Hi everyone,
I'm extremely new to the forum but I'm following MMM for a while now, and let me say that this community is just amazing!!!
I feel I'm in a very lucky situation at the moment but I'm afraid it won't last very long (I'll explain quickly later), so I need some help to try to get the best out of it.
Investing skills: definitely a newbie
Life Situation: I'm 34, recently (4 years ago) moved to Australia from Italy, it started as a long holiday and it has become a very long holiday. I'm a lab tech in a mine site, I spend 2 weeks at work and 1 week back home in Perth (WA). I'm still a temporary resident but I'll be permanent, hopefully, by the end of this year (a lot of little disadvantages should disappear then).
**Currency AUD**
Gross Salary/Wages: $82000 / $3150 every fortnight
Current expenses:
Rent: $500 month / $125 week (room in share house)
Health insurance: $100 month (will be probably 50% less as soon as I'm PR)
Mobile: $30 month
Food: $100 month
Gas,electric,internet: $0 (included in the rent)
Car Insurance: $40 year (I don't have a car, I'm just keeping my membership)
Petrol: 50$ Month (I'm using a friend car the week I'm home)
Car Registration: $500 year
Miscellaneous: $300 month
Assets:
Superannuation Fund: $22000, employer contribution of $600 a month
Savings: $90000 in a goal saver account, 2.2% annualized return (just dropped recently that's why I need to do something ASAP)
Australian Shares: $10000 (Very stupid move, too inexperienced, after nearly one year I'm down 2% but the spread between the good and the bad ones, is massive)
P2P Lending: $18000 (I did a bit more research for this one, and I'm pretty happy so far with the results, RateSetter)
25% ownership of a little Cafe in Perth, the quote is valued $40000, from march 2016, no returns so far, just free food and coffee. There's a lot of potential!
Liabilities:
Visa expenses: $10000, covered by the Company, I have to refund them if I quit before 2020 (pro-rata)
Diving courses: I'm expecting to spend $2000 to $3000 for some certification before the end of the year. Not a proper liability, but I'm spending money on this hobby quite regularly since the past 2 years (I'm sorry but I need holidays sometimes :-)).
I think this is it, everything I own is pretty much in my room and I have no debt so far (except for the visa).
I feel pretty lucky mostly due to my work situation, salary is decent and spending 2/3 of the time far from the city allowed me to save a huge portion of it.
I'm also thinking that is not going to last also because of the work situation. Market condition are changed a lot in the past 18 months, and workers condition as well , salary is good, but way below the average up here, and life is very hard sometime :-).
Specific Question(s):
1) What to do with my savings?
I was looking to the Wholesale Vanguard High Growth Index Fund, fees 0.37%, apparently $100k are enough to access the fund and I'll be able to add a little amount regularly without incurring in fees.
ETFs were also an option as I have already a CMC account, but I will have to keep the money somewhere until I have enough to minimize the brokerage fees if I want to buy more. I'm also not really confident I'll be able to re balance the portfolio properly. I'm still somehow too emotional :-)
I'm not really into property as well and my rent is very low at the moment so I rather renting.
2) I started my trip as a long holiday, and , even If I really love Australia I'm not sure I'll stay here forever. I'm still a backpacker deep inside and all my family is on the other side of the planet. I'm wondering what would happened to my investment if I decide to move country for a decent amount of time. Taxation problems??? (In a couple of years I'll be also citizen if everything works as it should)
3) Superfunds are pretty new and obscure entities to me, I opened my first and only one with AustralianSuper as soon as I came here, I immediately removed the insurance as I was suppose to live the country 2 years ago and the fees were eroding the few $$$$ I had there. Any suggestion about a better one? Sunsuper seems pretty popular between the mustachians downunder.
Thanks everyone in advance...hopefully my post is clear...I'm not really used to write that much in English :-)