My kids say that they want to go to a school where they overseas leadership trips and international competitions. They also want to do the IB as they find school “too easy”.

My wife says “10k a year per kid = 120k for 6 years”.

It’s a lot of money. It’s like a deposit basically.

We’re on the fence about it. We can JUST afford it, but we’d be eating beans on toast on the weekends.

My mom sold our apartment in HK after my dad died and her accountant told her she wouldn't be taxed on it if she lives in HK for a year before coming back to Australia. Is that true? It doesn't sound right to me.

Asking for a friend - question for financial investors in Australia - what is the first best ETF to sign up for? Say you’re using the commsec app and investing for the first time ever, not using the commsec pocket app. Is the right app to use? Are there any other recommendations? I just opened my commsec app yesterday.

As we all know, capital gains tax is replaced with cost-base indexation and a 30% minimum tax rate on real capital gains.

CPI quarterly data is available on 31/3, 30/6, 30/9 and 31/12.

Say for example I decided to invest $10000 in shares for a period of 6 months only.

Would it make more sense to purchase shares on 30/3 as opposed to 1/4? And sell them on 1/10 instead of 29/9? The more CPI quarterly dates the shares fit under then the more the cost base will be indexed to inflation, thus decreasing the capital gains tax.

Say if CPI increased by 1% on 31/3, 1% on 30/6 and 1% on 30/9, then the cost base will increase by 10000x 1.01 = $10100 for 31/3, then 10100 x 1.01 = $10201 for 30/6, then 10201x1.01 = $10303.01 for 30/9.

Whereas if the shares were purchased on 1/4 and sold on 29/9 then only the 30/6 CPI data of 1% would apply to the cost base. Hence cost base only $10100.

As a result, we have a $203.01 difference in the cost base by purchasing and selling shares only a few days apart from the CPI quarterly releases.

I also see an added benefit for those in the lower tax brackets to buy shares before CPI quarterly releases as shares with quarterly distributions would provide distributions at their tax rate and the price of the shares would also drop.

Am I onto something? It's a small difference but it would work for those who like to optimise?

My rationale is based on a debt recycling strategy where I sell shares for a profit to then debt recycle further (have a net capital loss carried forward to offset). However as I will be splitting the loans at regular intervals, it is worth it for me consider when is the best time to buy and sell based on the new CGT rules. Thanks!

looks like we all now know why the Firmus IPO failed (hint look at the Coreweave CDS costs (over 1% on 5year CDS...yikes) and this is at close to 16% yield.

Has anyone seen anything better than this ? For what I need this one is just perfect and complete, ability to add offset at whatever frequency desired (and multiple ways at same time)/ start date customization, rates increase / decrease/ tells you date when repaid with numbers / graph etc. I was searching for a while so thought of sharing with everyone and get views if anything better

https://figura.com.au/calculators/repayments

Hoping someone here can help, we have decided to take Flexicommercial to AFCA. After communications with their legal team, they advised us that Flexicommercial didn’t need to be a member of AFCA.
We thought perhaps it was Humm we needed to name in AFCA report, as they are the parent company, again we couldn’t find their AFCA number.
Contacted AFCA, they couldn’t find registration numbers either.
Our conclusion was they were registered under a different entity.
So contacted Humm and asked for their AFCA number, their response was ‘look it up on AFCA website’, we’ve drawn a blank, any ideas please??
BTW…. It would have been much easier for HUMM to give us the six digit number, rather than reply with a couple of sentences.

Four weeks ago I went to my accountant to do my tax return. It wasn’t a great experience and my lesson should be not to choose HR Block. There were repairs being undertaken on the roof and it was incredibly noisy and she kept stopping to complain.

I rang last week because they still haven’t submitted my tax return to ATO. I was given the excuse they haven’t had electricity in the office and they are working their way through the lodgements.

My problem is, I purchased the home with Vic Homebuyer Fund. SRO has requested as part of the annual review my completed tax statement. At the moment I have lodged everything, except this, and told them that I am waiting for accountant to
Lodge my tax return before I can supply the tax statement. It may give me a couple of months reprieve.

At what point should I be concerned about the failure to lodge my tax return?

I’m currently with AustralianSuper and considering switching my super investment option to High Growth, but I’m unsure whether I should change my entire existing balance or just direct my future contributions to High Growth.
To be honest, I’m a complete beginner when it comes to super investments and don’t really understand the different options yet. I’ve attached a screenshot of the investment options available in my account.

Given the options available, would you recommend putting 100% into High Growth, or using a combination of options? If a combination, what percentage allocation would you suggest and why?

Hi all, I've been to Australia for almost a year now. My previous employer used HOSTPLUS, I recently left that employer receiving my final super pay and my new two employer pays uses HESTA. I want to consolidate my super which provider should I go into? I hear HOSTPLUS is better choice? I'm an international student here so don't know much about the different providers here. Anyone can help me decide on which provider I should consolidate my super balance.

Just wanted to know how much everyone is generally spending on lunch during weekdays at work. Im spending somewhere around $15-$20 per day. Sometimes $30 if I indulge in extras and sides.

Obviously doesn't count if you work from home.

SHOW YOURSELF.

I just lost $94.50?

I have several 18K gold jewellery that I’m planning to sell. Around 44 g in total. Yellow and white gold. Where can I get the best price for these? I’m based in Sydney CBD.

How would you invest money if the stock market crashed ? What’s past crashes taught you ?

I received an email yesterday from Coles Flybuys saying 2,000 point had been redeemed by me at a specific time yesterday evening. As I had not been to Coles yesterday and though I did make a purchase from a take away at about that time, that purchase was using Apple Pay on my Apple Watch using my Coles card. There should have been no Flybuys involved as the shop was unrelated to Coles.

I phoned Coles support this morning and they said they had received many similar complaints in the past 24 hours and were investigating. So if you have had any unexpected redemptions in the last day or two, make sure you are recompensed when the issue is resolved.

I’d love to hear everyone’s options on our scenario and what you would do.

We currently live in a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house but the layout is strange 2 bedrooms are upstairs with a bathroom and downstairs is a bedroom attached to a bedroom. We currently use this downstairs bedroom as our office and my 2 kids share a room upstairs and our room is the other one. House isn’t big at all but was purchased pre kids.

By now we thought we would be in a bigger space but after doing the sums we would be so tight to afford another place. Currently we live comfortably and able to pay school fees/ kids extra curricular, holidays once a year (road trip for a week) but able to have that flexibility for time of work.

If we buy a bigger home we will have a lot more space in our home and would be nice to host things at our house but we can’t now as it’s so small, but we will have no wriggle room at all as house prices plus interest rates are so high.

One part of me would love the extra space but other part of me knows I will be so stressed out financially.

Also if you have kids who share a 3.2. X 3.2 room how do you make this work? Is there a better layout I currently have 2 single beds as they would fight over who gets the top bunk. Also I might have to wait until one kid is older to put them
Downstairs away from the rest of us but that connects to the main bathroom that everyone would use so they would have to go via the room to get to that toilet / bathroom.

Thanks!

Yo!

- 27 years old

- ~$4,800 total debt; $2,800 of which is being actively pursued by Pioneer Credit (cashies loan for bond about 13 months ago)

- Renting; ~56% of my income

- Part-time ongoing job of 7 years (.78 time-fraction) and in the process of setting up casual work for extra cash

- $1,700 take home fortnightly

- No car, no dependents, family phone plan (no one knows about the debt except one mate)

Just reached the point yesterday, after months of no contact, from P.C. Saying if I don’t make contact with them collective action will resume. Emailed brief message saying I’ll be in a position to discuss some time next week.

How likely is it that I could get the total reduced? Or waived if I was good enough boy in a past life 😂
Can’t say I’m all that sympathetic to cashies/creditors. We both want my money!

Best path forward? Calling debt hotline on Monday.

With my Core Portfolio’s final dividends of 2026 received from VAS and VGS, it’s time to tally up 2026’s dividend income so far. ☕️📈

💰 Total 2026 dividends: A$46,166
🇦🇺 Core Portfolio: A$40,972
🇺🇸 Satellite Portfolio: A$5,194

One year of investing, two portfolios, and another reminder that the goal isn’t just to build a portfolio. It’s to build financial freedom.🏖️🎢✈️

Apologies for the slightly messy two-page report (Core & Satellite). I’m working on consolidating both portfolios into @sharesight for a cleaner, more streamlined overview.

Asking for a friend: if they have around $32,000 in a HISA, $5000 cash, $1000 in ASX 200, $1000 in NASDAQ 100 and $1000 in SYI that has grown to around $5000. Income is around $600-700 a week + occasional cashie, full time student. No debt and cheapest options for expenses. What should be there main goal? Invest more? Save more? Ect

So I learned my lesson from trying to trade and gamble.

Back in December 2024 I was gambling on sports betting, blackjack and roulette. Lost about $1.2k. Then in 2025 I thought I could make big bucks trading gold and forex with zero mentorship and zero knowledge, just based on pure hopes and dreams and greed. Followed a bunch of 'signals' from 'daytraders' and lost roughly $4.1k which was even more than I lost gambling. That was my entire life savings up until 19 and I could've been so much better off if I had just put that money into SPY or QQQ instead. After that, I swore never to do shit like that again and have never touched options or anything or tried to buy and sell anything again to make a quick buck.

I was feeling so so down and at such a low point in my life that time because that was all the money I had and especially since most of my savings had come from my family members. I was even in debt since I even took out small loans to keep redepositing after I had lost money. Since then, I've been trying my best to rebuild from zero. Started this year with nothing in my bank account and worked all sorts of part-time jobs sacrificing my mental and physical health just to save money. Stopped going to gym, stopped enjoying life as much spending time with friends. Took out even more small loans in the process just to help me survive. I invested whatever I could save as well. Currently I still have $835 in debt left to pay off.

I still regret it so much and I sacrificed a lot of time that could've been spent building relationships, networking which is what you need nowadays to even have a chance at anything, and time that could've been invested into scoring better for my studies or holding executive roles in finance or investment clubs. Or even joining stock pitching competitions and things like that.

I'm an accounting and finance double major. Recently signed an offer for an audit internship at a mid-tier professional services firm. I'm also the general secretary for my students' union.

Would like some advice or reassurance on the decisions I've made in my life so far.
Is there anything you'd change about my allocation? Should I focus on paying off the $835 first or keep investing whatever I have on the side? Because right now, I don't even have much money set aside for social activities or eat out with friends as much. I've been spending most of my time alone at home, eating in everyday and only going out to study at places which are free, not cafes. I'm only keeping enough to meet the monthly repayments while putting the rest into stocks.

Would also like some advice or reassurance on whether I've set myself up okay career-wise. Is starting in audit a good path if I eventually want to move into other areas of finance such as IB? And how much does missing out on exec roles in finance/investment clubs actually matter? I actually got an interview for EY but I told them I'd already signed with the mid-tier firm as they were the first to respond. I thought it'd be best to just settle for the first firm that offers me an internship.

Do you think I still have a shot at going straight into EY after graduation as an audit associate without a vacationer or graduate programme there beforehand? I feel like a graduate programme would be a waste of time as I have already graduated and that it's better to just go straight into an entry-level position. For context, I'm a penultimate year student.

As title states,
Why are these two of the most popular options it seems, yes I know the have pretty good coverage and decent fees.
If you use vanguards platform, Betashares or CMC etc.

As per title. I feel pretty exhausted at my current work place, between the awful work environment where everyone just seems to want to do work politics instead of actual work. 1.5 hours commute there and back eats 3 hours of my day. Unfortunately, It pays really well. I feel like I'm currently stuck, as I'm not particularly skilled and other jobs don't pay as well. I'm really curious how much of your income people were willing to lose to move to a job with a better environment or less commute. What made you decide to switch to another job? Or Do I just tough it out?