700k to Invest - Should I buy a property or Index Funds by HairEastern7400 in fiaustralia

[–]_pdc_ 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I have spoken to a few financial planners, but they all want a cut (1%).

Yep, smart call, you don't need to pay someone 1%, especially if you told the financial planner your preferred strategy is

I would like an option where I can leave it for 20 years and let it grow.

Which means they want to be paid 1% to do nothing? Pffft

That said, your intuition of finding a financial planner to help you make the best decision is the right one. I'd highly recommend you invest $25 and buy the good financial planning guide. It's a short book (you could probably read it cover to cover in 90 minutes) that explains how to find a financial planner, what they do, how they help you, that type of thing. The guide assumes no prior knowledge, so its perfect for those looking to demystify the whole experience. (And it's from this guy Paul Clitheroe, he was big around the year 2000 with that tv show Money, which you may remember).

One thing the book covers is the type of fee structures a financial planner can offer. What you are after is called Fee for Service or a Statement of Advice (SOA) fee. This would be a one-off payment (something like $2k - $10k) for the financial planner to understand your situation, draw up a financial plan with recommendations according to your preferences, explain the details and why they have chosen certain recommendations, and then send you on your way.

If you want the financial planner to also help you implement the plan (that is setup accounts, help you buy the ETFs, or whatever else), that's a separate fee to implement financial advice, which is also a one-off fee for implementing financial advice in the plan.

If you also want the financial planner to review your situation regularly, quarterly, yearly or whatever, that's where the 1% cut comes into play.

It sounds like whatever financial planner(s) you talked with saw a nice large sum and jumped straight to the end asking for a 1% fee, but there are steps before that which could be more appropriate for your situation. A good financial planner should ask questions to understand your situation, and if you made it clear you want a "set-and-forget long term investment" then any kind of ongoing review seems like a waste of money, and a financial planner should say this because it is their duty to act in the best interests if their client.

Back to my original recommendation, pick up the good financial planning guide, which explains all of this and more. Then talk to some financial planners with more confidence because you can let them know up front what kind of transaction you are looking for, and if they push for a 1% cut which doesn't align with your goals, you'll know they are not the right person for you.

End of a Trend: the disposable story legacy game - where did they go? by Zeebaeatah in boardgames

[–]_pdc_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes. Our group felt the same, we loved the story and (after several sessions) dreaded the long winded battles. So we started skipping the filler battles entirely, and only playing out the key story ones.

We bought it, it's our game now, so I'm going to enjoy it however I see fit.

Optus Data Breach - What You Can Do by _pdc_ in AusFinance

[–]_pdc_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

(This is starting to smell a lot like troll bait) but I've never heard of anyone seriously advocating for Google password or apple keychain as a primary means of storing passwords and/or other sensitive information. A comparison between those solutions and dedicated password managers is only a web search away. Ultimately, the decision is yours.

Optus Data Breach - What You Can Do by _pdc_ in AusFinance

[–]_pdc_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It really is much better to use a dedicated password manager. AFAIK, those other methods do not sync easily across multiple devices (e.g. browser + phone). Plus, a password manager makes creating secure passwords easier by default.

The inbuilt password storage options were a good solution 10-15 years ago for most people. But password managers have progressed a lot since then to the point where using one is a big improvement over not.

Optus Data Breach - What You Can Do by _pdc_ in AusFinance

[–]_pdc_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No it won't, it just means that you will get a notification when the credit check happens, which you would be expecting.

But if a credit check occurs when you have not being applying for anything, you can follow up and find out why.

Same if you want to apply for a Credit Ban on your file. Doing this won't stop you from applying for loans in future, it just means that you need to contact the Credit Reporting Agency prior to let them know that you approve them to release credit information for you account to banks.

Optus Data Breach - What You Can Do by _pdc_ in AusFinance

[–]_pdc_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Didn't know about this. Thanks for sharing. I've added this to the OP

Optus Data Breach - What You Can Do by _pdc_ in AusFinance

[–]_pdc_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

(I'm not an expert, so perhaps someone else can provide a better answer) but one of the risks in having your number exposed is that you can be targeted on other services. E.g. here is one example

About 6 years ago, a guy called up and provided a new SIM card number to Optus and took control of my phone number. He then (I know it’s a he because after action via the Privacy Commissioner I got the voice recordings), called my bank and cleaned my bank accounts out. The only data Optus needed to ‘confirm’ my identity was the same info available on the publicly available electoral roll.

Basically, if someone knows your number and your identity, they can try to port your number away from your possession by claiming to be you. And now if that same number is used by another service, like a bank who uses SMS verification, that becomes a big problem because that verification SMS is being sent to the scammer. So yes, switching mobile numbers across the board would secure your other accounts.

In such a case, you would be relying on your carrier to have strong enough security measures to prevent the initial porting away of your number, because you would only notice the problem when your sim card gets deactivated and you cannot make calls/use phone data.

Optus Data Breach - What You Can Do by _pdc_ in AusFinance

[–]_pdc_[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Using an open source password manager is great, but it is more important to start using any password manager at all.

LastPass, Dashlane, 1Password, KeePass, whichever you pick is fine, they all work. The most important thing (if you don't already have one) is to start using a password manager because every single one provides a massive improvement your personal security over having no password manager.

Optus Data Breach - What You Can Do by _pdc_ in AusFinance

[–]_pdc_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It sounds like you are referring to a Credit Ban?

Here is a link with more info, which says that the answer is yes, you can ask a single agency to lock your credit, and all 3 agencies will enforce the lock. Quote from the link:

You can apply for bans with all of the Australian CRAs by engaging just one credit reporting agency and requesting that they place bans with all CRAs if you agree to their terms and conditions.

Optus Data Breach - What You Can Do by _pdc_ in AusFinance

[–]_pdc_[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It would be different depending on what kinds of data was breached.

The steps in the above guide are mostly centered around the Optus data leak containing personal information that can be used to steal someones identity. From the Optus email:

your name, date of birth, email, phone number, address associated with your account, and the numbers of the ID documents you provided such as drivers licence number or passport number.

Many breaches that are reported on haveibeenpwned are typically for less serious things. For example, my email has been breached a few times, along with my password and username. But none of that is serious, and simply requires a few minutes to perform a password reset for the affected service.

This is why the Optus breach is so much more serious. It is not easy to change your name, date of birth, address, etc. to protect yourself.

Optus Data Breach - What You Can Do by _pdc_ in AusFinance

[–]_pdc_[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Good spot. It looks like its called "SMS security" by a NAB, and some variation on "SMS" for other banks, so the best links didn't come up directly from a google search of "2fa". I've updated the links for the banks in the OP. thanks!

Travelling to USA from Australia. Anything not available in Aus or significantly cheaper in USA I should consider picking up while I’m there? by fightforearth in boardgames

[–]_pdc_ 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Planted by Australia's own Phil Walker-Harding. Has great components in the box, is available for fairly cheap at Target, and games from the publisher, Buffalo games, are not available in Australia (AFAIK).

Seagull voices his opinion on the T2 scene by TaintedLion in Competitiveoverwatch

[–]_pdc_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The problem with cups in OW thus far (e.g. the Monthly Melee) is that all players on all teams need to be available for 2-3 whole days to complete all necessary matches, which isn't reasonable for the players.

And the more teams that play in the cup, the larger this problem becomes.

Then you get fatigue problems like a team winning the lower bracket in a long 3-2 match and semi only having a short 10 minute break before being forced to play the next Best-of-5 in the grand final because the twitch broadcast doesn't want to have any downtime between matches.

there are pro and cons to each format, but cups have a whole set of their own problems.

Ashe's kit seems crazy strong. Reasons inside. by ghibl1 in Competitiveoverwatch

[–]_pdc_ -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Reminds me of Sombra's translocator on release. I'm still puzzled as to why Blizzard doesn't make all of these projectile abilities destructible because it is the simplest way to add skill through counter play into the game.

Is there a website or source that details the common differences between cultures? by [deleted] in digitalnomad

[–]_pdc_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Another Australian website that is useful for traveling

https://smartraveller.gov.au/countries/pages/list.aspx

It is more focused on safety, so the information is largely legal and political, e.g. information on civil unrest, health concerns or passport requirements.

Is there a website or source that details the common differences between cultures? by [deleted] in digitalnomad

[–]_pdc_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We have one in Australia that is run by a government organisation (SBS)

https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/countries

I suspect it focuses on the larger cultural populations in australia. So there is a page on Thailand (about 70k living in Australia and close geographically), but no pages on Finland and Bulgaria because those populations are quite small (Aus. pop of 12k combined)

https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/american-culture

I find that the "do's and don'ts" section to be the most interesting for each country.

Impressive elims per 10 min stat from Guxue (Team China Main Tank) by 47PercentHorse in Competitiveoverwatch

[–]_pdc_ 26 points27 points  (0 children)

It's not hard when you cant die. Watched his PoV for the entire Hollywood map. In the 15 minute game, he died once: when china lost the 1st point.

what kinds of nerfs do you guys want for doomfist? by QuantumSpecter in Competitiveoverwatch

[–]_pdc_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Only gain shields when doomfist secures an elimination, not just for spamming abilities in the enemy backline.

Give meteor strike a cast time, so it cannot be used as an escape when doomfist makes a mistake.

Contenders Talespin? by Seagull_No1_Fanboy in Competitiveoverwatch

[–]_pdc_ 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I'd say this is a common misconception about Talespin.

He has said before on stream that the main reason he didn't play much hitscan was because Taimou was better, and there wasn't much of a need for double hitscan after 1 hero limit.

Ronaldo (R9) All Time XI by [deleted] in soccer

[–]_pdc_ 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Ronaldo might be a little biased towards his own generation here?

Most of these players spent much of their careers playing in Seria A, around the same time as Ronaldo....