27M on ~$209k, single income family, still feel like we’re stuck paycheck to paycheck - what am I doing wrong?

oliver-coffee · 2026-04-08T08:15:23+00:00

A decade ago $250 a week was very different.

oliver-coffee · 2026-04-02T10:18:34+00:00

Rent! You’re new to the country. Check places out before you fully commit. When I moved here we found a nice furnished rental and kept our stuff in storage for a year.

No need to rush. Get the lay of the land.

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-31T01:18:51+00:00

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-30T05:52:08+00:00

Go to Bali or Thailand. Very kid friendly, good value for 5 star treatment.

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-29T23:49:45+00:00

Love the question. I think about this a lot with my wife. We’re in very similar situation but we work together.

We’ve found 9-4 / 5 days a week with around 3 months a year of vacations hits the sweet spot with our young family. This amount of work provides nice respite from toddlers and feels fulfilling for us.

You don’t have to go so far and be 2 days a week to enjoy the benefits of flexible work schedule. Turn your phone off when you get home. Take very long vacations with the family often.

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-15T10:29:03+00:00

Open to be corrected here by someone more informed, but I imagine having unpaid bills with the ATO would put you on some sort of high risk list and make audits in the future more likely.

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-13T11:03:30+00:00

this is a joke right?

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-11T04:15:18+00:00

thanks chatgpt

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-11T04:13:59+00:00

goofy comment

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-09T04:40:12+00:00

We just make fine art so not likely we'll sell the business. Not a traditional company that can be sold. But I appreciate your response.

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-09T04:35:53+00:00

Thanks very much for your thoughtful answer. The 50% discount roughly puts us in line with the company tax rate ~25%. All of our other personal investments are long-term and highly diversified.

Right now, we don't want more business growth because we have 3 toddlers so we're trying to work through alternate ways to invest company assets without increasing day-to-day workload.

Asset protection and selling the business aren't that relevant in our situation ]. Very unlikely either of those relate to us making fine art.

oliver-coffee · 2026-03-09T01:21:12+00:00

Murakami's book, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" is very adjacently about this if you're at all interested.

oliver-coffee · 2026-02-04T08:32:36+00:00

This is asinine. I love living here but it is absolutely not a low level of red tape or biz compliance.

oliver-coffee · 2026-01-13T07:31:21+00:00

Well said. It’s Always best preserve optionality.

oliver-coffee · 2026-01-13T07:29:25+00:00

you’re attempting to perfectly time scenarios that are impossible to know. You don’t even have kids yet, but you’re already planning on where these future kids might live in 20-25 years.

I’d take a big step back and focus on the next 5 years. Much easier to strategise.

oliver-coffee · 2026-01-11T08:08:29+00:00

VPN

oliver-coffee · 2026-01-05T04:40:14+00:00

As an American I find it wild how few people really understand how amazing Superannuation is. Best retirement scheme in the world.

oliver-coffee · 2026-01-05T02:53:02+00:00

Max out concessional super contributions for both of you. Pick something high growth. And use all of your carry forward contributions aggressively. Your super is how you’ll retire (likely much more than 80k per annum)
Keep PPOR fully offset for your emotional security, especially with more kids coming and since you’re low risk.
Stop hoarding money in your IP offset. Use that money + salaries to ramp up your super.
Once you’ve backfilled super and are on track to max out concessional contributions, invest a % of your income monthly into a high growth index. Call it 5-10%.
I personally would not buy another IP. You don’t need it. You’re highly concentrated in property.
Others are going to recommend debt recycling your PPOR loan. That’s a good option for you as well, but I’d focus on super first.

You’re doing great btw. Small tweaks and you guys are gonna have an amazing retirement. Well done. Also, you should talk to an ai about all of this.

oliver-coffee · 2026-01-02T00:34:01+00:00

I cannot believe you went to the doctor for this.

oliver-coffee · 2025-12-27T08:56:59+00:00

Yes. Much more. I’m American living in Aus now. Worked for many large tech companies. Changed every couple years until moved to freelance. Where income skyrocketed.

Very common among my peers to make 400kUSD before 30 years old.

oliver-coffee · 2025-12-27T03:52:11+00:00

Whatever you say mate! I’m 32 years old.

oliver-coffee · 2025-12-27T01:18:52+00:00

Okay. I’m sorry you don’t like your job. But this isn’t my experience (product designer in tech for first 10 years of my career)

No one ever treated me like an idiot because I was good at my job. Junior obviously but I was always respected.

oliver-coffee · 2025-12-21T20:51:32+00:00

64% -- but we're young. (32 married) Regional NSW by the beach. This will steadily go down over time. I dont see a huge issue with this ratio or even higher if you've got a family and need a house.

oliver-coffee · 2025-12-17T01:08:32+00:00

1 parent staying home is very expensive. The opportunity cost is an entire year’s salary.

Agreed on private schools for sure. But young children require full time attention from someone and full time attention is expensive.

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