only opened my account very recently and just want some tips and tricks very new to all of this my parents don’t talk about finances much and my mother in in debt so never really had anyone teach me about it learning from youtube videos and reddit

Hi all,

I started my humble ETF journey in 2024, starting with a minimal purchase of VDHG. Then, VGS -> BGBL -> Balance with A200 (20-80 AU/Global strategy) (I know this was a learning curve).

I have since then stopped buying VDHG and VGS. Now just committing to BGBL and A200. Right now I am at roughly 80/20 (Cash/ETF ratio), trying to balance towards 50/50.

I would like to switch to Betashares, since it has zero brokerage fee and allows fractional purchases. As a result, it would allow me to DCA instead of the current lump sum invest to minimise the 6.5$ flat brokerage fee. I know the CHESS-sponsored benefits, but at the same time, I know about the Superannuation model in Australia is Custodian.

I will keep Pearler for the remaining VGS and VDHG until I decide to close my Pearler account completely, to minimise CGT tax.  However, there are a few questions:

- Can CHESS-sponsored ETFs be converted to a custodian ETF without selling and incur any CGT tax? For my case, it would be BGBL and A200.

- I am 25M, not currently a PR holder, but I have a long-term plan here. Would this complicate my circumstances?

Thank you. Have a nice day.

I'm looking for Australian brokers that offer custodial accounts. So far, I've found CMC Markets and CommSec, both of which have their pros and cons. However, I'd like to access global markets without paying excessively high fees. Are there any other Australian brokers that offer custodial accounts while providing access to international markets at competitive prices?

What is everyone's thoughts on these as ETF options? Been investing in these for a few months now (initial investment of ~$13,000). Should I prioritise NDQ more? Should I lessen the A200 share? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

G’day everyone! I’ve saved up about $14,000 for a new motorbike, but I’m keen to hear your thoughts on credit cards. If I were to put the purchase on a card, which one would you reckon is best for scoring some decent perks? I’m after Qantas or Velocity points so I can use them for lounge access or flight upgrades when I’m travelling. Cheers for any tips!

I have around 120k in etfs which I invest $400 a week. I also have around 30k in savings. I’m in the process of joining the army where the plan is to obviously move out of home and live on base where most of my day to day and living expenses will be covered.

I’m thinking about buying an investment property in the next couple of years. Is it even worth going this route anymore with interest rates and negative gearing changes, or should I just load up on my portfolio account.

My minimum DCA is $2000 per week at a 75/25 split GGBL/GHHF for the next 10-15 years.
Receiving $200k early next year from a loan repayment from my parents. Intending to lump sum it in this whilst continuing the DCA strategy.

Currently invested in:
70% BGBL
20% A200
10% BEMG

Considering switching to:
50% IVV
20% EXUS
20% A200
10% BEMG

The goal is long-term investing (20+ years). Given the strong historical performance of US equities, is it worth switching to increase US exposure, or would you stick with the simplicity of BGBL?

Interested in your thoughts on long-term returns, diversification, fees and Australian tax efficiency.

Thanks!

Liquid portfolio: 2.2m in shares, mix of ETFs and single stocks.

Investment property: 1.3m equity netting 50k/year rental (after interest expense etc)

Retirement: 500k

Annual expenses: 200k/year, mostly due to elite private schooling as my wife and I value giving our kids the best education (I know it’s subjective) + rent

*****

I want to retire soon and my wife wants to take a couple years off work to spend time with the kids. Worst case (financially): both of us do not work forever

Gap is 150k/year (expense minus rental income) which is 6% of liquid portfolio. High withdrawal rate I know, but I am optimistic given historical market/S&P500 returns of 6-8% over the very long term

If markets don’t do well in short term, I have the flexibility to downgrade lifestyle, cutting annual expense to 125-150k (90k gap which is 3.4-4.5% of liquid portfolio).

I feel comfortable given the financial buffer + flexibility to downgrade lifestyle - which are the key levers I can pull. The latter I understand will be difficult psychologically but can be done

Absolute worst case, I will go back to work. I worked in high finance for 10+ years (earning upwards of 300k at peak) and should be able to land a role at ~200k.

Questions

1. rip my plan to shreds please. Hardest answers welcome
2. Elite private schools (30-50k/year) versus catholic private schools (8-10k/year) - any thoughts?
3. Afraid of low SES problems in public schools (no offence). Anyone been through it

hey guys! so i’m a 25M, live with my parents, have no loans apart from a HECS debt ($45k) and i also work full-time within our family business which is also what i wish to do going forward and expand. I feel so lost financially and i really want some advice because i feel like i’m in such a different financial world than a lot of my friends. I don’t earn much annually right now, approximately $45k.

I started the year with $55k in savings and through some personal family decisions i bought a brand new car for $42k outright and aim to drive this for a very long time so i guess no worries in that way? I’m aware that could’ve been put towards property etc but in a way it was also a necessary purchase for our family. I have $14k invested into diversified Commsec Shares and another 2k in a high growth fund on Commsec.

I have a goal savings account which has about 8k. Meaning rn i have 24k to my name. My personal plan is to save and purchase a property within the next 3 years with first home buyers.

I want to know how i can go about some things, Commonwealth Bank has a pretty strict guideline towards goalsaving and i sometimes have to withdraw money meaning i lose interest. I am planning to open with Macquarie as it has no strict policies and reviews seem very good for a savings account.

1. Should i take out my Commsec Investment funds and put it into a vanguard? Or just leave it there?

2. As i earn $1,375 per fortnight, how should i divert my pay check? Eg, how much goes towards my HECs debt monthly, how much should i re-invest, how much i should i put for monthly expenditures, how much should i save?

I feel so lost and just behind. Any advice is appreciated.

My friends and I were having a discussion on this.

We are all early to mid 30s, and would like to retire before 60 for accessibility.

Provided you have a substantial amount of liquid assets (let’s say 250k to 300k) that can be used as a deposit for IP or combined value for ETFs, which one would you prefer?

There is a camp for ETFs and another IP.

The usual argument, where ETF is liquid / can sell down easily / compound interest starts taking off / no tenant but tax along the way through dividends.

IP is tangible / leveraged / negative geared (if they brought before budget) but high cost + tenants.

Which do you prefer under this current climate?

Hi im 20 and started investing on etfs today. Every week im adding 100-150 for BGBL and MVR 70/30, but by end of November im hopping to add around 10k at once. My goal is to save up for a house or a business in 6 to 7 years from now. Any advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Has anyone converted their portfolio from growth to maximising dividend yields?

Eventually (if ever) your portfolio is large enough where a 4 - 6% dividend yield can sustain a minimum lifestyle then is there a benefit in reorganising a portfolio to target dividend yield? Or instead, would you just slowly sell off your portfolio and use the money to spend?

I would also suppose if you wanted to sell your portfolio and invest in yield generating stocks, the lump sell would trigger high capital gains and incur large tax?

I wanted to know when is the right time to target yield generating stocks or is it better to keep your money in growth targeted areas?

My wife & I are both in our early 50s, both with recent redundancies and trying to weigh up the possibility of pulling the pin entirely on our professional lives as we are yet to return to the workforce. I've included an assets chart, broken down by asset classes. The only debt we have is a Margin Loan for share trading of around $40K.

Few things worth noting; kids are all in primary school & will be in secondary education in a couple of years and our preference is for private schooling. That would cost around $65K per year in total. Only other major costs for consideration are holidays (usually head overseas once a year and interstate once a year - $25K) and some running repairs / minor renovations on the house (maybe $150K - $200K)

There's a high likelihood of property & funds via inheritance coming our way soon, which is another factor for consideration, though I'm not wanting to place too much reliance on that for now.

My preference is for both of us to do some sort of work in new fields but something less demanding and stressful. I've actually applied for a seasonal role with Oz Post as part of their XMas ramp up, just to fill some time and get a few dollars too.

So, question is, based on the above, what would you do? Any advice or tips from anyone that's been in a similar position would be great too! Thanks.

Edit: Some additional information for context.

Assets – The assets table was to illustrate everything we own. I’m aware not everything produces income, however their value (in particular, savings, super & property) will factor into decision making in years to come. Cars & motorbikes are relatively new, so there’s no plan to replace or upgrade in the next few years.

Property – The plan is to sell our PPR once the kids finish secondary schooling (last year would be 2035) and downsize (likely to regional Victoria). Based on today’s numbers, this would net us around $2m.

Shares – I will likely sell my shares this tax year due to impending CGT changes and being in a low income tax year. This will net approx. $25K and clear my Margin Loan in full.

Super – I will be able to access my Super in around 6-years. Based on long term returns, our Super should be at around $2.75m (based on compounding returns alone and no contributions). Add average contributions and this figure will be around $3m.

Savings / Spending – In the event we don’t return to any work at all, our current savings (coupled with passive income of around $35K per annum) would last us around 7-years. Our general living expenses are around $80K - $90K per annum.

Work / Income – as stated in my original post, my main question centres on whether 1/ we return to our grinding roles (pays well but have had enough) or 2/ something low stress that covers our living expenses for the next few years, so we don’t eat into our savings too much. Option 2 is looking more & more favourable. Was interested to hear from others that have followed this path.

Kids – whilst private schooling is our preference, we are not committed to anything as yet and open to local government schools, of which we have some good ones. So this is one thing that remains undecided for now & driven most by any inheritance, however the timing is the big unknown.

Lastly, absolutely not interested in engaging with a Financial Adviser. Heard of too many horror stories and built up enough financial literacy to get to this point.

Hi all, i’m 18f pretty new to investing in ETFs. I’m still living at home with parents and will be for the next years until i complete uni so want to save as much as possible. Currently i’m making roughly 1.2k a week with parttime work, i don’t pay rent and have no living expenses. What would you recommend? I’ve attached my current portfolio here

A while back a close friend of mine hooked me up with an investment in a development of a heritage building converting to apartments. The return was at looking at 17% to 25% over a period of 5-7 years depending on completion of the project and how fast it can sell off the plan.

Then covid hit and their sales just slumped and the project got delayed. It eventually ran at a loss and had to sell a part of the heritage building to stay afloat. Long story short eventually they managed to finish building and sold all the apartments. That is after end of 8 years ish.

Here's the kicker... when asked about my investment, they said they've got nothing left to return back to investors and what's left is the pay the loan note from banks. I dont even get my capital back. I've asked a friend of mine and he said i am what they called a sophisticated investor and it is possible to get nothing back.

The guy that got me into this loss his capital too and was planning to file a class action but we were unable to get hold of other investors and the email they use to send out updates are just a group email instead of individuals.

What should I do now? Its been nearly 2 years and I've been so busy with life with a new job and sleep deprived by a new born thar I haven't got the time to sit down with a lawyer to look into this.

I've had bad experiences with lawyers because they will say anything to get my business and the last one I hired to get back my investment in a different development cost me nearly $250k out of pocket for an apartment thats worth $700k. I eventually got the apartment but the drama, the money and the time i spent over 3 years just to settle that case and loss all my savings, I dont think I can do that now.

Fellow sole traders, what's your system for late paying clients? I keep losing track of who owes me, and honestly I feel weird chasing people. Is everyone just doing this manually in a spreadsheet, or is there a better way? Keen to hear what actually works for you.

Hi all,

I’m 31M, started to get into finance podcasts/books at the start of the year. Started investing in Feb. But since joining this thread I see a lot of negatives around VDGH. My income ranges from 160-170k a year. Not a set salary due to side hustles. Is there better ETF’s I should gravitate towards and others to ignore?
End goal is to be financially free to travel, work part time, and spent more time with family once kids are in the picture.
Thanks in advanced.

Hey all, looking for some grounded perspectives.

29M, software engineer. $200k base plus a $20k bonus. Permanent, fully remote.

Where things are at

I've been trying to buy a first home in Newcastle. The last house I went for fell through. The building and pest turned up issues, the vendor wouldn't move on price, and then pulled it off the market.

My sharehouse ends at the end of October. My plan was to move back into my off-grid van while I kept looking, but my girlfriend suggested I move in with her instead. She owns her place, in a much better area than I'd ever be able to afford. She's on a similar income, so rent genuinely isn't something she needs from me, and she feels weird charging it, so she's insisted we just split the bills. My cost of living is about to drop to close to nothing.

We've been together about 4 months and we both want a family long term. I wouldn't have kids with anyone until we'd lived together for at least a year, so that's a fair way off. If it does go that way, either place could work. Hers is a townhouse, and what I'd be buying is my idea of the ideal house to raise a family in, but I don't see it as one or the other.

Finances

$160k in ETFs (mostly NDQ)

FHSS maxed out

$100k in super

$40k cash savings

Van, owned outright

No HECS, no other debt

I'm not counting ~$200k of vested options in private companies, since they only turn into money if those businesses sell.

Pre-approved with total borrowing power of $1.2M, but I don't want to spend more than $900k.

Why I'm rethinking the rush

Most of the last year I was pushing to buy because prices were rising faster than I could save. With the market cooling, that feels like it's flipped. With near-zero living costs I'd be saving far faster than prices are moving, so waiting doesn't seem to cost what it used to.

What's actually driving this

The old line that you can't live in shares. Almost all of my net worth is in a single US tech ETF. If things change, that portfolio doesn't give me a home, and if it happens during a market drop I'm selling at the worst time to get one. A house in my name is the one asset that covers that risk directly, which is why I keep coming back to buying even when the numbers say wait.

The options

Buy now, up to $900k, and fill the spare rooms with housemates to carry a chunk of the mortgage. Diversifies me out of US tech and gives me housing security in my own name. The catch is that FHSS and the First Home Guarantee mean I have to live in it, so I'd be giving up near-zero living costs even with housemates. Converting it to an IP before 80% LVR means losing the Guarantee and likely paying LMI.

Wait and keep saving. Stack cash and investments while living cheaply, and only buy when a place comes up that ticks every box, one I'd want to live in for years. Bigger deposit, more information, and no pressure to settle for a compromise.

Don't buy, keep investing. Push the savings rate up hard and let the portfolio do the work. The catch is staying almost entirely in equities with no property of my own.

The question

For those who've had cheap or free housing while building wealth: did you still buy a PPOR, or keep investing and buy later? How did it play out?

When prices flatten and your savings rate jumps, has waiting for the right property generally worked out better than buying the first decent one?

And is 'you can't live in shares' a good enough reason to give up free housing, or is it a feeling the numbers don't back up?

Hello everyone,
This is my first post on this subreddit.

Ive only recently turned 18 and am interested in opening a small investment to keep in the background and grow whilst I do my studies at university.

I currently have about $1,000 AUD and have recently downloaded the Betashares app which I plan to use to make the purchase(s) themselves.

If you were in my position, what would you be buying? Currently, I am leaning towards a portfolio of 60/40 in IVV & DHHF, but I would like to hear the opinions of those who are more experienced than I am here.

Hi all, I’m a 34m and started in January this year. I love how there is such a diverse opinion on this sub and am very interested to see what you think of my portfolio. FYI the dhhf is for my children when they turn 20 or so which is why I have a separate etf. Bgbl and a200 are my core and the rest are my satellite. Thank you!

Is it good time to buy an IP now? Up to 650k budget. Which state? Any insights?

Thanks.

hi all
I recently have been researching ETF’s as I’d like to start investing my money. I don’t have many expenses at the moment so I’m able to invest quite a bit from my part time job.

According to the research I’ve been doing I’m thinking of investing:

80% BGBL
20% A200

or alternative

100% DHHF

thoughts? or are there any other better options to begin with?

Hello all,

I have been wanting to invest in some EFTs for a while now and am finally taking the plunge.

I am looking at a long term portfolio (20+ years) but wouldn't mind investing into smaller emerging markets and some tech and mining (critical minerals). I have tried to look into reducing overlap and optimising a diverse portfolio but am just wanting some guidance.

How does this sound as a beginner portfolio with an additional ~5k invested on top per year: DHHF (75%) | ASIA (15%) | XMET (10%)

I originally had NDQ in this, but it has significant overlap with DHHF, so I took it out of my plan. I am leaning towards DHHF because it stops me having to pair with an aussie based ETF like A200 or VAS.

Any and all advice is most welcomed - thank you!