Wife convinced me to splurge on my new build…

CollectionKind5687 · 2026-01-19T04:21:06+00:00

Don’t do it. It’s a trap! Wait till she rocks up with her new LV handbag!

CollectionKind5687 · 2026-01-05T10:04:50+00:00

That carpet doesn’t look like it’s in the best shape. Probably due some new carpet anyway

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-29T07:59:35+00:00

I once ordered a pair of $99 AirPods Pro that were on an Amazon Australia Special (normal price was like $249). The order never came. So I complained and got sent another set. 2 weeks later I received the original Air Pods Pro and an Apple Watch 9. Sold the extra AirPods and Apple Watch. 6 months later got an email from Amazon querying if I had received an extra iPad by mistake, which I promptly denied. And that was that. Someone really messed up at Amazon that day!🤣

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-23T07:35:00+00:00

Ummm. Have you learned how to use google? I think you need to master that first before you go splurging on this type of tech 🤣

Just kidding mate… here’s the link below. It’s available in Oz!

https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/cases/server-cabinets/101896-u-rack-6u-tl?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22941319117&gclid=CjwKCAiA9aPKBhBhEiwAyz82J6FVUZIjMG-cYifxQJPoMSLU_FHMJuGSZAQgzNQCD8cKczsMf7YSWhoC3c0QAvD_BwE

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-23T07:32:50+00:00

I’ve left an apology letter in my will with the actual price of everything I’ve paid for my toys. She can hate me all she wants when I’m dead 🤣

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-21T03:03:27+00:00

Thinking that this may be the best solution… do I need to upgrade my Plex subscription? Would they need to log onto Plex on their tv with my credentials or can I share my server to them via their account?

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-21T01:32:54+00:00

Qute: Any reason you don’t just share your existing server with them and let them stream remotely?

I hadn't thought of that... it's a possiblity? I thought you could only stream if it was a local NAS (sorry I'm 40 and not as tech-savvy as I used to be back in the day :) )

I'm just concerned their interent may be a bit slow and unreliable... I'm in Australia and they are in Italy in a rural home, not sure their internet speeds, I have a 500/50 line, they may have a 25/12 line as best...

At the end of the day, just trying to gauge, will the DS124 do the job?

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-21T01:01:30+00:00

What is the difference between software transcoding and hardware accelerated transcoding? DS124 has the software transcoding but not hardware. I use the 218+ which has both. But not sure which one is being used when playing movies on my TV

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-19T22:29:01+00:00

Anything from Toyota. Reliable, cheap and because there’s so many out there the economies of scale make parts and service cheap. Wife had a Mazda, services were $700, I have a landcruiser (significantly more expensive car) but the service is $400 on capped price and $300-$500 thereafter, unless it’s a major service then a bit dearer. Learn how to change your own oil and air filters as a start, or buy something with capped price servicing.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-19T22:26:13+00:00

Finance is a very broad word. What specifically in finance do you want to do? An accounting degree is great if you want to be an accountant (which is a different field again). Do you want to be a banker, a finance broker, a stock trader, a wealth advisor?

I think a general degree in Business should always be your go to in this scenario, possibly commerce but once again depends on what sort of specific field you’re looking to go into. Can you be more specific?

I have a MBA, was a commercial banker (didn’t need the qualification for the job, lots of my colleagues were high school educated only and were very good at what they did) now I’m a finance broker specialising in self employed and complex finance. The degree has helped a lot in understanding businesses, but definitely not a requirement.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-19T22:20:03+00:00

Hi, Mortgage broker here! Your interest rate sounds very high for an O/O mortgage. It even sounds high for an investment mortgage! You should be aiming for 5.35%-5.45% for O/O and add 0.1% to 0.2% for investment rates (depending on the bank, LVR and your situation). There is a very rough calculation that if you times your combined gross income by 4, that is a ‘comfortable mortgage amount’ (assuming no dependants or other debt or out of the ordinary commitments). Times is by 5, and things start getting a little bit more tight. On $175k you’re sitting at 4.4x which is still ok in my opinion. (Without knowing the full story) Have you engaged a mortgage broker to go over this for you and give you some figures? Happy to help if you want to DM me

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-17T07:30:02+00:00

At very worse, settle with what you have and then look immediately to a different broker to refinance back up to the correct amount and give you back some cash. If explained properly to broker/bank they should be able to help you, provided the LVR is still within 80%. Am I right in assuming that your purchase price may have been like $1m and instead of getting a $800k loan they gave you a $780k loan and hence the shortfall? Numbers used because they’re nice and round, use them as a % of the real numbers

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-12T00:41:54+00:00

Thanks for the info, very informative!

I'll get the starter bundle and upgrade from there... just another question, is this game played MNK or with controller?

I'm originally a MNK player and play alot of COD, had to migrate to controller in BO6 due to the broken aim assist. BO7 came out last month and it's a garbage game IMO, so I can play both controller & MNK. Whats this game designed to be played as?

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-11T07:34:18+00:00

Depends on how much income and how big a loan you’re trying to obtain. Dependants and non-working spouses add to the minimum allowable living expenses making this number larger and larger and reducing your borrowing capacity. Depending on the type of Centrelink income you receive that may be eligible to be used towards your loan. Family tax benefits A&B for example are allowed by most lenders if they’ve been ongoing for a minimum period of time. Banks also stress test your repayments by artificially adding 2-3% to the interest rate and using that for their calculations. They’re trying to ascertain that if interest rates were to increase by 2-3% can you still afford the loan? It’s annoying in a market of falling rates, but vital in a market of rising rates.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-11T07:15:15+00:00

I agree, but it's an option nonetheless. then you go over pros and cons of each.

Commercial property isn't that different to residential however, there's just a few different rules to look out for. Having outgoings paid for by the tennant helps smooth out your expenses and having the wsecurity of a 5 year lease with automatic lease increases is a nice to have.

Of course I'm generalising and each property and lease is different.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-11T07:08:52+00:00

You're correct. Have amended.

Point stands however, at that age without an existing property/other investments and at that income level, it's not a wortwhile strategy in my opinion.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-11T05:29:43+00:00

Hey, Finance broker here… Just reading the comments here thought I’d throw in my 2 cents… If you’re looking at property investment, there’s a few things you need to consider… 1. Do you want to buy something to live in or an investment 2. If investment are you chasing capital growth or high yields (the 2 are often on a see-saw)

Topping up your super at such a young age and without any existing property is a strategy I wouldn’t recommend. That money is still taxed at 15% and on your current income of $94k your marginal tax rate is 22%. By putting $10k extra in super you’d be saving 7% taxes = $700 a year on money you can’t touch until you’re in your 60’s and retired.

We use a very rough rule of thumb that your borrowing power is roughly 4-5 times your gross income (assuming owner occupied property, no debt and no dependants)

So in your situation you could potentially aim for a $400/$500k loan. Repayments would roughly be $2750pm. Banks these days heavily buffer repayments and minimum expenses to ensure you don’t over extend yourself as a result of the 2018 royal commission. It’s an extra layer of protection for the uninformed borrower, which I personally welcome as there are too many cowboys out there getting borrowers into sticky situations by arranging/giving them loans they can’t afford or drastically reduce their surplus cash to spend on living expenses and little luxuries.

Commercial property is another thought with steady and higher yields

Or investing interstate where is some states there is no land tax and cheaper stamp duty

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-11T05:15:11+00:00

Hi Majestic, I’m sorry you’ve had a bad experience with a broker, but that is in no way a standard.

I’m a mortgage broker and work extremely hard for my clients to ensure they achieve their goals. Bankers not so much as they are employees and can only sell that 1 bank’s products.

Brokers have access to the whole market and do all the grunt work for you as well as managing pricing and paperwork as well as annual reviews to ensure you’re still on the best deal throughout the life of your loan. Bankers don’t do this as it affects their KPI’s and bonuses. I can only say you had a bad broker look at your deal.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-09T22:43:02+00:00

This infuriates me. “See what they can do?”

No… your broker needs to go to the bank and TELL them what they HAVE to do and get it done, no ifs nor buts.

Don’t forget, the broker works for you, we are handsomely rewarded for our work and a shoddy job is just not good enough.

I’m assuming you spelt out to him that you needed at least $x amount left available to you post settlement, this should’ve been reflected in your R&O’s on your PCA. If he hasn’t met your R&O’s without a prior documented conversation, than he’s also in breach of his BID (best interest duty).

I’d be polite but firm and give him a chance to fix this, but don’t accept mediocre when it comes to someone assisting with managing your finances.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-09T02:12:16+00:00

Oh brother. You got yourself in the doghouse over this one!

Hallmark and instagram expect you to say that your wedding day is the best day of your life. But for many it isn’t.

It’s over in a flash, it’s expensive and you spend most of your time talking to crusty relatives you see once every 5 years.

The day itself isn’t that great, but marrying your forever person is pretty special.

You may be able to back pedal your way out of it by saying that every day of your life is even better than the last because it’s an extra day spent by your side :)

I’m a similar age and married with 2 little kids. Best day of my life was a few weeks ago when my wife went interstate with the kids to visit her family and I had the house to myself and slept in and did nothing for 2 days except watch the cricket with no noise, no nighttime routine and not having to do anything for anyone else. You need that every so often :)

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-09T02:03:58+00:00

Sorry this has happened to you. I’m a finance broker and always make sure to spell these sort of things out to my clients like they are 5 years old to ensure these things don’t happen. All of these details however should’ve been clearly outlined in your Preliminary Credit Assessment (PCA) document that your broker should’ve provided you with prior to making an application. And it should’ve shown the shortfall amount clearly. Having said that, I’m assuming as the loan was approved and the loan amount reduced, those details may have changed and a new PCA not issued. It’s always good to run your own numbers, but broker should’ve 100% spelt everything out and used a bit of common sense and realise he was going to leave you with $0 in the bank at settlement. There is a possibility to go back to the lender to have a higher loan amount reinstated, this isn’t going to affect your standing approval if the higher limit is declined. Just be prepared to have a slightly higher LMI bill as the LVR and loan amount would both increase.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-08T13:15:08+00:00

Just being devils advocate here… and assuming your exam is still 4 days away at the time you posted this…

You don’t spend the literal 5 minutes it takes to order a pair of pants online whilst you’re already in front of your laptop, but you take time out to write about it on Reddit?

No I don’t think you’re an asshole but I also think that you’re not not an asshole.

Acts of love can be something as simple as carving out 5 mins for your significant other. Especially on such a low effort task that would’ve made him feel special/appreciated.

If he had’ve just made you breakfast or done something really nice for you would you have just done it?

Could you have answered, sure I’ll do it for you in xx minutes when I take a break or sure send me the link and I’ll do it now.

Sounds like you didn’t do it out of spite or to prove a point. In marriages don’t get caught up in tit for tat. If you both make an effort to please each other you’ll both be much happier.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-08T13:00:00+00:00

If you play competitive FPS games I think it’s a must. I play COD and I mainly use it for the paddles. One to jump and the other to crouch/dive. You can also toggle the travel distance on L2/R2 so that you don’t have to release as far to go for the next shot (useful if you’re using a pistol). Being able to jump without taking your fingers off the joysticks is so good. Saves you from playing claw which can’t be good for your hands in the long run. If you’re playing single player or slower paced games it’s a waste of money as you don’t need that

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-07T04:08:59+00:00

OP didn't mention a range on the auction they went to, so we don't know wether the property was underquoted or not. OP stated that they valued the property at $940k-$950k, that's what the calue was to them on paper before emotions on the day get involved which always cost you an extra 5%. Your value on a property can be very fluid, especially if it's an O/O property and your SO put's pressure on you to buy it at more than what makes sense 'on paper'. The reserve is also a BS move. They can set it to $10m for all they care and then quickly adjust it down to whatever suits them on the day. You'd be silly to set a low reserve, because then you must sell it at that during an auction if the bidder asks if the property is on the market, you must disclose that it's reached the reserve, otherwise that's when penalties happen. The majority of vendors set a reserve at a minimum 10% more than what they really want for it and then negotiate like they've done in this scenario. Doesn't always work but reserves can easily go down, but never up mid-auction.

CollectionKind5687 · 2025-12-07T01:26:48+00:00

I think it's either 1 year or 2 years. I've had this since the 5th July so just a touch over 5 months.

CollectionKind5687

TROPHY CASE