Hi guys,
My first foray into a microbrand. Chose Erebus as I wanted to support a local Australian microbrand business. I really am surprised by the look and glad I got it as my beater. Hope you guys like it too.
Hi all,
My wife and I recently bought our first luxury watches to celebrate the birth of our child.
She chose the mother-of-pearl Navitimer, while I went with the black and gold Superocean Heritage. We both absolutely love them.
We joked that the symbolism suits us perfectly: she'll patrol the skies, and I'll patrol the water.
A memorable milestone for us, and hopefully the first of many watches with Breitling. I just adored the wide range of options. We'd love to hear what you think!
Hi all,
I'm hoping to get your thoughts, opinions and expertise.
My wife and I are Australian investors here looking for some perspectives on my long-term ETF allocation. The total amount is six figures and have another 25 years of investing (hopefully).
Current allocation is roughly:
Until recently, my philosophy was to keep things simple, DCA regularly, and avoid unnecessary tinkering (so vgs, vas mainly). I did get some fomo early last year and put some small bets on gold and fuel + amounts into Asia emerging markets. They have worked out but I'm just going to leave them be (fuel and gold miners) or just dial down the fortnight investment.
My current planned splits per fortnight are 70% into vgs, 10% vas, 10% vae, 5% tigers Asia and 5% dhhf.
The three questions I'm wrestling with are:
Is VGS sufficient for developed markets, or is there a good case for adding a dedicated Europe/Japan ex-US ETF (such as EXUS) to reduce US concentration? My initial thoughts is to let VGS adjust over time if Europe/Japan over perform relative to USA. If as expected USA continues to lead then VGS will allocate more to the US overtime.
Would you reduce the allocation to VAS over time? Given I already have Australian property, super and employment income tied to Australia, I'm wondering if my home bias is higher than it needs to be. Also this year's returns were shocking (1% to 3% depending on the annual time period) and while I know every year isn't going to be good, I already have a chunky amount so just reducing my contributions a fortnight.
I do have a sizeable amount of Emerging Asia (includes Taiwan and South Korea for some reason). I'm thinking of dialing it back to keep total splits at 10%-12% and no more (so just dial back fortnightly investments). Reasons being that governance, AI exposure and volatility of emerging Asia will concern me. Is there a recommended rule of thumb? Also to be fair I would count South Korea and Taiwan as developed markets too so it isn't a true reflection of emerging Asia (India, China, etc.). The performance of both vae/Betashares tigers has been good but I can't let one year performance influence me to go beyond the above split.
I'm trying to build the simplest portfolio that I'll be happy holding for 20+ years. I think I've complicated it a bit since early last year.
Hi all,
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I am after some advice (feel free to say I'm crazy for considering this). I've been wondering if my wife and I should look to upgrade our place in a more "socially prestigious" areas. Part of me thinks it's a little wankerish and that I should keep on the path of financial freedom. Having a child has made me think about all these things (and an extended family that can be judgemental).
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M-36, F-35 and 1 dependent
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Our PPOR is worth 1.72m and current debt is 434k and recycled debt of 141k (deductible debt) with about 160k in the offset.
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Monthly my wife and I are getting 20k take home per month (though with a baby we dial it down to 15k as my wife is considering 3 days a week for work to spend time with our chid). This is after salary sacrifice 5% so if needed I can stop that to buy more house (see options below).
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We currently have 2 IPs-: one we are looking to sell (worth 920k on the lower end with 480k debt) and another worth 715k with debt at 534k. We seperately have a sizeable etf fund (135k) that we won't touch and look to keep growing (2k a fortnight).
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Option A- So my plan since my early twenties was to pay off the house (or get the debt equal to my offset) by late 30s and focus on building wealth via more ETFs, another IP and other assets. Today, by selling one of our IPs with equity we can get our PPOR debt done and increase our ETFs as well as focusing on their affordable properties around the country to diversify (debt recycling though recent changes in taxes change that)
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Option B- My parents are getting in my ear and since becoming a father some thoughts around upgrading near better schools and lifestyle has come in. Honestly where we are is good but doesn't have the Sydney eastern suburbs and north shore wow factor. I'm thinking we sell our PPOR, our 1 IP and upgrade to our max (say 2.5m debt max + property equity). Then sell our 2nd IP when we get closer to paying it off in say 10 years. It does mean less ETFs (I want to put 2k per fortnight but this option B seems tricky).
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Honestly, my wife prefers we stay as is. She likes the financial freedom but is open to Option B. I'm the financial guy and she does sense check/audits the decisions. Thoughts?
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