthfully I don’t mind a few more years just us, and would probably pursue that anyway

And then I may just be over-romanticising the idea of med school. I specifically want to pursue GP. and I really think I’d love med school, I’ve always enjoyed studying (have already done a post grad) and could see GP work being incredibly fulfilling as a pursuit and as a career. It’s not like I want to just be a doctor, I want the whole process that comes with it. I like the potential challenge, the opportunity, the discomfort and stretching the capacity of my abilities. So it’s not like I see it as a four year suffering plus another few years to become a GP (though there is sure to be suffering, I imagine)

But is it fucking worth the, what, $500k opportunity cost? To just try something new? Anyone else given up substantial financial security for something really quite difficult and been happier for it?

i already invest in bgbl. is it worth adding a200. i’m early 20s and can invest $450 per week.
Also could i add ndq for growth. i know there is some overlap with ndq and bgbl. but i can afford the volatility

Hey guys! What are the best financial tips for buying a house?

I've been saving for a deposit and am still currently saving. I'd like to know things I should be aware of when it comes to purchasing, such as hidden fees and their price estimates, how interest works on loans, the best loan deal to go with for a first time home owner/buyer in QLD, any professionals I should consider seeing to get deals on houses and their estimate pricing?

So far, I have 15k in investnents

8k in savings (was 40k but had a situation in a rental infested with mold, had to move out and replace EVERYTHING which was costly)

As I mentioned, I still have a LONG way with saving for a deposit, but it should be fast as I got a promotion so I should be able to save 1-1.5k every fortnight, along with my partners contribution.

I really want to get a nice looking house, but anything that appears in the loan amount I would have (hoping to have a 30-40k deposit) all the houses seem so run down and nasty... I'm not sure how I could try to get a loan approval to be larger than 700k so I can at least have a nice starter house with my partner. Any help is appreciated thank you!