Author Topic: Australian Newbie looking for level 1 advice  (Read 1909 times)

waylah

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Australian Newbie looking for level 1 advice
« on: June 25, 2018, 11:34:09 PM »
Hello! Brand spanking new to this and ready to try to start thinking mustachian! What I have read so far really appeals to me.

Country: Australia

Life Situation: couple, no kids *yet*, 29 & 29. Partner employed full time, myself a PhD student finishing within a year.
Just got our first home.

Gross income: 118k p.a. & 32k p.a. The 32 is not taxable.

Take home income (minus tax and HECS): 68k p.a. & 32k p.a.

Current expenses:

Mortgage:  2256 per month (P:790 I:1466) per month. We have an offset acc.
rates                  148
internet               55
partner's phone       30
my phone               15
health insurance      160
home insurance         68
my car insurance      26
partner car insurance      90
my car rego            73
partner car rego         73
partner sporting club      30
partner sporting sessions   74
my train ticket            158
charity               30
electricity               109
gas                  154
water               60
road tolls (partner)      400
petrol (partner)            332
buying lunch at work   (p)   260
buying lunch at work (me)   136
groceries               443

TOTAL: 5265
(edit: oops! forgot to put total!)

Because we've just moved to our new house in a new area, there could be costs I haven't come across yet and there's been a bit of bunnings spending going on fixing things around the house. We also like to host parties pretty regularly which has some expense (snacks drinks pizza etc), so that should probably be on there too.

Assets: house, $620,000. My car (2003): $4,000. Partner's car (2008) $10,000. offset account:$7,500. My super: $12,500. partner's super:[TBA]


Liabilities: Description, original loan amount, rate, original length, and monthly payment (which should be consistent with a spreadsheet PMT calculation).  Add current balance and time remaining if close to final payment.
Mortgage:
original amount:$496,000
rate: 3.6%
original length: 30 years
monthly payment: $2,256

credit card: $0
(has a limit of $6,000, we almost never use it. Got it for travel.)

Specific Question(s):
really just "where do I start?" but I will try to be specific:
* where can we reduce our spending?
* is there anything you can see that I'm not considering but that I should be?

I've just been reading around here and there on the website; any specific suggestions for me to read at this stage?

We plan on having children. Anything I should be thinking about now?

Apologies if I've messed anything up or missed something entirely.
Thanks for reading! :)
 
« Last Edit: June 26, 2018, 12:55:19 AM by waylah »

mrcheese

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Re: Australian Newbie looking for level 1 advice
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2018, 12:28:10 AM »
what do your super accounts look like?

waylah

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Re: Australian Newbie looking for level 1 advice
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2018, 12:52:53 AM »
My super is $12,500
I don't have my partner's super on hand but I will update when I do.

waylah

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Re: Australian Newbie looking for level 1 advice
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2018, 01:11:04 AM »
More on super:

Super is something I haven't really thought about because I thought I had next to nothing in there. But apparently I have a little nugget.

I know pretty much nothing about super. The super fund I'm with lets you allocate your funds according to categories based on risk and 'sustainability'. I've just looked at what the allocation is, according to what I set my preferences to when I was 18, and this is the current break down:

Sustainable Balanced   $3,879   30.82%
Conservative Balanced   $3,643   28.96%
Balanced   $3,637   28.91%
Sustainable High Growth   $712   5.66%
Growth   $711   5.65%

I'm thinking I should have had more in growth? I didn't know what was what (and still don't!)

Fresh Bread

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Re: Australian Newbie looking for level 1 advice
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2018, 01:22:21 AM »
Hello and welcome!

The things that jump out at me are:

You're paying rego & insurance on a 2nd car you don't use - is it worth selling one?
Work lunches - maybe make it a bit more of an occasional treat and bring leftovers the other days. Do you have a kitchen at work where you can store sandwich stuff?
Your partner's commute seems exxy. Can he/she take the bus or train to avoid those tolls? It's nearly $5k a year.

elliha

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Re: Australian Newbie looking for level 1 advice
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2018, 03:52:31 AM »
I agree that you probably can reduce your spending when it comes to food and lunches, almost everyone can. You can spend less on this both of you. Bring leftovers, a salad or sandwiches for lunch.
I like bringing ingredients like tuna, vegetables and mayonnaise rather than a ready made salad but my work has a kitchen so it is possible to keep the things that need to be cool in the fridge and there is some space for the assembly.

marty998

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Re: Australian Newbie looking for level 1 advice
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2018, 06:47:49 AM »
If you plan on being the lower earner (or SAHP) then it makes sense to put future share investments in your name, and potentially property investments in your partner's name. This is largely because of the better tax outcomes you will achieve.


More on super:

Super is something I haven't really thought about because I thought I had next to nothing in there. But apparently I have a little nugget.

I know pretty much nothing about super. The super fund I'm with lets you allocate your funds according to categories based on risk and 'sustainability'. I've just looked at what the allocation is, according to what I set my preferences to when I was 18, and this is the current break down:

Sustainable Balanced   $3,879   30.82%
Conservative Balanced   $3,643   28.96%
Balanced   $3,637   28.91%
Sustainable High Growth   $712   5.66%
Growth   $711   5.65%

I'm thinking I should have had more in growth? I didn't know what was what (and still don't!)

There's a lot of overlap between all of these (they just weight the conservative one a little more towards cash and bonds, and the growth ones towards more Australian shares and International shares).

I agree that you probably can reduce your spending when it comes to food and lunches, almost everyone can. You can spend less on this both of you. Bring leftovers, a salad or sandwiches for lunch.
I like bringing ingredients like tuna, vegetables and mayonnaise rather than a ready made salad but my work has a kitchen so it is possible to keep the things that need to be cool in the fridge and there is some space for the assembly.

Yep... @waylah, your partner is having to earn over $5000 a year pre tax just to pay for his lunches (think about that), or put another way, nearly 4% of his post tax pay on lunch. That's a hell of a lot...

life_travel

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Re: Australian Newbie looking for level 1 advice
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2018, 04:19:23 PM »
Apart from lunches and tolls the other expenses seem OK .
What we do is we allocate $50-100 per person per month for personal fun money and any lunches at work , new clothes , etc come from that . We use YNAB to track .
Also my husband has an option to use a toll road but it works out $75 per month so we decided extra 15 mins drive is worth that saving .
(OK , full admission , as a CFO of our family I've decided and told him how it's going to be :)
He resisted at first and I said ok, use your fun money for that .. Suddenly it was no longer a need ! ;)

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!