NEXT ZERO

Every time someone misuses the system, the rules tighten for everyone else. People who genuinely need early access to super now have to deal with longer wait times and more paperwork because people tried to pass off elective surgeries like a tummy tucks as essential treatments. You can access your super early if you are…

If you have found your accountant or tax agent busier and grumpier than before, you are not alone. There are other factors but a big contributor has been the ATO who in recent years has done its best to make the life of every tax agent as difficult as possible. Now it is official (again)….

Every festival everywhere follows the same template. We clean, we light, we feast and we post a few photos that prove we are doing life right. Depending on the reason, the region or the religion, the decorations change and the food looks different but the script rarely does. It is meant to be a reset,…

Imagine ordering a pizza. The shop gives one slice to the tax office before handing you the rest. Later, the ATO asks you to confirm you ate the whole pizza but promises to remember the missing piece. You got most of it but you are still expected to account for the entire thing. That is…

Official data shows that Australia went through one of the biggest drops in real disposable income in the developed world in 2024. Obviously, not everyone felt the pinch. If you did not, you did well. For everyone else, it was not about bad habits or poor planning. The economy just moved the goalposts. You worked…

Trusting Microsoft’s “Update and shut down” is like telling yourself you will only watch one episode on Netflix. You know it probably wont work but you press it anyway. Maybe this time it will really turn off. Then morning comes and the computer is still alive, buzzing quietly and stuck on the login screen like…

Welcome to Labour Day, the holiday that cannot even agree with itself. If you have ever tried scheduling a meeting across states in Australia, you know public holidays are a moving target. Someone is working, someone is at the beach and someone is saying “Wait, it is a public holiday here.” It is not because…

You know the line. “When we were young, life was simple.” Yes, it was simple but not because life was some magical stress free wonderland. It was simple because we had less. Less income, less responsibility and less expectation. Earn a wage, pay the rent, spend on travel, movies or eating out and save whatever…

The victory of good over evil has been told and retold since time began. Mythology, movies and scriptures all echo the same promise of good defeating evil. But in today’s world, it doesn’t feel that way. Scroll the headlines and you will think evil is winning on every front. Be it corruption, scams, wars fought…

Sometimes I wonder what I would do with all my free time if I answered client questions the way people ask them: short, blunt and stripped of all logic. You’d get the truth but you wouldn’t like it. Here’s how that would sound: And this is exactly why I do not stick to short answers….