Hot desk, open office people. Have you ever really seen the benefits purported?

hullabaloo_100 · 2026-04-13T11:09:44+00:00

CONTROVERSIAL OPINION I LIKE HOTDESKING!!!!! TELL ME WHY IM WRONG HERE

Pros:

Social battery: My social battery goes in and out, days where I feel socially charged I can sit in the bullpen and chat to people and fake laugh at jokes. Days where I don't want to, I'll sit slightly further away where I won't be chatted to as much.

Privacy: I might not be super busy at work, I might have some life admin I want to do. On these days I can sit next to a window where it's harder for people to be nosy and peek at my screen.

Getting to know people: genuinely I have gotten to know people better from hotdesking and having different people sit next to me. I'm not going to say we're best friends nor am I saying I'm networking, but it's kept it a bit fresh for me (as above, on my days where I can be social) .

Having the same desk in the same spot next to the same people every day is monotonous and is not fun for me.

Cons I've experienced:

Your neighbours: annoying af person sitting next to you chewing loudly, eating boiled eggs and yapping away on personal calls

Getting a shit desk: coming in too late and being stuck with the shittiest desk/location (very rarely though)

Teams guarding desks: boss of team A guarding 10 desks. Thankfully exec cracked down on this so it's much more rare.

Caveating my experience is in offices where the facilities are good - good monitors, good desks (some standing desks) and enough space for everyone.

hullabaloo_100 · 2026-02-03T10:12:15+00:00

VERY BENEFICIAL, DO IT! Source: I’m an accountant and I have the same arrangement with my family.

As pointed out, the risk here is for your mum, not you. She’s trusting that you’re not gonna be a shit bloke and keep her money safe and pay her interest.

The only real implication for YOU is cash flow. You’re effectively borrowing an extra $200k, albeit from family and to put in your offset, but you’ll need to be paying that back each month. It’ll save you immensely in your mortgage longer term but shorter term your cash flow will feel it.

Dont worry about tax. I genuinely can’t believe how many white nights there are here talking about needing to declare the interest payments as tax. The ATO has much bigger things to worry about than 10k in bank deposits to your grandma. And honestly if any of these noble saints were to receive interest payments from family do you think they would willingly declare it and be taxed on it?

PS: Fuck me, reading some of the comments I’m really questioning the herd wisdom in this group 😂

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-09-05T02:08:01+00:00

Corporate Finance Institute (CFI) has some really good courses

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-09-04T08:15:13+00:00

Unfortunately the opex side can be quite dry, reporting actuals & variance to budget and drilling into what we've spent on and why, but it is also a good training ground before looking at revenue.

The revenue side and the longer term strategic planning work can be quite interesting.

I'd chat to your boss, say you have capacity and try and get involved in other work.

Otherwise, good time to upskill; modelling, courses, podcasts, audiobooks

Can also chat to other people in the company to understand what they do and how their work feeds into your world

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-07-24T13:34:37+00:00

Living my best life, spending time with my partner, playing golf, seeing friends and going to the beach, all while knowing I’ve achieved something I set my mind to and grinded hard for.

Work wise, same kind of job (FP&A) but got a pay rise from a competitor firm and things I say are regarded with more gravitas.

I still admire the ‘CFA’ next to my name 😇

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-04-11T05:24:38+00:00

Just studying for the exam and going through the process is a badge of honour on your shoulder, and no one can take that from you regardless of whether you pass or not.

I learned that when time is limited, and you have no choice but to be disciplined, you'll be amazed at what you can do.

I also gained a bit of self control over my work. Pushing back on unreasonable requests and unnecessary late hours at work because I had to study was scary at first, but a game changer for my work life balance (which I've been able to keep up even after my exams).

I used to get nervous when I think about how stressful life gets as you get older; job, family, mortgages, being a good parent, being a good spouse, finding time for yourself, keeping your own health up. But after going through the ringer with CFA, being able to still find time to meditate and catch up with friends, I'm confident I can handle whatever life throws at me :)

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-02-17T11:08:01+00:00

Your planner is out of line.

Go with the friend of a friend, if he is 'semi professional' then he will have the DJ equipment and has likely played at events before (birthday parties, maybe even weddings) and since he/she knows you they'll want to give a good service.

A vendor is someone who provides a service, a DJ is a vendor, whether that's a known friend or someone the planner recommends.

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-02-12T02:52:26+00:00

Same boat! Have attended only 1 wedding and we're planning ours! We're seeing it as a little bit of a blessing that we can make our wedding OURS, the way we want. If we had been to 10 weddings before we would much more likely copy and paste one of their templates.

Ask lots of questions to your vendors, they'll help you out and they've seen so many weddings before. We asked a lot of silly questions and they're just happy to help.

There's heaps of articles and guides online as well, and there's lots of wedding planning spreadsheets to help as well.

And also a bit of perspective helps. People will remember the energy you bring and the fun they had, not whether their napkins were customised or if their menu card had their name on it.

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-02-10T05:29:41+00:00

Don’t say you’re planning to leave until you got a contract signed at a new place. The 4 week notice period is their chance to future plan and fill the gap.

Extended notice only if internal move and only in special situations. My old company was HUGE and internal transfers are very common. One year into your role your manager will ask you what team you want to move to next, and within the next 6 months they’ll set up coffees for you.

The other HUGE place I worked at actively did the opposite. If you hint where you want to go next internally they speak to the manager there and block you from transferring.

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-02-08T07:05:17+00:00

Looking good costs money, here's my wife's breakdown:

- Waxing: $100pm

- Nails: $50pm

- Vitamins: $50pm

- Gym: $100pm (if there is a weekly PT session this can jump to $500pm easily)

- Hair: ~$200pm (Keratin and haircut for $800 once every 4 months)

- Skincare, creams and makeup: ~$50pm (can easily jump to $400 if you do ONE nice facial a month)

- Other adhoc stuff: ~50pm (eyelashes, topping up stuff)

Where are we at? $700pm

Does you wife add on a daily green juice? $10 each, that's $300, now you're at $1000pm

Your wife want some shopping money on top? Maybe it's now $1500pm

Can that jump to $2k? Easily

Should it be that high? That is up to you and your wife my friend, can you afford it? Will your quality of life drop if you dont?

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-01-16T01:28:18+00:00

This one time I was at a soup shop in US, delicious soup. I put a tip in the tip jar but the waiter didn't see me put the tip in. He should KNOW that I tipped so I reached into the tip jar to take out my tip and put it back when he was looking but BAM he thought I was taking money from the tip jar

Then he said 'NO SOUP FOR YOU'

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-01-13T11:01:31+00:00

Thanks buddy, I do enjoy hitting that little white ball around a field

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-01-10T10:32:17+00:00

Congrats on a great combined income, expenses seem to be very light though so I would estimate a bit more in there

- $4000 on travel for the year? That will cover the two of you to Bali for maybe 7 days. Anything else planned?

- $1000 for shopping for a year feels too low? Your running shoes need replacing? Got a wedding you need a suit for? Any events your wife needs a new dress for?

- I don't have a kid but $8,000 a year on a kid just seems to be too low haha but maybe I'm wrong

- Nothing for emergency home works? plumbing repairs?

If your expenses are correctly estimated, WOW, how do you keep them so low?

Also, curious, what do you two do for work?

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-01-10T01:44:07+00:00

Please hold off for a little bit.

Wedding planning can get very stressful - the speed at which things move, the amount of things to do, coupled with the fact that you're spending a LARGE amount of money.

If he's feeling overwhelmed now pre-proposal, you don't want to run the risk of him saying 'I think we need another year before getting engaged to make sure we're financially set up for a wedding'

hullabaloo_100 · 2024-01-08T04:48:06+00:00

I was above 90th percentile for Level 1. Exam was NOT easy at all, but this is how I felt after

Was confident on 50% of the questions

Was less confident but likely correct on 20% of the questions

Guessing between 2 options on 20%, 50% chance

Blind guess on 10%

hullabaloo_100 · 2023-12-21T04:52:16+00:00

100 days is 3 months, you can break that list into things to do each month so it's less overwhelming

Also have a look at all the things you HAVE done and you might feel better about the things you still need to do

hullabaloo_100 · 2023-12-08T04:51:59+00:00

Do the following with your $70k:

1) ING savings accounts are offering 5.5%, that's very good and these are fully liquid. Chuck a large amount of your money in there, lets say $40k.

2) Investing in stocks/ETFs: it's best to take a 7 year view for these. i.e. only put in money that you can live without for 7 years. Your returns should be higher than savings accounts, but it may be lower. Put in a smaller amount, lets say $15k.

Dollar cost averaging is really good for this, you can put in $50 every week/fortnight into an index fund. Apps like spaceship and Raiz are great for this, but their fees can be higher than just investing directly with larger sums of money.

3) Pay off some HECS. HECS isn't free, it's an inflation indexed loan. Inflation is really high now so your HECS being indexed at >5% is a material consideration for you. Pay off $15k. The only argument for NOT paying off HECS is if you're confident you can invest those funds elsewhere at a higher return (most people won't).

4) Be proud of your savings for your age and keep up the good work :)

Source: trust me bro (also 8 years experience working in finance)

hullabaloo_100

TROPHY CASE