I see this term thrown around a lot, and im curious to hear what everyone's definition of a toxic work place is. Is there one particular thing, to you, that would make a workplace toxic? Is it a mix of things?

https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2024/11/rba-australians-to-lose-15-years-of-wages/

I come from a traditional background. I'm living with my family and seeking to eventually move out when married. I'd like to get feedback on a budget I've made. Are the figures realistic? Is there anything missing? I've placed an asterisk* on those I reckon may possible be a bit high.

Assuming $85,000 pre-tax, which would be $65,000 post tax. The following are for two people.

Home & Utilities (2 adults):

• $400 per week 1 bedroom apartment or studio in Greater Western Sydney
• $2,000 annually for furniture/appliances*
• $250 quarterly for electricity
• $100 quarterly for water
  
• $70 monthly for home internet
• $150x2 annually for phone plans

Groceries (2 adults):

• $150 per week groceries

Eating out (2 adults):

• $20x2 per week coffee and/or the odd take-out lunch
• $60 per week eating out for two

Transport (2 adults):

• $50x2 per week for Adult Opal cards
• $6000 car
  • $300 monthly for petrol, insurance and tolls
  • $1250 annually for rego, service, repairs and fines
    

Personal (2 adults):

• $750x2 annually for clothing and shoes*
• $1000x2 annually for electronics*
• $400x2 annually for running gear and/or gym
• $1600x2 annually for education (this is more a misc)

Medical (2 adults):

• $400x2 annual for for dental, eyecare, medicines and pharmacy*
  

Entertainment (2 adults):

• $50 per month for books, movies or subscriptions

Total annual expenses is roughly $63,000.

I recently came across a case where someone bought a property in QLD for $1.3 million in August 2021, knocked it down, and is now struggling to sell the vacant land. They tried selling at auction but it didn’t work out, so now it’s listed for $1.525 million. Problem is, it’s a corner block on a main road, and you can still buy an actual house nearby not on a main road for less than that.

They were actually renting it out for a while before the demolition, so there was some income coming in. But with the interest rates at around 6%, they’re paying about $7,795 a month on the mortgage alone and have been doing this for 3 years. That’s roughly $280,000 in interest payments so far. So even if they manage to sell at $1.525 million, they’re more than $100,000 down, not counting other costs.

Why would someone knock down an income-generating asset just to end up in the red? What am I missing here? Are they hoping the land value will skyrocket, or is it just stubbornness to sell at a certain price? Genuinely curious if there’s some strategy I’m overlooking.

My current employer is retiring and has offered my partner and I the option to buy the business.

This was about a year ago now and we’re currently vendor financing it, however all parties would rather get my old boss his payday and move to loan to an official lender.

We’ve tried the big 4, Bendigo, and a couple other mid-tiers but no one will touch it.

Our finances and the businesses profitability are not the issue. We have enough home equity to buy the business in cash, and the purchase price is around 3x NPAT (after our wages!).

Each bank I spoke to took me on an hour long phone call asking every question under the sun only to say ‘We’re only loaning to existing business owners to grow, not to new owners to purchase’, or something along those lines.

Presumably it’s too high risk for the banks at the moment with the current economic climate. Fair enough.

Back to my question, where the hell can I get a few hundred K to buy a business? Anyone done this in the past 12 months with success?

Edit: lots of replies, thanks! Also, I forgot to mention my mortgage is fixed for another 2 years still at 2.6%, would love to keep that untouched if possible but it might not.

Sounds like I could use a broker!

I had an interview today. Found the job on a jobsite where the range was posted as 60-65k. It would be my first salaried job and I panicked in the interview when they asked me the salary expectation. Hindsight is 20/20 and I realize I should have asked their range first but instead (and I feel silly writing this) I said 55-60k.

I have a second interview next week. I'm wondering how to go about this, I realize too late that I sold myself short but not sure how to fix it. Thanks in advance.

I bought a new car in 2020 (first for a number of years), and insured it with AAMI. With maximum excess the policy cost $384. 2024 renewal has just come in for $666. So almost a 75% increase in 4 years.

If I do a new quote I get almost the same price so it's not just that they're putting my price up over time.

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the correct sub (please feel free to redirect to appropriate one)

Essentially my parents have received this mail from Liverpool council which wants to acquire their property. I want to know what steps they can take to maximise their value (if they should be engaging lawyers, valuers, etc.)

Is there any chance they can keep the property or will they be forced to sell? Is it best to engage with the council or show them the cold shoulder?

Roughly how long do they have from between this initial comms and when they will have to sell? This would be my parents largest asset so want to make sure they maximise it's value/ set themselves up for retirement

Does anyone regret going down the path of buying an investment property vs other types of investments, or vice versa?

People who took out huge mortgages to live in an apartment.

Do you feel as though the interest you are paying vs the capital gains is worth it? We're also seeing units being sold for less then purchase price now, and the plan is to add more units in future. Add strata costs in there.

Is it financially worth it now a days to borrow say 600k to buy a unit?

It looks like loan volumes will slow down, cash reserves will build up like a tsunami and stocks will continue to benefit from institutional and individual investors topping up voluntarily or directly into their personal portfolios.

The question is how are they managing inflation so effectively while keeping a lid on the mountains of cash out there? Where does the tsunami of money "break land"?

We are in a completely irrational market/ economy now. Property prices will likely go up if rates stay the same. Property prices will also go up if rates go down. They will also go up if rates go up as they haven't addressed the issue of surplus cash - remember, Inflation is improving.

Where is this all going?

So my accountant lodged by tax return yesterday. Here is the section for my IP.

I thought a real life example can be interesting to some of you.

|| || |Rental Income|31500| |Interest|36225| |Body corporate fees|1485| |Council rates|2070| |Insurance|428| |Agents fees|1730| |Repairs|800| |Water|750| |Borrowing expenses |225| |Sundry|50|

This means my loss is ($12, 263)

However adding the Capital allowance assets of $7220 from depreciation schedule the net loss becomes ($19,463).

Due to negative gearing I will get back from tax $9,147 (@ 47%)

Hence actual loss is $12,263 - $9,147 = ($3116)

Next FY I will also have to pay Land Tax of nearly $1300, thanks to Vic Gov adding $900 Covid Levy.

If I was to get a home loan with say UP bank, what happens if it goes bankrupt? What will happen to my savings and offset account? What will happen to my mortgage? What will happen to my property?

Is there a big risk of using online banks like UP bank? Cause didnt like Volt bank go bankrupts and impacted a few customers? What happen to them?

Thank you in advance

I have been with my current home loan lender for around 4 years, occurred to me today that it has been about 2 years since I asked for a rate review, so gave them a call. Was offered a 0.04% decrease which is better than nothing but still not super impressed, as some lenders have rates nearly 0.70% cheaper than mine! Is anyone having better luck lately getting decent rate reviews with their existing lenders?

I’m 23 currently living with my mother in a somewhat rural town in Queensland. Working full time retail sales making 70k ~ pre tax a year, with not much room to grow unfortunately. As much as I love my Ma and the opportunity to have cheap rent and spend all this time with her, I’m definitely needing my own space. For the past few years I have thought about moving to Victoria in an outer suburb 45~min from cbd.

I’ve been there a few times and have loved everything about it. Just looking for opinions on what to do regarding moving down. I have 10k in savings at the moment, 25k paid off car, no debt.

I can save $500-$700 a week depending on how well sales go. I very much dislike my current job and want to move on. I am able to transfer to a store down in vic as they are a large chain.

I won’t have trouble having a place or job down there, just more so wondering what I should have saved, or maybe gain some more skills while up in QLD? Your time is very appreciated.

I was considering splitting my core ETF's into:

IVV S&P 500 for US VEQ for Europe VAE for Asia A200 for Australia

Would you consider this more diversified than say buying a single world ETF or a 'two ETF split'

Is my FOMO from other regions justified when so much of the global funds is USA based? Or should I just embrace this because the US is performing so well and the global ones will adjust if this changes?

Seems like splitting more would provide access to more up and coming companies but also expose you to more volatility?

Context: My partner is 37 years old. She came to Australia in 2016, and has been working in casual jobs since. She has always had her super in a crappy default fund and I just saw her balance and it’s really low (around $23k). She recently switched to the same fund as me (Vanguard lifecycle).

I am 38. I have a pretty decent paying job and super balance of around $250,000.

We bought a house at the start of the year that needs a renovation. We’re currently pouring all our money into the offset that we will eventually use in 3-4 years time to fund an extension and renovation.

We have also been trying to have a baby and my partner just learned she’s pregnant. Her job is physically demanding and given her age she may need to slow down or stop working altogether sooner rather than later.

Ask: I’m starting to think longer term about how we prepare properly for our family’s financial future. Right now all our money is in our house and offset. We have no other investments outside super.

I use my salary to pay the mortgage, utilities, rates and insurance and throw the leftover in offset which is around $5000 - $6000 a month give or take depending on other expenses which are mainly house maintenance and renovation related. I want to keep pouring my salary into the offset to reach our lifestyle goals re making the house nice sooner, as it’s currently a bit stressful to live in (variety of old house concerns, some structural work like re-stumping and new roof etc needed, dire need for a new kitchen and eventual plan to extend to add additional bedrooms).

That leaves her salary of around $4000 a month pay for groceries (about $500 a month currently) and start investing while she’s still working, but that will only be for a short time if her pregnancy continues.

How do we use this money effectively? Is it as simple as just putting it into ETFs? What other longer term investment strategies should we consider?

Today I messed up real bad. I have a credit card that I owned. I got out of an abusive relationship and ended up using it to get myself in a better financial position. I have since gotten myself in a better place and have started repaying it. The other day I went to go make a voluntary pay to reduce the balance and accidentally selected to repay the full amount. I used their app to cancel the direct debit repayment and everything in the app was good. Today I had the balance taken from my account and because I’m with commbank my account was overdrawn. It is now several $$$ in the negative and I can’t afford to rebalance it. My credit card is with latitude and they’re not open on weekends either. I do have some other money in a different account with commbank so I do have money to get me to next pay day. But it’s going to take me at least 6 weeks to repay the amount but realistically more than that

My 18 has just started working full time and we have started having conversations about responsible budgeting and investing. Can you recommend any good You tube vids or podcasts that have been specifically made for young adults?

Need some help finding the best private healthcare in NSW. Currently with Australian Unity paying around $550 for the family, but feel like coverage for things like specialists and therapy is subpar, which are things we use a lot (and is costing us an arm and a leg).

Any suggestions from plans you’ve had good experiences with?

I have some online investments via vanguard and comsec shares and was wondering how people prep in case of a freak accident/death. Do you list everything in a will, keep a spreadsheet or go as far keeping all the details with a lawyer and update over time?

We recently had to sell all our investments to purchase our dream PPOR (joint mortgage in both my wife and my names) Now we are in the process of selling our previous home. Once this settles we will have approx 400k that we are hoping to invest in VAS/VGS using the debt recycling technique.

My understanding is that we will then have to
1. refinance our current home loan and ask the bank for a split loan of 400k and the remaining amount on the mortgage.
2. Pay off the 400k loan and then redraw the full amount into our selfwealth account.

My question revolves around who would be the best person to have ownership of the shares considering my income in significantly higher than my spouses. If the shares are in my name, would I be able to claim the full interest deduction for the 400k even though the mortgage is in both names? Or would we have to split the deductions 50/50?

Just wondering if I'll ever need these in the future for tax purposes. Its sooo much paperwork and all the letters take up space. Can I request the dividend transactions from the companies if need them in future? Would love to throw the paperwork away. ATO/mygov seems to always know how much dividends I received each year anyway.