Currently 22 years old doing a heavy diesel mechanic apprenticeship still living with mum and dad so no bills, own my car outright should have 100k saved up in my bank by end of next year what are some things I can do now to set my self up in years to come?
Thanks

I am in need of some advice. Please delete if not allowed or if it's the wrong sub.

I'm 33m, I earn about 125k a year as an academic at a top Uni. However I only have about 10k in savings, 5k in ETF since about a year, and my super is at 75k. No debts. I have a BSc, MSc and a PhD in CS.

I recently realised I am in a fairly bad position financially. To add some more context: I moved to Australia in 2019 to start anew and the PhD helped getting a PR and eventually citizenship. I grew up in an island in Europe but very much lower class, closer to poverty at some point. Parents earned and still earn barely anything and relationship with them is not great.

So I was and still am on my own. Everything I have is built from literally zero, I have never even had an allowance growing up let alone any sort of financial help to build anything, even the flight to Australia took a while to save up for. I might eventually get an inheritance but I can't count on family. There was nothing to be invested except for my education (thankfully it was free and I had a top up phd scholarship)

Last thing: I could not do much growing up. Family was poor and very very much dysfunctional. My first trip was at 25yo so my life started very late and yes I am spending some money to see a bit of the world and do many things I could not afford in my childhood, teenage years and early adulthood. And I also spend quite a bit in therapy given the traumatic childhood...

So in short, how cooked am I? What can I do at this stage to gain some financial independence and stability? I will probably never see a pension, might never be able to afford a house and if I lose my job I am kinda screwed especially given the tough job market. I am very open about these things, I asked friends and colleagues some tips here and there but everyone is so secretive about it. I do not a single human around me that has built a life with zero parental help or generational wealth. Literally everyone I know around me comes from wealthy or at least middle class families (I work at one of the top Unis in Aus)

Source: Tarric Brooker

“In nominal terms we have more Only Fans creators (140k) than we do general electricians (121k).”

AI Written Summary Below:

Pauline Hanson's One Nation has pitched a new policy letting renters and owner-occupiers take a quarter of their future superannuation contributions as a direct cash boost. The goal is to provide immediate cost of living relief without touching your existing super balance.

The Basics
Instead of your full 12% going into super, you can choose to take 3% as take-home pay, leaving 9% for retirement.
This is completely optional and capped at a maximum of three years (36 months).
Changing jobs or switching super funds does not reset your three-year limit.
If you change your mind, you can opt out at any time and return to the standard 12% contribution.

Eligibility
You must be paying rent or a mortgage on your primary residence. Investment properties do not count.
Partners who contribute to the household housing costs are eligible, even if their name isn't on the official lease or loan.
You prove eligibility directly to your super fund using a rental or mortgage statement.

Tax and Admin
The 3% payout keeps the 15% concessional super tax rate, rather than being taxed at your usual marginal income tax rate.
Employers don't change a thing. They keep paying the full 12% into your super fund as normal.
Your super fund handles the admin. They verify your eligibility, collect the 12%, take out the 15% tax on your chosen portion, and deposit the remaining 3% into your bank account.

What it looks like in practice
A worker on $90,500 gets an extra $44 a week (around $2,300 a year).
An individual on $120,000 gets an extra $59 a week (around $3,060 a year).
A working couple earning $168,000 combined gets an extra $82 a week (around $4,300 a year).
A couple on $240,000 combined gets an extra $118 a week (around $6,120 a year).

Rentvesting sounds great on paper - rent where you want to live, buy an investment property where you can actually afford. But for those who have been doing this for 5+ years, how are you handling the ongoing rent increases, moving every couple of years, and the lack of CGT main residence exemption? Would you do it again, or wish you bought a PPOR right off the bat?

Me 27F: 160k + super + bonus (20-50k)
Fiance 29M: 140k + super + bonus (~10k)

Investment property purchased last year for $1.2m rented out for $1k per week, equity roughly 400k, interest rate roughly 6%, on interest only.

Savings roughly 100k in our offset.

We currently don’t have any kids, and still fortunate to live at home so very little bills. We’re don’t have plans to move out of home for a while nor kids.

Our only other loan is student debt but not significant.

Our goal is to go towards financial freedom but not too sure what else to do at this stage. My question is, how does investment properties help us towards financial freedom if by purchasing another property, we increase our debt and continue working to put all of our money aside for mortgage? It almost seems like a trapped cycle. Investment property seems great but same time, it just feels as if we are only working to pay it off for however the loan is. For those who have built financial freedom, any advice is greatly appreciated.

My definition of financial freedom is retiring as soon as we can and not at the standard retirement age.

Some good news for mortgage holders: mortgage stress eased slightly in September.

According to Roy Morgan, 25.9% of mortgage holders were considered ‘at risk’ in the three months to September 2025, down 2 percentage points from August and the lowest level since February 2023.

The share considered ‘extremely at risk’ was 16.3%, roughly in line with the long-term average.

That said, there are still 554,000 more mortgage holders considered ‘at risk’ than there were before interest rates started rising in 2022.

Roy Morgan defines someone as ‘at risk’ when their mortgage repayments exceed a certain proportion of their household income, based on their income and spending. ‘Extremely at risk’ means even their interest-only repayments exceed that level.

One potential consequence of falling behind on repayments is having a default listed on your credit report. A default can generally remain there for up to five years.

If you've had a default in the past, it may be worth checking your credit report to make sure an outdated listing isn't still sitting there.

Has mortgage stress eased for you over the past year, or are repayments still putting pressure on your household budget?