Hi folks,

In light of the recent immigration boom, i'd be curious to know what what people think or have experienced in Australia.

I'm a kiwi myself and travel often to australia for work + family. My interactions are low outside of a small bubble but in NZ everyone paints Australia as the go-to place for wealth, life and career.

Is it really the case? do all migrants that come to Australia ( from whatever country) have a good time/are more successful relative to being in there own home country.

EDIT: Bankwest worked. Thank you!

My Bank Australia and Zip Pay were both rejected. I have a feeling the answer is "You're screwed, sorry" but I still wanna get a zero fee credit card purely that I can use to buy R18+ games on Steam.

No intention of using it. Just want the cheapest, easiest credit card I can get that will let me prove to Steam I'm over 18.

Cheers.

O Captain! My Captain!

Put this together before the Health Dept's specialist fees consultation closes (12pm Monday 19 Oct). The survey questions focus on what doctors charge and barely ask about insurers.

Have your say here:

https://consultations.health.gov.au/medicare-benefits-and-digital-health-division/options-to-address-excessive-fees/

Sample answer (please put it in your own words, identical submissions tend to get counted as one):

These questions focus on what doctors charge. They barely ask who gains. Your own paper (section 6.4) says withholding the Medicare rebate would leave patients out of pocket while the doctor keeps the full fee. Rule it out. Taxpayers give insurers $7.56 billion a year, and insurers made $1.12 billion profit in the nine months to March 2026. None of this is in the questions. Before penalising patients, make insurers publish where every premium dollar goes, and require them to pay back at least 90 cents in every dollar.

Not affiliated with any party, insurer or lobby group. Sources are on the last image, with links in the comments. Happy to be corrected.

I am young and work full time, earning solid money.

Up until a few months ago, I was dealing with a severe gambling addiction, which led me to applying for several loans at random places like cash converters, for sums of around $3000-$4000.
I have taken the necessary steps and put boundaries in place, and have been sober from gambling for 3 months.

My car was recently written off.
Needing a new one, I called my bank seeking a used car loan.
My application got declined, and I am confident that its from my credit check, stating that I have had several loan applications.

This is detrimental for me, and i am extremely desperate, needing a car for work, school, etc.
My parents do well for themselves, would it be worth seeing if I could potentially have a guarantor in this kind of situation?

Open to any and all advice, please!

How much do you reckon Coles and Woolworths make from paper bags alone? They’re now 30 cents each, and if the average shopper buys 2–5 bags a week, that adds up pretty quickly across millions of transactions. Even after taking out the cost of making the bags, I wonder how much they’re actually pocketing from this. Has anyone got any figures or estimates?

I bring my own bags but the major supermarkets have released publicly available data that shows that the sales of these bags are equivalent to 2-5 sold per customer per week my guess would be this is something to do with home delivery that you cannot opt out

Ok Tightwads I need some strategies, with the rise in costs of everything (I don't need to break it down because we are all feeling it). I need help.

What is everyone cutting and more importantly what are some hacks for saving ? The tighter the better.

Spare a thought for all these poor REA that now have to actually work to sell a house.

I am currently with Up for personal banking and I love it, recently set up a Westpac Business One account for my Sole Trader business and I'm not a fan so far.

I don't like that when I take transactions on Saturday's and Sunday's, the transaction shows as the settlement date on the following Monday (but I can get over this), what I am mainly looking for is a bank account that will show the transaction timestamp (for incoming PayIDs), in my nature of business at market stalls it's very handy for me to be able to cross check my transactions using their timestamps on the day.

This seems like such a simple thing and I have no idea why this would be left out of a banking app.

Can anyone who uses a NAB business account or any other business accounts confirm if they have this feature?

Long time lurker here and have noticed how people were calling the recent rate hikes as the end of the world(ok maybe not verbatim!), yet here I am on the Gold Coast on a Thursday and restaurants can't seem to catch a break, pretty much every fastfood/casual dine/fine dine place I've passed thru in the last 10 days were running on 70%+ occupancy. This doesn't make sense, everyday I'm seeing fellow aussies posting how their mortgage payments are eating into their budgets yet consumer spending hasn't decreased meaningfully. I get that we are in a K- shaped economy and people on the higher end of the K will spend but I don't think that every second person here at Goldy is in that tax bracket.

Can anyone explain what's going on?

I'm a 24M living at home with my family. I currently pay 75 per week for board and live about a 40 minute drive away from Monash University where I recently graduated. I don't really mind doing this drive daily as I enjoy listening to music and I'd guess it adds about another $70 per week in fuel expenses at recent prices. On top of that I pay for my own food, phone bills etc.

I've had a somewhat unsuccessful gap year (intending to gain some professional experience, nothing really worked out) and will go back for my final year of study to complete my honours year in economics, with intentions to definitely be out and seeking a full time job by 2028.

My income isn't anything amazing right now, as a base earning about 5-600 a week, although through various methods I've managed to average an income of more than 1000 a week so could reasonably maintain an income of nearly $56k next year as a student if I keep this up. One consideration though is that fulltime honours will be intense. One way I've been trying to prepare has been doing a lot of early research into my ideal honours thesis project, to hopefully reduce total workload next year or just mean better quality output for less effort.

Now to the situation: I'm considering moving out next year and finding a 2 bedroom place with my older brother, ideally for less than 300 each per week each and somewhere closer to Melbourne cbd. He's really keen on this idea and I think we'd both really enjoy living together fulltime again.

The reason for moving is that my younger brother is planning to move out next year so I'll be the only one home with my dad and step mum. Part of this decision is because the vibes with my step mum has been really off recently. I already try to do a lot to accomodate her but I've gotten to the point recently where I think sticking around might be pissing her off, especially with my younger brother gone (her son) who has been my main friend while living at the house, I fear that the vibes could just continue to be pretty crap. For reference, the vibes have been pretty off for what feels like most of this year so far. It's not terrible, but not all that pleasant to come home to every day.

My question is, would this be a smart decision? Perhaps obviously not financially but for the sake of life enjoyability? Or would biting the bullet for a bit longer in order to continue enjoying the great financial flexibility be the wiser option. Keen to hear people's thoughts!

hey guys,

im 21 F, and i’ve consistently had about 1.5k in zip debt since the age of 18.

i got basically kicked out of home at 17, and have barely made ends meet since then so have just constantly been in the cycle of paying some off, then being short on money because of payments, so then having to use it again.

does any one have similar experiences? do you have advice? i feel like such a failure because im so young and already have debt.

thank you

My partner (35m) and I (36f) have been in a relationship for 10 months. I have been renting for 3 years prior to meeting him. He and I are in different financial situations. I finally see a chance to make a move on a small unit or townhouse in the outer suburbs using the government help to buy scheme (this scheme does have genuine downsides but after careful consideration I have found it is right for me based on my feelings, personality and values). He on the other hand is in credit card debt with little savings and he told me that his credit rating isn't the best. When I met him, he was living at home with his parents. He has been living with me over the last 6 months and not contributing to rent or bills. He buys groceries here and there and is loving in other ways and really spoils me on special occassions. He has made offers to help me when he can. I've been feeling a lot of resentment towards him lately. I told him of my interest to get out of the rental market and secure my own place. I worry about my financial future and security. I feel vulnerable as a 36 year old female continuously paying rent. He says he doesn't want me to buy my own place and that and if I proceed with that decision then he will not stay in my own home with me. He has the firm belief that couples should buy together, but, beliefs and financial facts are different. I am feeling really torn and don't know what to do. He says that he will be ready in 12 months to buy with me and that we should buy together but I am not optimistic given his income, work ethic, and his spending and saving habits. Especially when I look at his pattern living with me over the last several months. At times early in our relationship, he has asked me for money before for his bills until I drew up some form boundaries and now he doesn't ask. He often worries about his bills. I don't know where his money goes. He has resentment towards his parents for not helping him enough. I do love him and care about him deeply, but I feel like I shouldn't have to delay my goals just because he is not ready and for a relationship this soon. I worked really hard and made a lot of sacrifices to have the base I do now. He wants us to move and rent an apartment somewhere else as we both heavily dislike where I am living now. He wouldn't be able to afford to rent an apartment on his own. However, with his finances I am worried about signing up for a lease with him and risk paying 2.3k+ per month for us if he fails to pay his share, and losing away a portion of my income that I will never get back and delaying my goals in the process. What do you think I should do?

Hi guys, my wife and I just bought our first apartment in July with an $880k loan. With the size of the loan the recent rate rise has stretched up and another forecasted is worrying. Would it be worth talking to lenders and see if anyone can do better than what we have at the moment?
I saw someone comment this recently so thought I’d ask. Thanks in advance for any advice

I have an 'Annual Tax Statement' and a 'CGT Statement' from betashares direct for the year ended 30 June 2026. The two documents list completely different numbers against the tax code 18H (total current year capital gains) and 18A (net capital gain), and the CGT statement lists capital losses. How do I know what number to give the ATO?

Also, there's some capitals gains listed as discounted on the tax statement even though I've owned the units for less than a year. What's going on there?

I spoke at an event and the biller is asking for my public liability insurance. It seems like the insurance is more than I am being paid.

Are there any cheap public liability insurances for one off, individuals giving a presentation at an event...

Searching has been a nightmare, any help would be appreciated.

I currently hold a low income healthcare card as I'm a full-time student and am unemployed. I recently got a job at my uni's student life office, which is casual (most likely would be 3-4 hours a week on a regular basis) but pays around $43/h. I am intellectually and physically disabled so I rely heavily on this card to buy several types of medication regularly, and I am worried that I will not be able to apply again when it expires in February. I know there is information available on the Services NSW website but I am struggling to understand and hoping someone could put it in simple terms for me.

Thank you in advance!

I'm a first year Bachelor of Commerce student right now, and I'm running into issues where I'm learning financial theory, but I'm missing a lot of real-world context when it comes to discussions. Part of this is that, because of the Adelaide Uni merger and some poor scheduling, I've been forced to take program electives for second-year students. I feel like I'm lacking baseline understanding of finance and investing, and am sort of playing catch-up. Especially when there are discussions about real-world companies and situations, and I feel I should know more than I do.

Was wondering how people here keep up-to-date with financial news, and how they keep it entertaining? If there are shows, podcasts, or books you'd recommend, or enjoy?

Resources for independently learning financial theory would be even moreso appreciated, but I don't think those are quite as popular, lol.

Hello. Im 52 F who loves her job so plans to work until 65. I have about 28K in various ETFs and want to buy a more Asia focused ETF. Which one(s) are good for a 10year plus investor. Ive looked at ASIA and AIA but I’m sure there are others.

This question is to those of you that have done a few more rotations around the sun. I've been in the work force for only15 or so years but it feels like for as long as I've been working, every industry has been having issues with pay raises. Teachers, APS Workers, Nurses, Construction workers.

Obviously negotiation is always involved with awards, but it makes me wonder if larger raises were the norm say 20+ years ago?

What was income growth like 20 years ago compared to what we have today? Is it essentially just the same?

I am just curious.

Does anyone know a website where you can calculate savings from an offset account but can update it as you put more money in? Found a couple of banks that have them on their websites but they aren’t exactly what I’m looking for. I’m sure there’s a way to do it in excel and I’ll resort to watching YouTube to figure it out but I’m not an excel kinda person. Just looking for a way to see week by week how much I’ll be shrinking my loan by buffing the offset account.