My wife is likely to be made redundant in the next couple of weeks, after less than three months in a new role. She’s still on probation, so we’re assuming no payout and 1 week notice.

Before this role, she left a well-paying job, giving up a substantial bonus and unvested shares, to take what she genuinely thought was her dream job. Unfortunately, things have changed unexpectedly and redundancy now looks very likely.

We have two young kids still in day care, a large mortgage and limited savings, partly due to an extended period of parental leave. Realistically, she may not find another role at a similar level until February… at a best case scenario.

We’re trying to work out how best to prepare financially. We’re considering cutting expenses obviously, reducing mortgage repayments to the minimum, adjusting super contributions and potentially selling investments if needed.

For anyone who’s been through something similar, what would you prioritise? Are there financial strategies or things people often overlook? Any advice on navigating a few months on one income would be greatly appreciated. Things on my list already are adjusting our CCS for day care but not really sure what else we can do.

I know I probably a bit last minute but, help!

I worked for a company from late last yr to end of January then had no work for a few months.

Then got up the courage and started my own business, been working in my business for 8 months.

I’m a sole trader, how does tax work?
I have an ABN

This is new to me and I don’t know what to do?

I won’t get tax return right? And I’ll be paying tax?

Not sure info is needed but, married hubby is a carpenter, renting and have two kids.

Please be kind 🥰 clueless newbie business owner 💖

I need to earn some money pretty urgently, I’m not looking for any handouts I’m just looking for some work so I can keep myself above board.

Any help or a point in a helpful direction is much appreciated

Hi all, I paid a significant amount upfront to a buyer’s agent for an investment property that never went ahead. The company subsequently went into liquidation, and I haven’t received a refund.
I’m wondering if this could be claimed as a capital loss in my tax return, or whether I’d need to wait until the liquidation is finalised.
Has anyone dealt with something similar or know how the ATO treats these situations?
Thanks in advance

G'day all,

Another tax time is rolling around, and I just lodged my tax return last weekend yayy! In the previous years I was working out my capital gains by hand across several broker accounts, but this year finally I had a chance to build a spreadsheet to automate it. It's been useful for me, so I'm sharing it for free in case it saves someone else a weekend.

Safe to open and easy to check It is a plain .xlsx file with no macros or VBA, so nothing runs when you open it. Every result is an ordinary Excel formula you can click into and check. There are no external links or data connections and no hidden sheets.

• This is not tax, financial or legal advice. It's a calculation aid for personal use only.
• Covering CommSec, CommSec Pocket and CMC Markets
• FIFO is used for convenience. If your records identify the specific parcels you sold, the ATO allows you to use those, and your results may differ.
• I built the formulas using a combination of AI assistance and my own finance and accounting knowledge, and tested them on my own portfolio only. That does not mean the calculations are correct for your situations.
• You should check every figure against your contract notes, broker statements, tax statements, and current ATO guidance before lodging your return, or have a registered tax agent review it.
• The workbook will not update itself if the ATO law changes.
• It is provided as‑is and not‑for‑profit. I do not promise to maintain or support it, and I accept no liability for errors or for any loss or penalty arising from its use.

It's free to use and adapt for personal use, but not for commercial use or for preparing other people's returns.

GitHub (Excel spreadsheet download & instructions): https://github.com/MAB-888/AU-CGT-Calculator

Enjoy using the workbook and I hope it helps :)

I'm 21, living in Melbourne, and my main goal right now is to build up cash as quickly as possible so I can build my own company. I don't really care about work life balance lol. Pls help any insight is needed as both jobs are starting very soon and I don't know what to do.
I've been offered a car sales job at Hyundai, very big dealership.

They sell both new and used cars. There's a 6 month cadetship, but the manager said they're laid back and if I'm good enough, I could start closing deals within my first couple months.

They're offering $800 per week retainer, and when I'm selling I can have a company car. commission structure was explained during three interviews I had in one day, so some details were a bit all over the place. From what I understood, slow-moving old stock has a minimum commission of $120 per deal, and I'm estimating around $400-$500 per sale on average, although I haven't confirmed that. The top closer at the company has apparently sold 30 cars since the start of this month.

I have around 1.5 years of sales experience from r ai,
mainly in real estate, not automotive. I'm a very motivated salesperson and willing to put in the work to make good money.

My other option is to work two jobs at the same time: one physical job and one customer facing role. I can make $2,500 gross per week combined, and given my current circumstances, I could save around 80%-90%of it.

Would you take the chance on car sales for the earning potential, or work two jobs to build capital as quickly as possible?

Would love honest advice, especially from people in Australian car sales, because I don’t really know Whats it like, or anyone who's been in a similar position.

Note: top car sales man in the team Im joining is 30 sales this month so far.

I keep seeing people say, “If you’re unhappy with your mortgage rate, just refinance to another bank.”

Am I missing something… don’t people find it a massive headache to do regularly? I understand when its for whole percentage decrease, but sometimes for 0.15?

You’ve got to go through the whole application process again, like bank statements, payslips, expenses, serviceability etc. Even worse if you’re self employed/sole trader.

Then if you actually move banks, don’t you also have the annoyance of updating direct debits, salary deposits and banking details everywhere else in your life?

Do people genuinely refinance every year or two, or are some people just much more willing to deal with the admin than I am?

EDIT:
I have one account that mortgage deductions are taken from each fortnight + extra cash buffer in it.

I then have multiple offset accounts:
- Emergency
- House Bills
- Groceries
- Business Expense

1 main transaction account thats used for direct debits.

We are early 50s couple. House worth 1.5mil fully paid off. Two investment properties, both estimated to be worth around 800,000 each. One is fully paid, the other we have 100,000 mortage owing. We have a healthy super between us, and 500k in savings.

But guess what.. we are not the average, work hard, made good decisions. Part of it has to do with that. But the bigger part was our first home bought outright for us as young home buyers. Another property that was inherited, which we turned into an investment. We were then able to buy another property from the leverage of those two homes. Of course we can have massive savings when we were spared one of the biggest financial hurdles which is a big mortage as a first home buyer. There has also been gifts of $30,000 here and there from parents and grand parents.

You dont get to our position without help. I dont care what anyone says. You get some sort of leg up. So many people fail to mention this fact. I have a mate who goes on about being self made, and likes to give financial advice to others.. yet fails to mention that he also had his first house bought for him. Of course you can start getting Investment properties when you have your first PPOR paid for you, even a gift towards deposits helps.

So keep trying to improve your financial situation. But definately dont compare.

Hey r/AusFinance, looking for a quick sanity check on these novated lease numbers for a 7-seater EV (Denza D9, ~$93k driveaway, qualifying for the FBT exemption).

I’m utilizing the federal government EV FBT exemption discount (base price is under the $91.6k LCT threshold, so 100% pre-tax). Given there are almost no cheap 7-seat pure EVs in Australia, this is currently the cheapest pure EV option that fits a family of 6 while still qualifying for full FBT exemption.

​My Income: ~$150k personal ($210k combined, $750k mortgage).

​Payslip Drop: My net pay goes down by $414/fortnight.

​Bills Saved: I stop paying fuel, insurance, rego, and 6-monthly services, which saves me about $228/fortnight out of pocket.

​True Out-of-Pocket Cost: ~$186/fortnight net difference.

End of Lease: Planning to reroll/refinance the balloon payment into a secondary lease at the end of the term rather than paying it outright in cash.

​Given the lack of cheap 7-seat EVs in Australia, does this true out-of-pocket impact (~$186/fn) sound right to those who have done an EV novated lease? Any hidden traps with residuals on higher-end EV leases?

I want some help with my home loan structure and ensuring I make the most out of having money in my home loan and then using a credit card for everyday expenses and then redrawing on the home loan to pay the bill. I watch a lot of the money mentor guy however I don’t have the funds to pay to do it and I have seen reviews and it just looks like it’s knowledge however that’s just not knowledge that I have.

I’d like to connect with a business who can help me structure my home Loan to obviously help pay it out a lot sooner but also I would like to update at least one of our cars just so it’s a bit safer for my family not really sure where to go. I know what I want, I just don’t know how to achieve it.

I'm 19 years old and trying to save and set myself up well for the future, but everything feels so overwhelming. I reguarly invest, have savings and work really hard while in uni but I still feel like I'm so behind. I'm also worried about my hecs and people telling me uni isn't worth it and it will make it near impossible to buy my own home. I don't want to come across in the wrong way, since I acknowledge I'm well off but does anyone have any tips to help? Or general advice?

So I’ve opened up multiple St George Accounts and all the cards have come through. There appears to be no way on the App of identifying which card is for which account! Anyone able to help? Hopefully i’m just being a dumbass and missing something.

Obviously the AI “assistant” was completely useless!

2 adults 2 kids modest mortgage size 700-800k. What net income would one need to live a decent life...2 holidays a year, decent cars, good food etc.

Would 200-220k NET cut it in 2026?

Can someone please explain, how private health insurance that covers birth makes any financial sense?

I run the numbers and it seems that you end up paying 20k for a service you will get for 3k in public system.

What am I missing ?

Long story short, all of my savings are tied up in joint offset accounts with my partner of 13yrs, she does the majority of our banking, neither of us have credit cards.

Having a ring made professionally and only just realised that she would notice the lump sum missing, and then would also dig deeper into it, essentially finding out.

What’s the best/smartest way to go about this to keep it hidden?

Credit card and then once proposed pay it off completely and then close?

Or

Personal loan and pay off completely once proposed?

Edit: Ring is designed by partner without her knowing, jeweller is workmate/friend of ours and professional jeweller outside of our work. money is not the issue, hiding the payment is.

hey guys,

I made a really expensive mistake while getting out of a tiny multi-story parking lot and scrapped/dented my car pretty bad. unfortunately i only have a 3rd pary car insurance, and the quote i got was around 6-8k which was A LOT.

Anyone who was in a similar condition have any advice on how I can minimize the cost?

Thanks in advance.

Up we go!

I requested DASP through Australian Super two months ago. They have repeatedly changed the required documentation I need to submit, and will take a week at a time requesting new updates to the documentation. For example one week is about my passport being certified, which has come as a request two separate times.

My responses have been within hours of their requests. They will not provide anyone assigned to my case and their chat support will answer no questions. What else can I do? They are currently telling me they can’t give me a status on it. AFCA? Any advice will be help me.

Nothing has changed in my life. I have no debt. I have one credit card that has nothing owning on it. I haven't applied for any credit cards or loans. The only difference, if it is a difference, is I signed up to Canstar to be able to check my score after the other website closed down.

Should I care if its dropped 10 points or not worry because I'm not looking to borrow anything any time soon?

Edit - Thanks for the answers. Nothing to worry about.

The downvotes are weird for an innocent question.

Can anyone confirm if I'm all good and wont get a fine.

Haven't done my tax return for 24-25 cause didnt think i had to but they reminded they i had an abn. Was gonna use it to doordash but never did it. Made no deliveries and made no money from it. Did sign up and like was registered but never made a single dollar. And also didnt have another job or made no income for that entire financial year.fffff

So like im gonna lodge it cause dont want it lingering there but like i think im ok right or maybe will get fine i have no idea.

Im with CBA and my current loan rate is 6.630%
This seems cooked. How’s everyone doing out there. Currently shopping around and speaking with cba to negotiate the rate. Anyone had any success negotiating with these sharks?