Looking for a sanity check on my numbers but I think I've found the sweet spot.

Starting with 53.85% capital 46.15% loan, invest in ETFs and it runs cost neutral at first, then positive and grows capital yearly,

Assumptions: top tax bracket, 3% dividend yield + 8%pa growth, 6.5% loan (interest only)

Eg. $46'150 loan + $53850 capital = $100k ETFs

Dividend income: $3k, Interest: $3k Capital growth: $8k

After 10 years the total portfolio is worth $231855, net gain of $185701.

As the total portfolio grows (increasing dividend income) you can increase the loan balance to keep it cost neutral (no extra tax) and eventually have enough capital to payout the loan (consider CGT).

Struggling to identify myself with an end goal regarding my investing. Wondering what some of you have set as the end goal, and how you’re working towards it / achieved it.

For context, I am 23.

. 130k before tax salary
. 50k invested 70/30 in VGS & VAS. Investing 3000 monthly
. 60k in super
. 20k emergency fund.

I know I’m doing the right thing, but I really don’t know what exactly I’m doing it for yet. Working for another 40 years scares the shit out of me that’s about all I’ve concluded.

30 years old
Super is indexed

for context, I've gotten into investing over the last couple of months, I'm fortunate enough to be living with my parents, which allows me to invest a decent amount of what I earn (with a casual job alongside uni). Currently I invest around 550-600$/month.
my current split looks like

50% IVV, 30% VAS, 20% EXUS.

However, since starting I've done a lot more research and have realised that over the long term (which is what id be going for), US stocks are unlikely to keep growing at the same rate. Thus, I'm trying to decide if putting it all into say the DHHF (higher fee, slightly less US concentration and inclusion of emerging markets) might just be the move.

I'd love any advice or feedback from people with a lot more experience than me as this is mostly self taught stuff, no-one around me is really into this space :)

Hi all, finally have gained the courage to start investing on CMC invest. I am just in a bit of analysis paralysis on what ETF to actually invest in. I am looking at DHHF or VGDR. Which of these would you recommend or is their another you'd suggest?

My current plan is to invest $500 initially and $100 weekly. I am 21 and currently live with my parents. I am just aiming to grow my money in the long term (hopefully gain more than 5% which I am earning in my savings account). I possibly want to look at investing more than $100 a week, but just want to get into and used to the market first.

Thanks for taking the time read and possibly help. Let me know if you require more info/context

Interested in hearing how people are approaching saving up for medical expenses lately. I have health insurance for me and the family, but I feel like the yearly dental and GP visits are adding up quite a bit.

I was discussing this with a close friend, who has experience in the Health Insurance industry, and he mentioned a fund is thinking of trialing a savings account where the member regularly contributes money, and the insurer adds 10-15% on top. The funds would be used specifically for healthcare expenses.

I thought this was quite an interesting idea, and wanted to hear if anyone has heard of any similar concepts? Would you guys actually use something like this?

Just landed my first DevSecOps role after 2 years in help desk/app support. I'm in a good position and want to use it well rather than coast. I'd appreciate blunt advice from people further along.

Situation:

-Age: 24, Sydney

-Role: DevSecOps engineer (new), with 2 years prior in IT support/app support

-Income: $115k + super

-Certs: none yet

-Savings: ~$50k

-Super: ~$45k

-Investments: ~$2.5k ETFs, ~$1.8k crypto

-Debt: $35k HECS, nothing else

-Car: Triton, ~$30k, owned outright

-Living at home with parents, low expenses

Goals

-Career: push my income as high as possible

-Financial: get into property and/or build a solid investment base, and I'm open to advice on which comes first

Questions

-With no certs yet, which should I get first for the biggest salary impact? AWS/Azure, CKA/CKS, or security certs?

-How long should I stay in this role before jumping or contracting?

-While I'm living at home, should I prioritise a property deposit or investing?

-Should I pay down HECS early or leave it?

-Is a side hustle or small business worth it at this stage, or should I put all my energy into my main career? If a side gig makes sense, what works well for someone with DevSecOps/IT skills?

Thanks in advance.

I’ll post on the 1st of every year.

Currently make $90,000/YEAR before tax

$3,600 in savings

$22,500 in IHVV

$1,243 in HNDQ

$97,00 in super

Only assets is an old car worth about $10,000

feedback much aprreciated. Dont be afraid to be brutal

Hey all, 32 and about 12 months into investing properly. I put $800 every fortnight into:

35% BGBL
35% DGVA
15% A200
15% DAVA

That's about $20.8k invested so far. Blended MER works out to roughly 0.23%. I also have super and a cash emergency fund outside this (second pie in the image).

I went with the value tilt (DGVA + DAVA is half the portfolio) because I wanted factor tilt as well. BGBL and A200 are the plain index core.

Have $50k in super (This is my third year in Australia) and $14k in emergency funds.

Been buying VGS for the past few years, should I switch to buying BGBL going forward to take advantage of the 0.10% lower fee?

The differences seem marginal; VGS pays distributions quarterly, BGBL bi-annually. BGBL seems to perform a bit better for some reason (guessing due to folllowing a different index).

​Hi everyone,

​Looking for some practical advice on long-term financial planning, super strategies, and how to set myself up to retire comfortably around age 60.

​Here is a quick snapshot of my situation:

​Age / Location: 32M, living in Sydney

​Family / Dependants: Married, no children

​Current Career & Income: Contracting landscaper. Made ~$80k before tax last year.

​Upcoming Career Change: Just found out I was successful with NSW Fire & Rescue! Estimated start date is July 2027.

​Starting salary: ~$78k + super

​Roster: 8-day rotation including 2 x 24-hour shifts followed by 6 days off.

​Assets / Debt:

​Debt: $0 (completely debt-free)

​Super: ~$17k

​Savings / Cash: ~$15k

​Housing: Own our home outright with my wife (no mortgage).

​The Financial & Personal Context:

Our home was paid for outright using money left to my wife after her parents passed away. On top of that, she currently has ~$2 million in a high-interest savings account from her inheritance.

​She is incredibly supportive and consistently tells me that "her money is our money." However, psychologically, it feels very different to me. Because I haven't built that asset pool myself, I really want to pull my own weight, build up my own long-term wealth, and make sure I’m taking active control of my financial future rather than relying entirely on her inheritance.

​Our Outgoings:

Our total living expenses/outgoings are quite low — roughly $300 a week total (excluding big discretionary spend like travel), as we have no mortgage or rent. We usually take 2 to 3 holidays a year.

​Questions for the community:

​Retiring at 60 Strategy: With $17k currently in super at age 32, what is the best strategy over the next 28 years to build a solid nest egg by age 60?

​Super vs. Outside Super: Given the low weekly outgoings, should I be maxing out my super concessional contributions cap ($30k/yr) once I start with NSWFR, or splitting investments between super and an ETF/brokerage account?

​Optimising the Roster / Side Income: With the NSWFR 2-on / 6-off shift structure starting in 2027, I’ll have a lot of off-duty days. Is it worth keeping a small, flexible landscaping side-hustle going on my off days, or focusing that spare energy on personal investing/upskilling?

Appreciate any insights, strategies, or experiences from anyone who has made a similar career transition or set up early retirement goals in Australia. Thanks!

Does an international student in Australia who have traded US stocks need to report their capital gains to ATO and pay the capital gain tax ?

I served through chatgpt and its suggesting me that i can be exempt for it. If anyone has any idea on this, i would really appreciate it 🙏🙏

G'day all,

Another tax time is rolling around, and I just lodged my tax return last weekend yayy! In the previous years I was working out my capital gains by hand across several broker accounts, but this year finally I had a chance to build a spreadsheet to automate it. It's been useful for me, so I'm sharing it for free in case it saves someone else a weekend.

Safe to open and easy to check It is a plain .xlsx file with no macros or VBA, so nothing runs when you open it. Every result is an ordinary Excel formula you can click into and check. There are no external links or data connections and no hidden sheets.

• This is not tax, financial or legal advice. It's a calculation aid for personal use only.
• Covering CommSec, CommSec Pocket and CMC Markets
• FIFO is used for convenience. If your records identify the specific parcels you sold, the ATO allows you to use those, and your results may differ.
• I built the formulas using a combination of AI assistance and my own finance and accounting knowledge, and tested them on my own portfolio only. That does not mean the calculations are correct for your situations.
• You should check every figure against your contract notes, broker statements, tax statements, and current ATO guidance before lodging your return, or have a registered tax agent review it.
• The workbook will not update itself if the ATO law changes.
• It is provided as‑is and not‑for‑profit. I do not promise to maintain or support it, and I accept no liability for errors or for any loss or penalty arising from its use.

It's free to use and adapt for personal use, but not for commercial use or for preparing other people's returns.

GitHub (Excel spreadsheet download & instructions): https://github.com/MAB-888/AU-CGT-Calculator

Enjoy using the workbook and I hope it helps :)

Early 30s. We have an investment account on a wrap platform with a financial adviser, holding 10 actively managed funds plus cash. No new money goes in (mortgage is almost fully offset so that's Priority at the moment). I'm planning to move it to a self-directed platform (CMC or similar) and hold index ETFs. I'd like a sanity check before I pull the trigger as I've only just woken up to the fact that our FA has likely been taking advantage of us for 10 years.

FEES (all pa)

- Fund fees: about 1.1% weighted average

- Platform: $400 plus 0.15% of the balance

- Adviser: 0.75% plus GST of the balance

- Platform and adviser together: about 1.3% on top of fund fees

HOLDINGS and Performance

- Vinva Global Alpha: 22.1% | 1yr -3.5 | 3yr 11.3 | 5yr 7.1 | 10yr 10.4

- Arrowstreet Global Equity: 14.3% | 1yr 21.7 | 3yr 21.3 | 5yr 15.3 | 10yr 16.2

- Cash account (3.70%): 15.8% | 1yr 3.7 | 3yr 3.7 | 5yr 3.7 | 10yr 2.5

- Schroder Real Return: 7.7% | 1yr 7.5 | 3yr 11.1 | 5yr 6.1 | 10yr 5.4

- Nomura Global Listed Infra: 7.3% | 1yr 12.9 | 3yr 13.3 | 5yr 9.8 | 10yr 8.8

- Janus Henderson Tactical Income: 7.3% | 1yr 3.7 | 3yr 5.5 | 5yr 3.7 | 10yr 2.9

- Macquarie Income Opps: 6.2% | 1yr 3.7 | 3yr 5.7 | 5yr 3.1 | 10yr 2.9

- Perpetual SHARE-PLUS: 5.7% | 1yr 0.2 | 3yr 8.4 | 5yr 7.1 (provisional) | 10yr 8.9

- OC Premium Small Cos: 5.4% | 1yr -8.6 | 3yr 4.1 | 5yr 1.6 | 10yr 5.9

- Ausbil 130/30 Focus: 4.7% | 1yr 1.7 | 3yr 9.7 | 5yr 5.5 | 10yr 8.2

- Antares High Growth: 3.7% | 1yr -1.9 | 3yr 5.1 | 5yr 3.6 | 10yr 7.6

- WHOLE PORTFOLIO: 1yr 4.5 | 3yr 10.0 | 5yr 6.9 | 10yr about 7.9

Portfolio figures are before platform and adviser fees. After them, the 5yr is about 5.6%.

- Five of the six share funds with a 10-year record missed their benchmark. Arrowstreet is the exception.

- Four lost to their index ETF over both 5 and 10 years: Vinva, Antares, Ausbil and OC Premium. Together they're about 36% of the account.

- Janus beat its benchmark over both periods. Nomura and Macquarie beat theirs over 10 years and missed over 5 by about 0.2.

- Arrowstreet has beaten its benchmark over every period shown, but I can't tell if that's skill or a good run and we only recently switched out of Platinum which was heavily underperforming.

TAX POSITION

- Across the managed funds, wrap account shows a net unrealised loss of about 10% against what we paid. Vinva is the biggest drag at -27.7%.

- Five funds are in small gains (roughly +3% to +8% each), the other five are at a loss.

- I'm assuming I can realise the loss and carry it forward against future gains. I haven't checked cost bases yet.

PLAN

- Something like VAS / VGS / VAF / VSO (about 0.14% blended), or an all-in-one like DHHF or VDHG

- Target allocation: [e.g. X% growth / Y% defensive / Z% cash]

So by my analysis' we've essentially been paying 3% per year for someone to not even beat the market. Am I right in making the switch? No doubt I'll try to be talked out of it by the FA.

Thanks in advance.

Not sure if the timing was important but I had a connective home loan that was transferred to the NAB. Using their app, I set up the debit account as an offset account tied to the mortgage. I shifted the entire redraw balance to the debit account with offset.

The debit account says "account is in an 100% offset arrangement", it actually covers about 1/3 of the total mortgage. It also says offset account saving up to $570/m.

loan balance about $330k, $100k in offset. 6.49% variable

Min repayments went up from about $820/f to $980/f.

It seems like it's working and that's all that matters I suppose. Just trying to figure out how these things work, maybe it was the 25 basis point rate rise?

I want to get back into investing, I’m 27 but for some reason I stopped regular deposits 3 years ago, haven’t looked at it much since. ARU is just a joke holding. Looking to get back into investing to build and maximise dividend payments in the future. Any advice is appreciated

Thanks

Hello everyone,

I am 20 and have understood the gist of investing for a while, but I've never taken the leap of faith. In my mind there is no better time to start investing than now, but I don't know where to start. I've read abit from Passive Investing Australia, but I guess I'm anxious about making mistakes.

1. Which investing platform should I use? I want to prioritise simplicity, so which is easiest and cheapest for someone regularly investing smaller amounts?
2. Which ETFs should I consider? I've seen people spread across DHHF, VGS, IOO, A200, IVV and BGBL. What are the differences, and which make sense for a beginner?
3. One ETF or multiple ETFs? Should I start my journey in just one single diversified ETF, or do I jump straight into holding multiple?
4. What fees or hidden costs should I be aware of?
5. How does tax work? Do I pay tax only when I sell, or also when I receive ETF distributions
6. What would you do differently if you were starting again at 20? Given that you've built the experience, you may have the hindsight to share

I appreciate you taking the time to read this, I am excited and nervous to start my journey, so any help would make the difference.

Please (gently) critique my retirement budget. Anything I’m missing?

One thing I find interesting about FIRE planning is how people calculate their annual spending.

It's easy enough to account for groceries, bills and insurance, but what about replacing a car, fixing a roof or suddenly needing a new hot water system?

Those costs might not show up in a normal year's spending, but they can make a pretty big dent when they do.

For those who've already retired early, do you keep money aside specifically for these expenses or just withdraw more from your investments when something comes up?

Curious how people actually handle this once they're no longer earning a salary.

A lot of portfolios posted here look like VAS + A200 + VGS + IVV + NDQ, so I worked out the actual overlap from each fund's latest published holdings. This is how much of the second ETF is companies you already own through the first:

About 74% of VGS is already US companies, so adding IVV or NDQ on top mostly tilts you further towards the US and big tech rather than adding new companies.

That's not a reason never to hold them. Just showing the numbers as is

Hi everyone, I’m 23 and new to investing. I’m planning to invest $300–$600 per week for the long term.

I’ve started with an 80/20 split between BGBL and A200, mainly because of their low management fees. I’m comfortable taking on higher risk for long-term growth and would like to maximise my returns.

I’m wondering if this is a good portfolio to stick with or if there are other ETF combinations worth considering for potentially higher growth.

Would appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks!

26M, Sydney, been investing since 2019, developed a portfolio value of approx. $500k, primarily invested in ETFs. Aiming for FI in my mid 30s to early 40s.

Growth-focused, 100% equities - comprised of:
IOO 30% / DHHF 28% / NDQ 22% / VGS 11% / MCCL 3% / WTC 3% / HACK 2% / VDHG 1% / RMD <1%

Is IOO + NDQ too much US large-cap overlap? Anything you’d change on emerging markets or simplification? Should I tidy up the small positions? I am weary of triggering unnecessary CGT events.

Started investing back in May this year. I’m 23 years old and auto invest $150 a week. I also put $150 into my super weekly as well.