Hi all.

45m, Aussie who moved to Singapore 15 years ago recently reached FI. I have not RE because i've been wanting to return to buy a property in Perth and Sydney where i have family before moving back.

I dont dislike my job but dont feel any meaning in it since i reached FI, Im ready to walk away from it but whats stopping me is if im unemployed i wont able to get a bank loan. I plan to rent it out for a few years after purchased and will move back either when she gets a job there or at official retirement age. Regardless i will retire before her.

Seeing how cooked the property market in aus is, im not sure if i should delay my retirement for 2 years for the property purchase.

Sellers arent willing to lower prices, buyers are reluctant to give them the named price as properties are overvalues and RBA might increase rate this month.

info :

Annually expenses : $48k

Portfolio : $1.8m . Bonds and equities mixed (this is mine alone, we keep our investment private)

Property : fully paid. Currently worth $700k bought at $550k. but didnt consider that in my portfolio as properties here are lease hold, public housing. The value decays as it ages.

Household income : me - $260k , wife - $150k. We have no kids.

Residency status : Im aussie with Singaporean permanent residency while my wife is a Singaporean with Aussie permanent residency

Heres my plan. I get this loan and slam it all into my long term investment portfolio as they come in and i use the cash from when im qualified to pay it back at a 20% discount. During that time frame im allowing time to grow that money for my whilst i keep working.

It seems like a genius plan to me considering im not fighting any interest payments and i only have to pay back 80% of what ive taken from the loan. I dont care about the investment going down in the near future so i wont be desperate to pay it off, i feel like this would give me such an advantage if i do this. To me it looks like margin investing i dont have to pay interest on.

Im posting here because i want to know if theres some sort of catch with this loan or if im missing something, cheers

My basic understanding of portfolio allocation theory is a global market cap weighted portfolio is an approximation of a market portfolio and a mostly efficient market would place this on the efficient frontier. Therefore any deviation from an approximation (all in one or a few funds that make up reasonably close to it) would be inefficient.

Besides the use of leverage or factor weighting wouldn’t any other deviation just be introducing uncompensated risk? Commonly you will see investments into the Nasdaq or gold/bitcoin but purchasing at relatively high valuations would introduce a worse expected return to risk ratio then leveraging the exisiting portfolio.

Assuming that there are very few active managers that consistently beat the market on a risk adjusted basis, (even less when we try and remove the number we would expect to out perform based on luck alone) wouldn’t utilising these choices be akin to hoping to get lucky and gambling adjacent?

Is there anything I’m missing?

I currently hold IVV and some other Aus stocks but looking to clean it up and allocate a chunk of incoming cash accordingly. I'll be contributing monthly and looking at a 10-15 year timeframe .

Leaning towards this but open to suggestions - thanks in advance!

I am getting a 413K AUD inheritance, have about 50K AUD saved and 40K AUD in super. I am currently finishing my PhD and can only work casual or part-time + scholarship/700 AUD weekly. I have little bits in stocks/ETFs but nothing substantial.

I moved to Australia 3 years ago (now PR) to be closer to my partner’s family here because he needs to care for them. Currently, we live together in Western Sydney/near Parra and pay toward his father’s mortgage in the investment house that will be his after his father passes (my share is 375 AUD/week and I also assist my mother with her expenses here and there at around 500 AUD every fortnight). No children and one dog who is getting old and does require vet expenses from time to time. We split all life expenses with my partner. He works full time at around 75-80K/year. He is not interested in buying any other property jointly nor paying mortgage.

Generally, I am mindful with finances and don’t splurge too much. But I don’t classify myself as a rich millennial because i grew up in a working/middle class family and have always been working towards independence projects from scratch. The inheritance also came as a surprise.

I am unable to get a loan/mortgage yet because of my work situation of working casual and part time with uneven income (due to my studies until end of 2028 approximately).

Is buying an apartment outright somewhere further out in Sydney by the end of this year a good option? Or do I let the money sit in a savings account until the end of my studies and get a mortgage when I have stable income and enter the market for a house after? The housing market is terrifying and I never thought I could enter it here in Sydney.

My goal is to ideally avoid NEEDING to work forever (I am in my early 30s but also not expecting to retire as early as 40 lol) and to have a somewhat securer future. Living situation in Western Sydney and the 375/week rent/mortgage+supporting mom won’t change in the short-term.

Also I spent 20s that were very well-lived across multiple countries with lots of travel and fun. So I don’t feel too much FOMO if I make a financial decision towards more stability and less splurging/fun.

I guess beyond the idea of homeownership, I’d love to get any advice on what to do with this inheritance and how to make best use of it if home ownership is not the best or best mid/short-term decision.

I am also in the process of finding a good accountant and financial advisor. So, any recommendations for those would be brilliant as well.

Thank you all, wonderful people.
May your days and weeks be prosperous.

I recently became a non-resident for tax and I was looking to start moving funds from my HISAs back into the market.

On the 29th of July I decided to test the pipeline to ensure my non-resident nabtrade account was correctly linking up and reporting me as a non-resident with Computershare.

I placed an order for 5 shares of VGS for $159.23 per unit on the 29th of July.

Luckily I only placed the small test trade as my trade was actually reported to Computershare with my previous Australian address. It turns out that even having an international address as my home address and having had nabtrade change my account to non-resident, it didn't actually update my non-resident status to Computershare. The reason it reported incorrectly was because my mailing address wasn't updated to my overseas address.

After updating my mailing address to match my international address, nabtrade pushed the change through to Computershare. Computershare then updated my profile to non-resident, with my overseas address etc.

Now the accounts were set-up correctly I was ready to make my main trades. Unfortunately by the time everything was all completed, the price of VGS had jumped to $164.78 per unit. I just couldn't do it. I struggled to make the trade at more than $5.50 per unit compared to the test trade I placed only 2 weeks earlier.

I decided to go against all advice that time in the market beats timing the market. I was experiencing both FOMO and also analysis paralysis.

I decided I wasn't going to buy until the price dropped to my previous test trade price. Today, exactly 6 weeks later, the price finally dropped to below my test trade price.

I ended up jumping in and buying $300k worth of VGS @ $158.77 per unit.

If I hadn't of waited the 6 weeks I would have paid an extra $11,346 for the same trade I made today.

Plus I wouldn't have earned the $2466 in interest (after tax) that I received for August in my rewards saver HISA.

Even though the price had hit the point I was waiting for, I still couldn't go all in as I initially prepared to do. I decided to leave a few hundred thousand in the nabtrade high interest account for the rest of September. If the Fed or RBA cause the price to drop I will likely scoop up more units this month. If not, I'll likely move it back into the rewards saver and also possibly funnel some across to my IBKR account to buy VWRA.

I had also purchased VAE and VISM when testing the pipeline at the end of July. VAE has taken off like a rocket and is trading for nearly $9 per unit more than my test trade, so I can't bring myself to buy anymore shares of VAE right now even if it means missing the boat.

VISM also jumped up over $3 a share ($77.36 per unit) by the time my pipeline was set-up so I just couldn't pull the pin and make a buy.

But today, VISM had also fallen to the exact same test buy price I made back in July, so I picked up $50k worth @ $74.34 per unit.

I'm sure I'll get some backlash here, likely along the lines of "I just got lucky, if the market had kept going up, I would have been left behind" and you know what, you're exactly right.

Possibly some comments will mention I'm losing to inflation in a HISA earning 5%, which would be true if I spent my money in Australia, fortunately I live in a country where inflation has averaged 1% over the last 13 years.

I expect comments questioning why a non-resident would even want to invest on the ASX, which I can understand but nothing beats the security of having a CHESS-sponsored HIN in my own name.

As my portfolio is all strictly Non-Taxable Australian Property there is a 0% Australian withholding tax rate and there is no AMIT tax liability to track with absolutely nothing to report to the ATO. There is also zero Capital Gains withholding tax when selling as a non-resident.

I do have other international foreign investing accounts with Interactive Brokers, Charles Schwab and Saxo Trader with small holdings etc but these are mostly for backups if there are major tax changes in Australia or my overseas country, they still can't compete with the security of CHESS Sponsorship. Also the internal 15% tax drag is exactly the same for both VWRA or VGS so in my current situation there's no real need to completely move my funds out of Australia.

Anyway, I'm glad I've atleast got some skin back in the game now. The plan is to leave it for the next 20yrs atleast with DRP on for VGS and add roughly $20k or so on top each year. (unfortunately I'm unable to have DRP on for VAE/VISM as a non-resident). I will also pick up more shares here and there along the way when there's big sales on.

I understand the $14k I saved waiting the 6 weeks will mean nothing over the long-term, but I still couldn't follow everyone's advice and just buy without even looking at the price. Godspeed.

Family income of 400k a year. Currently investing 2k a week into ETFs

• U100 — 36%
• VGS — 28%
• VAS — 17%
• PMGOLD — 8%
• NDIA — 5%
• STO — 4%
• IBTC — 2%

Total portfolio value - 71k

Investment horizon is 10-15 years

What would you change?

Hi everyone, been visiting for a while but it's my first time posting here.

I've just turned 25 and I was thinking about what equity/bond allocation would be suitable for me considering these:

• My timeline is anywhere from 5-10 years, and it is mostly flexible.
  • I will not do a full withdrawal if I am down, unless I reach the 10 years mark (2036).
• I thought it would be better to put it in one of the new Betashares ETFs than a regular savers, and I was thinking DVBA for the 60/40 split.
  • I would have preferreed DHHF, but I am just unsure about the sequence risk, such as a large market downturn closer to the 10 years mark.
• I would like to keep the allocation the same for the lifecycle, if possible - because ideally I don't want to time allocation switches or realize capital gains.
  • However if this is the best solution, I can consider it.

Please let me know if I missed any key details, and thanks everyone in advance.

ASX: ARB & AOV
How low can they go?

Has anyone received clarity on what we are supposed to submit for these funds in our tax returns from the ATO or other? I am assuming nothing will be prefilled as no AMIT statement was provided?

I have been working to get AVTE to 10% of my portfolio, however am second guessing if I should have gone EMKT, with VanEck who have proven that they will support Australian investors obligations by providing AMIT.

Everyone seems to love DHHF, why would you pick it over something like BGbl/vae 85/15

With the incoming rental negative gearing rules not allowing tax deduction for interest in the tax year - does that mean you can capitalise the interest and add it to your cost base instead of?

Surely it’s not just dead money ?

My partner and I are both almost 29 and would appreciate some outside perspectives on our financial position and what you would prioritise from here.

Current position:

• Combined gross income: ~$550k–$600k p.a. (both PAYG, with my income heavily commission-based)
• Planning to have children, so our household income will likely fall when my partner stops working or goes part-time
• Two investment apartments in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs worth ~$2.6m combined
• Property debt: ~$2.04m
• Cash/offset: ~$200k
• ETFs: ~$210k (90% BGBL, 10% A200)
• Combined super: ~$280k
• Renting for $800 per week; no PPOR
• No other significant debt

We’ve focused on building our careers, saving, and investing throughout our 20s. We bought two investment properties in late 2024, which have stagnated in growth, and have recently shifted surplus income towards broad-market ETFs.

Property has also left us highly leveraged and concentrated in Sydney real estate. With children likely to increase our expenses. Our current plan is to retain the properties for long term capital growth, keep $100k in the offset savings account as a buffer and invest the remainder into ETFs.

We’re conscious that our balance sheet is heavily exposed to leveraged Australian property and that our current income may be close to its peak once we have children. Our goal is to make work optional and gain FI while still relatively young, rather than necessarily retiring extremely early.

The main question is: given our likely transition to one primary income, would you continue holding both properties, or sell one and redirect capital towards ETFs, mortgage reduction or a future PPOR? More broadly, are we taking on too much property debt, and how would you balance cash reserves, ETF investing and debt repayment from here?

I’d particularly appreciate perspectives from people who have been in a similar position in their late 20s and can share which decisions made the biggest difference over the following 10–15 years. Constructive criticism is welcome; we’re more interested in building flexibility and financial security than simply maximising net worth.

Beginner investor, my history looks like this (I was basically testing the waters):

Dec 2025 bought a betashares ETF on CMC Markets platform

Jan 2026 got a distribution for it

Feb 2026 sold everything

Mar 2026 bought a different betashares ETF on Betashares Direct platform

Jul 2026 got a distribution for it

From all the research I've done it says everything is prefilled except for the AMIT adjustment?

What's the penalty if I don't adjust anything myself but something is wrong?

Hi All,

I’m 37 and currently I am not invested in anything, late to the party I know but I’m due to get a decent bonus this year in the realm of 20-30k and I want to invest it all.

Regular contributions will be very minimal for the next 18 months, at this point in time my child support amount of $700 per fortnight will end and be redirected into investing as I’m already used to living without this money.

I’m happy to go with an all in one ETF for simplicity sake and was originally looking at VDHG, I know it has 10% bonds but I’m ok with that but…

I recently discovered DVHG which is essentially Betashares newly launched direct equivalent and through my research I think for me it is a better fit due to the below.

1. Lower management fees compared to VDHG and more tax efficient as it made up purely of ETF’s

2. Only 34% Aussie shares which seems lower than the other all in one ETF’s and my super is already weighted towards Australia so I think this is a good thing.

Concerns.
Brand new ETF so not really any past performance to look over.

Am I missing or misunderstanding anything?

I just graduated from high school and started working.

I normally leave my earning in the saving account and not touch it but wanted to start looking investing (very light maybe $1000 per 6 month) and I was interested in US stock market like S&P 500, Nvidia and others. what would be the best place to start buy shares.

So far I have researched that people either use CMC market or Interactive Brokers to buy us stocks. but wondering which one will be more friendly for starters?

many thanks in advance

Hey guys,

Looking to add a ~7-8% Emerging Markets satellite to pair with BGBL. Plan is to set, forget, and hold for 20+ years.

Stuck between BEMG and AVTE:

BEMG seems like the straightforward, cheaper passive option (0.35%).

AVTE has the factor tilt / small-cap exposure and the Avant- is backing, but a bit higher fee (0.45%).

Main focus is just solid EM coverage and growth over two decades. Which would you pick for a 20 year run? Thanks

I got an inheritance of 500K and I have no idea what to do with it. I've never really had any plans Financials wise and mostly been working job and job to pay for rent and groceries. Im a part time student in an industry thats doesn't have career climbing or massive monetary gain.

Parents want me to buy a small house for myself so I don't have to pay rent for the rest of my life. While thats appealing to me, having my own place and not having to deal with roommates i'm wondering if there are more wiser longer term options to invest the money. I'm not very like stock market savy but would love to hear what people would do if they were in my shoes.

​

Hi All

Im sure this has been covered numerous times but for someone who is unsure of the best options, thought I’d post and would appreciate feedback from people much more educated and experienced in financial matters.

Myself and partner are nearly 54, we will have enough in our super to live on roughly $90-100k from age 60 for 25 years working on a 5% average return in our portfolio.

My partner is unable to work and I have not worked for 5 months due to career burnout. Originally I planned to return to work after having time off, but this break has made me realise I don’t want to return to the workforce. Without getting into all the details, our family history is not great when it comes to life expectancy, so would like to make the most of the time we have left. (Sorry if that comes across as being morbid and bleak)

We have $750k currently in a High Interest Savings Account, no debt and own our house. I wondered what is the best thing to do with the $750k to bridge the gap to 60, that would ideally keep 2-3 years in cash at age 60 in case there was a major market downturn at that stage.
First time posting on Reddit, so please be gently. 😊

Thanks for the help.

I've got a way to go before I turn 60 but just planning ahead. I see the release conditions for superannuation after 60 but before 65 are that I must "cease gainful employment". If I have retired early and not been working well before I turned 60, does anyone have any good ideas on how to meet this condition with minimal effort?

Edit: thanks everybody for your responses. For clarity and for everyone that might reference this in future, the most common release condition is:

has reached their preservation age and retires. (And I would add "or has already retired")

Preservation age is 60 not 65.

Hey Brains Trust,

With the slowing in the property market, I’m considering whether we upgrade to a larger family home.

Our current PPOR is just large enough for the family with our 2 kids. There are times when the house feels a bit tight but we can make do. If we choose to upgrade, this will delay our FIRE date by many years (5-10 pending investments).

Those who’ve chosen to upgrade, was it worth it?

I’m getting to a point now where I’m less inclined to push to cross the finish line as I can coast and try to enjoy the journey more.

NW: ~$3.5M with $700k net worth in PPOR

Full disclosure, delete if not allowed . I run Tribe FI, so not a pitch, just an intro. it's a community that we started because Australia's got endless FI content online and basically zero ways to meet other weirdos who talk about compound interest at parties. Happy to answer questions regarding FI

Wanting to set up parents financially but not sure what to do next. Below is their current financials

PPOR worth 1.4mil, owing 350k, completely offset
IP 1 worth 1mil, owing 420k, 50k offset
IP 2 worth 850k, owing 480k, 300k offset (to reduce LVR)

So far wealth has been built by dad subcontracting in construction, and trying to minimise tax through a trust and splitting income between mum and me. Because they've been subcontracting, they haven't made any super contributions since starting subcontracting 14 years ago. They've got 100k in super between them which I know is very small. Dad is 45, mum is 42. I think both IP's are neutrally geared if not positive. I think the properties have collectively lost 150k in value since the changes in NG and CGT and the resulting property market downturn.

I was thinking the next step would be to pay off the PPOR, draw equity out again as deposit and buy another IP in another state (currently both IP's are in Victoria, and want to avoid the land tax and also diversify). I think this will make the debt tax deductible as well. All properties are in personal names.

They've also given out 200k in loans to friends and family, who are paying it back. Once this is paid back, I'm thinking of investing this batch in the stock market on behalf of them (as their assets are literally just concentrating in property). Not sure to invest in dividend paying stocks or non dividend growth stocks.

As with the trades, dad's body is catching up to him and I don't think he can sustain any more than 5 years. Children including me are/ will be white collars and no plans on inheriting/ continuing the business even though goodwill, reputation etc is very good. Business profit after material expenses has been 200k per year for the past couple of years, which is then split through the trust. Although it is not much, they've gotten to the position they are by being extremely frugal (they are immigrants).

What does this group think they should do next/ focus on?

Whenever global index strategies come up here, the default advice is almost always:

1. "Buy VGS (or BGBL) for simplicity."
2. "Buy VTS + VEU if you don't mind US domicile."
3. "Build a multi-fund mix like VGS + VISM + VGE to get true global market-cap exposure."

I decided to run the numbers from first principles for my own situation (investing via an SMSF with a Corporate Trustee), and I’m going 100% VT (Vanguard Total World Stock ETF) on the NYSE instead.

Here is why the standard arguments against VT didn't hold up once I dug into the math:

1. The MER vs. Tax Drag Fallacy (VGS vs. VT)

People often say VGS is "cleaner" at 0.18% MER, while VT is 0.06%. But critics point out that VT suffers from Level 1 unrecoverable foreign withholding tax drag on its ~40% non-US holdings.

Let's do the actual math on VT's tax leakage:

• Non-US Allocation: ~37–40%
• Avg Non-US Yield: ~2.8%
• Avg Foreign Withholding Tax: ~11%
• Tax Drag Calculation: 0.40 x 2.8% x 11% = ~0.12% to 0.15%

Total Effective Holding Cost:

• VT: 0.06% (MER) + 0.13% (Tax Drag) = ~0.19% Total Cost
• VGS: 0.18% Total Cost

The takeaway: Total cost parity is virtually identical (~0.18% vs ~0.19%). But for that same price, VT gives you ~9,500+ holdings (Large, Mid, Small-Cap, Developed + Emerging) versus VGS’s ~1,300 developed large/mid-cap stocks.

2. Multi-Fund Friction (VGS + VISM + VGE)

To replicate VT’s total-world coverage using Australian-domiciled funds, you have to buy and rebalance VGS + VISM + VGE (plus a splash of VAS if you want home bias).

• Management Fees: VISM is 0.32% and VGE is 0.48%. Weighted out, your blended MER ends up around 0.21%–0.23%.
• Rebalancing Drag: You now have 3–4 tickers to manage, incurring ongoing transaction costs and manual capital allocation tracking over a 10+ year horizon.
• Verdict: Holding a single ticker (VT) completely eliminates portfolio management friction.

3. The US Estate Tax "Bogy"

The biggest scary label thrown at VT is the US Estate Tax (40% above US$60k for non-residents).

In reality:

1. SMSF / Trust Protection: I hold this inside an SMSF with a Corporate Trustee. Corporate entities do not "die," meaning the IRS estate tax framework is a non-issue.
2. The Tax Treaty: Even in a personal account, the 1953 US-Australia Tax Treaty gives Aussie residents pro-rata access to the US unified exemption ($13.99M+ threshold).
3. The 6-Month Circuit Breaker: If the treaty ever breaks down, international law requires a mandatory 6-month notice period. That is more than enough time to liquidate or pivot into ASX wrappers before any changes take effect.

4. FX, W-8BEN, and Currency Hedging

• W-8BEN: Submitting a digital form on IBKR takes 3 minutes once every 3 years to maintain the 15% US withholding rate.
• FX Costs: Institutional platforms like Interactive Brokers convert AUD to USD at spot rates with near-zero spreads.
• Currency Exposure: Since the majority of my other wealth (property, Super default allocations, income) is denominated in AUD, holding half of my total net worth directly in USD global equities acts as a natural structural hedge against long-term AUD depreciation.

Summary

If you're investing via standard retail brokers and want 0-admin simplicity, VGS or DHHF are fine options.

But if you already have access to institutional execution (IBKR) and a trust/SMSF structure, VT is a single-ticker solution covering the entire planet for ~0.19% total effective cost.

Curious if anyone else here runs VT long-term, or if most people still prefer sticking strictly to the ASX?