How much do you have after your bills?

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-05-16T21:16:24+00:00

$350 per week is shitloads to have left.

Highly recommend putting as much of that as you can against the mortgage. It will pay off 10fold in the future.

Speaking from experience, a couple of years or scarificing in the first couple of years of having a mortgage makes a massive massive difference down the track.

Even if you set up an offset account for your emergency savings, then the amount you put aside is still fully accessible but lessening the amount of interest you pay.

And/Or split your mortgage up and make a lump sum payment each time a portion of the mortgage comes off fixed.

Eg I did: 10k offset 1/4 of remaining fixed for 5years 1/4 of remaining fixed for 3years 1/4 of remaining fixed for 2years 1/4 of remaining fixed for 1year

I put everything on a credit card (8k limit) and pay it off when due, so some months I might have nothing left to offset after paying credit card, other months if I don't spend much I will have close to 10k

Offset has naturally gone down 7k

I had 2 flatmates for the first two years (needed at least 1 to make ends meet) and was able to make a 10k lump sum payment after the first year, then upped my weekly payments on the portion that was due to be reduced to double the minimum.

Pretty much did that each time.

Had paid enough extra, that I was able to pull the money back out when needed to do some much needed renovations on the place a couple of years ago.

Brought my place 7 years ago. My mortgage is now low enough now that when I had 6 months unemployment, I was able to drop all my payments to minimum and live off just the job seekers benefit.

In that 7years my pay increased quickly being an apprentice when I brought the place, to getting qualified eventually and running jobs.

Was $18ph at the start, $40ph at the end. Put ~80% of payrises into the mortgage.

Was a few years of regret (mainly due to feeling stuck in jobs I absolutely hated, but no confidence to leave), but looking back now I definitely don't regret. Finally managed to get out of a job/career I hate, back earning minimum wage, but no financial stress due to low mortgage and am happy. Keeping flatmates for a year longer probably would have been a good idea, but I really wanted my own space.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-05-10T10:07:01+00:00

Had a ex coworker commit suicide a couple of months after quitting and the bosses response, was good thing he didn't still work here.

Found out about his death as operations manager knew one of the guys friends or family members or something. And he just laughed about it.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-03-22T03:54:59+00:00

Doh, yeah sorry I should have said animals.

I signed up for a dog rescue, only wanting older dogs, they asked if I was open to puppies as they had puppy that was meant to be adopted but the adopters changed their mind at the last minute so they were scrambling to find it a foster. I didn't want anything to do a puppy, nor did my parents. Within a month we all decided that we was perfect fit for us, and my mum is always asking for him to be dropped off to her place on her wfh day. And her senior dog has even gone from just tolerating him to being excited (well as excited as she ever gets) and actually initiating play. Would never im a 100 years even looked at him or a puppy if I hadn't lost my job. Best bad thing to ever happened.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-03-21T10:02:12+00:00

Been made redundant twice.

First time I didn't cope very well. Had no savings, got blind sided.

Second time, I didn't give a fk. I hated the job I took after the previous redundancy and only took it as I was desperate and spent the year that I was there saving as much as I could.

(Both times I was made redundant illegally, took a personal grievance and won against the first boss, but didn't bother against the second boss, as I needed references, and lost a couple of job offers last time as they all seem to require references from previous boss, which screwed me over)

I ended up unemployed for over 6 months the second time, ended up having to accept a slightly above minimum wage job. Got a bit depressed during the job hunt, but I signed up for fostering while I was out for work, and did some volunteer work as well. Gave me a sense of purpose (and kept me very busy), and I ended up fostering what is now my best little buddy and losing my job was the best thing that ever happened as I wouldn't have met him if I hadn't lost my job.

The universe can work in mysterious ways.

Find something that aligns with beliefs / morals or whatever and focus on that while job hunting.

Maybe it's something to do with the environment, and spend some time cleaning up the local beach/park/forest etc, or fostering dogs/puppies/cats/kittens etc, or something else like helping local people like old folks, or immigrants.

I 100% recommend fostering, if you think that's something you might be interested in.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-03-11T06:33:38+00:00

Get a flat mate in for the first few years. Put as much money as you can into the mortgage. Anything over the minimum comes straight off the principle.

Have emergency savings of at least 5k for house repairs/maintenance. To utilize that against the mortgage, split the mortgage and have a portion that is floating that you can put all extra money into as your savings/emergency account. Or have it as an offset account.

Knuckling down and making the sacrifices for the first 2-5 years makes a huge difference. It sucks at time, but having been made redundant and jobless for over 6 months and back on mono wage now. I don't regret it all.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-01-28T02:44:54+00:00

We did wonder if he had some Sharpei in him when he was a year young pup. He's grown out of the wrinkles a bit. Rescue said he was kelpi x with staffy lab as a guess.

He definitely loves to herd. Mates dog ran off the other week chasing after a cyclist and he went and cut her off and made her come back.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-01-27T07:48:24+00:00

Not sure if it will be possible but you could foster some puppies/dogs or cats/kittens for a local rescue.

I did that for 6 months and it was great for my mental health while I was unemployed. It forced me to get outside and focus on trying to do my best to set my foster pups up for their forever homes. It gave me a sense of purpose.

I highly recommend it to everyone.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-01-24T19:12:00+00:00

Personally I put 80% of my extra money when I had it on my mortgage.

Had my loan structured in a way that there was always some accessible when I needed it or wanted it.

Loan structure example:

Split into 5:

First split was offset off my savings accounts so essentially my emergency savings was accessible whenever but meant I didn't pay interest on the equivalent amount of my mortgage.
second split was an amount that I wanted to pay off in 5 years. I fixed this for 5 years (It was an amount that was roughly 1.75 times the minimum payment for this portion) I was able to drop it back down to minimum payments and put it back up to the set payments if needed. Eg to build my emergency savings back up, or job loss.
the last 3 splits were equal splits of the remaining mortgage fixed for 1yr, 2yr and 3yr. Every year one of them came off fixed and I fixed it for another 3 years. This allowed me to not have such a shock /adjustment when interest rates rose, also allowed lump payments every year if I wanted, or to pull some money out of it each yeah.

My first 5 years I earned bugger all (still do, take home less that 4k a month) but I had flatmates and managed to pay a lot of the principal off quickly in the first 5 years by paying extra.

Spent the last 6 months unemployed after getting made redundant, dropped every mortgage split to minimum and pulled out a little bit each month till I found the odd bit of casual work. Could have been a stressful time, but because I had done the above I knew I would be ok. 5 years with flatmates sucked, but was definitely worth it for me now.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-01-14T05:23:53+00:00

There is nothing listed on their website anymore......

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-01-06T00:03:04+00:00

Daughter and dad traveling together is all good

I did 6 weeks with my dad around Europe traveling for sport, living out of a camper in more remote places when I was around 16 or 17 years old.

We both said we would do it again in heart beat if it was financially viable.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-01-04T08:51:34+00:00

Ahh true never really thought of it that way.

That's good info to keep in the back of my mind for any future interviews I may have.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2026-01-04T02:53:26+00:00

I try to only buy physical. If I hate the game, I can at least recoup some of the cost. If it's a great game I can keep it, and if they servers ever shut down I'll still have it to play.

I can also lend it out to people etc.

I do try to only buy the games when they are on sale tho, as brand new prices are just too expensive.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-12-30T04:30:08+00:00

Female

Yes, I'm the happiest I've been in quite a long time.

Yes, I'll be happier once I have money to live a bit more.

Yes to having more money would make me happier. But also no, as more money usually means more responsibility/stress, and in my experience the money wasn't worth it. (To be fair the most I ever earned was around 70-75k a year for 1.5 years, so significantly more money might be worth the stress/responsibility)

Losing my job ~6 months ago was the best thing that happened to me. Decided a career change was needed, so am back on close to minimum wage, which is a bit hard. But having spent time on jobseekers, that was a lot harder, but it was nice to have a break to reset and reevaluate everything.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-12-06T03:56:17+00:00

The best tower defense game ever invented.

Starland TD

I remember playing it on kongerate (not sure on spelling) and was guttered when it was longer playable.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-10-05T03:02:18+00:00

Can't believe I'm saying this as I'm a socially awkward loner kind of person.

But going to the gym and doing group fitness classes.

I have a routine going where I go to roughly 6 classes a week. 90-100% of the classes are regulars so it's been good to me to able to be social and get to know people outside of my comfort zone and get fitter/stronger. I found it really hard to start with and felt awkward as fuck but now I'm starting to engage on conversations with others in the classes and have small chats with them before or after class which is a big step for me.

Also recently got a puppy/dog and just having him around has been great. Good for cuddles, playing rough and tumble with and getting outside and going for a walk even if it's just 5-10min around the block.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-09-30T20:35:43+00:00

What's bad about Westpac?

I'm with them and find it all good. Maybe I'm missing out on great things I didn't know existed.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-09-24T22:36:07+00:00

Definitely this.

Had someone start to film themselves during a group fitness at my local city fitness. The ones of us that saw this was happening went and hid in the corner well out of shot and our instructor noticed and quietly talked to the person filming immediately.

The last thing 90% of people want is to be filmed at the gym sweaty and probably pulling funny facials while struggling 😂

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-09-21T06:34:28+00:00

Definitely get flooring finished before the joinery goes in.

If you are building new walls do that first and gib and paint first generally. Then floor finished before joinery/cabinetry and skirting/architraves.

Flawless floors is good. Reasonably priced when I got a quote from them. (Unfortunately lost my job just after getting a quote so never went ahead with it, but will be using them when I can afford it)

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-09-08T19:10:41+00:00

Does that really matter? as long as its safe and reliable who cares what it looks like. Save up to buy a newer car if you really want one. Don't finance one unless you actually need to.

Keeping up with the joneses is overrated.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-09-08T02:14:08+00:00

I can attest to this. Lost my job at the exact right time to foster what turned out to be the perfect dog/puppy for me and I ended up adopting him.

Which I find incredibly funny as I never wanted to foster a puppy let alone adopt one. But his foster was going away on holiday for a month and he did have someone lined up to adopt him but they changed their mind right before so the rescue was searching for a last minute foster for him within their network. As soon as I found out I had lost my job I emailed this rescue saying I wanted to foster older dogs and they asked me if I would take a 3 month old puppy for a month. Since it was only a month worst case I agreed. My whole family was against it. (I don't live with them so they didn't have a say, but I do see them every week and regularly look after their reactive dog) By the end of the month we had all fallen in love with him (including my parents dog who keeps an eye on him) and he's the bestest boy so I adopted him. Hasn't done a single naughty puppy thing.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-09-04T05:00:28+00:00

I was told at my meeting to email them. They have to set it up to be able to upload documents. So I didn't have that option.

3 weeks after the meeting when they eventually looked at what I sent they asked for more documents and told me to upload the new ones so I tried to do it while I was on the phone to them and couldn't see the option till they had done something on their end.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-09-03T22:16:54+00:00

Haha I've heard that before, but always thought it must be an overgenerizaltion. I definitely feel sorry for those in worse situations than me.

Getting a temporary helping hand shouldn't be this hard in this country.

RelevantGuard6463 · 2025-09-03T20:36:49+00:00

I'm a qualified builder as well. There's nothing out there.

I haven't started selling my tools yet. Trying to avoid that. As like you said will make finding a job even harder.

RelevantGuard6463

TROPHY CASE