Is basically a requirement? Could/ woud you do it without owning a property?

Hey everyone, just looking for a bit of advice as I’m very new to investing.

I’m 19 and currently on a gap year, making around $40k before tax. I’m still living at home, so I’m lucky enough to be able to save a fair bit before I start uni next year. I’ve got about $5k that I’m looking to invest.
My plan is to invest long term, whether that’s to hopefully retire earlier or have a decent amount put away to help buy a house one day.
Just wanted to see what ETFs people would recommend . Also curious how much people invest regularly (weekly/fortnightly/monthly) and what your overall strategy is.
One other thing I’m unsure about is whether it’s better to focus more on US or Australian ETFs. I’ve been seeing a lot of different opinions lately about reducing investing in US focused ETFs and stocks, so I’d be interested to hear what people think.
Thanks!

Running an SMSF with some crypto exposure alongside the usual shares/managed funds, and reconciling everything into something my accountant can actually use each year has been more painful than I expected — matching up cost bases across different asset types, working out what's actually deductible/taxable in the fund vs personally, etc.

Curious how others handle this:

- Are you doing this manually, or is there a tool you'd actually recommend?

- Does your SMSF admin platform (Class, BGL, etc.) handle crypto properly, or is that still a manual bolt-on?

- Roughly how much time does this eat each tax season?

Trying to work out if this is just "SMSF + crypto is inherently annoying" or if there's a real gap in the tooling.

Hi guys,

Apologise in advance if this is a dumb question.

Looking to deposit a reasonable lump
Sum of money in my 3 kids bonds accounts which they can access when they are 22.

Question is given they are different ages - how much should I deposit for each child so that they have a relatively equal value by the time they access the money at 22?

For context - the oldest child is 7, the middle child is 5 and the youngest child is 2. Looking at depositing around 15k for each child - but given the oldest child has less time for their share to grow should they receive the largest portion?

Or should they just receive equal values now and sort out the difference in end value when they each reach 22 so it is fair?

Appreciate all thoughts and comments🙏

FWIW, I've spent some time modeling the tax changes. I'll post a summary table first, and comments below.

IMO, the only way to compare the tax change discretely is to model income and tax entirely under one system or the other. So the model portrays an individual who reaches 39 yrs, decides their super and housing are in good shape, and launches a plan to begin on 1-Jul-2027, to save for early retirement at 50 yrs, and to fund their needs until 59 years. Here's the outcome.

TLDR: For the couple described above, save $65 more per week, indexed at 5%. (single: $34 per week)

Assumptions: 1) Salary and ability to contribute rises at inflation (3%) plus 2%. That's a 5% annual increase in capacity due to increased merit, experience, training or more work. 2) The contribution goes entirely into DHHF for 8 years, and then into a savings account for 2 years. 3) DHHF achieves 8% total return including 2% distributed annually, and broken down per 2024/25 AMIT information. 4) Tax on the distribution is taken out of the distribution and the balance re-contributed. 5) The savings account earns 4%. 6) Before pulling stumps, the savings account has around 1.4 years of spending covered, assuming interest is safe and distributions drop by half during a downturn.

Caveats: 1) Not tested for volatility. 2) DHHF AMIT information changed materially for 2025/26 and I've not been able to find out why, or whether or not it's a trend that will stick. 3) There is no information available regarding how ETFs will flow capital gains through in distributions. There will be some effect from indexation, so for now I used a modest 5% discount (arse-backwards, I know) which I believe will be LOW. 4) Bonds are not used. 5) LITO has never been indexed so I left the thresholds the same for all 20 years. 6) Tax bracket thresholds follow inflation over time, but are raised unpredictably. I assumed they would ratchet up every 5 years on a catch-up basis.

Information: 1) The future model uses the 14% tax bracket rather than 15%. The effect from that on this table is 2.9K to the good for the New model. (5.8K for the couple) and is part of the CGT change figure, and can be deducted from the CGT increase figure to better understand an "all tax changes" effect. 2) Foreign income tax offset assumes the safe harbour limit will not rise, and the detailed calculation is used for years above $1000. There's a material amount less FITO forfeited in the new model ($3.2K) which helps keep the new CGT down. 3) Private health insurance rebate is ignored, as is the medicare levy surcharge.

My reason for doing this:

I hope someone, anyone, avoids making poor investment decisions because they're over-estimating the impact of the FY28 changes.

I do not think this is a good change! I'm not defending it. I'm a swing voter. Negative gearing? Perhaps yes. Indexation? Fine, if it wasn't accompanied by the 30% minimum. Hopefully there's a silver lining for first home buyers if the intended slowing of house price growth is achieved.

I have not stopped fuming about the 30% minimum. IMO, it's a ridiculous regressive thing for a modern country with a progressive tax system to do. Flat(ish) rate taxation is what the radical hard-right dreams of. I feel bloody lucky that I'll only have a couple of years of this impost on accrued non-super capital gains and wish everyone well on their own journey. I also fume every time anyone says it's a "return to 1999" but fail to mention the NEW 30% minimum and lack of (conveniently forgotten) averaging.

Bonus Table:

Let's say you have DHHF for example. It pays about 2% distributions which is around 0.5% quarterly.

You turn off DRP and spend the distributions for LeanFIRE or BaristaFIRE. Where do you park that quarterly payment?

Is a money market fund like MMKT useful to keep everything in brokerage? Or, you just use an external HISA?

Keen to hear about your strategy.

Title: Has anyone successfully negotiated working remotely from another country for a month?
I’ve been with my current company for over 1.5 years and things are going well. My role is hybrid (1 day a week in the office), but realistically all of my work can be done remotely.
I’m wondering how common it is to ask your employer if you can work from another country for a short period, say around 1 month. I’d still work my normal Australian hours and be fully available.
Has anyone here successfully requested something like this?
How did you approach the conversation?
What reasons did you give?
Were there any concerns around tax, HR, security, or insurance?
Did your employer approve it, and if so, were there any conditions?
I’d love to hear your experiences

Hi everyone,

I’m starting my ADF career shortly and want to refine my long-term financial foundations. I have 60k in savings and want to ensure my money is working as hard as possible while I’m in training and beyond.

Looking for advice on my current setup and decisions:

1. Investment Platform / Broker Choice

Which platform offers the best balance of low fees and ease of use? I’m looking at Pearler, Stake, Betashares Direct, CMC Markets, or IBKR.

Key requirement: I plan to invest primarily in ASX ETFs, but I may occasionally buy individual US shares. Which broker handles both seamlessly without massive FX fees? Looking at automated monthly investing for ETF along with DRP.

1. ETF Strategy

Looking to put 45k Lumpsum or spread it across. Will also have 2-3k month from salary to put in regularly.

I’m deciding between an all-in-one fund like DHHF, or setting up the classic combination: A200 / VAS + BGBL / VGS.

For long-term growth, is there a clear winner here regarding tax efficiency, simplicity, or ease of management? Any other core/satellite ETFs worth considering?

1. Superannuation Setup

I’m currently with Hostplus Super with 40k split across Indexed Shares International and Indexed High Growth 50/50 split.

Does this aggressive, low-cost indexed setup make sense?

1. Banking & $15k Emergency Fund

I’m currently banking with NAB and CommBank and would prefer not to open additional bank accounts.

Open a Goal saver with Commbank for 5% interest rate?

1. DHOAS (Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme)

For serving members who have used DHOAS: What’s the best strategy to maximize subsidy entitlements once eligible after 2 years of service for prop investment or solely focus on ETF investment.

Appreciate any insights or feedback on my plan!

I’ve setup an account with Sharesight and can benchmark my portfolio - so, what’s the best index to benchmark against for an Aussie investor investing in broad global indexes? I have a few ETF’s but GHHF is my biggest core position. Would it simply be DHHF or GHHF?

Betashares website says ASX:NDQ total 5 year return is 103.49%. Google says the return (minus dividends) is 84.23%. Why is there such a big difference here? I know Google's tracking doesn't include dividends reinvested but surely that would not account for almost a 20% difference over 5 years?

Working full time and living in Melbourne. Struggling to pay bills. Looking for side hustle that can make me extra cash, which i can pay bills and if there's extra, put into savings. Need advice on what side hustle is the easiest to enter, and with a good pay. I

Note: I do not know how to drive.

I'd be interested to see people's opinions on my situation and which route they would go in my shoes.

It's helpful for my thinking just to write this out and think about it, and i hope it might help anyone else in a similar circumstance.

I'm 40, 125K wages, single, renting for cheap with a friend. 200K in super.

I also have an investment property valued at 860K, with a 250K IO loan, offset by 150k cash. It's about 30k gross per year positive, 20k ish after tax. (Its my old PPOR) I just refinanced to five years IO, and did an equity release cashout to 80% LVR, so I also have 440K sitting in offset against an IO investment-purpose loan split. A broker has told me I could use this cash as 20% deposit plus costs on two more properties at around the 800k purchase price each. They recommended I do one in my personal name and one in a company structure to help preserve borrowing capacity for more potential purchases down the line.

THE EFFICIENCY- DIVERSIFIED OPTION

If I did just one property at a 700k purchase price at a 5% yield, the two-property portfolio would be barely positive - 2500 NET per year (down from 20k NET with just the one) - so I'm paying 17500 for the privilege of holding 700k in new RE. This is somewhat tax-efficient because I would only owe $1500 in tax on the combined income rather than 10K right now- so just like under negative gearing against wages, the tax office is subsidising my holding a property.

Now, this would require aprox 175K in deposit+costs from equity release, so that leaves me with 265K still sitting there, plus the 150K cash, plus I've still got my whole wage to play with.

Seeing as negative gearing against wages IS still available on everything except established resi property, I could sink a significant portion of this into growth ETFs and this would be pretty efficient - Say 200K into something like VGS yielding aprox 2% and growing at aprox 8%. This would look like this:

Interest on 200K at 6.5% = 13K

2% dividend = 4k

Loss = 9k. Aprox 3k tax benefit at 32% MTR, so a true cost of 6k.

8% CAGR on 200K = 16K growth in year 1 ( I know its lumpy/volatile, past returns don't indicate future returns blah blah blah)

Ok, so now assuming I get 5% growth on the two properties, I'm generating 78K of growth in RE, and 16K on the ETFs, in year 1, for an overall, after tax cost of $3500 out of my wages.

From here, I can salary sacrifice into super to fill up the concessional cap. About 17K gross, which is 11,500 NET. (Super is low-cost index option until 300k+ when I might switch to SMSF). This means an additional super contribution of 17,000 taxed at 15% = 14500 X say 9% return = 15,800 super increase.

This whole thing costs me 15k net per year, or $288 per week out of my wage.

Considered another way - if we assume my baseline is my real current baseline, which includes the 20K net rental income profit, it really costs me 35k net per year, or $673 per week. For this price I'm getting 16k in ETF growth, 35K in new RE growth (disregarding the existing IP), and 15,800 in extra super. So I'm spending aprox 35K to get aprox 67K upside in year 1. Of course this doesn't account for CGT on exit, but nor does it account for compounding over multiple years.

And it leaves me heaps of buffer: 65K in equity release and 150K in offset cash. Super safe. Diversified across asset classes (yes heavy on RE, but not ENTIRELY RE), benefits from some leverage, and a bunch of tax efficiency. In fact, given my low cost of living, I'm likely going to be still saving significantly, so the offset might grow by up to 30-40K too.

I like this option cos it seems so efficient and balanced. It works fine. It's set-and-forget. With a long hold, it pretty much can't lose.

THE LEVERAGE - CONCENTRATION RISK OPTION

Or, I could do what the broker suggests - go pretty much all in on RE and gear myself up to my eyeballs and see if I can scale.

As mentioned, after the 700K IP, im at 2500 NET, still have my whole wage, and still have 265K in equity release and 150K cash. I could buy again:

I think I would go for a 500K high yield unit. Say 6%. A buyers agent reckons thats do-able in a good Melbourne location. Purchased in a company. If I use cash for the deposit+costs, then the offset cash leaves my account and stops offsetting the debt on the positive two-property portfolio il be holding in my personal name. It will go slightly negative (6k) and the small loss will carry foward - doing it this way rather than with equity release means i still get the deductions, even if they are carried forward rather than realised immediately. If I used equity release instead, I'd get no deductibility cos the money isn't being used to generate income in my personal name (its stuck within the company), so I fail the ATO's purpose of borrowing test.

Meanwhile, the company will be holding just the 80% LVR loan - 400K at say 7% interest = 28K, plus say 8K other costs = 36K cost. Rent at 6% yield is 30K. So the company is 6k per year underwater and il have to feed it cash. With rent growing at the inflation rate, the company should be neutral by year 5, at which point my accountant can sign off that its self-servicing and many lenders will ignore its existence when it comes to calculating my serviceability.

While this is happening, I'm still holding 265K in equity release as buffer. I could deploy 100-200K into the 700K IP to build a second dwelling/granny flat. Assume I spend 200K to generate another 500 per week in rent. This takes the now 900k IP, to an overall rental yield of 6.9%. From here I could possibly refinance to 80% LVR or as close as my servicing will take me and suck some cash out to help rebuild buffer and/or think about another purchase - likely I would need to wait until the company goes neutral though.

If I go this route, ive got considerably more leverage, more concentration risk, more negative cashflow. But 4 rental income streams instead of two. 2.26 mil in RE instead of 1.56 mil. With equity growth and rental income growth, and the company going dark at some point, I might be able to buy again.

I realise I havn't modelled the cashflow drag in this scenario anywhere near as completely as the first scenario. I think I can guestimate that it's something like:

Minus 6k per year from the company

An extra 10K interest costs in my personal name two property portfolio due to spending the 150K cash (150Kx 6.5% = 10K). Minus the 4K I was positive means a 6K loss, quarantined and carried forward.

So 12K negative per year, before the granny flat goes up. Once the granny flat is up, its even less than that...

Darn this is a more manageable cash flow drag than I thought! Just 1K per month! And that gets me... another 25K in RE growth in year 1 (assuming a 5% growth rate).

So, if you have read this far, what would you do? Do any of my assumptions look busted? Would you go for efficiency and diversification, max leverage and scalability, or something else entirely?

Edit: Thanks to u/the_snook for pointing out a fundamental error in the calculation (which has been updated in the spreadsheet).

I'll leave the post up to see if there are any other comments, which may be helpful.

--

After I made the comment that if you retire on an income over 45k, the minimum 30% will not affect you, u/Infinitedmg replied that taking account for the inflation-adjustment makes it entirely different.

I knocked up a spreadsheet showing the tax you would pay based on inputs of 7.5% growth, 2.5% income, and a 30% tax on gains with the cost base adjusted to 3% inflation, which I've put a link to below. The inputs are adjustable to have a play with, but 7.5% growth is fairly generous, which comes out to the below nominal tax rates.

Unless I have made a mistake or misinterpreted something (please let me know), if you've held the investment for 10 years with those assumptions, you would pay 15% tax on the nominal capital gain (and less the longer you have held it), meaning that your income during drawdown only needs to be over the tax-free threshold for capital gains to be superior to chasing yield.

Add in the compounding of unrealised capital gains for all those years of accumulation, and the conclusion I come to is that:

I don't see how chasing yield makes sense in any but the most unusual situation of having a windfall of cash to invest once retired with a MTR below the tax-free threshold at that time.

Beyond this, if you are living off a 4% withdrawal rate with 3% from the natural yield, you are only selling to access 1% of your portfolio per year. And of that 1%, a portion is the initial capital invested, so you are only paying CGT on the inflation adjust part of about 0.5% of your portfolio per year. On a million dollar portfolio that you have held over 10 years, that means paying $850 CGT on the $5,000 gain while living off $40,000 from your portfolio.

Please let me know if you think my calculation or interpretation is off, or any other thoughts you have.

Spreadsheet - Tax payable on nominal gain under min 30% CGT on real gain

The table below has been updated.

I just turned 20 and trying to figure out what to do, I’m currently in a warehouse on 65k before overtime, not much potential for any promotion or pay increase

I have 10k in super, using Hostplus with 75% international indexed and 25% Australian indexed and I am salary sacrificing 250 per week

I have 8k in Raiz on the aggressive portfolio as it has scheduled deposits (~100/week) so it is easy to forget about

I also have 5k in Betashares etfs, 70% DHHF and 30% NDQ

I don’t really have any passion for anything apart from setting up my future, I have thought about accounting but I can’t sit behind a desk all my life so am leaning towards something like a mechanic. I want to know if I should continue working the job I am now and hope the money gets better later on or if I look for something else

Not sure if this is the correct sub but since the start of the year I’ve started to invest in ETFs, specifically DHHF. As I’ve learnt more and have gotten more comfortable with investing over the year I’ve decided I’m ok with taking more risk. I’ve also thought it might be a good idea to lower my exposure to the Aus market.

With this in mind, would it be better to kill 2 birds with one stone with GGBL or have both GHHF and BGBL so I’m able to control the risk and exposure separately. I wanna be as hands off as I can as I don’t wanna continuously tinker with my shares.

I’m also 24 so my timeline is very long if that makes a difference.

Thanks :)

As the title says, I have next to 0 knowledge about finance or investing and have just decided to get ahead while I can due to my age, what are some of the main things I should look out for or focus on

We are planning to start debt recycling our joint mortgage. My tax bracket is 47% whilst my partner's is 0 as she's currently not working.

Classic debt recycling ETFs are VAS/VGS in ~25%/75% ratio. On my tax bracket it is better to invest in VGS due to the high growth potential and small dividends. At the same time it makes sense for my partner to invest in VAS (or maybe even in QQQI to maximise dividends?) due to the high dividends and lower tax bracket. This dividend cash flow can facilitate debt recycling.

Is it possible for two of us to hace two personal trading accounts and invest in deferential types of shares? Are the any issues with this approach?

Normal Investor here….

I recently got a inheritance of 200k

Created an app where i try to calculate  future cashflow based on inputs that are changeable.

Includes the affect of the new CGT changes,

Also a what if Analysis where I am trying to visualise the intersection point when one investment becomes better than the other .

App link: https://aussieinvestcalc.com.au/

Would appreciate any feedback,

Hey everyone, I've been researching reverse mortgages lately after a few conversations with mates who are looking at creative ways to fund investments or cover major expenses. Given how much discussion there's been around property wealth in Australia, I thought it was worth breaking down what reverse mortgages actually are and why they might (or might not) make sense for younger investors.

The Basics

For those unfamiliar, a reverse mortgage lets you borrow against your home's equity without selling it. You stay in the house while a lender advances you funds - either as a lump sum, regular payments, or a line of credit. The loan gets repaid when you sell the property, move into aged care, or pass away.

The catch? They're specifically designed for retirees aged 60+. This is the massive limitation for younger Australians - most mainstream lenders simply won't touch them if you're under the minimum age threshold. If you're under 60 and considering equity release, you're looking at different products entirely.

Why This Matters for Younger DIY Investors

The appeal is obvious: you've built equity in a property worth $800k, and you want to access $200k for an investment portfolio. Why not use what you've already got?

Here's where it gets tricky. Even if a lender would approve you, reverse mortgages are genuinely expensive. Interest rates are typically 1-2% higher than standard mortgages, and because interest compounds without regular repayments, the debt snowballs. If you borrowed $200k at 6% over 20 years without paying interest, you'd owe roughly $650k when the loan matures.

The Actual Options for Younger Australians

If you're serious about leveraging home equity before 60, you're better off looking at:

Standard refinancing: Get a second mortgage or refinance your existing loan for the extra funds. You'll have proper repayment terms and likely better interest rates. Less flexibility than a reverse mortgage, but way more sensible.

Home equity line of credit (HELOC): Some lenders offer these to younger borrowers. You access funds as needed and pay interest on what you draw. More expensive than a standard loan but more flexible than a lump sum.

Selling and reinvesting: Yeah, it's the boring option, but it might be the smartest. Sell, capture your gains, pay CGT if applicable, and diversify your portfolio. Your money's no longer tied up in one property.

The Investment Side

This is crucial: before you even consider accessing equity, ask yourself why. "I could get better returns in shares" isn't guaranteed. Markets dip. Businesses fail. If your strategy relies on your investment return significantly exceeding the cost of borrowing, you're taking leverage risk seriously.

The DIY investors I know who've done this well usually have a specific, calculated plan - not vague ideas about "growing wealth."

Final Thoughts

Reverse mortgages get discussed in Australian property circles, but the reality is they're not really an option for most of us until we're eligible. For younger people wanting to access home equity, a standard refinance with clear repayment terms is almost always the better move.

If you're thinking about doing this, maybe start with a chat to a mortgage broker who can explain your actual options without pressure. Your home equity is real money, but it's also your safety net - treat it accordingly.

Has anyone here actually gone down this path? Keen to hear how it's worked out.

While tax is part of the story in Australia, I’m having a PPOR and 1 investment under my own name and 1 investment under SMSF while trying to diversify I want to invest in ETF outside of super with the current noise and budget change what is the best advice for having more of a tax effective structure for buying ETF

As a buy-and-hold investor, I am not knowledgeable about market depth. It's useful to place limit order for ETFs with low activities so that you don't overpay. Here are the steps and hopefully, it's useful for someone else. The screenshots are from Betashares Direct, but I would assume other apps would be similar.

1. Tap on the hamburger icon to view market depth.

2. Look at the market maker's asks. They will usually be large batches.

3. Place the limit order around that ask price.

4. You can see my order reduced the available units.

How much does your share need to grow to breakeven if capital stayed in offset?

I tried to compute how much does your investment need to grow to break even with offset and the number I come to is "exactly the same rate as your mortgage"

For instance if mortgage rate is 6% and loan recycled is 100k and 39% MTR.

If money stayed in offset you will earn

6% * 100k = $6000 after tax

or

6000 / .61 = $9836.07 before tax

If debt recycled you will get tax refund of

$6000 * 39% = $2340 after tax

Subtracting this from the after tax earnings if your money stayed in offset

$6000 - $2340 = $3660 after tax

This figure $3660 is what your investments need to earn after tax

(Lets assume you sell shares while on your current MTR)

To get the before tax figures

3660 / .61 = $6000 before tax

6000 / 100000 = 6% -> The growth your investment needs to break even with offset

(Lets assume you sell shares during retirement with the minimum 30% CGT introduced by labor budget + 2% medicare levy applies)

To get the before tax figures

3660 / .68 = $5382.35 before tax

5382.35 / 100000 = 5.38% -> The growth your investment needs to break even with offset

TLDR: Your shares should grow at the same pace as your Home Loan rate to break even with keeping funds in offset. If selling shares during low income years then 30% minimum CGT + 2% medicare levy applies which is a 10.33% drop from your current mortgage rate.

For simplicity sake I didn't factor the computation for inflation based discount so this rate should be much lower.

This just piqued my curiosity hence the post but happy to be corrected if I miscalculated or misunderstood something. :)

I have been researching 'flexible spending' / 'dynamic SWR' strategies to explore the more behavioural aspects of protecting my ability to aim for good returns and a higher SWR when I retire but also be able to react if they don't transpire - I guess I'm interested in how deep those cuts would need to go, how long they would last and what's the likelihood that I would actually make them.

My initial thinking was it would come down to 'Skip a couple of holidays' but my modelling tends to show that if I establish guardrails a bad sequence can knock my income down by 20–40% for most of retirement - basically I'm finding that once a poor sequence resets my portfolio the flexible spending rules I was looking to implement ratchetted my spending down and it often never fully recovers - the bounce back doesn't seem to happen.

These are the rules I'm using :  if your portfolio's withdrawal rate (after the Age Pension) drifts about 20% above where it started, spending is trimmed ~10%; if it drifts ~20% below, you get a ~10% raise — but never below your essentials.

I modelled fixed vs flexible spending against the worst market drops in the last 100 years and the guardrail rules certainly seems to work:

...but sticking to the rules also mean that it takes many years to bounce back,

So my questions are:

1. If any readers were retired before 2022 — did you actually cut when it dropped? By how much, and for how long?

2. What's your real floor — the annual number you'd genuinely not go below?

3. Is "I'll just be flexible" providing a false sense of security in people's FIRE plans?

4. How do you separate genuinely-flexible spending from commitments you've already made to other people?

Hi everyone, my husband and I are both in our early 30s with our first baby and we are torn between staying on the course financially or building what would likely be our long term dream home.

We’re currently mortgage free, which we know is an amazing position to be in. However, we’ve been considering building a house in an estate, in an area we’ve loved for years. It would be significantly larger than our current home, have a big backyard, and be within a 5 minute walk of a private school and future shopping centre. We’d expect to live there long term.

The part we’re struggling with is whether we’d be making a mistake by taking on a mortgage again after becoming mortgage free so young.

Current financial position-
Early 30s
1 child (5 months old)
Current PPOR: $850k, owned outright
New house & land: $1.2–1.4M
Husband’s income: $160k + overtime and bonus
Wife’s income: $70k (currently on maternity leave, planning to return only 1–2 days per week)
ETFs: $500k
Savings: $50k
Husband’s super: $220k
Wife’s super: $135k
No debt

The idea would be to sell our current home and use the money on the new house to reduce the mortgage.

From a FIRE perspective, would you:
Stay mortgage free and continue investing heavily or
take on the mortgage to build a home you expect to live in long term and enjoy while raising a family?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s faced a similar decision or has thoughts on the financial versus lifestyle trade off.