I’m trying to be a bit more careful with spending at the moment, but there are a few things I don’t see the point in cutting completely. For me, it’s the small stuff that makes life feel normal. I’d rather cut back in other areas than make every part of my spending feel restrictive. Everyone seems to have that one expense they’re happy to keep, even when they’re trying to save.
Summary:
- Australia ranks 12th globally in Visual Capitalist’s comparison of how much Americans would need to retire comfortably overseas.
- The estimate is based on maintaining a comfortable retirement lifestyle in Australia, using local living costs and retirement spending assumptions.
- Australia sits toward the more expensive end of the countries analysed, reflecting relatively high housing and everyday living costs.
- However, it remains cheaper than the highest-cost retirement destinations in the ranking.
- For Australians themselves, the figure shouldn’t be interpreted as a required super balance. Australia’s Age Pension, superannuation system and home ownership can materially change how much someone actually needs.
Every time I scroll online I see credit cards offering six-figure Qantas or Velocity bonuses if you spend a few grand within the first few months. I’m disciplined about paying the balance in full, so I’m not paying interest.
But with annual fees often running into the hundreds, I wonder how much value is actually left after the fee. Is 100k+ points enough to make these cards worthwhile for a couple of domestic flights, or are we kidding ourselves by valuing the points too highly?
Who actually wins here - us or the banks?
My wife saw an Amazon transaction on her account, immediately blocked the card and tried contacting the bank (westpac). The only way to report a transaction is via call (strange to me because I've always been able to do it from my app for my bank).
30 min in, she gets connected. The person says bank can't do anything at this stage, you have to contact amazon via their chat. Wife explains that she has no account so she can't contact them via chat and even if she doesn what will she say as she has never ordered anything from them. The response: create an account or use someone elses and give them your last 4 digits and ask them who ordered what. Take screenshots and contact westpac support after that. And that was it. End of call.
When my wife told me, I was really confused because whenever I report a transaction first step is that they block my card and issue a new one. Then they say they'll forward it to the relevant team and it'll take time. Most of the times I'm refunded, a couple of times they refuse to refund so I have to try again. Westpac support didn't even tell my wife to temporarily block her card.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any recommendations? I've asked my wife to temporarily block her card at least so that we don't get more transactions of this nature and move the money out.
Also any recommendations for banks with local support? I hate CBA and ANZ but at least they don't treat me like westpac treated my wife.
I’m lost for what to do with myself and I thought maybe someone in this thread could help me.
I M29 & my wife F29 are married, have a mortgage, 1 child with the 2nd one on the way. I work as a tradie bringing home $100k a year before tax, my wife works admin and brings home $60k a year before tax. But we are seriously struggling financially. We have not gone on a holiday in 3 years, we don’t go out to eat, neither of us do any extra curricular activities, we both work and look after our child and that’s it. But we haven’t increased our savings in 2 years since we bought the house. When we were renting we were paying $200 a week for a cheap old house and when we purchased we knew it was gonna increase up to $600 a week but that didn’t factor in insurance, rates, home repairs & every thing else that goes with owning a home. We are just scraping by paycheck to paycheck and everytime there is a sudden expense (car repairs, broken appliances, etc) it will take our maybe $600 from savings and it’s gone again.
I have a work car provided by my employer, I don’t own a car & my wife has a $15k car on loan so she can drive our children around. But my question to you is how do we afford life? I want to be able to go on holidays, do things outside of work and family, go out to eat on occasion, work to live not live to work. There is also so many things that need doing around the house we bought like new fences, replacing facias, plumbing repairs, new floors, new kitchen, painting, etc, that we just can’t afford and that annoys the piss out of me. I’ve already picked up more hours at work but that doesn’t seem to make a difference because I just pay more tax and I don’t seem to save any of it.
Can someone please help do I need to go see a financial advisor or do I need to be more drastic and sell this house even though I’d probably get less for it then what i bought it for because I can’t keep up with repairs
Not counting rent or the mortgage, it’s usually the smaller things that add up without really noticing. Groceries, takeaway, subscriptions, random shopping, petrol, it would be interesting to see what everyone else spends more on than they expected.