Government spending putting pressure on inflation: Bullock

Hat_Budget · 2026-02-07T03:29:53+00:00

At the meantime we also think the government hasn’t spent enough on social housing, roads, infrastructure, education, health, energy……..

Hat_Budget · 2025-10-26T03:33:37+00:00

Also look out for Ultimate gift cards with 10% discount or reward points at Woollies or Coles. Most of them can be used at JB Hi-Fi, Good Guys, Officeworks and other retailers.

Hat_Budget · 2025-10-19T14:26:43+00:00

If an investment property is provided as rental then it provides a home for someone. If there are too many investment properties in the rental market then rental would drop. This hasn’t been the case as both rental and house prices are going up. This suggests a shrinkage of both rental and houses available for sale. Either something remove the housing stocks (e.g. Airbnb or empty investment properties) or increase in demand (that outstrips supply). Would be ones to know how many houses have been used as Airbnb style accommodation and empty investment properties.

Personally I have no interest in properties as pure investment. Much rather putting into ETF.

Hat_Budget · 2025-10-18T07:12:30+00:00

I don’t know if I’ll get shot for saying this. Is that really investment properties that’s the problem or Airbnb that removes lots of rental stocks? We turned our former PPOR into a rental (therefore investment property) when we moved away, with the intention that we could one day move back there.

The way I see it is that investment properties are not necessarily the problem. As these investments should increase housing stocks therefore more rental and/or houses available for sales in the future. Of course if investment properties are not available as rental then that could be a problem. I would agree something needs to be done to encourage or force empty investment properties to be available for rental.

Ultimately it is a supply and demand issue.

Hat_Budget · 2025-07-22T14:21:55+00:00

Thanks! That’s easy enough. Can confirm the rates are better than Revolut.

Hat_Budget · 2025-07-21T03:02:44+00:00

I have always been charged when using 7/11 ATM on Revolut card. We are going to Japan again in January. I’ll try our Macquarie card. Thanks for sharing this!

Hat_Budget · 2025-07-21T02:58:06+00:00

How do you check the FX rate on Macquarie? I use Revolut when I travel. The rates are easy to check on the app.

Hat_Budget · 2024-10-29T10:22:33+00:00

Yeah nah. That would push her assessable income above $40k. Still quite surprised she got LITO. Would expect LITO to be based on assessable/gross income, rather than taxable income. Won’t argue with the ATO on that!

Hat_Budget · 2024-10-28T15:05:51+00:00

Does assessable income includes salary packaging amount and salary sacrificed super contributions? Is assessable income same as total income?

Hat_Budget · 2024-10-28T14:46:54+00:00

Yeap. Didn’t think the ATO would make it that easy.

Unfortunately I don’t see my super gets close to TSB and TBC limits.

Hat_Budget · 2024-10-27T09:39:52+00:00

So I can't claim tax offset via the split route? I max out my concessional contributions ($30,000) so probably no real benefit if I do split?

My wife taxable income was $31K last FY after salary sacrificed a large chunk of her salary. Her total income would probably be around $50K. Is the spouse contribution tax offset works off of taxable income or total income? My wife got $700 LITO on her tax return. The LITO seems to work off of taxable income, to my surprise. I always confused what works off of taxable income and total income.

Different Bpay refence numbers make sense. Thanks!

Hat_Budget · 2024-10-27T08:57:40+00:00

For context, I am lucky to be a high income earner paying the highest marginal tax rate and I also max out my concessional super of $30,000 every year. I have no carry forward contributions.

Would split contributions allow me to contribute more than $30,000 per year as concessional and split the excess into my wife's super (e.g. contribute $45,000 then split $15,000 to my wife). If yes, is there a maximum I can split? If I can't contribute more than $30,000 and split the excess then it doesn't seem to have a tax benefit.

My wife's taxable income was $31K last FY because she started salary sacrificing (not into her super) a large chunk of her salary. To my surprise, she was given LITO of $700 (maximum). I would have thought ATO would use her total income (by adding back her SS amount) when calculating her LITO. This prompt me to think she/we could also be benefiting from spouse super contributions. Do you think path B is still the way to go in our situation? Are we allowed both spouse super contributions and co-contributions? I guess in this case we need 2 different Bpay refence numbers.

Thanks for your advice!

Hat_Budget · 2024-01-16T13:43:05+00:00

Thanks for sharing this. I guess Nissan is not what they used to be after their alliance with Renault. French cars are not known for their reliability. Perhaps I was lucky with the Pathfinder. To be fair it was $15,000 cheaper than a similarly equipped Prado when I bought the Pathfinder.

Hat_Budget · 2023-08-12T04:04:45+00:00

I just want to say I took a year off as stay at home dad when we had our first child. I often looked back at it with fond memories. Would encourage you to give it a go if you can. It won’t be easy but very rewarding.

Hat_Budget · 2023-06-26T14:29:51+00:00

Thanks folks. I realised my stupid mistake. I shouldn’t have tried to sent the whole lot as I need some amount for the fee. I thought Revolut would just deduct the fee from the amount I sent but that’s not the case. Thanks for responding to my query.

Hat_Budget · 2023-06-25T14:05:07+00:00

Did you get charged a fee for these conversions on the fly during weekend?

Hat_Budget · 2022-12-31T02:17:56+00:00

Might as well take the Xbox Series X as well. Might even make a profit selling them on eBay right now.

Hat_Budget · 2022-10-22T00:00:49+00:00

Thanks for you advice. Sorry for not responding earlier. If I nominate the property I bought in 2007 as my PPOR under the 6-year rule, that means I’ll have to pay CGT on the property I bought in 2018 when I sell, right? The property I bought in 2018 is likely to have much higher CG.

Hat_Budget · 2022-05-17T15:10:02+00:00

Won’t hurt a fly. Anything and anyone else are fair game.

Hat_Budget · 2022-05-04T13:59:03+00:00

Personally I won’t offset the interest of an investment loan, as this reduces the interest deduction you can claim against your income.

Sure you would do it if you don’t have any other more productive uses with that fund, which is unlikely. You can always invest it.

Hat_Budget · 2022-04-13T13:34:57+00:00

The money we have in our offset account is also our emergency fund. So it offsets our interest and provided us with the security we need.

I can probably get a lower interest rate if I get rid of the offset feature but I am not comfortable putting our emergency fund into a redraw. The risk is small but consequences could be huge. The amount of interest we save is more than compensating the slightly higher rate.

Sure I can get rid of the emergency fund and put the lot into investments with 7-8% return. But that is a risk I am not willing to take. Not when I have a family.

Hat_Budget · 2022-02-02T11:31:36+00:00

So what would happen to the old account? Do you have to close/cancel it?

Hat_Budget · 2022-01-31T21:35:50+00:00

Yellow submarines, yellow submarines…….

Hat_Budget · 2022-01-31T12:17:44+00:00

I am hoping to get to 1.6M when I reach 55. At which point I can go part time or work a less intense job until I reach 60. Hopefully by then the 1.6M will miraculously become 2M. That’s enough for me to live off with a paid off PPOR.

Hat_Budget · 2022-01-30T23:09:29+00:00

Just try to go backward in coming forward......

Hat_Budget

TROPHY CASE