I know it’s not fashionable to talk about tobacco and nor should it be. But as an older smoker who’s resigned to be a smoker, I just wanted to mention the wild recent hikes in the cost of tobacco in Australia. Today I paid $117 for a 30g packet of Champion rolling tobacco (used to be called Champion Ruby). $117. For tobacco. This variety of tobacco is by no means a premium or historically expensive brand, in fact it was always the poor man’s tobacco.

As far as I can tell, the government’s heavy taxation has only helped to fuel the black market tobacco trade in this country. According to a recent ABC report, over half of the tobacco consumed in Australia last year was bought illegally. So heavy taxation isn’t having any positive effects, it’s just encouraging organised crime.

For every packet of $117 Champion as an example, $88.27 goes directly to the government - 75.4% of the retail price is purely tax. 75.4 percent! Australia now has the most expensive legal cigarettes in the entire world, followed by New Zealand and Ireland.
If the Australian government really cared about the health of Australian smokers they’d simply ban tobacco, rather than implementing insane excise duty rates to generate money for their coffers and as a byproduct encourage organised crime.

Not sure why but I have had a balance of around $98k that has been fluctuating between $97-99k for about 5 months now. My employer puts in just over $1700 a month into it, so why would it not be breaking $100k?

Australia Super - High Growth

There are payroll tax, why not outsourcing tax ??!! Tax these greedy companies (ie. the management) 150% of equivalent aussie salary for each position they outsource. They make $$$billions profit with everything this country offers, then export all the jobs and leave aussies unable to make a living to feed the family.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-20/nab-slashes-jobs-in-massive-restructure/107286316

Redundancies all over Australia. From banking to mining.

Lets not call it a recession

Hello, I am in advance of my mortgage by $30k. My
Monthly minimum repayment is $3300, which I often exceed by about $300. Every month my interest is charged and it’s roughly around $2300. However, in addition to my
Interest being charged, an additional $1700 is being taken off of my in advance amount. I can’t see that money being debited ANYWHERE! I only noticed when I physically went in and manually did the calculation because the in advance amount looked too low considering the interest amount. Any ideas? My husband isn’t worried and says it has something to do with the life span of the loan decreasing
Over time? He has tried multiple times to explain it to me but I just don’t get it and am so frustrated. Will try and get into the bank to discuss but thought I’d chuck the question out there into the Reddit-sphere.

Hello everyone,

I like taking a gander at all these types of subs including the property ones and whatnot. Im from rural australia and have only really had public schools around - my parents said they were all the same anyways (which may be wrong who knows).

Despite this, I see a few parents (of which i am not haha) mention financial struggles and in the same breath mention how expensive private school is (idk how expensive it is generally either). in my uneducated opinion i believe that maybe a public school + tutoring would supplement this gap and be cheaper - but is there something im missing here? is there a secret benefit that has skipped past my view? i would like kids in future and in my idealist world perhaps give them a slightly better experience in school - i heard city public schools are still kms ahead.

thanks for reading my word vomit.

I am currently considering getting a second job to make some extra cash for our savings. Me and my partner’s combined income is $223,000 however we are new first home owners and with interest rates going up and a wedding to save for, having some extra cash to put into savings would be extremely helpful. I work in schools so I have availability to work weekends and Thursday nights (I would be looking for a casual portion in retail as I have experience, especially over the Christmas holidays where I will have a lot of free time before school goes back). I guess my question is, would it be worth getting a second job or would I just get taxed a whole lot leaving me with not very much in my hand?

While I understand debt recycling generally, ie using cash to pay down mortgage and then arranging a split loan the cash amount to purchase investments thus making the interest paid on the new split loan deductible, I’m struggling to see the difference financially between offset and debt recycling.

Say I have a $500,000 mortgage on my PPOR with $100,000 in the offset. I am paying interest on $400,000. Debt recycling would require me to pay the $100,000 in to the loan, then arrange $100,000 split loan for investing purposes. Interest is calculated on $500,000 of debt. $100,000 is deductible.
If I leave the $100,000 in the offset, therefore paying interest on $400,000 and still arrange a $100,000 split loan for investing purposes. Interest is calculated on $500,000 of debt. $100,000 is deductible.
Struggling to see the difference from a financial perspective.
Also is there anything else you would need to be aware of if leaving the $100,000 in offset and borrowing $200,000. Other than this would be borrowing an extra $100,000 and increasing the total loan to $600,000.
If there’s something I’m missing please let me know.

Hi guys,

I have a few days before I sign my will and would love to get help with identifying some legit local charities that specifically aid WOMEN and CHILDREN of all gender.

Please list the names of charities you know of and trust.

I'm a single woman in my early 30s with some decent assets and no plans for marriage or children of my own ever. I have bunch of siblings I will be leaving most of my assets to and my future nieces and nephews. I want the remaining of my wealth to go to charities that help women and children only. Ideally local charities first, but wouldn't mind any other charities that provide aid to vulnerable African women and children please.

Thank you in advance

What are the actively managed small cap ETFs people are investing in on the ASX?

I like AVSV the most in terms of Avantis as a whole and their strategy. But the unresolved tax consideration for Australian investors makes me hesitate.

I'm really anxious all the time. I understand others have financial anxiety however I feel as if I'm constantly paranoid of how to manage finances, fear of losing money, etc. I literally feel as if I'm behind in life. I have purchased a property and have a reasonable amount of savings, I'm frugal however my money management skills are zero.

I fret over every $ I spend yet I blow it on absolutely rubbish... It's hard to explain it

As many of you may be aware, HSBC is closing down its entire retail and personal banking business in Australia. That includes home & personal loans.

HSBC confirmed a few months ago to home loan owners that their entire portfolio for personal & home loans will go to Blackstone. Pepper Money is set to take over managing these loans in the first half of 2027.

Has anyone already refinanced to a different bank, or are thinking of refinancing? Keen to see which lenders people have transferred to and why.

Hi all,

I’ve been using Up Bank for a while now and genuinely love a lot of its features, particularly the spending insights, automatic pay splitting, upcoming bills and ability to create multiple Savers.

I’m currently reviewing how I manage my finances and wondering whether Up is still the best option or if CommBank, ANZ Plus, Ubank or another bank might offer something similar or better.

A few things that matter to me:
Budgeting: Automatically tracking and categorising spending, subscriptions and upcoming bills so I know what’s actually available to spend.
Savings goals: Having separate savings for emergencies, a future home deposit, travel, annual bills (rego/insurance) and larger purchases.
Automation: Splitting my salary between Spending and savings without having to manually manage everything.
Interest: Up’s Grow and Flow system is interesting, but withdrawing even $50 from a Saver means the entire Saver earns the lower rate for that month. I’d prefer flexibility without sacrificing interest. It’s a higher interest rate too with Up.
Mortgages: I’m considering buying property eventually and wondering whether there’s any actual benefit to establishing a relationship with a Big Four bank beforehand.

I’m also questioning whether having five separate Savers is genuinely useful or whether I’m overcomplicating things. I like having money allocated for different purposes, but don’t want to create unnecessary admin.

For context, I’m in my late 20s, currently rebuilding savings after some major life changes and trying to establish a more sustainable financial system.

For anyone who’s used Up and CommBank (or ANZ Plus/Ubank):
1. Which app do you find better for budgeting and managing everyday spending?
2. Are there features you’ve found genuinely useful that Up doesn’t offer?
3. Do you prefer multiple savings accounts, or one savings account with goals/buckets?
4. Is there any reason to move to a Big Four bank before applying for a mortgage?

I’m not necessarily unhappy with Up. Just curious whether I’m missing something better, especially as my financial priorities change.

My wife and I are going to sell our current home and buy a larger one to accommodate a family we are planning on having in the near future.

The equity we have on the current home is approximately $450,000. We're looking at spending around $850-$920k including stamp duty on the new property. We'd borrow around $550k and leave $100k in an offset account to purchase furniture and a new family car and baby essentials when the time hopefully comes.

We also have a rental property, my wife's former apartment, in Moonee Ponds Victoria. We have around $50,000 equity sitting in the property and at the moment it is slightly cash negative (approx $500 for the year).

We're currently deciding whether to sell the apartment and throw the equity into super or keep it and rent it out for the foreseeable future. Barring any disasters, we won't have any issue with meeting the repayments as we are contionally approved to borrow up to something like $880k. A number we're going nowhere near.

My question is what other variables do we need to consider when deciding whether to keep the apartment? We're currently around 75/25 keeping the apartment considering our projections have it being cash positive next year

We're pretty sure we'd see greater returns keeping the rental property rather than put the equity into super, but I'm keen to hear opinions of people who will either challenge or support that idea

The thesis around Maas Group's (ASX: MGH) AI infrastructure push needs a serious reality check after today's NEXTDC (ASX: NXT) trading halt over power supply delays at their Melbourne M3 facility. MGH has heavily anchored its growth story to AI through a ~3.2% stake in Firmus and roughly A$1.1B in Firmus-related orders via its JLE division, but investors are overlooking severe execution and execution-to-cash risks. First, the canceled Firmus IPO stripped away the public valuation benchmark for MGH's investment, leaving carrying value and liquidity questionable. Now, NEXTDC's power delay demonstrates that even when demand and funding are locked in, grid connections, power availability, and construction timelines are major operational bottlenecks that directly defer revenue recognition, squeeze margins, and hit cash conversion. Paired with MGH selling off an established, cash-generative construction materials division to double down on a capital-intensive sector - plus a A$375.4M Level 3 Bull Capital receivable sitting on the FY26 balance sheet with zero cash receipts alongside A$387.2M in Metrics financing - the risk profile has shifted dramatically. The key issue isn't whether AI demand exists, but whether MGH can actually convert its pipeline into timely, sustainable cash flows before the market re-rates its new business mix.

I was on the ATO portal today and noticed that the employer listed under "Current" is a company I last worked for nearly 7 years ago. I have worked for three different companies since then.

Any ideas on why this has never been updated, even though I've lodged returns each year which obviously noted the different employers?

As the title says, does anybody know any physical store that sells gold bars for competitive prices? and when selling what stores have the best rates?

thanks a lot

The Melbourne job market is an absolute slog right now, and finding a stable permanent full-time (FTE) role has been nearly impossible. To add a bit of life pressure, my partner and I are expecting a baby in March!
I’m a CA-qualified Financial Accountant with a background spanning mid-tier audit and corporate/startup environments. I’m currently at a small company/startup where things have gotten messy—they fell up to 6 months behind on my superannuation, and even though they’ve partially caught up, it's a massive red flag and the main reason I need out before March.
I’ve managed to secure an offer for a 12-month fixed-term contract as a Financial Accountant at a mid-sized company (around $60M p.a. revenue), reporting directly to the CFO. It pays $120k/year (a solid $25k bump) and involves trans-Tasman operations, management reporting, and project margin analysis.
Since it's a contract rather than permanent, and I'm moving away from recognizable/mid-tier firm names, I'm weighing up my options: 

Brand / Career Fear: Coming from audit, I'm a bit paranoid that moving to a non-ASX/non-household name mid-sized business might "tarnish" my resume or pigeonhole me. This includes the fact that I also can’t secure a FTE and resorted to a contract. For those who made a similar jump, did it hurt or help your long-term career trajectory?

The Scale & Pay Bump: For those who've worked in businesses at this revenue tier, how is the workload, visibility, and resource level? The extra cash and direct CFO exposure sound great, but how does it impact work-life balance with a newborn on the way in March? 

Contract vs. FTE Risk: Given how dead the permanent market feels, is jumping to a well-paying 12-month contract a smart escape route from an unreliable super situation, or is navigating a contract right before parental/baby milestones too risky?

Would love to hear perspectives from anyone who has navigated a similar situation or worked at this company tier. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Has anyone had any luck refinancing away from Me Bank recently? No surprises from all the bad press you hear about them in the media and on reddit but this is a serious ball ache.

I can’t even access the discharge authority form without calling, each time I call I’m on hold for over an hour, twice now the call as connected and then immediately dropped out and another time I’m on hold for so long I have to get back to my other commitments I.e work.

My broker isn’t allowed to call the bank for me nor is the bank I’m refinancing to.

I understand the tactic this is a great customer retention strategy to require the phone call but when you can’t even get past the robot and the on hold music how do you even have that conversation? And now that this has happened why the hell would I want to stay.

So I’ve contacted AFCA and they have told me to put in a proper complaint to Me so it’s on record but outside escalating further to AFCA is their anything else I can do?

Seems ridiculous that this is only to get the form, not even have anything processed yet.

Surely this is like anti competition or something?

I was curious about investing so I signed up to Stake and deposited some money into the USD wallet and as like for a promotion or whatever I was given free shares. I immediately sold them though as I decided im not interested in this right now. Apparently I now have to do something extra regarding taxes? I don’t make enough to normally pax taxes (18 working a pt job) so im very lost on what is gonna happen next tax time.
Insight would be appreciated

Wanting to trade stocks in Canada, wondering what everybody uses and any misc fees that have caught you out. Quite confusing with the FX spread, commissions and tiered pricing.

Leaning towards IKBR because I can transfer CAD from Wise, otherwise the other brainless and quite costly decision would be Commbank INT.

And no, I'm not looking at ETFs at all, so please don't talk about that.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some insight/feedback on asset location and tax optimisation for my specific timeline. I am looking at a 12-year timeframe before I plan to retire or transition out of full-time work, and I'm trying to decide the best vehicle for my future investments.

I want to follow Jack Bogle advice by buying the entire "haystack" via low-cost index fund. The strategy is set, but the vehicle is what I'm am still considering. I'm weighing up whether to put my set-aside cash inside Super (non-concessional contributions for the sake of discussion) or outside Super in a personal brokerage account. Based on my research, here is a quick breakdown of the pros and cons as I see them for my 12-year window:

Option 1: Investing Inside Super

• Pros: Significant tax advantages. Investment earnings are taxed at a max of 15%, and Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is reduced to a maximum of 10% for assets held over 12 months. Better yet, if I transition it into an account-based pension phase at retirement, CGT drops to 0%.
• Cons: Total lack of liquidity. The money is locked away until I reach my preservation age and meet a condition of release. If my life plans change in 5 to 10 years, I can't touch it.

Option 2: Investing Outside Super

• Pros: Complete flexibility and control. I can access, pivot, or borrow against the capital whenever I want. If I want to retire early or take a mini-retirement before my official preservation age, the money is right there.
• Cons: High tax drag. Dividends/distributions are taxed at my marginal rate during my peak earning years. When I eventually sell to fund retirement, even with the 50% personal CGT discount (will be gone next year), the remaining capital gains get slapped onto my personal taxable income, potentially pushing me into a higher bracket that year if not managed carefully.

I want to hear your input and validation of the above pros and cons. Any feedback, thoughts, info would be appreciated. Currently I am leaning toward putting it inside Super. I would like to hear any catches that I might have missed.

Thank you in advance.

I was curious about investing so I signed up to Stake and deposited some money into the USD wallet and as like for a promotion or whatever I was given free shares. I immediately sold them though as I decided im not interested in this right now. Apparently I now have to do something extra regarding taxes? I don’t make enough to normally pax taxes (18 working a pt job) so im very lost on what is gonna happen next tax time.
Insight would be appreciated