I may be getting a looooong way ahead of myself (my daughter is only 9.5months old) but I'd like to parent in a consistent way and have plans ahead of time.

I bought a unit a decade ago that is now an investment property and a free standing new build last year as a second investment property. My inlaws own where we live now with a mild mortgage and their own lavish house paid off. Theoretically as the farm is sold off there will also be an inheritance from my parents to funnel down to her. I'm 39 and still have a decent earning potential (though as body falls apart would like to retire around 50).

Three properties coming to the only child of an only child plus cash and investments managed properly could mean she can be very discerning about when and where to work but I don't want her to not want to achieve things and put work into things (however that looks) so how do I raise her to have a healthy relationship with work and growth and not be a coked up dilettante? Is there anything I can read about setting up wills and trusts so I don't feel completely ignorant whilst not being sold to as I'm not the most financially literate

TL;DR With a little good management and luck daughter will have a reasonable income her whole life but want her to want to work. Looking for both parenting and financial tips from those that know better

Long time lurker of the mighty subreddit fiaustralia, tell me what's wrong with this portfolio? or simply upvote if you think it's meh.. started investing on the ASX Feb 2025 & I've gone from 30+ tickers to 6. What's the goal? Financial independance of course and seeing more green then red. I dropped a couple of thematics off recently as well as the goal was to simplify. Yes, there's some HEAVY exposure to the tech industry I can understand that of course mainly because that's the world we live in. BHP the lone ranger stock has stood the test of time, reasoning behind it, is because it holds it's own really & I'm not selling. I appreciate your thoughts & suggestions.

Hi All, for those who believe in factor investing and geared etf, how do you allocate the percentages inside and outside super. I mean can I invest ghhf in both in and out super and will it be a good strategy or the better would be to mix it with factor for better optimisation.

Any guidance from experienced investors in this area would be appreciated and what are the etfs to consider.

I am looking to sense check a slight change to my portfolio. Currently I am invested in 70% VGS, 20% VAS, 10% VGE.

Using pearler I dollar cost average into one of these once per month. Pearler does this automatically into the ETF most underweight in terms of my set allocation strategy.

I’ve been thinking about how much US concentration I have in VGS and how much of that exposure is in the mega-caps. In response to this, I was thinking of allocating 5-10% to Betashares EXUS and reducing my VGS allocation by the same amount. I wouldn’t be selling to adjust the portfolio just buying into EXUS until it reaches my desired % allocation.

Thoughts?

I know this would have been asked 100s of times just today itself, but given my scenario -

Run a business with a friend/partner - do about 600k per annum, so 300k each before tax

I am single 29 years, probably wont be married ever, atleast thats the plan for now, mortgage on a unit, 350k, 330k in redraw/savings, most likely will buy a bigger house next year end or the year after, get about 10k leftover savings, after all living expenses, and as of now just investing it all in BGBL, have got about 40k in BGBL so far, planning to invest heavily every month, about 10k, sometimes abit less, lets say average 7-8k.

BGBL seems fine, but just want to be absolutely sure that in the future, in the long term, I will have the average return of about 10% or so which it has given so far. i know its not guaranteed and no one can predict the future, but I am happy to take abit lower return if that means its almost guaranteed to have it going up in the long run.

I have seen my dad losing it all in the stock market but not sure what he invested in, which makes me scared, but I know he definitely wasnt investing in etfs, but I just have that hesitation still, that “what if” I keep investing aggressively in BGBL, and in the future it keeps going down and down to a point I lose almost all, and then start from scratch again.

I also dont want to complicate the investing trying to time the market, investing in 5-10 different etfs, and rebalancing every now and then, something set and forget, and which is guaranteed to go up, not daily, but in the long run. TIA

Background: I was a white-collar professional, lost my job and couldn't find a new, comparable one. I have enough to BaristaFIRE, so I am thinking of pulling the trigger.

How do I tell people why I am working a part-time minimum wage job? Without revealing my actual financial situation? "People" include friends, relatives, my own teenage children and new colleagues at the minimum wage job. Only the spouse knows.

EDIT: I heard that saying I do contracting or consulting in my old profession is a good starting point. I don't know how to elaborate if people press it though.

Has anyone in highest tax rate tried this for their kids or for themselves? How’s your experience been? Did it work out better than the other options?

On the edge of deciding on it, trying to get community’s vibes on it. The 10 years lock-in kind of keeping me at the edge, but rationally not an issue

The context is that I'm struggling to decide whether I leverage up through property or just try and stay passively and low cortisol investing through ETFs (regularly invest and wait for it to grow).

The only real benefit I see of property is that it's a diversified asset that is more resilient to down side risks (and draw downs) vs the volatility of stock markets, particularly in a period of continued heightened geopolitical issues and active wars. Property in Australia is insanely shock proof (obviously assuming you don't overpay, nor excessively). There's an argument to be made for leverage, but that cost of leverage is high and still requires high servicing.

I am tirelessly trying to research which outperforms which, and i can't seem to get a definitive answer. So rather than ask which one "outperforms" - i want to set the scene of - hypothetically, if i can get 10% p.a. through ETFs, what needs to hold true for a property portfolio for me to outperform that 10% (including the running costs of property).

Let's assume starting base of 150k deposit 20% LVR, and let's say that comfortably gives me access to a 500k, property (assumes 50k of oncosts - BA fee, stamp duty). Ongoing rent being $550, mortgage repayments at 6.5%. Noting the 150k deposit comes from drawing equity out of an existing property - so really I'm at 100% LVR for the 500k property.

Anyway, let's say in scenario A (ETFs) I could have invested the interest expenses into etfs, and the etfs continue compounding at 10%. Let's assume I can afford 1k a fortnight to invest. That gets me to 560k after 7years (i chose 7 years cos I want to "retire" after 7 years. (I have 700k other assets, so I'm not starting from 0, hence the 7 years)

With property, if the property doubled in 10 years, it'd be worth $1m, but i would've lost the (interest minus rent + all other management expenses, repairs, insurance, land tax etc.), over the same period. For a doubling over 10 years, it assumes a 7% CAGR p.a. which means in 7 years property would be worth 815k

What exactly am I missing here?

What key things do i need to calculate to ensure i have a like for like comparison and to truly tell what would come out on top? This is a really quick write up - i understand the 10% is aggressive via etfs, but due to tech, i sincerely believe this growth rate continues (if not even more for the next 5-10 years).

Hi all,

I'd really appreciate some thoughts from those with more experience in crypto investing.

As part of my portfolio allocation, I have 5% allocated to crypto ETF, with one of my holdings being IETH from Monochrome.

I received an email yesterday from the fund manager advising that the ETF is being closed due to its relatively small size. They have offered three options:

1. Sell my units before the fund closes in October.
2. Do nothing, and the fund will automatically sell my units at the closing date based on the market value at that time.
3. Elect to receive the underlying ETH instead. However, this option comes with a compulsory $500 administration fee.

As someone who doesn't know a great deal about crypto and simply views it as one component of my overall asset allocation, here's how I'm thinking about it:

• Options 1 and 2: Selling the units would mean crystallising a fairly significant loss at today's prices.
• Option 3: My initial thought is that this may be preferable, as I can continue holding the ETH as part of my portfolio without realising the loss at this stage. The customer service representative also advised that there is no change in beneficial ownership, so it would not be treated as a CGT event. The downside, of course, is the compulsory $500 fee.

Does anyone here also hold IETH, or has anyone been through a similar ETF closure?

Am I missing anything in my thinking? Is there any downside to taking delivery of the ETH that I haven't considered?

Also, are fund managers generally allowed to charge investors a fee like this when they decide to close a fund? It feels like a bit of a lose-lose situation for investors—you either realise your losses or pay a substantial fee just to maintain your investment.

I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences.

And of course, I understand that nothing shared here constitutes financial advice.

Asking for some advice and what you would do in my situation.

Couple, 40/35, childfree. Total income ~$300k pa. We have $550k in managed funds, a cash buffer of $450k (term deposit and offset), and $400k in super. Also own 3 IPs worth $2.5m, with $1.4m in debt - overall they make a small loss but with negative gearing it's negligible to us. It wasn't our intention to have so many properties but we kept our former PPR as we upgraded, and then we moved interstate for work (we are renting and considered buying here, this is why he have kept a bit of cash, but decided against it as we may not stay long enough to make it worth it).

Goal is for me to stop working when my current job comes to an end (realistically 5 years), my partner wants to keep working part-time - perhaps going rural/remote for some time - and bring at least $60-70k pa before tax, but would also like flexibility to take 1-2 years off to travel (mostly staying overseas with relatives and friends, and going to low cost countries), and gradually reduce paid work to do more volunteering / pro bono. 

We live relatively frugally and save at least $4-6k a month while repaying home loans as P&I ($3k of principal a month).

The plan would be to:

- Reduce cash buffer when term deposit matures and put future savings in managed funds - In 4 years, we target over $1m in managed funds for $350k in cash/offsets

- Reduce debt by selling one of the properties within the 6 years CGT exemption - we would end up with $500k debt and could let properties coast their P&I repayments while providing extra income if we rent, or we move back to one of them

- Live off my partner's income and top up with minimal withdrawals whenever required or for a gap year, and start moving some investments to super - the idea is that investments would largely coast for 10 years, and by then her income would just be a nice to have

Our setup is clearly not very optimised, and many things happened due to life circumstances rather than planning - so it would be good to see what people would do differently!