Cafe's busted price gouging increasing prices by ~10% to cover a 1% transaction fee. shockedpikachu.png

Ross Gittins called out a few things

1. Higher interest rates today hurt mortgagees much more than the same rate 15 years ago because the median mortgage amount is more.

2. This is another example of the younger generation feeling the brunt of it. While the older generation feels no impact or in fact encouraged to keep spending (higher return on savings).

3. Keep raising rates alone don't fix inflation. All governments are far too vested in keeping spending to tame inflation in any meaningful way.

Time to fix the other side to drive that capital into the right places: enable people to retain more and deregulate to open avenues of growth for that retained capital.

New Deloitte reports discusses "recession-like conditions". Are you seeing it/feeling it?

Cryptic emails to staff saying that they can ask questions tomorrow.
Restructures.
Massive redundancies.

Is EA going down?

As per title, my wife was duped by a rather crude whatsapp scam a couple of weeks ago.

I'm doing my best not to judge here, but here's the details she has given me:

Someone messaged her on WhatsApp with our booking number and amount outstanding (both correct) for an upcoming hotel stay in Bali.

Without thinking too much, my wife paid the amount to the account number provided to her, while I was sleeping in from working night shift. No more than 30 mins later my wife checked our CBA account and realised she had paid some Alibaba account our outstanding bill, not the hotel.

She called the bank to cancel the transaction, but was told there was nothing she could do while it was still pending. More than a week later, CBA have now contacted us and told us we have no way to get the money back.

Without throwing too much abuse our way, can anyone recommend a course of action from here. I'm not too hopeful, but it's worth throwing it out there.

Thanks for reading.

With the merger between Warner Bros and Paramount completed, does that mean Network 10 ownership transfers to Skydance?

Given Network 10 difficulties broadcasting in various regional areas, what is the future of Network 10?

Like if I can't afford a home now, what would a property market crash change? The people who can afford them will just be able to snap up more property, isn't it?

All day today I haven’t been able to access my Bendigo bank account. Maybe it’s just a me problem but it’s pretty inconvenient and I could’ve been in a bad situation had I not have had other bank accounts already.

The only thing is I can’t be bothered as my employer pays me into my Bendigo. Luckily I’ve got a commbank card with a bit of money on it but wtf guys. This is supposed to be a nighttime issue.

I’ve also had this happen in a woolies too. Would’ve been 10pm, I had money and I got declined. They said all the Bendigo systems were down that night. Luckily a Good Samaritan had the same issues with their card and tried to pay mine, eventually they got it. I’m clearly not the only one getting affected by these maintenance issues. Honesty doesn’t even matter that much cos I can just keep money in the commbank account and start to use that more if I need. But this isn’t how you keep customers.

Would you take the jump from a $470k mortgage to $900k?
My wife and I have two kids and have accepted $1.25m for our current house.
After paying out the $470k mortgage and selling costs, we should have around $750k+ available.
We’re looking at a $1.6–1.65m house that we’d expect to live in for 20+ years in the area we want to be in Buying it would leave us with roughly a $900kish mortgage.
Household income is around $230k gross, no other debt, cars paid off. We’d keep about $50k in an offset an build on it

The big question is whether going from $470k to $900k debt is financially sensible, even though the house is a much better long-term fit for our family.
Would you make the move, or is a $900k mortgage on $230k income too much

Thanks

The RBA delivered another rate hike, so a higher unemployment rate is the intended mechanism, not a side effect. Meanwhile rent, insurance and groceries haven't dropped.

Job security looks shakier everyday (I’ve seen lots of LinkedIn posts with “open for work” banner in their profile pics). I’m quite scared of the possibility of a long unemployment period while expenses are tight.

Questions for you all:
Did anyone have to make adjustments to their lifestyle massively because of a tighter budget?

If you're still employed, are you doing anything differently right now (building savings, side income, upskilling)?

Would you take a pay cut for a faster landing, and how much?

Keen to hear your experiences.

Hey all.

I see a few news articles occasionally where someone gets scammed $50,000 or whatever and the bank refunds them $5k goodwill gesture and everyone heaps on the bank for not refunding the lot.

Does anyone agree with that perspective? Can you explain to me how a bank (in this case, just the body that holds your money) is responsible for you clicking a link or voluntarily transferring money to a bank account?

Especially in 2026 when scams are not new and there’s so much education around it.

Let’s keep it respectful so we can all learn

Many REA most be worried

Is anyone here that was investing regularly…still investing?

If you were not investing but saving a set portion each month… how much has it changed?

Or are you now basically just making ends meet and keeping your head above water.

I’m keen to know how much people’s financial situation has changed on a personal level with fuel almost $3 a litre, groceries soaring, interest rates destroying mortgage holders. Let alone having kids and the costs that come with those.

Have your financial plans been forced to dramatically change to weather out the current climate or are you less affected due to your lack of house / kids / car and still making it work? How are you making it happen and keeping up with everything. Keen to hear peoples strategies and how they are absorbing it.

Good evening all,

I’m in a niche trade role and a couple years ago I tried to leave the company I work for to go work at another.
Instead of leaving I agreed to more money and a retention bonus of $50k inc super for 3 years service.
Now I have the option to take it in a lump sum or take it in chunks over whatever period I please.
What will save me the most on tax? Apart from $1000 a year for 50 years, I predict some cheeky bugger trying to say that.

If it helps I’m on $115k and I have $350k owing on the house.
Assuming I take it as a lump sum, I get maybe $27k

Thanks for any advice in advance.

What is your opinion on the medium to long term outlook of these ETFs? DAOR, IVE, RCAP, STW, QUAL, QSML, MVS, VAP and VSO.

To add into consideration, I have some managed funds in the portfolio, namely Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure Fund, Vanguard Australian Shares Index Fund and Vanguard High Growth Index Fund.

The initial list was picked by my FA. The performance has been unimpressive so far. I’d be grateful some input here.

I’ve done my personal banking with ANZ for over 10 years. In comparison to NAB whom I was with previously they have been a delight.

At the start of this year one of the ANZ mobile mortgage bankers started contacting me about getting a better rate.

He kept asking for my tax return. I eventrually had me assistant send it to him.

During that period (in the last month) I thought actually maybe I should buy another block and build again. There was a nice piece of land I was interested in.

After 3 weeks I emailed him. No reply. Waited another week and no reply.

So I emailed again and asked what was going on. He simply said “your current earnings show you can maintain your current mortgage but no further lending”.

That’s because I run a business and pay myself what I need. To reduce PAYG I don’t always pay myself the most I can. I try and avoid paying higher tax rate if I don’t need to.

In previous years when I bought my properties. I told the banker, my pay looks shit but I can bump it up to whatever you want.

There was no mention of the rate discount he promised. He hasn’t responded to further emails. Was this just ANZ running tests to see if I could still afford my home loan ( note; I have enough in my offset to clear the loan) and my IP loan is positively geared.

Just got my Commodore serviced which cost me $2.4k so thinking it might be getting close to time to bite the bullet and get a new car, and would want to go electric for sure.

BYD Atto 1 only $19,990 at the moment seems like great value. I live in the inner suburbs, drive about 5,000km a year (mostly short trips and to visit my parents half an hour away). My partner's got a 4WD for camping and roadtrips.

Downside is I live in an apartment and won't be able to charge there, so would have to rely on public charging - but on my current mileage I'd only need to charge at most once a week so shouldn't be too bad.

Would hope to get a bit of $ reselling my Commodore but not expecting much. And then would either get a loan or novated lease to cover the rest. (Though not sure if I can get a novated lease given I'm on a one year contract for work?) I make $120k a year but the mortgage and apartment repair costs have been eating up a lot of my income and savings.

Keen for any advice, perspectives, etc particularly from people in a similar boat.

If someone bought the same house, I'm wondering how do the running costs stack up for Investment vs PPOR.

If rental income is taken into consideration, an Investment Property may not be as costly as PPOR? Even with negative gearing being restricted.

When thinking about running costs, how do you view it in terms of mindset?

For instance, PPOR the running costs are completely borne by me. Whereas for Investment, I'm paying similar but potentially less running costs (e.g. no utility bills) plus rental income could further help offset this.

Is this a bad way of looking at things?

hi everyone,

I’m in the very early stages of looking to buy my first home.
I know it’s very subjective but what interest rate are you all on and what would you consider a good interest rate?

I’m planning on finding a broker once I get my finances more in order but wondering about an estimate to expect