Car Insurance through the roof?? - In 2021 I insured my car for $561

In 2022 I insured the same car for $638

In 2023 they are asking $1050 for the same cover.

Even when searching for new insurers I can’t beat $838. $838 is a 32% increase. I have never made ... See More a claim. Flawless history.

How can they justify these increases?

Anyone else getting smashed on insurance?

Tax Agent or MyTax - My long term tax agent (accountant) informed me last year that he would no longer be performing personal accounts as he is transitioning to retirement. He mentioned due to the basic nature of my accounts I would be fine simply using the ATO MyTax submission. ... See More
What are people's experience with MyTax and can you apply changes to view an outcome before a final submission?

Bought something for about $1200 from the EU (flight sim controls), and get a $648 customs bill?? - The breakdown is roughly the following, info is from DHL...

Duty (DT) $381

AUST GOVT CHARGES (L1) $88

DISBURSEMENT FEE (AV) $22

GST ON IMPORTATION (TX) $157

The invoice & Duty/VAT paperwork isn't ready to download ... See More yet which I assume is the customs docs (info above is from DHL portal) so I can't see more info but wtf? Is this a mistake. I expected to pay GST and maybe a little in fees but this is over 50% and the GST figure doesn't even line up with the purchase price...

With Powerball topping $100 mill tonight, how would you all spend/invest/gift if you won? - Essentially the title, for a bit of fun and for change from the doom and gloom…

Australia’s Lack of Economic Complexity Is a Problem (can we change this and shouldn’t we be more worried about the lack of diversification of our industries?) - The country's wealth hides a serious failure of national strategy. Unlike most wealthy countries, Australia's economy lacks both diversification and sophistication. Australia's primary ... See More exports are in low complexity categories such as mining and agriculture.

Are there any energy providers not currently preparing to **** us? - Hey all, last year we got a massive energy rate rise with agl and pretty much nuked our solar here in SA.


Tried ringing a bunch of different places and found some places cheaper but all of them ... See More were not takign on new customers. Just got the notice in the mail about how much AGL are raising our prices and honestly it's going to cripple us.


I've spent yesterday and today calling around and most other places are telling us they're doing the exact same thing and i've now see all the reddit posts of other companies doing it.


Are there currently any better energy retailers out there that are actually taking customers?

Why do people proportion expenses if in a binding relationship? - I've seen several post now where couples (including married couples) maintain separate finances or put in different amounts to household bills. I thought this was bizarre but there are plenty of people commenting explaining their similar situation...

In our household, ... See More my wife and I are married and both of our pay goes into the same account and bills, groceries, discretionary spending all come out of that same account. This was our setup even before being married (say 5 years into relationship).

So Reddit, help me understand what motivations you to keep your finances separate...

Reminder that HR isn't there for you - Was recently sacked. Ultimately I feel fine with my conduct and am doing ok with another opportunity already lined up (yes it pays more) as I was already looking due to having to deal with the people involved in my sacking.

Had ... See More a history of talking to HR because my manager promised certain things, written down things, and didn't deliver. In seeing HR those meetings got turned around against me despite receiving assurances that they wouldn't and probably only antagonised my manager into wanting to get rid of me.

Have seen this point mentioned before in this sub and didn't subscribe to it but I do now. If you don't trust your manager to do the best thing by you then seeing HR won't help and will in fact probably just be used against you.

Job options as a new grad (big 4 vs ato) - Hi guys,

I was offered a role at a big 4 accounting company as an audit graduate around a month ago but 2 weeks ago I was offered a grad role at the ATO. I am having a pretty difficult ... See More time trying to decide between which role would be better for me. I guess my goals in the future are to buy an apartment of my own. No immediate plans of starting a family. I would like to earn 100k within the next 5 years.

The ATO pays 78k per annum for the grad role and upon completion of the training I will earn 87k per annum (super inclusive at 15.4%). Meanwhile big 4 starting salary is around 65k per annum (super inclusive). I don’t know how much big 4 pays after the first year. So obviously the ATO pays more initially.

Given my goals and priorities what would be the right option in my situation. How much is the workload in big 4 audit vs the ATO?

Edit: my degree was a bachelor of accounting and finance at a G08

Looking for advice please - I have $180k left on mortgage (16 years left) currently rates are 4.5% going up in September.

Single mum 2 kids recently returned to fulltime employment with $65k salary.

I moved out due to DV situation and rented my house out several years ago (100% in ... See More my name) during covid I had tenants trash my house and stop paying rent - $16,000 in damages and only received $9000 back from insurance. I still have $8000 owing on my credit card due to repairs and paying mortgage and rent at the same time.

I now have new tenants in my house paying $490 a week. However this “income” plus my wage means I now earn too much according to Centrelink and lost all my benefits. I also only received $7 week in child support.

I currently pay $475 a week in rent but highly likely this will soon increase.

I am wondering what others would do in this situation? Move back to my home? (In a undesirable area 30-40mins from kids school and work), refinance to pay off credit card debt - I have enquired with a broker and really didn’t think spreading remaining mortgage back over 30 years on 6% was a good idea, sell my house and risk being homeless should my landlord kick me out or another suggestion I haven’t thought of? The bank has told me I wouldn’t be approved for another home loan as my income is too low (even if I sold my current house).

I’m usually pretty good at budgeting and saving but can’t seem to get ahead at the moment. Thanks in advance.

CBA cuts loan buffers for some of its refinancing customers

How can I help old mate Lowe? - How can I help old mate Lowe in his pursuit to fight inflation?? Some of the ways I was thinking of:

* going overseas for my annual leave and actively spending there, so I can contribute to the inflation *there*
* rejecting my annual ... See More rm review pay rise
* asking my lender to increase my variable rate

anything else you guys can think of?

Higher paying job = way more stress, what to do? - hi all,

long story short, took a higher paying job after having a cushy 60k job with 3 days a week work from home.

financially I'm doing alright, paying a mortgage with the missus (1k a month each) no ... See More kids either.

but a few months ago I took a higher paying job (82k) and whilst it eases financial pressure, it's created mental health issues for me.

anyone else take a much lower paying job just to avoid any stress? I'm 31 years old and I don't think I can do it for many more years 😂

EDIT: 3 days a week was work from home, the other 2 in office.

Gone from IT to construction (also IT related)

Renters of AusFinance, how much are you paying? - Format example:

$500/week Brisbane 2 Bed Unit

Mortgage hitting 50% of take-home pay - anyone else moved from living alone to having a housemate? - Hi all,

Familiar story I'm sure -- bought a 2br apartment in Melbourne in 2021 (first home owner, in my late 20's, used the govt first home loan deposit scheme to buy with ... See More a 10% deposit without paying LMI). Most of my loan has been fixed @ 1.99% but that's becoming un-fixed in November. Once it becomes un-fixed, my repayments will exceed $2400, which is slightly over 50% of my take-home pay (roughly 30% of my gross pay). I'm single and live alone (with my two cats), and do a mixture of WFH and work from office. I'm on just under 100k but with a pretty sizeable HECS debt so that eats into things. I work for a university with defined pay grades so I can't negotiate a pay rise.

To prepare for my loan becoming un-fixed, the last couple months I've been living as if my repayments are already $2400 and just putting the excess payments as redraw in my variable portion of my loan. It's manageable but only just, and getting pretty difficult -- after my standard groceries/transport/bills/pet food/insurance payments, I've only got a couple hundred dollars per week max as buffer/entertainment/potential savings. Living alone that does make it a bit harder to have a good social life, to go on dates (especially since the early stages of dating are so expensive with coffee or drinks, food, activities), and just save for things like future travel or repairs for my apartment (essentially 6 months after I moved in, body corp found out lots of the balconies are water-damaged and need to be replaced, so I need to pay my contribution of 8k start of next year for my portion of the cost - I want to pay upfront as otherwise they put me on a 7-year loan with 10% interest). Plus my savings have taken a hit the last year with some surgeries I've had to have.

My apartment needs to remain owner-occupied until LVR < 80% (probably another 2 years at least) due to the terms of the first home loan deposit scheme, otherwise I'd be liable for paying LMI now.

With all that context, I'm considering getting a housemate to at least cover some of my costs and wanted to know if anyone has done similar or is considering doing similar? I'm hesitant because my apartment isn't massive so it's definitely going to feel cramped with another person here -- I think it would be different if it was a couple sharing this apartment versus two single people sharing this apartment just on the way that couples use space vs two single people use space. Like, I meal prep on the weekends since I play a lot of sport on weeknights so don't have time to cook during the week, so my fridge is always pretty full -- it's hard to imagine how a second person could fit in with this. That, and having to move my desk into my bedroom as well which is going to be a strain on my work/life balance.

That said it might be something that needs to be done for my financial wellbeing at least for the short-term, so my question is -- if you've done similar, how did it go and any learnings that you can share? Or any other suggestions/advice for things I can look into?