I recently left Australia after completing my three-year study. At first, I had no clue about superannuation. However, when I got my first job just one month after arriving in Australia for college, I signed the form provided by my employer for superannuation, which they explained was for career savings. On my weekly payslips since then, it stated that my superannuation fund was being paid to Hostplus. However, when I tried to log in to Hostplus, no account was found. What should I do?

So I'm currently going through a pretty messy situation with my current home.

Without going into too much personal detail, I believe the best thing for me is to sell and move the hell on. Theres been options of keeping the investment, or buying the person out, but now I truly don't want to even consider those options due to the emotional toll.

I'm predicting I will walk away with around 200-250k which is not a bad investment after only owning for a couple of years. Given the market is still pretty cooked, what do you think might be the best path forward?

Our most recent power bill came to $2417 which I just cannot understand. Can someone tell me based on the following information whether this sounds right or if there is something wrong..

This is what the bill includes:

• It says we used 5228 kWh @ $0.36599
• the standard $80 supply charge.
• a $245.66 disconnect/reconnect fee?
• a $10 and $16 Mastercard fee
• $226.59 GST

For context it’s a 2 story house with an old woman who lives downstairs and my brother and I live upstairs. He and I both work full time so are usually not at home in the day. We all have a fridge each, a TV each, my brother and I have our own game consoles we play a lot, hot water runs off gas, electric stove, washing machine, and dishwasher that we use probably every other day.

My main confusion with the bill is the 5228 kWh usage (I’m also not sure why the disconnect/reconnect fee is there, or why there are 2 Mastercard fees, but I’ll argue that with AGL anyway). Our usage was about the same last quarter as well and over the last year our usage has increased significantly according to the extremely high bills we have been getting. I even went to Europe for 5 weeks last quarter and somehow that bill was higher than the quarter before even though I wasn’t even here.

So based off this information, is this bill ridiculously high or am I just whinging for no reason??

And if anyone does agree that it’s too high, what should I do to try and fix this??

I’ve tried to look it up and to no avail, so i’m wondering if someone else knows. I have a commbank account and a bankwest one, when i used to transfer to bankwest it would go through instantly through Osko, it doesn’t anymore. i’ve tested CBA to CBA and it still goes through instantly. When i transfer from bankwest to CBA it also goes instant.

Any idea what happened and how to fix it?

I have been financing an IP through a bank for quite some time. The LVR is around 50%. If I was to ask the bank for another 200k which would push the LVR close to 75% would they care whether it is for a reno or because I may use the additional money plush cash to buy another IP?

Additional IP vs reno which justification is more likely to get me a loan increase? Do they care? Thanks!

TL;DR I'm 40 with single income $105K income & $30K debt and below average credit rating and missed payment history. Do I take the gamble and apply for high interest mortgage (and potentially be declined and worsening my credit rating) or wait until my credit score improves?

For the first time in my life, I'm trying to navigate my finances solo, and I'm overwhelmed with what to do. I've spoken to the broker and they were very, pushy I suppose, and eager for me to go with the one and only option they presented with interest rate of over 10%.

I'm on $100K salary, and according to our current lender 45% equity. The issue is, I have about $30,000 in credit card/personal loan debt and my credit rating is not great. There are no defaults listed, but it's not good. I have credit savy and my credit score has been improving, however it's different from that of Illion and Equifax so I'm not entirely sure which is right. One says below average the others say average.

It will be going from 2 of us on the mortgage, to just me, and I will have to borrow approx $90K extra to gain 100% ownership of the house.

All my cards are maxed out so there is interest being charged on them and I feel like I'm not making much progress in reducing the balance.

Due to financial issues thought 2023 there are hardship arrangements noted on my credit file, however I have squared all the overdue amounts and have made all payments on time. I'm concerned this will have a hugely negative affect on my borrowing power.

My question is really, should I refinance/consolidate with with a higher interest rate for the interim or until all of my ex husband terrible financial dealings are gone from my credit file and my rating improves?

I have next to no money right now, but recently got a job at two different places, one claiming the tax free threshold with approx 30-38 hours a week, and another one with no threshold for 10-20 hours a week. I have a two month holiday in mid-February so I’m basically trying to get as much money as possible in that time. Is it worth having two jobs just for the three months, or am I going to lose too much money? I’m going to be entirely focused on saving money (no extreme spending, little food, no eating out etc.) any advice for what to do?

My adult child and her family have moved back into the family home so they can save for a house.

Do I need to declare the small amount of "board" they are paying to me as income?

Our credit card is due to expire this month, so with the new copy issued I needed to update all our direct debits. I figured we were well over due to audit what actually hits the credit card automatically every month.

I was honestly shocked how easy it was to knock off over $500 worth of direct debits that we honestly just don't need. This included streaming subscriptions, random app subscriptions, lowering phone and internet plans etc., as well as calling our insurance company to lower our premium for the same cover!

Kicking myself that I didn't do it sooner. I know everyone says this should be reviewed annually, but I always put it off. I'll definitely be more proactive now knowing how much can actually be saved.

Hopefully this post might be a reminder to anyone else putting off a similar audit.

Hi Aus finance, my partner and I are separating (no need for congratulations / condolences) , and will spend a good part of 2025 going through the process with the aim to list our PPOR come Spring '25 pending the health of market, rates etc.

Living in Coastal Regional NSW we bought 8 years ago, ahead of the Covid Boom, and should come out of the Sale ~$150-200K each (this includes net debt wipe out, splitting savings etc) , we have one dependant going to primary school whom we will coparent so need 2 bedrooms.

To my mind, having watched my parents divorce and the market get away from them in the 90s, Im of the opinion to buy as soon as possible within reason (likely an apartment not a house) and go from there. The region has boomed and part of the reason we left Sydney was the market was already away from us.

Having said that Id be keen to canvas other opinions or experiences people have been through similar.

Would people pop the windfall into a term deposit or keep it on hand to buy asap, open to other ideas, thanks.
( I may treat myself & Jr. to a lil holiday once done with the unfun bit...)

Hey guys so I am trying to find out how much hecs I have available as I am keen to study again after a big long break away from it.

I have attempted to use myHELPbalance but unfortunately it seems you need to already be a student to have access to that.

I have access to my ATO account via mygov, however, I can only seem to see what I have owing and cannot for the life of me see how much I can actually use.

I do have a USI but it also requires a student number which I obviously don't have as I'm not a student lol.

Thanks in advance 💓

Hi, I'm just currently curious in stock trading, want to jump in, but don't know what to do... got any advice?

I’ve recently inherited my mother’s house and trying to understand if I am still eligible to the CGT exemption if I were to sell the house after the 2 year period of inheritance.

Seems I do qualify from what I can understand being that

1. The property was purchased prior to 1985
2. It is my current main residence.
3. The property was not used to generate an income.

However I am considering to rent the property at some point and move out and and then maybe sell it some years down the track. So it’s not clear to me if I do that, if I would then get hit with CGT when I do sell or if I’m still exempt. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with a similar situation?

It’s Friday and the brain is not mathing. I understand that salary sacrifice + HELP = need to deduct more from pay to cover extra HELP whilst still coming out better (I think) If starting salary sacrificing in November, would maxing the full amount until April whilst matching have any negative outcomes?

So I am around $37,000 in debt but here’s my problem - I went though a job loss and a major mental breakdown. Like some days I didn’t even think I was real. I could not get out of bed for a year. I was physically sick from stress and burnout and my depression and anxiety were classed as “extreme”. So I’m entirely off course and well and truly down the creek.

I don’t even remember who I owe money to. Some were bank loans, some were other companies. I don’t even recall all the names of the lenders. And they’re all coming at me from credit companies now and I don’t even know what to do as I earn such a minimal amount now I really can’t pay anything.

I still want a life and the chance of someday having my own home. How on earth do I even start fixing this mess?

I saw someone posted about hospital cover and I would like to ask if there’s any benefit to healthy children having hospital cover PHI? Not extras. Like if my kid breaks his arm will PHI be useful? Or if he has a mental health crisis at 14 will I need PHI?

My HostPlus investment options were on the default, and although my returns wern’t too bad, I wanted to change things up and I did some research.

I can see most people suggest a 70/30 split but wanted to know if what I went with is still good?

I’ve opted for 60% international indexed, 20% international (hedged) index and 20% Aussie.

I’m a 30 year old male with around 100k in my super.

Refinancing for the first time ever through a broker. The fees in qld to do the refinance (payable by us, to the bank) totals around $16k. Is this a normal amount? Seems kinda high when the whole point of a refinance is to save money. Cheers

Planning to buy a newish second hand car for Uber (please don't argue with me about working for Uber, I've been doing it full time for almost a year and really enjoy driving). Been doing a lot of reading on car depreciation for tax purposes. Hoping someone can clarify my queries. I will be using the car solely for work and not planning on reselling, just gonna drive it into the ground and rack up the kms and probably send it to the wreckers. I've seen different depreciation methods floating around online. 15% first year 30% years after, 12.5% every year for 8 years. How does this actually work? Say the car is 50k (just an example, I'm probably gonna buy a cheaper car). If I use the 15% example. Does that mean the first year would be 50k x 0.15 = $7500, then the value would be 50k-7500 = 42,500 for the first year and the second year would be 42,500 x 0.3 = $12,750, giving the value of 42,500 - 12,750 = $29,750 etc? Am I doing the calculation right?

Hi all , I know this has been asked a few times with mixed results , I done some digging in some old threads and looks like most went with the split with the Aus/International shares mix which I'm thinking of doing, I just would like to know if you noticed a change in your super once you switched over.

I pretty much been on the Australian super default option up untill now, happy with what's in there but I'm aiming a lot higher I want to retire between the 750k - mill mark.

220k super , 37 yr old, 3% salary sacrifice.

I'm wondering if I should just go with the 70/30 International/Aus shares or leave some percentage for any other fields I don't know about. I ran the question through chat gpt which isn't my preferred financial advice but I'll post up what it spat out as a comparison as it did give some decent reasoning. Any advice would help

Thanks

Hey all, just checking for my own sanity as I've received an invoice for a tax return that seems massively over priced but want to know if they've just gotten that expensive. And yes, before you say it, I know it's easy to do myself and I always have, but my partner is not so keen.

I am a salaried employee, nothing special, I own a handful of shares that pay dividends and I sold some in the FY but not much. My partner is on an ABN, consistent work, no shares or investments. We own our PPOR but no IP. We spoke to a local tax agent to do our individual returns, they sent us an email from to fill out with all of our information, which I assumed was just a prefill but turned out to be the entire process. Received an email a couple of days later with the return to sign and an invoice for $600+GST.

To me that's absurdly expensive for no face time or opportunity to discuss, there was no LoE or discussion of cost or process beforehand.

Am I crazy? I would have expected more like $150/ea for an online only, copy paste from a form type return.

Hi- I'm fortunate enough to have an employer that has decided he wants me and another employee to take over the business when he retires. The plan in the interim is to gift us shares equal to a certain percentage of the business after a valuation and make us both voting members of the board.

Will there be personal income tax implications in the financial year that the shares are gifted? Or does that depend on what happens with the income from the shares?

For example- if we are gifted shares and they are not sold, and no dividends are paid that year, will the value of the shares be added to our taxable income for that financial year.?

I understand that if we sold the shares, we'd have to pay tax on the value we sold them for- given they were free, same with any income received from dividends.

Hi- I'm fortunate enough to have an employer that has decided he wants me and another employee to take over the business when he retires. The plan in the interim is to gift us shares equal to a certain percentage of the business after a valuation and make us both voting members of the board.

Will there be personal income tax implications in the financial year that the shares are gifted? Or does that depend on what happens with the income from the shares?

For example- if we are gifted shares and they are not sold, and no dividends are paid that year, will the value of the shares be added to our taxable income for that financial year.?

I understand that if we sold the shares, we'd have to pay tax on the value we sold them for- given they were free, same with any income received from dividends.

Hi- I'm fortunate enough to have an employer that has decided he wants me and another employee to take over the business when he retires. The plan in the interim is to gift us shares equal to a certain percentage of the business after a valuation and make us both voting members of the board.

Will there be personal income tax implications in the financial year that the shares are gifted? Or does that depend on what happens with the income from the shares?

For example- if we are gifted shares and they are not sold, and no dividends are paid that year, will the value of the shares be added to our taxable income for that financial year.?

I understand that if we sold the shares, we'd have to pay tax on the value we sold them for- given they were free, same with any income received from dividends.

I’ve just come back from 7 years in the UK, where I was working most recently for a consultancy, on the equivalent of about $115k.

Aussie salaries are virtually across the board higher than in the UK, so I’d be looking at $125k minimum for my next role back in Aus, and potentially higher than that if it’s not my ‘dream’ type role in other respects. I’m speaking to a recruiter about a senior advisor role in a 24 month contract, and have been asked for my day rate (early in the process). For this role, it’s certainly not my dream field, and I’m not desperate for it, so I’d probably rather err on the side of shooting too high rather than too low.

I’ve always been salaried and haven’t ever set a day rate - what kind of figure would you be asking for?

Side note is that I am pretty terrible at salary negotiations…

ETA: my field is external relations/communications, they’ve asked for min 10 years of experience, I have 14 years of experience.

My son received $6k from my grandmother through her will and I’m not sure what to do with it to help him be set up for after he turns 18. He’s only 12 now and I’ve just put it in his commonwealth youthsaver account but only until I can find something better.

I don’t have great financial literacy although I am trying, and I’ve never invested before. I’ve been told by family members that’s the best thing to do with it but it seems confusing and a little risky. Are term deposits a good idea? He has additional savings that I would add to it but only around $2000.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, I'm looking for others input.

I'm in a good job atm making around 100k and I really enjoy the work. I don't plan on leaving anytime soon (although a pay rise would be nice) but I have been thinking, what happens next. I got lucky with this job, kind of fell into it and joined at an opportune time. It's a pretty specific and niche job that doesn't have a lot of transferable skills other than adminstration and leadership.

If this ended, I think I could really only have experience for another administrative position and that would prob mean a pay cut unless I could secure another leadership role. To future proof myself a bit more, would it be silly to spend the money and time on securing a degree at my age?

I really don't have any huge ambitions or a specific careeer path I want to follow so I have been considering a psych degree. I have an interest in the subject, and honestly just studying in general, but also thought it was a degree that could be helpful in many industries.

Has anybody else done something similar? Studied for future future job secruity, rather than a specific role/ career path you want to follow?

Hey everyone!! I’m in pre-med and I’m off till next year, I’m working casually as a business manager doing finance for vehicles, but I’m looking into starting a creative side business or just a side business that can turn into my full time gig, looking for something that isn’t physically demanding. I was thinking like book keeping for small businesses, or acrylic/vinyl/wood customised items.

Im wondering if there’s a market that isn’t too Saturated that could work out for me

Wanting peoples advice. I currently am single and live with my parents (29) and am wondering if I am better off paying out my car loan which has $20K remaining or keep saving for a deposit on a place (would be an apartment). I know the car loan hinders my borrowing power + have a HECS debt too but other than that those two are the only debts I have don’t own a credit card or use afterpay etc.

My salary is pretty low at $75K but am very underpaid based on my experience in my field so trying to look for a new job also to increase my borrowing power.

Currently have $77K in a HISA. So would be left with $57K in the account after paying off the car and would be saving around $500 / month if I paid my car loan out.

What would you do if we’re in the same situation?

Thanks!

As a followup to a prior question https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/s/NiGacCWSJj

General concensus is that PHI reduces wait times on non-life threathening issues.

Do we need Silver+Extras? Or Gold or Gold+Extras?

Or Basic hospital cover would be a "queue jumper"?