A few weeks after we settled into our first home in Australia, a letter arrived in the mail. It had Medicare on it, and it mentioned something about turning 31. We did not understand it. My husband read it twice. I read it once and handed it back to him, because my mind was somewhere
Finding a place to rent in Australia is hard enough on its own. Then you finally find one you love, you sit down to apply, and you hit a wall nobody warned you about. You need a pile of cash before you can even move in. I remember that feeling so well. We had been
How Much Money You Really Need Before You Can Rent in Australia Read More »
When we first arrived in Australia, the word tax made my stomach turn a little. Back home, tax was something that just happened quietly in the background. Here, it felt like one more thing on a long list I did not understand yet. New job. New bank. New everything. And now this too. If you
TFN and Tax in Australia: A Simple Guide for New Immigrants Read More »
A neighbour told us once that we needed a credit card. We were living in a rented townhouse at the time, saving hard for a house deposit, and we got talking about buying property. He meant well. He said if we wanted to get a home loan approved, we needed to build a good credit
How to Build a Good Credit Score in Australia Without a Credit Card Read More »
There is a feeling that nobody really warns you about before you move to Australia. It is not the homesickness, although that is real. It is not the cost of living shock, although that hits hard too. It is the quiet, persistent feeling that everyone else has figured something out that you have not. That
I wish someone had sat me down before we arrived in Australia and said this. The first 90 days are not about getting ahead. They are about getting the order right. Because when you are new to a country, everything feels urgent at once. Finding a place to stay. Looking for work. Figuring out transport.
What to Do Financially in Your First 90 Days in Australia Read More »
One of the things I wish we had done earlier after moving to Australia was create a simple bill calendar. Not a complicated spreadsheet. Not a perfect budgeting system. Just a simple place where we could see what was coming. Because in the beginning, money did not only feel hard because of the amount. It
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There was a season in our life here when money did not feel dramatic from the outside. We were in Australia. We were working. The bills were being paid. Life looked like it was moving. But underneath, I still felt like money was sitting in the back of my mind all the time. Not because
How to Set Up a Simple Weekly Money Routine in Australia When Life Feels Full Read More »
Getting your first job in Australia can feel like such a huge emotional moment. You apply, wait, hope, interview, hear nothing, keep going, try again, and then finally, someone says yes. And for a moment, it feels like maybe you can finally breathe. Read here for tips when Looking for a Job in Australia. Maybe
How to Read Your First Pay Slip in Australia as a New Immigrant Read More »
One of the things I wish someone had explained to us more clearly before we moved to Australia was this: it’s not always the big expenses that make money feel heavy. Sometimes it’s the smaller ones, the ones that do not come every month, that quietly throw your whole budget off when they do. The
What Irregular Expenses New Immigrants Often Forget to Budget for in Australia Read More »