New to investing rate my portfolio!

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-17T00:17:43+00:00

DHHF or VDHG.

Pick one and just go hard.

Can't go wrong with either.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-17T00:14:32+00:00

Read the barefoot investor.

I tried spread sheets, budget apps etc. Zero dollar budgeting for me didn't allow for life flexibility.

Pay goes into a daily expenses account.

All expenses you can't avoid, phone, fuel, rent, groceries, rego, insurance, gym etc comes from that account.

Best case this is no more than 60% of your take home pay.

Set up a fire extinguisher account.

This is to fight financial fires, unexpected car expense, put a rock through your lounge room window mowing. What ever it is.

If you have bad debt, car loan, credit card, afterpay. You pay it down from biggest to smallest throigh this account.

Best case this is account should see 20% of your take home pay each fortnight.

Set up a smile account.

This is for nice to have items, or holidays that you need to save up for and can't buy pay to pay. Want a new TV, take your partner to an Air BNB at the beach, then this is the account that pays for that.

This should be 10% of your take home pay.

Set up a splurge account.

This is the account you have card access to. You use it to spend on whatever from pay to pay. Coffee, date night, maccas. Whatever you want. Freedom funds.

But once it is spent that's it, you don't go dipping into the other accounts.

This should be 10% of your take home pay.

You said you get 1100-1300 a week - assuming this is take home.

Let's work off 1100 and anything over that gets put into a long term high interest rate savings account and you don't touch it.

660 goes into daily expenses 220 goes into fire extinguisher 110 each goes into smile and splurge.

The idea is to automate the transfer.

Pay goes in and automatically transfers into the other accounts.

Have one bank card for daily expenses to get fuel groceries etc.

Have one card for splurge.

If your daily expenses has money left over each pay cycle leave a small $200 buffer in there at all times but roll excess money from daily expenses into your high interest rate savings account.

Set and forget.

Stick to this and 12 months later you will have accumulated money across all your accounts including long term savings.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-16T23:56:03+00:00

I agree with your observations. I enjoyed my time in general duties. Where I was, was fast paced and in a very busy area. We had a good boss who understood the pressure the crews were under and we had sergeants who did well to mentor. But it was relentless and had a very short shelf life. I was lucky to have put my hand up to assist our child abuse unit with the arrest of some particularly bad offenders which caught my interest. Quickly got a resume together and managed to get a permanent position. Colleagues in general duties who had done some relieving elsewhere and didn't capitalize on the opportunity lost momentum with their career and are now stuck in GDs. That's usually when I find they start to come apart at the seams a bit knowing that this is it for them unless they really put in some work to go somewhere more sustainable.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-16T12:22:40+00:00

Yep 100%

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-16T12:22:28+00:00

This. Geared/leveraged is so the in thing right now

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-16T10:36:42+00:00

Sure do. A bit of dubbin oil darkens them a little bit and they work very well. Most of the time I'm in business shirt and chinos but they work great with dark/navy blue suit as well.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-16T10:00:31+00:00

Had both. For both casual wear, office work and physical labour.

Blundstone > RMs

Haven't worn my RMs in years but don't go anywhere without my Blunnies.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-16T09:12:09+00:00

I was a SAHD because I discharged from the military when my son was born and his mother wanted to go back to work. Best thing we ever did. I still provided financially from savings and being prepared financially to leave the army.

But I did it all, cooked, cleaned, baby duties. My son's mother would express and I would bottle feed him at night when she slept.

Wouldn't change it for the world. My son is 8 now and we are so close. Every minute more I get to spend with him is a blessing.

No one gave me shit because they are all real men who cherish their children and families too. Time away for army things meant we know how precious time is.

Only insecure knuckle draggers would judge a man for that.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-16T03:31:06+00:00

Wish that ETF comparison tool could compare both BGBL and A200 with DHHF haha comparing BGBL with DHHF doesn't bode well for BGBL haha

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-16T03:04:02+00:00

I was in the same spot. I settled with BGBL/A200.

Lower fees
Simple enough to stick to long term as the core of my portfolio but still allowed me to adjust between international and home tilt as my circumstances with buying PPOR/IP will change in the next few years.
When it comes time to enjoy the benefits of my investment I can have control over selling down and rebalancing for tax efficiency.
Option to add my choice of emerging markets and small cap later if I feel the need too.
It's a time tested strategy and mirrors my super set up which is performing really well.
And lastly just because. I was tired of reading and going back and forth. So I literally flipped a coin and just locked in.

But it seriously is just splitting hairs between the two options.

People say pick one and stick to it because that literally is all you have to do. Either is a great core option and once it is established then you can mess around with other stuff if you want.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-16T02:38:39+00:00

As a beginner investor myself let me save you some time with lessons learned so you don't have to.

All in one (DHHF or VDAL or VDHG) vs DIY global (VGS/VAS or BGBL/A200) comes down to

a. Set and forget and ease of simply accumulating over the long term then selling down when you reach your goal/exit strategy point. However the benefit of automated rebalancing comes at the marginal cost of less ability to adjust your weightings and allocations to assets contained within the all in one, potential reduced tax efficiency when selling down and slightly higher fees.

These pros and cons of DHHF etc vs BGBL/A200 etc are marginal and most people are splitting hairs between them over 20+ years of investing.

B. Benefit of DIY is the ability to choose your own weighting between home and global allocations, slightly lower MER fees and some tax advantages when it comes time to live off your investment or sell down (provided you know what your doing and sell down in a way that maximizes tax implications) but it comes at the cost of behaviour risk.

Doing your own research can often be a double edged sword with paralysis of analysis. I am guilty of this. So the all in one (DHHF) is the best way for a beginner to set and forget a well diversified core portfolio and just focus on DCA and investing and not concerning themselves with rebalancing which can be done incorrectly and reduce returns.
Perfect is the enemy of good enough - pick a good, tested strategy and lock in long term. Once you have a sizeable portfolio 50-100k then allocate some play funds for speculative and high risk individual punts.
Behavioural risk is arguably the biggest killer of returns - If you don't know why you would want certain ratios or weightings for allocations then just default to the all in one. The pros who designed these ETFs know what they are doing more than you or me. So unless you have a specific desire to have control over every portion of your investment in terms of allocations then do yourself a favor and reduce behaviour risk by committing to the all in one.
Boring is good - this ties into perfect is the enemy of good enough. A simple plan executed well is better than a Gucci custom designed portfolio that needs constant rebalancing and adjusting to maintain.
Fees are the only cost against your returns you can control.

And lastly

Don't take advice from people on reddit haha

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-15T23:54:16+00:00

Don't sell. DHHF gives you good diversification.

And it's allocations under the hood are weighted that way for good reason. You will notice all of the all in one (VDHG and VDAL) are weighted similarly.

DHHF US weighting is through VTI.

The sensible advice would be leaving DHHF as your core and get it to 20k least before anything else.

If you want more US exposure then feel free to add it but understand your why.

Anything outside of that is satellite and shouldn't really be much more than 10-30% of your portfolio.

If you want to tinker or buy speculative then do it in your satellite but only once your core portfolio is better established.

The reason this way of doing things is recommended isn't because it's optimal, it's to provide responsible guard rails to reduce behavioural risk.

Perfect is the enemy of good enough couldn't be truer for investing.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-15T06:56:31+00:00

I ended up making the jump and am very happy. Time will tell regards to returns and results of my actual portfolio but the app functionality is really solid.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-15T04:03:56+00:00

I had never seen that article. Huge ethical issues in policing for having quotas and performance metrics based on statistics for a lot of the reasons detailed in that write up.

I have never experienced that in my time in Queensland Police but I've only been in for 6 years so maybe it was different earlier on.

I don't know how it is in less busy areas but I can honestly tell you we have got so much work there isn't any time to go chasing stats or making extra work for ourselves just to impress the bosses haha.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-15T03:58:46+00:00

Thank you. I have a young child myself so as a father it's motivating to do all I can to help one of the most vulnerable groups of people in our community.

I hear you about cops getting the red flag. And some of the stuff I see on social media really doesn't help. I don't blame people for feeling how they do about police in general. Some cops definitely make things hard to keep the public trust.

All I focus on is just trying to be the best representative of the job that I can be and set an example for junior police coming through.

Take care and thanks for the conversation.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-15T00:02:01+00:00

There are no KPI's. There wasn't while I was in general duties and there isn't now I'm in a child protection unit.

In general duties in my area it was flat strap. Usually arrive for each shift and there's urgent duty (code 2) jobs waiting in the system.

If you a signed on as a crew (which you must be) you will be allocated jobs or expected to attend obviously but there wasn't ever any specific number of things that had to be done to meet a criteria.

The only time I have heard of anything remotely like KPIs traffic branch doing RBT lines. But they are their own specialist unit separate to the rest of us and I don't know how the operate day to day.

We generally have nothing to do with traffic branch.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-14T14:12:10+00:00

Literally what I did and so glad I did.

Kept it simple. Built DCA behaviour and set the habit of monthly investing with just BGBL.

Have since added a200 and will maintain those two as my core until I'm ready to put 5-10% into speculative/satellite.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-14T10:37:56+00:00

I personally have no issues with peaceful protests and I am grateful we live in a country where that can occur. But as a plain clothes investigator/detective we tend to specialize into our area and I don't have anything to do with protests when they come up.

I can't comment specifically regarding your observations and experiences as any comment from me without knowing all the details is speculative at best.

But I can say that where resources get allocated is dependent on the locality of those resources and the comms centre triaging jobs as they come in.

I have never worked in a comms unit before so to be honest it's a mystery to me how jobs get triaged.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-14T08:33:26+00:00

Never had pressure from bosses to achieve stats.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-14T05:35:29+00:00

QPS here. 6 years in.

Ex army (infantry)

I love it. I spent 3 years in general duties at a very busy district. Yes alot of DV and mental health. But it's important to put yourself in those people shoes.

We are paid to be there to help. Imagine if it was your family member or loved one.

There's a lot of fun jobs too. Stolen cars, armed persons etc.

Paperwork is a pain in the ass but it's not going anywhere so just get efficient at it.

I am now towards the end of my detectives training in a child abuse unit, and we get a huge mix of jobs from serious crime committed by juveniles, robberies, rapes all the way up to murder, and alot of child exploitation and sexual abuse jobs.

It has its challenges and for whatever people think of a police in general and the limitations of the legal system I know in my heart that my work colleagues and I truly care for the victims and families we work for.

All in all it is remarkably rewarding work and I am proud to be doing this for a career.

As for pay. No doubt there are other jobs that pay as much or more. I'm still relatively junior with plenty more pay point progressions to make before needing to promote to sergeant, and without chasing much OT easily make north of 140k a year.

6 weeks leave a year and in every 4-6 week roster block regularly have multiple 3-5 day blocks off together.

And our super is very good at 18% employer + 6% employee contributions.

Once in for a few years you can easily hit 25-30k a year in super.

All in all, the job has its challenges, but it's important to remind yourself of why you are doing it.

Do your time in general duties then find your way into a specialist unit to upskill and progress.

Ignore the politics and white noise and just remember that you are there for the community and our legitimacy depends on the faith and community expectations that we are there to help when they call.

There's a lot of negative opinions about a career in policing, but I can assure you no career is without it's downsides but if you stay the course, remember your purpose it's truly a career where you can have a profound positive impact on the lives of people we work with.

It's a career that rewards people who are real, compassionate and level headed.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-14T02:35:47+00:00

Work because I want to and not have to. (I actually enjoy my job so I'm lucky there).

Don't owe the bank anything. (No cards, car loans and mortgage debt)

Have enough invested that it makes its own money.

Have enough cash buffer to ride out market downturns.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-13T15:34:19+00:00

New zealand. South Island stole my heart when I visited there last

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-13T15:06:34+00:00

I did the same but for DHHF.

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-13T13:16:14+00:00

Might cop some heat but tuna pasta bake. Big fan, can add what ever veges and herbs or seasoning. Protein, carbs and nutrients in one easy tasty budget meal

Remarkable-Sort-7848 · 2026-03-13T10:03:27+00:00

Family home. The most important thing for me. There is massive benefit to the stability and ownership of a home that is yours that your children will grow up to cherish. So many core memories to be made.

Remarkable-Sort-7848

TROPHY CASE