I recently had a long discussion with a friend who is very enthusiastic about rentvesting. He's currently renting an apartment in one of Sydney's prestigious Eastern Suburbs. The apartment would cost around $1.6 million to buy, yet he's only paying about $800 per week in rent.

At the same time, he owns an investment property in Perth that he purchased for around $600,000 three years ago. It's now worth approximately $950,000 and is rented out for about $800 per week as well.

On the surface, the strategy seems very attractive. He gets to enjoy the lifestyle and amenities of a premium suburb without paying the enormous purchase price, while his capital is invested in a market that has delivered strong growth and a much better rental yield.

What I struggle to understand is why investors would choose to buy apartments in these expensive suburbs in the first place when the rental yields are so low.

The only logical reasons I can think of are:

• They are expecting significant long-term capital gains.
• They are benefiting from negative gearing, particularly if they are in a high income tax bracket.(which they probably are)
• They think properties within these suburbs are more safe assets compare to growing suburbs

However, the first 2 benefits could arguably be achieved by investing in growing suburbs instead. For the same amount of money, an investor could often purchase a house rather than an apartment, potentially benefiting from stronger land value growth. In Sydney, many suburbs that gained Metro access have experienced substantial price appreciation over recent years, often outperforming some premium apartment markets.

That said, for the last reason investors may still target blue-chip suburbs despite the low yields. Many wealthy buyers prioritise capital preservation over cash flow. They may view premium eastern suburbs as safer assets with lower long-term risk, stronger owner-occupier demand, better schools, lifestyle benefits, and limited land supply. Some investors are willing to accept a low yield if they believe the asset will hold its value over decades.

What makes the situation even more interesting is the impact of recent budget changes and higher interest rates. Expensive suburbs appear to have been hit harder because of these. In lots of cases, owners are now sitting on capital losses. If a property is no longer appreciating and is still negatively geared, the investment thesis becomes much harder to justify.

This makes me wonder whether the economics of rentvesting will eventually change. If investors continue to avoid buying in expensive suburbs due to poor yields and weaker capital growth prospects, the supply of rental properties in those areas could tighten. Over time, that may push rents higher until the rental returns become attractive enough for investors to re-enter the market.

The question is whether that gap will persist indefinitely, or whether rents eventually rise enough to narrow the advantage. For now, seems like rentvesting is still a no brainer if you want to live in premium suburbs.

Looking for some opinions from people who know NSW road rules or have been in a similar situation.

I live in NSW and recently got pulled over by police. During the stop, I found out that my car registration had expired about 3 months earlier. Completely my fault — I genuinely forgot to renew it and wasn't trying to avoid paying anything.

The officer issued me 3 separate fines:

• Driving an unregistered vehicle
• Driving an uninsured vehicle
• Driving a vehicle with motor vehicle tax unpaid (or similar wording)

Each fine was around $844, bringing the total to roughly $2,500.

One thing that makes this even more frustrating is that I actually didn't forget my CTP. My CTP renewal reminder came via email, which is how I normally keep track of important bills and renewals. The rego renewal reminder, however, was sent to my physical mailbox. I rent and receive a lot of junk mail, so it's entirely possible I overlooked or misplaced it.

However what confused me the most wasn't the uninsured vehicle fine. I understand that CTP insurance is tied to registration, so once my rego expired, I effectively wasn't insured either.

What I'm struggling to understand is the distinction between driving an unregistered vehicle and driving a vehicle with motor vehicle tax unpaid (or similar wording). From my perspective, both seem to stem from the same issue: the registration wasn't renewed. I can understand why the law may treat them as separate offences, but as an ordinary driver it feels like I'm being penalised twice for the same lapse.

To be clear, I'm not blaming the government or claiming I shouldn't be responsible. Ultimately, it's on me to make sure the vehicle is registered. But I honestly thought I was on top of everything because I'd already dealt with the CTP side of things.

For context:

• Rego was expired for about 3 months.
• I renewed the registration the same day after being stopped.
• I have a clean driving record and currently have 0 demerit points.
• There was no accident, dangerous driving, or other offences involved.
• I've never previously been fined for registration-related issues

I'm not claiming I shouldn't have been fined at all. I'm more curious whether people think to hear both sides.

I want to learn more about the difference between Driving an unregistered vehicle VS Driving a vehicle with motor vehicle tax unpaid.

About three years ago, I bought a car. At the time, my options were either a used Tesla Model 3 (around 2–3 years old with under 40,000 km) or a brand-new Hyundai i30 Hybrid, which had just been released in late 2023. Both were priced at around $37,000.

I ended up choosing the Hyundai i30 Hybrid because I do a lot of highway driving, and I was still renting a place without access to EV charging.

Fast forward to today, and we're looking to get an EV for my wife. Naturally, we've been considering a used Tesla Model 3 or Model Y. I was shocked by the prices — most Model 3s that are around two years old and have less than 40,000 km are selling for $42,000–$46,000. That's roughly a 20% increase from what I was seeing a few years ago.

At this point, I'm wondering why anyone would buy a used Tesla when they could get one through a novated lease, pay the balloon payment at the end, and then sell it.

Until now, I've always advised people to buy a used EV rather than a new one because of depreciation. My assumption was that even with the benefits of a novated lease, you'd still be better off buying a three-year-old Tesla that had already gone through the bulk of its depreciation.

However, my opinion has completely changed. Given the current market, I'd probably advise people to get an EV through a novated lease while the FBT exemption still exists.

What I'm curious about is what will happen to used EV prices once the FBT exemption is removed. Will used EV values fall significantly, or will strong demand continue to support prices?

I was comparing CBD apartment prices around ~500K between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth. I was so shocked by how cheap Melbourne is compared to other major cities.
Lets forget about Sydney, but in Brisbane and Perth, you'll most likely only get 1br for $500k in the CBD, whereas in Melbourne lots of recently sold 2br unit in Melbourne are below $500k. For example this one https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-apartment-vic-melbourne-150121884

Its only $409k just sold 2 weeks ago and the strata is just $678pq.

I also looked at the rental in Melbourne CBD, you should be able to get rental income of $700pw for a small 2bedder. This is like ~6-7% rental yield even after all the ongoing cost, which is really great for an apartment. Even without any capital growth, its still great considering the recent budget changes with CGT and negative gearing anyway.

What's the catch here?

I’ll probably get a lot of hate, and many people will disagree with me, but in my opinion, AI is now better than most engineers in the job market.

Hear me out. A lot of people in my software engineering circle keep telling me that AI is just a tool. Engineers still need to verify what AI generates, people are still better at system design, and there are significant security risks associated with vibe coding.

While I agree that all of those points are true, I've realized that there aren't many people who are truly excellent at coding, system design, and secure software development practices all at the same time.

Because of that, I believe AI is already better than the average engineer. When I say "average," I'm excluding the engineers who were already exceptional before AI. Those engineers will become even more effective with AI as a tool. But for most engineers, AI can already perform at a level that rivals or surpasses their day-to-day work.

So yes, at the end AI still need human provisions, but there are not many decent engineers out there who can challenge AI decision.

I'm bringing both my parents to visit me in Australia. Problem is they dont speak any english and are illiterate(can't read or write in any language).

They will be travelling by themselves, but I'm concern how can they fill the Incoming Passenger Card?

I looked online and seems like I can't prefilled for them as well.

Can the cabin crew help them? The cabin crew should be able to speak my language.

Also is there any service I can book to accompany them until baggage pick up?

Halo saya saat ini tinggal di luar negeri, tetapi masih butuh untuk bertransaksi uang ke dan dari Indonesia menggunakan aplikasi mBCA. Saat ini saya menggunakan iPhone11 yang sudah mau rusak untuk aplikasi mBCA saya, nah pertanyaan saya yang sebentar lagi mau berlibur ke Indonesia.

Apakah saya bisa membeli iPad Mini atau Tablet Lenovo Y700 dari luar negeri untuk menggunakan aplikasi mBCA?

Saya mau membeli tablet yang WiFi only, dan paling jika ada otentikasi nanti lewat handphone saya saja. Tapi jika saya butuh cek saldo atau mengirim uang akan lewat mini tablet yang saya beli dari luar negeri ini.

Mau tanya apakah ini bisa? Terima kasih

I’m a Software Engineer with 10 years of experience. Recently, upper management has been pushing hard to automate processes using AI (which I know is inevitable sooner or later). Because of that, I believe my manager was also pressured by leadership to encourage the team to start learning more about AI tools.

My manager set up a meeting with around 30 developers to discuss AI and asked whether anyone had ideas or suggestions on how AI could help with our development work. Everyone stayed silent. The main reason is that we currently don’t have licenses to use AI tools, and because we deal with sensitive information, we are technically not allowed to use them. (I know many of us still do under our own discretion, but officially it’s prohibited.) We are supposedly getting access to Copilot soon, but until then, the use of AI tools is still not permitted.

My manager then told everyone to start learning more about AI tools since nobody had suggested anything. One of my coworkers asked whether we could spend some work time learning and experimenting with AI tools, and then maybe hold weekly knowledge-sharing sessions. My manager said no. He explained that if he gave everyone even 1–2 hours a week for this, he wouldn’t be able to justify it on our timesheets.

He said that learning and exploring AI tools would be good for our own careers, and encouraged everyone to spend $100–$200 of our own money to try out Pro features of different AI tools because it would help with our professional growth. He even have the audacity to tell, "I'm not expecting everyone to spend thousands of dollar of your salary or spending most of your weekend to learn AI, but at least spending some money and for personal development is a good investment"

I could tell everyone was shocked by his response, and the room went silent again.

I do understand that learning AI is becoming necessary to keep up with the industry. But if I spend time exploring and learning new AI tools, it would probably be more for my own future opportunities than for my current job. If the company expects us to research and evaluate tools that could improve our development process, I think it’s only fair that they provide the necessary resources — both time and money — to support that effort.

What do you think?

Izin bertanya, saya memiliki bisnis jastip kecil-kecilan dari Australia ke Indonesia. Saat ini saya menggunakan jasa forwarder: barang saya kumpulkan terlebih dahulu, lalu dipisahkan kembali setelah sampai di Indonesia. Namun, biaya pengiriman dengan forwarder cukup mahal. Saya berpikir jika bisa membawa barang dengan hand carry, saya dapat menghemat biaya sekaligus mempercepat pengiriman.

Yang ingin saya tanyakan, untuk jastip dengan metode hand carry tentu ada risiko terkena bea cukai. Biasanya, pelaku usaha jastip yang sudah berpengalaman menyiasati hal ini bagaimana? Saya melihat beberapa jastip besar yang bisa membawa barang bernilai tinggi (seperti elektronik, perhiasan, atau barang branded) dalam jumlah cukup besar (sekitar 60 kg). Bagaimana cara mereka melakukannya? Apakah ada kerja sama tertentu, atau faktor “orang dalam”?

Kalau nekat mencoba tanpa strategi, saya rasa risikonya cukup besar—kalau sampai ketahuan, bukan untung malah bisa rugi banyak.

Bagi yang sudah pernah menjalankan usaha jastip, boleh share pengalaman atau PM jika ada strategi yang tidak mau dipublikasi. Terima kasih banyak sebelumnya. Saya rela membayar juga kalo ada yang mau berbagi info untuk membantu saya memulai bisnis ini. Trims