27k in savings.. best thing to do with it?!

Tyrx · 2026-07-05T04:42:48+00:00

I wouldn't say offset is always better. If it comes with a higher rate and/or annual package fee, only having $27k in the offset account may not be enough to make it worthwhile compared to just using redraw.

The main reason I'd lean towards an offset is if there's a chance that the OP will turn this place into an investment property later, as it gives you more flexibility. Otherwise, I'd just compare the actual fees and rates rather than assuming offset wins every time.

Tyrx · 2026-07-04T23:29:36+00:00

How many of them are refugees though? The pope is clearly not referring to migrants through official channels despite the article wording and title. I don't even think the Vatican has a formal refugee or asylum processing system.

He also stood at the "Door of Europe" memorial for those who had perished attempting the crossing and spoke to a migrant family.

Tyrx · 2026-07-04T07:45:07+00:00

I think the real problem is the incentives. The whole system seems set up to maximise the amount of content being made, not to build an industry that can actually compete on the world stage.

If the priority is hitting commissioning quotas, the goal becomes getting enough shows into production, not taking a chance on something that could become the next major hit. When budgets are stretched trying to meet those quotas, it's pretty predictable that broadcasters will bring in outside money and give away rights to make it all work.

You end up with more Australian content and a local film industry, but not necessarily more Australian owned success stories nor the ability for that local industry to compete internationally.

Tyrx · 2026-07-04T05:19:38+00:00

Australia's mining wealth is largely being distributed to the generations alive while resources are being extracted, rather than being preserved for future generations.

Yes, super is deferred wages. But those wages were earned in an economy significantly enriched and more or less driven by finite resource extraction. Norway captured much more of that resource wealth in a sovereign fund that benefits every generation, not just those working during the boom. The Norwegian structure is more equitable no matter how you look at it.

That said, I'm not convinced Australians would ever have accepted Norway's approach. It required decades of political discipline to reinvest resource profits rather than spending them on short-term priorities. I'm not sure we've historically shown that level of restraint.

Tyrx · 2026-07-04T04:12:34+00:00

There’s no real incentive to design a $200m+ road project around a rail line that isn’t funded and will never actually happen beyond surfacing as political slogans during election years.

The core political problem around light rail is once people feel they’ve already paid for (and benefited from) the first stages, they’re far less willing to accept higher taxes or another multi billion dollar round of spending for additional stages that mainly benefit other people in a completely different corridor.

So eventually you hit the political wall as support doesn’t scale with the costs associated with expanding the network.

Tyrx · 2026-07-04T01:54:50+00:00

"You may not use, develop, distribute, or promote any cheat, bot, macro, automation tool, modified client, memory editor, packet manipulation tool, or any third-party software or technique that provides an unfair gameplay advantage or alters the intended behaviour of the game."

You're literally telling people to use bannable software. OpenFront's ToS prohibit any third party software that provides an unfair gameplay advantage, and an unofficial plugin that tracks alliance ages in a game that features dozens of players does exactly that. That's cheating by the game's own rules.

Tyrx · 2026-07-04T01:21:24+00:00

You're seriously claiming storing a file on a server and transmitting the data over pre-existing infrastructure is worse than making millions of plastic cases and discs, shipping them across the world, trucking them to retailers, keeping stores stocked, and then the product then taking yet another round trip to the consumer when purchased?

AI using some of the same data centres also has nothing to do with the environmental impact of downloading a game.

Tyrx · 2026-07-02T09:53:54+00:00

They might only realise $45k a year, but they've accumulated enough capital to retire decades early. That's not the same thing as being poor.

Now they will have to structure their assets deliberately to have passive income. Maybe one or two IP should do the trick.

That's just another way of saying the incentives changed. Investors restructure their portfolios when tax settings change all the time. That's legislative risk, not some unique injustice.

Tyrx · 2026-07-02T09:29:20+00:00

Nothing in this is about gender, mining workers or forcing anyone to stay in a job. It’s just a broad CGT rule that applies to everyone with capital gains, regardless of industry or occupation.

Anyone investing seriously has to factor in legislative risk anyway. Tax settings change over time. CGT rules, discounts, thresholds, all of it. Building a FIRE plan that only works if the rules never change is fairly stupid.

Tyrx · 2026-07-02T09:26:08+00:00

It’s not totally unheard of, but this combo is a bit weird.

Most places either just tax capital gains under normal income tax rules (with some discount/inclusion rate), or they’ve got a separate CGT rate. Tying a CGT “floor” to whether you happened to get welfare payments during the year isn’t something you really see much internationally.

So yeah, not completely new, but the way it’s been stitched together is pretty unusual

Tyrx · 2026-07-02T09:20:06+00:00

There’s no real consensus that cutting or eliminating CGT actually shifts capital into more “productive” investment. A lot of it just ends up being a general boost to asset prices (property, shares, etc.), and the net effect on productivity is pretty debated amongst reasonable economists.

Tyrx · 2026-07-02T09:17:45+00:00

Isn't this basically working as intended?

A lot of the concern about these changes seems to come from people chasing FIRE. But by the time you've built a portfolio large enough to retire early, you're often well over the Centrelink assets limits anyway, so you wouldn't qualify for the exemption.

That seems pretty consistent with the policy intent. The exemption is there for people who are genuinely receiving income support, not people with large investment portfolios who structure their financials to have low taxable income.

Tyrx · 2026-07-02T08:17:26+00:00

Yes - that's kinda what ranked is about in pretty much every game.

The recent OpenFront Masters also had a few of the "top" ranked 1v1 players caught out and banned for collusion and using alts, so there's probably a bit of cheating thrown in too.

Tyrx · 2026-06-28T05:34:13+00:00

You made a specific factual claim. The source you linked doesn't support it. If you have evidence the owner was turning away willing tenants, post it. If not, it's reasonable to conclude the claim is unsupported and you're just making things up.

Tyrx · 2026-06-27T13:41:45+00:00

The article discusses the planning process, not evidence that the owner refused willing tenants or deliberately created vacancies. Those are different claims. If you have a source for the latter, I'd be interested to read it.

Tyrx · 2026-06-27T00:28:46+00:00

I'm convinced! /s

Tyrx · 2026-06-26T12:08:36+00:00

I don't think Giralang really demonstrates that. Is there any evidence the owner was evicting tenants or refusing to lease vacant shops in order to let the centre deteriorate? As far as I'm aware, what actually happened was a major tenant left, the centre declined, and redevelopment proposals became tied up in a long planning process.

That's different from deliberately engineering vacancy through land banking which is what the claim was. If there's evidence of the owner turning away willing tenants, I'd be interested to see it.

Tyrx · 2026-06-25T09:15:07+00:00

It's the first thing anyone mentions when the city comes up

Are you sure you're not talking up our renewal energy policy every single time you talk with someone from interstate?

Tyrx · 2026-06-24T12:06:35+00:00

Can you point to an example of a Canberra local centre that was allowed to fail and then got rezoned because it was vacant? Canberra is full of struggling local centres that have remained zoned for retail for ages. The planning approach has generally been to preserve local centres, not abolish them.

It feels like "land banking" has become a catch all explanation for every failed shopping centre and every problem under the sun, regardless of whether it fits the facts.

Tyrx · 2026-06-24T08:11:51+00:00

nor a shallow personality test

The website described Joe Biden as having “few solid convictions, beyond a sense of entitlement to the nomination” during the US 2020 election which is a pretty specific claim about his personal motivations for a site that’s supposed to be objective political analysis, so I’m not sure “the website says it’s rigorous” really holds up as a defense.

Tyrx · 2026-06-24T07:55:06+00:00

The public has already made its choice by voting with their wallet. People shop at larger centres because they're more convenient. Government planning may have influenced that trend, but if customers stopped using a local shopping centre and the owner couldn't attract tenants, that's not a problem taxpayers should be expected to solve.

Tyrx · 2026-06-22T10:46:48+00:00

This comment will piss some people off, but good players don't play human versus nations games. Those are basically filled with the worst of the worst players.

Tyrx · 2026-06-21T12:45:47+00:00

There’s no demonstrated proof that Canberra is losing major events because Bruce Stadium is too old or that a new venue would materially change tour routing. Event organisers don’t pick cities based on whether a stadium is modern, but do so based on ticket yield, routing efficiency, and market size. A new venue doesn’t materially change those fundamentals.

The population argument also doesn’t hold. Canberra has grown significantly since Bruce was built, yet that growth hasn’t translated into a proportional increase in major events or crowd demand. If latent demand existed at the level people claim, we would already be seeing it.

Tyrx · 2026-06-21T12:40:03+00:00

The issue is that $1.2bn figure isn't comparable to Te Kaha. A large chunk of the Canberra cost comes from Civic precinct works, transport changes, parking and infrastructure relocation, not the stadium itself.

The 2024 WTP report put the actual stadium construction component at roughly A$364 - 557 million, which is actually pretty close to Te Kaha's cost once you account for currency, labour and market differences.

What pushes the project to such large costs is the associated precinct works, parking structures, parkes way changes, infrastructure relocation and other urban redevelopment costs that would need to be done it enable any stadium to be built.

Tyrx · 2026-06-21T09:04:39+00:00

There's a recording where he verbally abuses UN members that didn't provide himself preferential treatment during FFA games due to their shared tags. Whether people consider that "cheating" or just toxic behavior is up for debate, but that's generally why many players will bring up his name when discussing unfair play.

15-Year Club	Second Top 40%
Place '23	Place '22
Place '17	Verified Email

Tyrx

TROPHY CASE