More rate rises coming as people keep spending

The highest since 2011 when the cash rate was 4.75%. Whose ready for two more rate hikes ? Also, Japan's 10 year bond yield is 2.99%, the highest it's been since 1996. If Japan is experiencing elevated levels of inflation, then inflation is cooking globally.

Yeah, the era of cheap credit is over baring another financial disaster like 2008 or covid. It's not looking good.

With the new changes coming to most Australian based credit cards and a significant portion of benefits being taken away is AMEX just blatantly the best option now for a rewards card? Not only have they not really taken much away they’ve increased the points offering from 50k to 120k sign up bonus.

For me I’d recently gotten a westpac altitude black Qantas for the 150k signup and planned to switch to AMEX anyway at the second year but these changes have likely just sped up my switch.

I’m in a pretty fortunate position where I currently work 3 days a week and have the flexibility to add/reduce days if I want to.

I’ve just run the numbers on going back to 4 days, and after tax, extra daycare and HECS, I’d only be about $50 a week / $2,500 a year better off.
Honestly, that doesn’t really feel worth giving up another day at home with the kids.

My husband has asked me to come up with a number where I’d actually feel like the 4th day was worth it financially, rather than staying home with the kids.

So I’m curious, what would that number be for everyone else?

How much extra per week would make you think it was worth working the extra day?

Not looking for the usual “stop buying coffee” advice.

I’m more interested in the small habit or system that actually changed your spending.

One thing I’ve found really useful is looking at spending patterns, rather than just individual expenses.

For example, you might not have one big expense causing the problem. It could be a few small purchases that keep repeating every week, subscriptions you barely use, or spending that gradually increases after payday.

Sometimes the biggest saving opportunity is simply finding where the money is quietly going.

What’s the one habit or change that made the biggest difference for you?

Hi,
I contacted a cabinet maker to build a built-in cabinet. He was responsive and came to my place and gave me the quote based on the sizes and the style. I paid a deposit of $3000. He gave me two designs that were slightly different from what I wanted and forced me to just choose one. I unwillingly chose one of his designs. After that, he suddenly stopped responding to me. I had to call and chase up the measurements, date to install, ect and he gave me only vague answers. Therefore, I contacted my bank about the deposit transaction as I lost the confidence in this to be done as he promised. At this point, I expected two different scenarios:
- The bank reverse my payment and I get my deposit back. But if he still can do the job based on what we had both agreed, I’m happy to pay him again.
Otherwise, I'm safe to just get my money back.

When his bank received the info from my bank, they froze his account. He messaged me calling me crazy and started gaslighting me. I messaged him stating exactly my concerns and tried to compromise that if he can still do the job properly, I will contact my bank to cancel the dispute. However, he left me on read. At this point, it seems like he won’t do the job and/or he has never planned to do it.

My question is what is the possibility of me getting my deposit back? What else can I do in this situation?
Thanks.

• Macquarie Bank will be ending the welcome rate (5.35% p.a.) on its popular savings account from 14 September
• After that time, new customers will go straight to the ongoing rate, currently 5.00% p.a.
• Macquarie is also introducing new balance brackets from 1 November although the interest rates remain unchanged

I read this on Finder's website; meanwhile, we are the third richest country in the world for 2026!

With prices of housing, groceries, eating out, fuel etc all going up significantly over the last few years, and a fair chunk of people not being able to afford anything, are we due for a deflation period?

I know I am in a very fortunate position, and I am genuinely not trying to humblebrag.

I am 40M, single, with no children or other dependents. I’ve become increasingly burnt out and feel like I’ve lost direction and life purpose outside work. I have no close friends, not close with my family, no partner, and lately I’ve developed a strong feeling that if I don’t take time out to travel now, I may never do it.

I applied for a one-year sabbatical after 4.5 years with my employer, but it was rejected. This means my only realistic option for extended travel is to resign.

I own my home outright, worth around $1.6m, have $2.5m in shares (giving about $91k per annum after tax), $320k in super, and $150k in cash. My plan was to set aside $100k for a year of travel and use the other $50k for concessional super contributions over the 1 to 1.5 years I'll be away.

I am a Chartered Accountant with 14 years in analyst and senior analyst roles, but my current role is basically a senior business analyst with no unique expertise, and it feels very replaceable and vulnerable to AI. I also don’t have much of a professional network to fall back on.

I am worried that if I quit, I may struggle to get a similar job again and this could effectively become early retirement rather than a 1 year break. My current roles pays about $150k per annum. I could probably find lower-paid work if needed, but I don’t want to assume I can walk back into my current career. What is the reasonable thing to do?

We are currently in the cooling-off period purchasing a property in NSW using the First Home Guarantee (5% deposit scheme) through CBA. COS were exchanged using counterpart copies (one executed by us as buyers, and a separate matching executed by the vendor). I raised this with my solicitor soon after receiving signed COS from Docusign and was advised it is still legal.

Our mortgage broker just informed us that CBA requires a single, fully executed master COS document (with both buyer and vendor signatures on one unified copy) to issue our Scheme Guarantee Certificate and grant final unconditional loan approval.

When our conveyancer reached out to the vendor’s solicitor to facilitate a single COS execution, the vendor's solicitor responded stating that because COS have already formally exchanged, the COS is legally active under NSW law and cannot be altered or re-signed. Their solicitor stated the only formal way to issue a single COS would be to rescind the active one and re-exchange a brand-new single COS on the exact same terms.

We are currently inside our cooling-off period, which is set to expire on 8 Sep. We need to resolve this lender requirement quickly so CBA can finalize our 5% scheme place before the cooling-off window ends.

What Options Do We Have? Has anyone encountered this specific CBA requirement for the First Home Guarantee Scheme post-exchange?

Is it safe to agree to the vendor's solicitor's proposal to rescind and re-exchange a single COS simultaneously with the exact same terms and say same settlement date?

Is there any hidden risks with this approach while we are still inside the cooling-off period?

Any insights from conveyancers, mortgage brokers, or buyers who have navigated this with CBA would be greatly appreciated!

Looking to buy my parents home and wanting to understand how CGT would work. This is their PPOR and they are going to sell the home to me at an agreed value, and then move into one of their investment properties.

From what I understand from the ATO site here, https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals-and-families/investments-and-assets/capital-gains-tax/property-and-capital-gains-tax/transferring-property-to-family-or-friends, my parents don’t need to pay CGT as they’re exempt due to the property being their main residence. I would still be up for the stamp duty according to the market value, not the agreed value.

Is this thinking correct? Are there any other gotchas that I need to plan for?

I’m about to speak to a mortgage broker but I’ve heard very different opinions on what I should do thus far.

I’m 23, single and earning 76k a year gross in marketing. I have 100k + (10k extra aside for emergencies) saved for a deposit. Ideally I’d like to save another 40k or so but if something perfect came up I’d seriously consider it. I’m looking at 450-500k properties about 1-1.5 hours out of the city because I like the more relaxed lifestyle. I only have to go into the cbd one day a week for my job.

I live at home so I spend about 1500-1800 a month on transport, food, some groceries, petrol, a few nights out, etc.

My parents have kindly offered to gift me 100k to pay off the house in a lump sum, but only after I have put down the deposit. So is this something I should factor into the budget? Or should I ignore it completely?

Hey everyone

My trusted companion 2002 Hyundai Elantra finally died after a decade in service 😭 it's too expensive to fix. I knew the day would come but I was hoping to have more time to save up to buy an EV in cash, but I'm not there yet.

My options are:

- get a new EV on a novated lease through my work

- buy a second-hand car cash for about $10k (all I can afford right now without completely draining my emergency fund)

- get a car loan for a new EV or more expensive second-hand car

My house has an EV charger installed in the garage.

My situation:

$533k left on my home loan (I only bought late last year) 6.28% interest

$18k cash in offset

No investments (other than about $4k in company shares which I'd rather not cash out)

$154,500 salary including super and before tax (only been in the job 8 months)

- single, no dependents (except for my cat), living alone

-$145k in super, salary sacrifice $100 a fortnight

My goal was to hopefully keep driving my shitbox until the end of next year when I'll have about $50k cash in offset at my current savings rate so I could just buy a Geely or BYD in cash, but that's not really an option now.

I really can't get my head around Novated leases but my understanding is I pay fortnightly out of my pre-tax income and then at the end of the lease pay an amount to then own the car outright.

My understanding is the best option would be to get a novated lease as it'll reduce my tax in the long run, but I'm struggling to figure out if this is the better option when compared to leaving my cash in offset and getting a loan, or just taking $10k cash and buying a reliable second hand car in cash which I should be able to for about $10k.

Any help would be appreciated!

I have no idea what I’m doing. I have 70k that I’ve been sitting on with the intent of using as a house deposit. I live in Tasmania. The cost of a house keeps climbing faster than wages and the cost of living here is quite bad. I have 2 kids of my own and a partner with two kids. Not married. Renting here is ridiculous.
What should I do? Invest and wait it out? Invest in what? Buy a unit and rent it out? Buy property in another state?
Any thoughts appreciated.

Family of 3, PPOR paid off, 2 modest cars, Wife is a a SAHM, 11k After tax monthly.

Wants is anything like coffee, takeaway toys for kid etc. Remaining money is split between long term savings/shares and larger purchases that we want holidays, hobbies etc. Living in Perth WA.

Any thoughts or opinions of things to improve?

I'm lucky enough that I am sharing a house with my parents, I pay half the rent, and they cover the other half same as electricity and water. When it comes to food, mum does try to cover a fair amount, i cover all expenses for my son and myself. I get 1500 a fortnight with rent assistance, sing parent peansion and family tax benefits, 750 to rent, 400 to bills, fuel about 140-160, then got groceries which is mainly aftepay now. Used after pay for a while when I was helping my sister get her car on the road and now been using it to afford to get groceries. Just keep going backwards every single pay. I'm studying cert 3 on business do I can try to get an office job. I am applying for all jobs I see, but not getting anywhere due to my crappy knees and ankles. Also, the whole main availability is school hours. Little dude has supervised contact each Thursday for 3.5 hours and each second Saturday and Sunday day for 7 hours. I'd like to start my own company. Unfortunately, I have no idea how long I'd be able to sustain starting with no capital and having my leg difficulties. I dont know how to improve my situation. i also don't understand how I know so many other single parents who dont work and live by themselves.

1st Edit: I am the father, the mother does not provide any financial support for the child other than the hours that he is with her and that is court ordered, currently going through mediation as the child has been reporting that he is being bullied and abused during contact time, so I am also organising social support for him along with Orthopaedic support for his feet as he too has servere flat foot, wosre than mine and he is 5 years old.

2nd Edit: My old man is on disability both me and my mother assot him when needed, my mother does have looking for work payments as she struggles to keep up with her current work requirements.

3rd Edit: Also I can not get any job that requires a blue card due to my child's mother repeatedly falsely reporting me for drugs alcohol and child abuse. First 15 months he was in foster care due to her reports, child safety put him with me when they had realised the lies that had been stated, 3 more years for the courts to rule that she needed supervison for contact because he would abuse and neglect him.

As a family of four we seem to be able to save $500 per week. It seems like we are going backwards as this is small for us. We are very frugal but have a big mortgage. We have no other credit. We are simple people but have a nice apartment to pay for (Forever).

Mid to late 40s with 2 young kids.

How does this weekly savings amount compare to you?

Not good news

Question in title, thank you in advance for the honest advice.

Edit: trying to accrue maximum funds for his future use

So, I'd like a general consensus atm. Past all the doomerism, past all the negativity, I'd like a pool of opinions on how to put myself ahead both now and the future.

Without oversharing, I've been working for Allianz Aus in conjunction with the DSP for about 5 years, primarily data entry work (Part time cos of the stupid cap, ASD diagnoses). Graduated Y12 (Albeit barely), got a cert 2 in business, and with everything going on atm, I'm kinda stuck. Have about $600 in savings; which can and does fluctuate pretty frequently, I live on my own paying about $600 a week in rent, 1 bed apartment, and I have no familial support. That's a long story with a lot of potential to overshare, which I'd rather not.

Who can I talk to to get ahead? What can I do with what I have, how can I move forwards? Been ultra-depressed, and I need to take my head out of my proverbial rear.