A novated lease is a three-way arrangement between you, your employer and a financier. Your car's lease payments and running costs are paid out of your salary — mostly before tax — which lowers your taxable income. This calculator compares that against simply buying the car with cash or a loan.

The lease and running costs (finance, fuel or charging, rego, insurance, servicing) come out of your pre-tax salary, so you save your marginal rate on those amounts. Two things shape whether it's actually cheaper:

• FBT. A car benefit attracts Fringe Benefits Tax; the employee contribution method (paying part post-tax) is used to cancel it out, which trims the pre-tax saving.
• The EV exemption. Eligible electric vehicles under the luxury threshold are FBT-exempt — so the whole package stays pre-tax, which is where novated leases genuinely shine.

There's also a residual (balloon) payment owed at the end of the term.

The answer hinges on the car:

For a petrol car, FBT usually claws back much of the pre-tax benefit, so once you add interest, fees and the residual, a lease is often close to — or dearer than — a plain loan. For an eligible EV, the FBT exemption keeps the whole lease and running costs pre-tax, so a higher-rate earner can save several thousand dollars a year versus financing the same car.

• It's an EV story. The FBT exemption is what turns a novated lease into a clear win; for petrol cars the maths is far tighter.
• Higher earners save more. The benefit is your marginal rate applied to the pre-tax costs, so it's worth more the higher your tax bracket.
• Mind the fine print. The finance rate, management fees and the residual can quietly erode the saving — compare the all-in cost to an ordinary car loan.
• You need the job. The lease is novated to your employer; if you leave, the obligation comes back to you.

Compare structures on the Associate vs Novated Lease Calculator, check your marginal rate, and weigh it against salary sacrifice as another pre-tax move.

An associate lease is an alternative to a standard novated lease. Instead of a financier owning your car, an associate — often a lower-earning spouse or family member — owns it and leases it, usually through your employer, back to you. This calculator compares that structure against an ordinary novated lease to see which leaves more in the family's pocket after tax.

Both structures pay your car costs from pre-tax salary, lowering your taxable income. The difference is where the lease profit lands:

• Novated lease: a financier owns the car; you simply package it. Simple and standard, and for an eligible EV, already very tax-effective thanks to the FBT exemption.
• Associate lease: your associate owns the car and earns the lease income, which is taxed at their marginal rate. If they're on a lower rate than you, that's income splitting — the same profit taxed less.

The trade-off is complexity: an associate lease must be a genuine, arm's-length commercial arrangement, needs proper accounting, and attracts ATO scrutiny.

Suppose the lease generates about $8,000 a year of net profit:

Shifting that $8,000 of profit from your 39% rate to an associate on 16% saves roughly $1,840 a year through income splitting. Over a lease term it adds up — but only if it clears the extra set-up, accounting and compliance overhead an associate lease brings.

• Novated is simpler, and for an eligible EV it's already highly tax-effective through the FBT exemption — often no need to go further.
• Associate can win with a genuine low-income associate and enough lease profit to shift — the bigger the rate gap, the bigger the benefit.
• Count the overhead. Accounting, a proper lease agreement and ongoing compliance cost money and effort; the tax saving has to beat them.
• Get advice. The ATO watches associate leases closely — they must be genuinely commercial, so professional set-up isn't optional.

Start with the standard structure on the Novated Lease Calculator, check the rate gap on the Income Tax Calculator, and weigh salary sacrifice as a simpler pre-tax alternative.

If you retire before 60, you generally can't touch your super yet. So you need enough money outside super to live on from the day you stop working until you can access it. That pot — the money that carries you across the gap — is your "bridge to 60".

The bridge is the spending you must fund from your own savings between early retirement and 60, less any other income, over that many years — reduced by the returns your bridge fund earns while you're drawing on it.

• The longer before 60 you retire, the more years to fund, and the bigger the bridge.
• Other income (part-time work, rent) shrinks it directly.
• A safety buffer covers a poor run of returns early on.

Because the fund keeps earning while you draw it, you need less than simply spending × years.

Retire at 50, spend $60,000 a year, super at 60 (a 10-year bridge), with the fund earning 5%:

You need about $463,000 outside super to cover the decade to 60 — less than the $600,000 raw total, because the fund keeps earning as you spend it. Delay retirement to 55 and the bridge more than halves, to around $260,000.

• Hold enough outside super. ETFs, shares, savings or an offset can all form the bridge — the point is it's accessible before 60.
• Don't over-stuff super if retiring early. Extra super is locked away; you may need those dollars accessible for the bridge instead.
• Retire a little later and it shrinks fast. Each year closer to 60 cuts both the years to fund and the buffer.
• A part-time income does heavy lifting — even modest earnings during the bridge sharply reduce what you need saved.

See the whole plan: your target on the FIRE Calculator, whether you're coasting already, how a pot draws down, and your Superannuation Projection for the other side of 60.

The First Home Super Saver (FHSS) scheme lets first-home buyers save part of their deposit inside super, where it's taxed more lightly than money in a bank account. You make extra voluntary contributions, then later withdraw them — plus the earnings they've made — to put toward your first home.

You make voluntary contributions of up to $15,000 a year and $50,000 in total that can later be released. The tax advantage comes at both ends:

• Going in: before-tax (concessional) contributions are taxed at 15% instead of your marginal rate.
• Coming out: the released concessional amount is taxed at your marginal rate minus a 30% offset — so a middle earner pays almost nothing.

You also earn deemed interest at the ATO's set rate, which often beats an ordinary savings account after tax.

Contribute $15,000 a year for two years ($30,000) on a 32% marginal rate:

The same $30,000 taken as salary and banked leaves about $20,400 after tax. Run through FHSS — 15% tax in, roughly 4% out — you release around $24,480, plus the deemed earnings. That's roughly $4,000 more deposit, and a couple can each use the scheme, effectively doubling the cap.

• Use salary sacrifice for the contributions, so you get the 15% concessional rate rather than contributing after-tax dollars.
• Both partners can use it. Two first-home buyers can each release up to $50,000, up to $100,000 combined.
• Mind the caps: $15,000 counts per year and $50,000 in total — contributions above that don't count toward the scheme.
• It's for genuine first-home buyers — there are rules about buying and moving in, so check eligibility before you start.

Line it up with the rest of the purchase: contribute via the Salary Sacrifice Calculator, budget the Stamp Duty, weigh a smaller deposit plus LMI, and check your Borrowing Power.

It shows how much of a redundancy payout you keep after tax. The good news for anyone facing one: a genuine redundancy comes with a generous tax-free amount, and the part above it is taxed at concessional rates rather than your full marginal rate.

For a genuine redundancy, part of the payment is completely tax-free:

Tax-free = $13,100 + $6,552 × years of service

Anything above that becomes an employment termination payment (ETP), taxed at a concessional rate up to the ETP cap ($260,000): around 30% plus Medicare if you're under preservation age, or 15% plus Medicare at or above it. Unused annual and long service leave are taxed separately again. So a big-sounding payout often keeps far more in your pocket than you'd expect.

10 years of service with an $80,000 genuine redundancy:

The tax-free limit is $13,100 + $6,552 × 10 = $78,620, so almost the entire payout is tax-free; only $1,380 is taxed as an ETP (about $442 if you're under 55). Fewer years or a bigger payout means more falls into the ETP portion — but it's still taxed concessionally, not at your full rate.

• Confirm it's a "genuine redundancy". The tax-free treatment depends on it — resigning or retiring generally doesn't qualify.
• The tax-free amount grows with service, at $6,552 a year, so long-tenured employees keep much more.
• Your age matters for the ETP portion — reaching preservation age drops the concessional rate from about 32% to about 17%.
• Leave is taxed separately. Unused annual and long service leave have their own rules and can be taxed more heavily than the redundancy itself.

Work out your ongoing position on the Income Tax Calculator, see what the payout does to your take-home pay, and consider salary sacrifice for any taxable portion.

It works out how much to set aside — per week, fortnight or month — to hit a savings target by a date, or how long a set amount will take to get there. Interest or investment returns are part of the sum, so it shows the goal as a real plan rather than a guess.

It combines three things: what you've already saved, what you add regularly, and the return your savings earn — compounding over time toward the target. The return does part of the work: the higher it is, the less you need to contribute yourself.

You can solve it either way — fix a date and it tells you the contribution needed, or fix a contribution and it tells you how long it'll take.

To reach a $100,000 deposit in 5 years, starting with $10,000, at a 4% return:

You'd need about $1,324 a month. A higher return brings that figure down; a shorter timeframe pushes it up. The earlier you start, the more the return does for you and the less comes out of your own pocket.

• Automate it. Set up an automatic transfer on payday — paying yourself first is the single most reliable way to hit a target.
• Earn a real return on it. A high-interest account, or an offset if you have a mortgage, makes your savings work harder than a everyday account.
• Lift contributions with pay rises, so the goal arrives sooner without feeling the pinch.
• Match the vehicle to the horizon. For a few years, cash or an offset suits; for long horizons, investing may do more (with more ups and downs).

Related: the Offset Calculator if you're saving against a loan, the FIRE Calculator for the big long-term goal, and the ETF & LIC Fee Compare if you'll invest the savings.

It shows how your savings behave once you stop adding and start spending them — how long the balance lasts at a given level of spending, or how much you can safely draw. The central tension is simple: spend within what your investments earn and the money can last indefinitely; spend beyond it and you steadily eat the capital.

Each year your balance earns a return, and you withdraw your spending from what's left. If your withdrawal is below the return, the pot keeps growing; above it, the pot shrinks. The common guide is the 4% rule — drawing around 4% a year has historically lasted a long retirement.

Two Australian details matter: account-based pensions have minimum drawdown rates (4% under 65, rising with age), and sequencing risk means a bad run of returns early in retirement does far more damage than the same run later.

A $1,000,000 balance earning 5% a year:

Drawing at or below the 5% you're earning, the balance holds or grows. Push to $70,000 — 7%, above the return — and it runs dry in about 26 years. Staying near your return rate is what turns a pot into a lasting income.

• Anchor near the 4% guide. It's a starting point that has historically survived long retirements; adjust for your age and confidence.
• Keep a cash buffer. A year or two of spending in cash lets you avoid selling investments in a downturn — the antidote to sequencing risk.
• Factor the Age Pension. For many retirees it supplements the drawdown and can meaningfully extend how long savings last.
• Mind minimum drawdowns. Account-based pensions require a minimum each year, rising with age — you may have to draw more than you'd like later on.

Related: your target on the FIRE Calculator, the balance you're building on the Superannuation Projection, and the Bridge to 60 for spending before you can access super.

It projects what your super could be worth by the time you retire, starting from your balance today and adding contributions and investment returns year after year. It also tests whether that balance is likely to fund the retirement income you want. The headline lesson is almost always the same: time and compounding do more of the work than most people expect.

Each year your balance grows by the investment return, and contributions are added on top:

• Employer super — 12% of your salary in 2026–27;
• any salary sacrifice you add, taxed at 15% going in;
• compounding — returns earned on past returns, which is where the real growth comes from over decades.

Because it compounds, small changes — a slightly higher return, a bit more contributed, a lower fee — make a surprisingly large difference by the end.

At 35, on $90,000 with a $50,000 balance, retiring at 65 on a 7% return:

Your $50,000 plus 12% employer super (about $9,180 a year after the 15% contributions tax) grows to roughly $1.25 million over 30 years. Most of that final figure is compounding, not the contributions themselves — which is why starting early matters so much.

• Salary sacrifice. Extra pre-tax contributions are taxed at 15% instead of your marginal rate — see the Salary Sacrifice Calculator.
• Cut fees. A 1% difference can cost hundreds of thousands over a career — the Super Fees Calculator shows how much.
• Check your investment option. Over a long horizon, a growth option has historically outpaced a conservative one — though with more ups and downs.
• Consolidate accounts so you're not paying duplicate fees or insurance on forgotten super.

See the bigger picture with the FIRE Calculator for financial independence, and whether Division 293 affects your contributions.

It turns a FIFO day rate or salary and your roster into real take-home pay, and helps you make the most of an income that's typically high but rarely permanent. The money can be excellent; the trick is what you do with it while it lasts.

From your day rate or salary and roster (say 2:1 or 8:6), it works out your annual gross, then subtracts income tax and the Medicare levy to show take-home. Because FIFO incomes are high, you'll usually sit on a high marginal rate (39% once you pass $135,000), which is exactly why salary sacrificing and investing the surplus pay off so well.

One honest note: many FIFO travel and meal costs aren't deductible — travelling from home to a regular work site generally isn't — so don't count on big deductions to lower the bill.

On a $180,000 FIFO income in 2026–27:

You keep about $128,730. But that 39% marginal rate is the headline: every dollar you salary-sacrifice into super is taxed at 15% instead of 39%, saving you 24c on the dollar. On a big income, that adds up fast.

• Salary sacrifice hard. At a 39% marginal rate, moving pre-tax dollars into super at 15% is one of the best-value moves available — see the Salary Sacrifice Calculator.
• Invest the surplus. Resource incomes run in cycles; turning today's high pay into assets is what makes it last beyond the roster.
• Build a buffer. A solid cash reserve (or offset) carries you through a downturn or a between-jobs gap.
• Resist lifestyle creep. The danger of a big income is spending as if it's permanent. Bank the raises, don't just upsize the life.

See the tax detail on the Income Tax Calculator, and where it could take you on the FIRE Calculator.

It shows how much the management fee on an ETF or listed investment company (LIC) costs you over time, by comparing a low-cost fund with a pricier one earning the same return. The fee looks trivial as a yearly percentage, but because it's charged every year on a growing balance, it compounds into real money.

A fund's MER (management expense ratio) comes straight off your return. If two funds both earn 7.5% but one charges 0.2% and the other 1%, you net 7.3% versus 6.5% — and that 0.8% gap compounds every year you're invested.

The calculator runs the same money through both funds and shows the difference at the end. Over a couple of decades, an identical portfolio can be tens of thousands apart purely on fees.

$50,000 plus $500 a month for 20 years at a 7.5% gross return:

Same money, same market — yet the higher-fee fund leaves you about $56,000 worse off after 20 years. That's the price of not checking the MER before you buy.

• Favour low-cost index ETFs. Broad index funds often charge a fraction of active funds for comparable long-run returns.
• Check the MER before you buy, and read it as a lifelong cost, not a one-off.
• Watch the extras — brokerage and platform fees add to the drag, especially on small, frequent purchases.
• Don't pay active fees for index-like returns. If a fund tracks the market, a cheap tracker usually wins after costs.

The same idea inside super is on the Super Fees Calculator; pair this with the Savings Goal Calculator, the income view on the Dividend Yield Calculator, and the long game on the FIRE Calculator.

Stamp duty (transfer duty) is a state tax you pay when you buy property, and after your deposit it's usually the biggest single cost of getting in. It's set by each state and territory, so the same price attracts very different duty depending on where you buy.

This calculator adds up the whole settlement bill — deposit, duty, Lenders Mortgage Insurance, statutory fees, minus any grants — so you see the real cash you need, not just the deposit.

Duty is worked out on a sliding scale of the purchase price set by your state or territory. On top of that the calculator handles the things that actually change the number:

• First-home and owner-occupier concessions that reduce or waive duty up to certain price thresholds, tapering out above them;
• the foreign-purchaser surcharge for non-residents;
• the First Home Owner Grant on an eligible new build;
• LMI if your deposit is under 20%, and representative statutory fees.

The all-in cash you need is roughly your deposit + duty + LMI (if paid in cash) + fees, minus any grants.

On an $800,000 home, a non-first-home owner-occupier typically pays tens of thousands in duty — commonly somewhere around $30,000 to $45,000 depending on the state — on top of the deposit.

That's why the cash you need at settlement is well above the deposit alone. A first-home buyer under their state's concession threshold, by contrast, might pay little or no duty — which can be worth tens of thousands.

• Check first-home concessions and the grant. They're the biggest lever — a purchase under the threshold can wipe out duty entirely in some states.
• Mind the thresholds. Buying just under a concession cut-off can save far more than the price difference.
• Consider a new build where the First Home Owner Grant applies.
• Capitalise LMI onto the loan instead of paying it in cash if settlement funds are tight.
• Budget duty early — it's due around settlement and can't be borrowed as part of the deposit.

Line it up with the rest: what you can borrow on the Borrowing Power Calculator, the repayments on the Home Loan Repayments Calculator, whether a smaller deposit plus LMI stacks up, and how an offset helps once you're in.

It estimates whether you'll get a refund or owe a bill when you lodge your 2025–26 return. Through the year your employer withholds tax from each pay as a best guess; at tax time the real sum is worked out across all your income, deductions and offsets, and the difference is refunded to you or payable.

It compares two numbers: the tax that was withheld from your pay, and the tax you actually owe on your full-year position. That full position adds up your salary and any bonus, plus untaxed income like bank interest and dividends, then subtracts deductions and applies offsets and franking credits.

• Deductions lower your taxable income, so you get tax back at your marginal rate.
• Untaxed extra income (interest, unfranked dividends) usually creates a bill, because no tax was withheld on it.
• Franking credits and offsets are counted against the tax owed.

On a $90,000 salary with tax withheld as normal, two common adjustments:

At a 32% marginal rate, $2,000 of legitimate deductions returns about $640; but $5,000 of bank interest with no tax withheld adds roughly $1,600 to your bill. Your refund or payable is simply the net of everything the withholding didn't already cover.

• Claim every legitimate deduction — work expenses, donations, the cost of managing your tax affairs — and keep records; each saves tax at your marginal rate.
• Declare all income. Interest, dividends and side income are pre-filled or matched by the ATO, so leaving them off just delays a bill, not avoids it.
• Franking credits help. They offset tax owed and can turn part of a bill into a refund — see the Franking Credits Calculator.
• A big recurring refund isn't free money — it's tax you overpaid all year. A PAYG variation can bring it into each pay instead.

Related: the tax mechanics on the Income Tax Calculator, bringing a refund forward with a PAYG Variation, and any CGT from selling investments.

An offset account is a transaction or savings account linked to your home loan. Every dollar sitting in it is "offset" against your loan balance before the lender works out interest. Keep $20,000 in an offset against a $500,000 loan and you're only charged interest on $480,000 — but you can still spend that $20,000 whenever you like.

Your repayment doesn't change. Because less of it is eaten by interest, more goes to the principal, so the loan clears earlier and you pay less interest overall. This calculator turns your balance into real numbers: the interest you'd save, the years you'd cut off the loan, and the effective return that money is quietly earning.

You give it your loan amount, interest rate, term and the average balance you keep in the offset. Interest in Australia is worked out daily on the balance less your offset, and charged monthly — so the offset goes to work every day it has money in it.

The clever part is the return. Money in an offset earns your loan rate, tax-free, because you're avoiding interest rather than earning it. A savings account paying the same rate is taxed. So a 6% offset is worth far more than a 6% savings account:

That's the pre-tax rate a savings account would need to pay just to match a 6% offset, at each marginal tax rate. Nothing taxed gets close.

Take a $640,000 loan at 6.00% over 30 years — a repayment of about $3,837 a month. Now keep an average of $50,000 in the offset:

The $50,000 never leaves your control — it's still there for emergencies — yet it quietly saves more than $200,000 in interest. Push the average to $100,000 and the saving jumps to roughly $346,000, clearing the loan about seven and a half years early.

An offset only works on the dollars actually in it, so the game is keeping the balance high:

• Have your pay credited to the offset. Even money that's only there a fortnight before bills go out is cutting interest every day it sits.
• Park your emergency fund and savings there. It's a risk-free, tax-free return at your loan rate — better than almost any at-call savings account after tax.
• Offset vs extra repayments. The interest saving is the same, but offset money stays accessible, and for an investment loan an offset preserves deductibility where paying the balance down doesn't. See the Home Loan Repayments Calculator.
• Offset vs redraw. An offset is your own account, fully yours. Redraw sits inside the loan and a lender can freeze or limit it.
• Mind the package fee. Offsets often carry an annual fee. If your balance saves you thousands, it pays for itself many times over; if you rarely hold much, it might not.

Weighing it against other moves? Compare a lower rate on the Refinance Calculator, check what you could borrow with the Borrowing Power Calculator, or model turning that debt deductible with the Debt Recycling Calculator.

A home loan repayment calculator works out what a mortgage actually costs you — the regular repayment, the total interest over the life of the loan, and the full amount you hand back to the lender. You put in the loan size, the interest rate, the term and how often you pay, and it does the amortisation maths so you don't have to.

Your repayment covers two things: principal (the money you borrowed) and interest (the lender's charge for lending it). On a principal-and-interest loan, every repayment chips away at both — early on it's nearly all interest, and the balance only starts falling quickly in the back half of the term. On an interest-only loan you pay just the interest for a set period, so the repayment is lower but the balance doesn't move until you switch to principal and interest.

Most Australian mortgages run over 25 or 30 years. The longer term lowers each repayment but stretches the interest out, so you pay more overall. Getting a realistic figure before you buy matters, because the bank's "maximum" and what's comfortable in your budget are rarely the same number — and a rate move of even half a per cent changes the picture more than people expect.

You give it five things: the loan amount (purchase price less your deposit), your interest rate, the loan term, the repayment frequency, and any extra repayments on top of the minimum.

The repayment itself comes from the standard amortisation formula every lender uses:

M = P × [ r(1 + r)ⁿ ] ÷ [ (1 + r)ⁿ − 1 ]

• M = the repayment
• P = the loan amount (principal)
• r = the monthly interest rate (annual rate ÷ 12)
• n = the total number of repayments (years × 12)

In Australia, interest is generally calculated daily on your outstanding balance and charged to the loan monthly. That's why paying a little more, more often, or holding cash in an offset, quietly shrinks the daily balance the interest is worked out on.

How much does the rate matter? More than almost any other input. Take a $700,000 loan over 30 years and move only the rate:

That's roughly $899 more a month and about $324,000 extra in interest for a two-point move — a good reason to stress-test your budget a couple of per cent above your actual rate, which is exactly what lenders do.

Say you're buying an $800,000 home with a $160,000 deposit. That leaves a $640,000 loan. At 6.00% over 30 years, principal and interest:

Read that middle number again. Over a full 30-year term at 6%, the interest alone (~$741,000) is more than the original loan ($640,000). That isn't a quirk of the calculator — it's how long-dated compound interest works, and it's why so much of the mortgage game is about cutting the term down, not just meeting the minimum.

Weekly, fortnightly or monthly? Here's the honest version. If you split your monthly repayment in half and pay it every fortnight, you quietly pay more per year — there are 26 fortnights but only 12 months, so half-a-monthly × 26 equals 13 monthly repayments, not 12. On the $640,000 loan above, that's about one extra month's repayment a year, clearing the loan in roughly 24.5 years instead of 30 and saving close to $159,000 in interest. The saving comes from paying extra, not from the frequency itself — so a calculator that just splits your monthly amount evenly into fortnights won't change a thing.

The big levers all work the same way — by lowering the balance your daily interest is charged on:

• Extra repayments. An extra $500 a month on the $640,000 loan clears it in about 22.4 years and saves roughly $217,000 in interest.
• Offset accounts. Cash in an offset is netted off your balance before interest is worked out — a steady $50,000 offset on that loan saves around $205,000 over the term. See the Offset Calculator.
• Redraw. Extra repayments can often be pulled back if needed — but redraw sits inside the loan and lenders can restrict it, unlike an offset.
• Refinancing. A lower rate can shave years off — mind break costs, fees and resetting to a fresh 30-year term. Run it through the Refinance Calculator.
• Lump sums. Refunds and bonuses thrown at the principal early have the biggest effect, because they stop interest compounding for longest.

Know your numbers across the whole purchase: what a lender will approve with the Borrowing Power Calculator, the upfront cash on the Stamp Duty Calculator, whether a smaller deposit and Lenders Mortgage Insurance stacks up, and — if you're buying to rent it out — the weekly position on the Investment Property Cashflow Calculator.

Refinancing means replacing your current home loan with a new one — usually at a lower rate, sometimes with a different lender or features. The loan doesn't disappear; you're swapping the terms it runs on. People do it to cut the rate, unlock equity, add an offset, or move off an expiring fixed period.

The catch is that switching isn't free, so a lower rate only helps once it's paid back the cost of moving. This calculator weighs the saving against the switching cost: the break-even month, the lifetime saving, and what refinancing does to the date you're mortgage free.

You enter your current balance, the years remaining, your current rate, the new rate, and the switching costs (a discharge fee from your old lender, plus any application, settlement and government fees on the new loan).

It works out your repayment on each rate, the monthly saving, and the simple test that matters most:

Break-even (months) = switching cost ÷ monthly saving

Below the break-even point you're still recovering the cost of moving; past it, the saving is real money. The comparison rate shown alongside (AAPR) folds ongoing fees into the rate, so two loans are compared fairly rather than on the headline number alone.

Say you owe $600,000 with 25 years left, and you drop your rate from 6.5% to 6.0%:

At a switching cost of about $1,200, you're ahead within seven months, and keeping the same remaining term saves roughly $54,000 over the life of the loan. One trap to avoid: if the new lender resets you to a fresh 30-year term, the repayment drops further (to about $3,597) but you stretch the interest back out — the headline saving can quietly disappear.

The saving is real, but only if you don't give it back:

• Keep the same remaining term. Don't reset to a new 30 years unless you mean to — that's the single biggest way a "cheaper" loan ends up costing more.
• Keep paying the old repayment. Funnel the monthly saving straight back in and you clear the loan years earlier on top of the rate cut.
• Read past the cashback. A $2,000 cashback is nice, but a rate a fraction higher can cost you more than that over a few years. Compare on the rate first.
• Mind fixed-rate break costs. Leaving a fixed loan early can trigger a break fee that wipes out the saving — check before you switch.
• Watch your equity. If you'd be borrowing more than 80% of the property's value, LMI can apply again on the new loan.

Worth a look alongside this: what the new repayment really costs on the Home Loan Repayments Calculator, whether an offset beats chasing a slightly lower rate, whether a new lender will lend you enough via the Borrowing Power Calculator, and the LMI position if your equity is under 20%.

Lenders Mortgage Insurance is a one-off premium you pay when your deposit is under 20% (a loan-to-value ratio above 80%). The important twist: it protects the lender, not you, if you can't repay. You pay it; the bank is the one covered.

It lets you buy with a smaller deposit instead of waiting to save 20%. This calculator weighs that trade-off: the LMI cost against the rent you'd pay and the price growth you might miss while you keep saving.

The premium depends on your loan size and your loan-to-value ratio, and it climbs steeply as your deposit shrinks — a 5% deposit costs far more LMI than a 15% one. It's usually a percentage of the loan, often somewhere between roughly 1% and 4%+.

The real question isn't just the cost — it's the trade-off. Buying now with LMI versus saving to 20% means weighing the premium against the rent you'll pay and any price growth over the extra time it takes to save. In a rising market, waiting can cost more than the LMI.

Say you buy an $800,000 home with a 10% deposit — a $720,000 loan at a 90% LVR:

At a 5% deposit (95% LVR) the premium is higher again. Paying it might let you buy a year or two sooner — and whether that beats saving longer comes down to the rent you'd pay in the meantime and how much prices move while you wait.

• Compare the premium to the wait. Weigh the LMI cost against the rent you'd pay plus likely price growth over the time it'd take to save a 20% deposit.
• Nudge into a cheaper LVR band. A slightly bigger deposit can drop you into a lower band where LMI is markedly cheaper.
• Check guarantee schemes. The First Home Guarantee and similar programs can let eligible buyers skip LMI entirely with a small deposit.
• Ask about professional waivers. Some lenders waive LMI for certain occupations.
• Consider capitalising it onto the loan if paying it in cash would drain your buffer.

Round out the picture with the Stamp Duty Calculator for the rest of your upfront cash, the Home Loan Repayments Calculator for what a bigger loan costs, and the Borrowing Power Calculator for how far your deposit stretches.

Debt recycling is a strategy that gradually turns your non-deductible home-loan debt into deductible investment debt, while building an investment portfolio along the way. The interest on money borrowed to invest is tax-deductible; the interest on your home loan isn't. Debt recycling slowly shifts your borrowing from the second kind to the first.

It's a genuine wealth-building strategy — but it uses leverage, so it magnifies both gains and losses and isn't for everyone.

The loop, run over years, looks like this:

• pay a lump off your home loan, then redraw that amount (or use a separate split) to invest;
• the interest on that investment portion is now tax-deductible;
• the investment's dividends, plus your tax saving, go straight onto the non-deductible home loan;
• repeat — each cycle shrinks the bad (non-deductible) debt and grows the good (deductible) debt and your portfolio.

Done consistently, you end up with the same total debt but far more of it working for you and deductible, plus an investment portfolio you wouldn't otherwise have.

Recycle $50,000 of a home loan into investments at a 6% loan rate, on a 39% marginal rate:

The $3,000 of interest on that investment loan is now deductible, saving about $1,170 a year in tax at a 39% rate. That saving, plus the investment's dividends, goes onto your non-deductible home loan — speeding it up while your portfolio grows. Repeated over years, the effect compounds; but if markets fall, you still owe the investment debt.

• Structure it properly. Keep the investment loan entirely separate from personal spending — mixing them can break the deductibility. This is where advice earns its keep.
• It's leverage. Borrowing to invest magnifies losses as well as gains; a market fall while you owe the debt is the real risk.
• Suits stable, higher incomes. The tax benefit scales with your marginal rate, and you need reliable cashflow to hold the position through downturns.
• Long horizon and discipline required. The strategy works over many years of consistent recycling, not as a quick win.

Understand the pieces first: the Offset Calculator and Home Loan Repayments for the debt side, franking credits and dividend yield for the investment income, and your marginal rate for the tax saving.

It tells you whether an investment property puts money in your pocket each week or takes it out — after tax. A property that earns more than it costs to hold is positively geared; one that costs more than it earns is negatively geared, and you top up the difference.

The calculator shows your weekly after-tax position, the rent you'd need to break even, how geared you are, and how the numbers hold up if rates rise or the place sits vacant.

It starts with the cash in and out: rent, minus loan interest, rates, insurance, property management and maintenance. If that's negative, you're negatively geared — and the loss reduces your taxable income, so some of it comes back as a tax refund.

Then it adds depreciation — a non-cash deduction for the building and fittings wearing out. It costs you nothing in cash but still lowers your tax, which is why after-tax cashflow is often much better than the raw cash position suggests.

After-tax cashflow = (rent − costs) + tax benefit on the loss and depreciation

Take a $600,000 property with a $500,000 loan at 6%, renting for $520 a week. Interest runs about $30,000 a year; rates, insurance, management and maintenance another ~$9,500; rent brings in ~$27,000: