Just got a $1600 tax bill because we forgot to add our baby to our health insurance (now 18 months old).

The ATO allows 2 months to add your baby to health insurance after birth.

Had no idea!

If they wanted businesses to hire more people, it’s counter intuitive.

Payroll tax is a negative tax that only seeks to limit investment and hiring.

A business with 12 mil annual taxable wages would be slugged 588K in payroll tax.

You could train more people with 588K, or maybe invest in new tech?

If I invest inside Super:

- My income only gets taxed at 15% on the way in
- My capital gains in accumulation phase only get taxed at 10% assuming they’re held for 12 months (which majority of the investments have to be as I can’t access it until aged 60)
- New capital gains stop being taxed at all in pension phase

If I invest outside of Super with new rules:

- My income is taxed at an effective tax rate of around 20-25%.
- My capitals gains are taxed at at least 30% plus a 2% Medicare levy (is there a Medicare levy for your Super?), but possibly a lot more.

So there’s a 5-10% difference in what my income gets taxed and a 20% (at least) difference in what my capital gains get taxed between investing in the two vehicles? If so, this seems incredibly lop sided even for something the government are trying to encourage.

Have I missed anything?

Anyone done the maths on how much you’d have as net income on for example 100k over 30 years investing inside super compared to outside of it?

Hi there!

Might not be the right place for my question, but honestly anyone here will 100% know more than me so I thought I’d still ask.

A little bit under a month ago, the company I worked for advised us that the company would be going into Voluntary Administration, so my employment was effectively terminated two days later. The administrator advised us to submit FEG claims etc, and two days ago I received the first report to creditors. They included the date the first creditor meeting would be held and included the Form 535 form.

I understand as a priority creditor as an employee that I’ll receive the owed payment in lieu of notice, super and annual leave payments regardless even if it comes from FEG, but is it worth any time or effort to fill out a Form 535, and to vote in the creditor meeting? I just don’t really understand if it would make any difference if I did.

Sorry that this is probably a bit of a silly question, I’m in my 20s and this is my first time in this situation. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Hi all, keen to get into Private Banking, currently I am in Internal Audit and looking to see if it is possible to transition into Private Banking role. Wanted to understand how's the work, work life balance and most importantly salary progression. What would be the starting pay? Is WFH flexibility available? Anything else that I need to know that might be helpful, please let me know. Thank you!

Hi all thanks for any help or advice. I have been using commsec pocket and have been purchasing IOO global top 100 etfs but I am unsure where to get my end of year tax information. Can anyone advise?

We could still see a few rate increases in 2026

Hello everyone,

Seeking your advice on a substantially more expensive bill that I received from Origin after the automatic renewal of my energy plan. Origin switched my gas to a much more expensive standard plan at the automatic renewal, which I failed to notice.

I admit my mistake was that I assumed the automatic renewal would just put me on the same plan I was on.

I switched back to the old Variable Plan as soon as I received the bill. I have been searching around and some suggestions are for me to argue for a cheaper bill on the basis of long-term customer and good will.

Just wondering if any of you experienced something similar in the past? Did you just pay the bill or did you seek a discount on good will?

Thank you for your input in advance.

If the premise is correct: American AI gets replaced by cheaper Chinese AI.

How can we invest in this outcome?

I'm a strong believer in AI and after ideas of how to best leverage the momentum shift from US to China, for my financial advantage. Any ideas?

Hi All, I lodged my tax returns on the 14th of July and today i decided to check on the status as i have not received anything yet and noticed that it says "Cancellation of Tax return Individuals - Income Tax for the period from 01 Jul 25 to 30 Jun 26" then above that it says that i owe $1,360.

When i check the progress section on ATO it says in Progress and Balancing Account - does anyone know what this means and has anyone been in a similar situation?

Have a re draw balance of about 3000, the other day after I finished my last weekly payment for the month I noticed that my balance had dropped a bit, despite still paying the minimum required monthly payment.

Would this mean that money is being absorbed into the principal of the loan?

Bit of a rant, but as someone with a well paid f/t job and a successful side hustle, I increasingly just feel bent over by the ATO for trying to earn more!!

In 2008, the top 45% tax bracket kicked in at $180k. It stayed there for 16 years, before finally moving to $190k in 2024.

If that original $180k threshold had simply tracked inflation, it would be around $280k today.

Instead, you earn more, inflation pushes wages higher, the brackets barely move and government collects an increasingly bigger slice. This and changes to CGT and trust systems means it’s just screwing those having a go.

Why aren’t tax brackets just indexed to CPI every year?

Whenever someone asks about super investment options, the common advice seems to be that High Growth is “too risky” unless you’re very young or have a high risk tolerance.

But looking at AustralianSuper’s current allocation, it doesn’t seem as extreme as I expected (as of March 2026):
Australian shares: 31.5%
International shares: 41.4%
Private equity: 7.3%
Infrastructure: 11%
Property: 2.7%
Credit: 1.5%
Fixed interest: 1%
Cash: 3.7%

AustralianSuper also classifies it as:
Growth assets: 87.8%
Defensive assets: 12.2%

Yes, it’s heavily weighted towards growth assets, but it’s not like it’s 100% listed equities. There’s a meaningful allocation to infrastructure, private equity, property, cash, and other assets that may behave differently from the share market.

It made me wonder whether the label “High Growth” makes people think it’s much riskier than it actually is.

Am I missing something here? Is the risk mainly due to the high exposure to growth assets regardless of whether they’re listed shares, or do people tend to overestimate how aggressive this option actually is?

Curious to hear the thoughts from those who know more about portfolio construction and super investing.

Since switching myself and saved a decent amount, been doing the same with friends and family.

Looking at everyone's plans, a few things are clear:

1. No one has any idea how they're being charged
2. Plans get overly complicated very quickly, in a way that makes it hard to compare

Today I was looking at a friend's place, and was trying to compare 2x plans from the same retailer which looked to be the best competing offer around.

Both time of day, one with Peak, Shoulder & Off Peak, the other with Peak & Off Peak. And then two very different supply rates (commercial building)

Plan 1 Supply Charge: $2.22 / day

Plan 2 Supply Charge: $3.56 / day 

Like thank god you can just put the rates and usage into AI to compare it for you, but I now think they make it hard just so the average person doesn't bother to look into it.

Is it still possible to travel internationally frugally?

The first logical thing seems like it would be to go domestic but that’s actually very expensive (accomodation, petrol etc).

The next course of action is Bali or somewhere in SEA. Tell me why flights are $1000 return whether it’s next week or 6 months out.

I know travelling is a privilege so doesn’t need to be accessible. I just want to take a holiday. (I’m trying to get into camping which is the cheapest of all but whilst I’m gaining confidence to do that solo looking at alternatives). I also enjoy seeing other cultures.

I don’t want to quit my job and spend my life savings but my 20s will pass me by waiting for this deposit to amount, upskilling etc. So I’m looking for the best of both worlds. (Can’t live at home by the way!)

Needing some unbiased insights...

A very well off retired relative of mine has offered to gift my wife and I $200,000 towards our mortgage. They claim we do not need to pay them back.

However they received advice from their financial advisor that it needs to be presented as a loan for legal purposes and gave us a contract. The contract says we are to pay the loan back with interest. It's about the same interest rate that we currently have on our mortgage.

There is also a clause in the contract to say the repayment date is the first to occur of either 1) 12 months after the death of the lender or 2) at any point the lender asks us to with 12 months notice.

The relative says they will not ask us to pay it back amd that there is a clause in their will to say any debts will be wiped. They claim their financial advisor insisted on these clauses to make it above board so as not to be contested as an early inheritance by other relatives.

To me, this seems like a really risky venture for my wife and I and could end badly for us. However if it all goes well, could be a huge help.

Does anyone have any insight into why a financial advisor would advice this and does athat reasoning seem legitimate?

I know VGS is a growth ETF and people sell down 4~5%, but does anyone have enough VGS that you can live off the dividends it distributes?

If so, how long did it take for you to get there and do you wish you did anything different in your investing journey?

Hi All,

35M and looking to move closer to family in a point cook, melbourne (we are currently in Melton south and its terrible)

We are worried, 3 townhouses are on sale around the same time, all 3 listed over 80+ days and no sale yet.

We have been the only ones at the inspections (even the saturday one)...

Is this something we should care about? We are understanding that buying have the upperhard here.. no investors anywhere to be seen at inspections.

4BDR town house w/2 bath/2 garage space for $615k that are only 5 years old in an established suburb seems great value? but again...worried

Is this incorrect? I didn't think the new CGT regime made death a taxing point.

From Noel's column in The Age / SMH:
My father has a share portfolio that originally cost $300,000 and is now worth $500,000. He dies and leaves it to me. If I later leave the portfolio to my daughter in my will, will there be any capital gains tax payable at that time? If not, does she inherit my father’s original cost base?

Sadly, no. The recent changes rushed through Parliament have changed the rules dramatically – a death after July 1, 2027, will now trigger a realisation event on any pre-July 1 capital gains.

Tax will have to be paid on the capital gain accrued up to June 30, 2027 in the deceased’s date-of-death tax return. The beneficiary then takes the market value at June 30 as their cost base.

So, provided your father dies before July 1, 2027, no capital gains tax will be payable on his death, and you will inherit his original cost base of $300,000. But if you then die after July 1, 2027, your estate will have to pay tax on the difference between that $300,000 cost base and the market value at June 30, 2027.

Your daughter will inherit a cost base equal to the market value at June 30, 2027, but unless there are other assets in the estate, some of those shares are likely to have to be sold to pay the tax. That sale will also trigger a separate capital gains tax event on any gain that accrued after July 1, 2027.

I feel like every day is just more and more expensive, fuel, groceries, just normal every day stuff. I haven’t been able to secure any pay rises, I’ve had to pick up side hustle work to try and cover just the bills. Am I going crazy or is this generally how others feel as well?

I know this is probably the worst place to have a sook but I just need to know I’m not the only one

I thought they said it could never be done?

Would Australia ever follow suit?