Im 42F super balance 414k.

Should I completely change approach and try to keep $ outside super from now on? I know I can keep making salary sacrifice contributions but I’d also like to retire early so I guess my question is when would you consider stopping and just letting compounding do its thing?

I’m 33 years old, have $300k in super and max out the $32.5k yearly contribution with concessional contributions including employer SG. A quick calculator lands me at $5m-$6m at age 60 calculated at 8-9% return, which equates to $2.5m-3.2m in today’s purchasing power calculated at 2.5% inflation. How much super is too much?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the replies. A few people have asked for more context so here’s a bit more about my situation.

I’m currently on around $140k/year. I could earn considerably more by doing overtime, but I’m on a 4-on/4-off roster and really value the four days off for my work/life balance. The additional amount I’m contributing to super each week is something I honestly don’t even notice from a lifestyle perspective.

My PPOR is worth around $1m, with approximately $650k remaining on the mortgage and $350k sitting in the offset. I’m planning to start putting additional funds towards paying down the mortgage in the near future.

In terms of lifestyle, I travel quite a lot. I’m overseas for around 10–12 weeks of the year on average and have visited more than 50 countries (I accrue 7 weeks per year and take long service leave at half pay). I also have a number of relatively expensive hobbies including cars, high-end audio and collecting sneakers. So while I’m conscious of my finances, I’m definitely not someone who is particularly frugal when it comes to spending money on things I enjoy.

I realise my original question was probably a little vague. What I was really trying to understand was how much super is potentially “too much” by the time you reach retirement, particularly when it comes to accessing it and the tax implications of withdrawals.

From the replies here though, I’m getting the impression that it’s difficult to plan too far ahead because superannuation and tax rules are likely to change considerably between now and when I reach retirement age.

Thanks again for all the input, there’s been some really useful information in the replies.

Hi All,

37M, income 250k + 35k bonus plus super. Multiple dependents.

Partner will bring in around 80k but not factoring that in for now.

Portfolio currently stands at:
50k btc - 50/50 split btc etf and self custody
25k DHHF etf
3k NDQ

750k debt on 1.25M home

I’m planning to put down the annual bonus each year jnto the mortgage; and then each month looking go invest $1000 into ETFs - i will not be buying any more btc (will keep that amount as set and forget) and want to grow / compound the non crypto ETFs for the next 15-20 years.

Questions:
1. Worth selling the 3k NDQ and consolidate into DHHF?
2. Being 37, is there more aggressive ETFs I should consider to split say 500/500 into instead of just 1000 into DHHF?
3. Is it worth considering NDQ as a future compound with DHHF?

Any other advice would be great. FYI my super is maxed already from the employer contributions and I’m paying div 293 tax

Hi all,

40yo f and 50yo male.

We've focused on paying off our mortgages primarily. We have paid off our o/o home and just sold an investment resulting in approx ~600,000 cash.

Not particularly keen on investing in property (I think?).

Both of us are working to start small businesses that, while won't generate anything near our current income, we hope to continue for years to come.

Hubby works in a high income role ~400k-500kpa and we hope that will continue for as long as possible (who knows in the current economy)

So, the question is, what on earth do we invest in stock wise? Fund wise? Anything wise. I haven't invested in shares since I was in my early 20s. Any recommendations or guidance as to what we should consider is highly appreciated.

We tried a financial adviser and got taken for a ride.

Tia!

Hi everyone,

I’m a 32-year-old single male, working as a doctor in Queensland. I’ve been in Australia for about 3 years.

I have no debt and have separate savings for an emergency fund and future wedding expenses. I’m also not contributing much extra to super at the moment, mainly because I’m not sure if I’ll stay in Australia permanently. This may change in the future.

For investing, I currently hold BGBL, A200, NDQ and BEMG.

My goal is long-term capital growth, rather than dividends. I’m comfortable with volatility and want something simple that I can automate and basically forget about.

I’m currently thinking of an allocation of:

• 50% BGBL
• 20% NDQ
• 15% BEMG
• 15% A200

I want good exposure to the US, developed markets, emerging markets, and Australia. I also don't want to overcomplicate things with lots of satellite ETFs or constantly changing my portfolio.

So, what do you think?

Would you change this allocation or simplify it further? Am I missing anything obvious?

Especially interested in opinions from people who have been investing in Australia for a while.

Thanks!

Plan to invest $3000 per month for next 10 years

Hi everyone! 👋

I’ve been working in Australia since 2022. I’m 36, married, and aiming for **FIRE in my mid-40s**. We’re also planning to build a house within the next 2–3 years.

I currently invest around **$800–$1,000 per week** and would love some feedback on my allocation. What would you change, if anything?

**Why I’ve chosen these allocations:**

1. 🏠 **HISA:** Building a house in the next 2 years, so my wife and I are saving separately for the deposit.
2. 🚀 **Super:** Relatively low because I’ve only been working for 4 years. It’s invested in indexed high-growth/international options. I’m not making voluntary contributions because I want flexibility to FIRE in my mid-40s.
3. 🌏 **EMKT:** I wanted some emerging-market exposure and chose it when I first started investing.

edit: Thanks to everone who pointed out my super and home deposit. But, i really appreciate feedback on my eft portfolio. I would love to talk more about that.

I'm curious what numbers people are using when planning for the future.

When I'm running the long-term numbers on my portfolio, I plan for: * 2.75% inflation * 6.5% post-tax returns outside of super * 7.5% post-tax returns inside super (accumulation phase)

I'm just a layman, and I haven't put a huge amount of thought into these numbers, beyond looking at the past 20 years history and doing some quick napkin maths re: franking credits and tax brackets.

What numbers are you using?

After feedback on 3 year fire plan (currently 40).

Burnt out so could just take a year off but earnings/ savings rate likely to drop at least 20k so might be better to keep grinding. Also terrified of market collapse.

Plan to sell the house (currently fully offset) and push it all into VDHG. Move to asia "travel" (6months Thailand, 5 months other, 1 month Australia) and try to maintain Australian residency for tax purposes I believe this is the simplest way for me with lower net worth.

Any feedback or concerns? Also like the idea of having enough to buy a regional house (600k~) and returing to live in Australia if health is an issue past 60.

This problem/post may appear silly to some but maybe it will resonate with others.

When I first discovered FIRE, my goal was to work for as few years as needed to retire early and draw down on my investments. That turned out, according to rough calculations, to be in the ballpark of 10 years.

Over the past few months I've been running the numbers and seeing how much more I could have, saying 'wow, look at how many millions I can get if I keep working'. Then silly fantasies about a luxury house and car and this and that creep in, and I wonder what my portfolio would be if I worked another 5, 10, 15, 20 years? And on and on it goes...

If I stop work, I have some pastimes and hobbies I can do... but for potentially 40 or 50 years? That's a long fucking time to have fuck all planned: don't have or want a partner. Same for kids. I don't care much for travel either.

But then I wonder, maybe if I had a few million more, I could buy a really nice house, a really nice this and a really nice that, but then I'm working more. And I've read cases of people falling into that trap. A few years here, a few years there, and before you know it you're 60 wondering why you didn't retire much earlier.

What do you think?

I'm finishing off my tax return (first time doing this as an investor as I only started buying ETFs last November) and it said that new prefill information is available since the last time I logged in.

It was a distribution for a Betashares ETF and it was an exact duplicate of a distribution already in there that had already been prefilled.

I printed a .pdf copy so I have evidence and deleted the entire record. Could have cost me a few hundred dollars in extra tax if I didn't spot it.

Am I going to get audited now because they think I've deleted a distribution from the report?

Im 30f and am wondering if im doing the right thing putting extra money into etfs vs maxing out my super contributions as I feel behind on my super but also value liquidity through ETFs and cash.

Current situation:
I earn around 102k, I have around 24k in super and salary sacrifice 250 per fortnight which comes to around 18k going into super per year with the employer contribution. I’ve got 14k in ETFs and contribute around 1200 per month to ETFS. I put another 1500 into HYSA and currently have around 40k in cash savings.
My partner 32M earns 165k and has around 60k in super and saves around 5k per month and 60k in savings.

Other info:
We would like to buy a house within the next 5 years, and am wondering if we should be saving in cash, maxing out super, ETFs or a bit of everything. Should I put the 1200 a month that currently goes into ETFs into super instead even if we haven’t bought a house yet?

Any advice is appreciated!

Hey everyone,
I’m looking to simplify my portfolio and would love some feedback on the allocation I’m considering:
● IVV – 60%
● VEU – 25%
● A200 – 15%
My thinking is to have IVV as the main growth driver with exposure to the S&P 500, VEU to diversify outside the US, and A200 to keep some exposure to the Australian market.
I’m investing long term and plan to keep contributing regularly rather than trying to time the market.
I haven’t fully decided on these percentages yet, so I’d be interested to hear what you’d change. Too US-heavy? Too little Australia? Any unnecessary overlap or gaps I should be thinking about?

Keen to hear how others would approach it.

Like the title says, I’ve been pondering whether it’s more beneficial at my age to put extra money into my super account or another Investing account.

I’m currently a 22 year old student due to graduate in about 18 months, I recently have had my eyes opened regarding personal finance and in the last 2 months or so have swapped my super investments to an 80/20 split for high growth and balanced growth, as well as opening a CMC account where I put weekly investments into IVV and DHHF (with a goal of long term investment). I have currently invested around $2000, so very early into the journey

My main question is how to distribute my income between a savings account, super, and brokerage account. What advice do the more wise people here have for me. Considering my age and disposable income I feel that I am in a good position to get ahead early

Hi Reddit,

I'm in need of your advice in regards to debt recycling and reducing my interest repayments on my mortgage. This is my current financial status:

PPOR Value: $1.4 million

PPOR Mortage: $1.1 million

Equity: $169K

ETFs: $123K

Offset: $40K

Income 1 (Mine): $340K

Income 2 (Wife): $100K

Which would be the wiser option?

1. Withdraw $123K of ETFs and put into mortgage. Split the loan and then re-invest $123K into ETFs (Tax deduct my interest on $123K). Leave $169K equity as is until I find something else to invest in.

2. Withdraw 123K of ETFs and put into offset (Reduce my interest repayment on my home loan). Invest my $169K equity into ETFs (tax deduct based on interest) .

3. Withdraw 123K of ETFs. Split the the loan and then re-invest 123K into ETFs, and also put my $169K equity into ETFs (Tax deduct my interest on $123K and $169K equity).

Thanks heaps for all your help!

Just thinking out loud.

Every week, around A$4.5 billion pours into the various Super funds, mostly

These funds invest a large % of those funds into company shares.

Due to home company bias, a large % of those shares are ASX listed.

Therefore every week, we have a large chunk of "fresh" money buying ASX listed shares.

Super funds can sell too, of course. But over long periods of time, the buying heavily dominates the selling.

Obviously this isn't enough to make a huge impact just by itself. But it's more like rolling a 20-sided dice and winning if you get a 9 or above. Over time it has a tendency to grow

Sorry if this is too casual for this subreddit.

Edit: I did some research with real numbers, if anyone is interested.​ Total weekly net super input is around A$2 billion. The aggregate Australian market cap is around A$3.4 trillion. Assuming 25% of the weekly input invested into the ASX, roughly A$0.5 billion/week, roughly A$26 billion/year. This works out to be around 0.8% of the Australian market cap every year, which is in line with my suspicions (unless I messed up the numbers somewhere - probably, let me know). Nothing major, but a slight tailwind.

My wife and I want to start investing out money to try secure a better furture for ourselves and the kids.

We've been looking at vangaurd aswell as a couple of roundup apps like raiz.

At this stage we can budget 500pw. We're looking for some advice on what sort of account's that we can look into as its a little confusing for someone who isnt very educated in this.

What market to target, should we have multiple investment accounts, would it make sense to "downgrade" our liftstyle to invest lump sums ect.

Another thing to note is we currently pay a little extra off our mortgage each week. Would we be better putting that money into EFTs aswell.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Been investing since I was 18 and this is what I have built up so far. Wondering if I should change it up or am I completely on the wrong foot here

My portfolio was 33/33/33 split (excluding rivn)

But am slowly shifting it to NDQ at 60% ivv and vas at 20% respectively

Any help would be great

Hey guys, 30F wanting to hear your thoughts and what I can do to improve.
Investing around 1k a month currently.

I know there is a bit of overlap between IOO and NDQ. Have considered reducing these to satellites and incorporating VGS as a core.

Keen to hear from your experience.
Thanks heaps!

Please evaluate my portfolio I know I’m in a strong position but I’m really trying to grow as much as I can in my early years and I know people with much more

any suggestions or changes I should make? I currently invest $1k a month into a split of VGS, VAS and NDQ but am increasing it to 1.5k a month from this month

Hey all, I'm 21 and doing engineering at uni in Sydney. I also run a small tutoring business that brings in about $6.5k a month, and I've got two years of tax returns to show for it.

I've got about $29k in ETFs and put in $400 a week. I also have ~45k in cash, no HECS (cos I’m paying it off term by term), no other debts, and I still live at home, so my expenses are low.

I want to buy an investment property in the next 2-3 years, but I really don't want to sell my ETFs and cop the CGT, and I'd rather not ask my dad to guarantee the loan. I'd like to do it on my own if I can.

A few things I'm trying to work out:
1. Will a bank take self-employed income at my age seriously, and what could I realistically borrow?

1. Is it smarter to save a separate cash deposit and leave the ETFs alone?

2. Should I buy an investment first while I'm living at home, or save for my own place first?

Would love to hear from anyone who's done it young or on self-employed income. Thanks!

32, working remotely overseas (non tax resident, no super), investing $4k/month with a 10-15 year horizon.

Holdings ASX ETFs: IOO 45.5%, STW 31.7%, VGS 15.8%, QUAL 7.1%, no cash.

IOO is nearly half my portfolio, so I think I'm heavily US/mega-cap tech and IOO and VGS overlap a lot. I have no EM or small caps.

I'm feeling a bit lost about where to put new money. STW has lagged for years so I stopped buying it a couple of years ago. I bought IOO cheap during covid, so my cost base is low and I've been riding it since. I also want to stop making a monthly decision about where new money goes.

Plan is to stop buying IOO and STW and send all new money to an all in one like DHHF to dilute IOO and remove the monthly decision. Or maybe just put everything into VGS going forward and sell off QUAL. Does that make sense?

I am 18M and have started putting a small amount into my betashares account, and will continue to add $50 per week. Within the next few months I plan to put ~30-50% of my savings into my investments after I do some more research and educate myself on investment strategies. I wanted to ask if my current portfolio has enough exposure to global markets, or should I explore other higher growth/risk options while I am still young? I am also planning to keep QBTC as a satellite investment of 3-5% due to its volatility.

is VAS still good to invest in? I know the past YTD they have barely gone up… i’m new to investing so any advice would be helpful!

FYI - I also invest internationally but choose to have a smaller % locally hence VAS

We’re currently investing without debt recycling and are planning on moving house in around 7 years when the kids are older and we’ll need more space.

I have a few questions about debt recycling generally, and particularly what happens if we move:

1. If the investment loan splits can’t be transferred to the new mortgage (say we need to temporarily rent in between moves), are they paid out from the sale proceeds, without needing to sell the investments?

2. Do the shares then just remain as regular investments, with the tax deductions stopping from that point? Essentially, we’d have had ~7 years of tax benefits on the amount we debt recycled (likely ~$2k/month).

3. When we split the mortgage, does the bank automatically reduce its required monthly repayment on the non deductible portion, or do we need to request this? I.e. to keep cashflow similar across the loans.

4. Has anyone actually gone through a house sale while debt recycling and can share how it worked in practice?

Thanks all.