The Money Mustache Community
Around the World => Australia Discussion => Topic started by: Nnking on October 16, 2017, 02:45:23 PM
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Hi,
I had bought an insurance in 2016 but it looks like it was a wrong buy. I paid for $980 for extras only insurance this year, it was not private hospital cover and no one when buying guided me to this.
This "not knowing" has costed me $2980 this year.
$980 (insurance premium which I have paid ) + around 2000 medicare surcharge (which I am suppose to pay now after lodging return)
Quite an expensive lesson, which was your expensive lesson?
I really wish buying health cover would have been super clear and easy, I paid anyways, would have bought right health cover.
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On the bright side, if you qualify to pay the medicare levy surcharge then you have a massive income! I have made heaps of these types of mistakes over the years. But only once each! Each tax return teaches me something.
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We also take out private health cover because of our joint income. I dont know if we will keep it when we retire. Many dollars and still so many expenses.
My big mistake was to buy a block of land in a regional town near the coast, with a plan to build a holiday home and rental property. In 2004 we paid $125 000. We are looking at selling it. Valuation today is $120 000 to $140 000. So 13 years of no cgange. What a waste of possible growth.
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Each tax return teaches me something.
Each tax return teaches me something.
yes. I guess so.
My big mistake was to buy a block of land in a regional town near the coast, with a plan to build a holiday home and rental property. In 2004 we paid $125 000. We are looking at selling it. Valuation today is $120 000 to $140 000. So 13 years of no cgange. What a waste of possible growth.
I see, 13 year is long time!
and you never built holiday home or rental on it?
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No, never got around to it. Had an architect friend draw up some ideas for a reasonable fee, but life kept getting in the way.
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$980 is quite high for extras only - did you buy the very top level cover for extras???
I pay about $1100 all up for hospital and basic extras.
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My expensive lesson was don’t pay the freezer repairman upfront for a $500 part he has to order in, and also look up google reviews on them first because that guy took my money and never came back. The freezer was actually fine, just needed a defrost.
4 years on, still mega salty about that one.
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Another expensive lesson I had:
I purchase a mobile phone over the internet. I checked the price was good, about 20% cheaper than any stores. I checked they were a .au website, so they were local. Therefore I could get help if something went wrong. Well, something went wrong. It never worked out of the box. $350 of frustration. I took it to the manufacturer, Samsung, who told me that as it was not an Australian product, they would not fix it under warranty, I should return it. When it came time to return it, the .au company was actually Hong Kong based, and had no Australian office. They politely listened to my phone calls, day after day, but never gave me a credit or an address to send it back to. I contacted Consumer Protection, and they already had a long list of issues with the company, but as they were not Australian there was a limit to what they could do. Their .au site no longer exists.
There were reviews of them on Whirlpool forums, that i didn't read early enough. Better research next time.
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Tap was leaking into the kitchen cabinet under the sink when we used it. I suggested we google the solution as it might be problem we can fix. DP says no looks serious and calls the plumber. Plumber comes and charges us $180 to tell us to tighten up the handset (the thing for washing veggies) as this had unscrewed and made water flood back up the tap. Google has saved me so much money over the years but only if you actually do it.