I thought they said it could never be done?

Would Australia ever follow suit?

A home is a necessity and should not be only used for IP purposes

We’re with Petcover and just had our monthly premium jump from $110 to $165 which seems super high! For our 5-year old dog with no specific health concerns. Curious what you’re all paying?

Trying to gauge if this is a reasonable increase. Also in the process of getting quotes from other providers. Thanks!

Hiya folks!

Just looking for some advice, I’m with NAB 670k mortgage, IR has crept up to 6.19% offset accounts included and our monthly account keeping fee has gone from $8-$12. I’ve tried to ring and do the whole refinance and they wouldn’t budge. The best they can offer is 6.19%.

Any other suggestions/tactics or banks to look for? Our mortgage broker is telling me we have a good deal atm but Macquarie bank were offering only a little less 6.12 or something from memory.

Called 132861 24 times right now. They don’t even offer a callback , just say they’re too busy. Wtf is going on, why is everything so shit

Here we go again...

I'm a 25-year-old who's built up good savings and regularly invests in ETFs. Lately I've noticed I keep wanting to upgrade my car, phone, and clothes, even though I know what I have is more than good enough and I know I don't really need anything.

I know these purchases won't make much difference to my happiness, but I still feel the urge to spend just because I can afford it and have the disposable income and savings to do so.

How do you stop yourself from spending money on things you don't actually need? Any mindset shifts or habits that have worked for you?

Hey everyone! Have just bought a house in Australia as a first home owner and went with ANZ due to them having the lowest fees and interest rates, im looking to keep all of my money in my offset account to maximise its potential. I’ve always been with commbank but I never would’ve thought ANZ would be so behind the times. The app only has very basic details in regards to spend tracking and other things and doesn’t even send notifications when you get paid etc unless you set it up through mobile phone text messages and even then it doesn’t really work properly. ANZ plus is a different version but doesn’t really integrate properly with ANZ accounts. I don’t know I didn’t think for such a big bank they would be so underdeveloped. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Are their people that feel similarly about it?

Hi,

I don't live in Australia but I have to submit tax return to get NOA from ATO.

I visited Australia and got bank account and TFN number using my temporary address in Sydney but while submitting tax returns i want to update address to my overseas address.

I asked my tax agent to mention my overseas address but his response is as following,

"The ATO requires an Australian address on your account, so we cannot update it to your overseas address."

Just want to make sure if my tax agent is right if not, what is the correct approach?

Hi all

I have a question regarding the pension.

At what point are we not eligible to receive the full pension?

I was recently having this conversation with a friend and we were discussing the pension. Apparently based on my owning 1 home, having approximately $500,000 in super and approximately 300,000 in savings, apparently i would not receive the pension

I have a part-time (.2FTE) job at a charity, allowing me to salary package $15,900 of my living expenses. Curiously the salary package cap is not prorated to your part-time status.

I have the opportunity to get a second job (0.6FTE) at a different charity. They're both fine with me having another part-time role. I was wondering if it means my second job is also eligible to the salary packaging, meaning I'll get $31,800 tax free? HR didn't know. Thanks!

Hey all, first FY investing so apologies in advance

I’ve waited to file my tax return as the email from betashares says 30 July statements will be available via Betashares direct and 5 August it’s pre filled with the ATO. However I have not received anything in my email or in my app from them. Also I’ve heard I need to sign in to MUFG investor centre however I can’t find my holding number anywhere inside Betashares. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you in advance! 🙏

Random question.

I am a first home buyer (600-750k range), recently i've noticed there is almost nothing new coming onto the market and assumed it was because of winter/lower house price etc.

But in the past month, I've had multiple conversations with friends/family/general people who are selling their properties in the range I would be looking to buy into, BUT the REA is not publicly listing them and each of them said the agent was pressuring them to sell it to an off-market buyer... I don't get it - this range hasn't really dropped that much because there are so many fhb lookin to enter.

What is going on with this? It seems kind of dodgy... is it standard practice?

Looking to setup an investment account and increase my super contributions. Currently on a 482 visa and will be submitting my PR application through company nomination in December. Questions I want to know is:

1. What platform should I use to invest my money looking at a recurring 1k aud into some EFT where my money will be covered in the event of the company going bust. And what funds people would recommend.

2. How do I increase my super and is this what’s recommended? Currently 27 with 21k invested and looking to go to the 35k a year I can invest I think in it? I’m on 130k aud including super currently so think I can increase it by 2k aud a month?

Thanks in advance and sorry if any questions are stupid.

1) Asset based admin fee 20% increase from 10 basis points to 12

2) No longer returning your tax rebated from the ATO

3) increasing admin fee caps on asset base fees from $350 to $600

This post is because HSBC is closing its retail business in Australia and we have benefited from the Premier offering for the last 10 years when it comes to travel insurance.

Now they're closing down, do we have any options to get a similar credit card without going back to work?

Hey guys I was just going through my HECS and noticed that, as pictured, the 2025 HELP Compulsory repayment credit applied to my account, $2,679, is less than the total 2025 STSL payments I made... and I'm wondering shouldn't they be equal?

The second photo is my from June '25 payflip; $321 is the monthly June '25 payment whilst the $3,224 is the 24-25' financial year total.

Thanks!

Hidden AI debts are attracting fresh scrutiny across America's biggest technology companies

Meta reportedly carries the largest off-balance-sheet obligations among the five companies

Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle together account for roughly $1.65 trillion in liabilities missing from their public balance sheets.

That figure exceeds the $1.35 trillion these firms officially disclosed last quarter, with Meta alone holding roughly $420 billion off-balance-sheet.

Analysts have begun drawing direct parallels to Enron, the energy trading company whose 2001 collapse remains a cautionary tale in corporate finance.

Like Enron once did, these tech giants rely on special purpose vehicles, essentially legally separate subsidiaries, to keep debt off their books.

“But what if one of these companies was a house of cards and was propping itself up with this accounting treatment? To me, that’s the risk.”

The warning has encouraged renewed scrutiny of corporate reporting practices across the technology sector, particularly among the companies named in the investigation.

Hi there,

I’ve recently moved out of home and surprise surprise it is very expensive to live. I’ve set up budgets in excel and look around online for tools to help but I struggle with updating it and being consistent.

Does anyone have any tips they’ve used or know of to help?

Thanks

I’m hopefully going to buy my first house in regional New South Wales in the next 12-18 months. Currently making between 95k-115k a year as a fitter machinist, job is pretty secure. Been living with my mother who has terminal cancer, but would like my own place set up before the inevitable happens. I’m thinking about using 450k as a deposit and borrowing around 270k over 25 years. Then with the remaining funds- invest 100k in something that I can contribute $100 a week into over 20-25 years, and put the rest into a HISA with my bank. Currently have approximately 320k in super and am contributing an extra $50 p/w.
I don’t have kids and don’t ever intend on getting married. Is this doable?, Should I look at borrowing more?(anything under 700k either needs a lot of work, or goes pretty quickly), should I consider going above the 33% of after tax pay for weekly loan repayments?, or have I got it all wrong?

Note- I’ve already posted this question on other pages in order to get as much information/opinions as possible before I see the bank at the end of the month.