Supersedes v1. Rebuilt around protecting your retirement capital, not drawing on it — after you shared where you actually are on retirement readiness, the original ask was too heavy for your position. This plan decouples your Carlton sale from our purchase, uses dormant Point Cook equity as a time-limited bridge, and locks in reciprocity at exactly the right life stage.
[Brother] and I still want to buy a 3-bedroom Torrens-title townhouse or standalone-feel semi-detached in Footscray / West Footscray / Seddon / Yarraville / Kingsville, target ~$820,000, settlement June-July 2026. NAB staff owner-occupier rate is 5.64%. What changed is the capital structure — no more $190k gift, no more Carlton sale on our timeline.
The trade-off is about $500 more per brother per month versus v1, in exchange for your retirement capital being fully preserved and replenished at exactly the right life stage. Absorbable at our income; worth it to keep your position intact.
After you shared yesterday that you and Mum sit around $300-350k across super, VRSN, other savings and investments (outside Carlton), and that you'd retire today if you could but aren't there yet — the v1 ask stopped making sense. Here's the bracketing I sized the original gift against.
| Retirement bracket | Non-property investable capital | Max defensible gift |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative | < $450k | $100-150k |
| Comfortable | $450k - $1.1M | $150-250k |
| Wealthy | > $1.1M | $250k+ |
At $300-350k you sit squarely in the conservative bracket. A $190k gift would have:
Each piece is standalone. Your Carlton timing doesn't affect our settlement. The guarantee doesn't cost you cash. The buffer gift doesn't dent your retirement. The super top-ups arrive when they're most tax-efficient.
The investment case for selling Carlton from v1 still stands: ~2% CAGR over 15-20 years, ~4-4.5% net yield (cash-equivalent once body corp / rates / insurance / vacancy are stripped out), structurally declining inner-city unit market, better redeployment options exist (Hawthorn, super, ETFs, HISA). None of that changed.
What changed is this: the sale is uncoupled from our purchase.
Instead of you funding our deposit in cash, NAB structures a limited guarantee (Family Pledge product or equivalent) where a specific dollar amount of Point Cook equity serves as additional security on our loan.
Scroll to Assumptions and Release timeline to play with the numbers — guarantee size, release year, monthly cost all update live.
One small cash contribution, from your current savings — not from Carlton proceeds. Purpose: top up our deposit enough that the guarantee stays below ~17% of property value, giving NAB comfort on the structure and leaving us with a small cash buffer post-settlement.
This replaces the "gift now, moral thanks later" model with a concrete long-term commitment. When you reach preservation age 60 in 2030 and are ready to retire, [Brother] and I will contribute to your and Mum's super accounts over an approximately 5-year window, targeting aggregate $200-300k, calibrated to where your retirement position actually is at the time.
| Cash gift now | Super top-up 2033-2038 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tax efficiency | Taxable vehicles | 15% earnings tax, tax-free after 60 |
| Timing | 7 years before preservation age | Lands during retirement window |
| Your optionality | Paid up front, can't undo | Calibrated year-by-year to actual need |
| Our funding source | From cashflow today — stretch | From peak earning years — comfortable |
| Bank visibility | Reduces serviceability if structured as a loan | Zero bank visibility, no impact |
These drive everything on this page. Drag any slider — monthly repayments, guarantee size, release year, and the charts below all recalculate live.
Our LVR decays in two ways: we pay down principal each month, and (hopefully) the property appreciates. When combined LVR drops to 80%, the guarantee releases automatically and Point Cook is fully unencumbered again. The curves below show decay under three property-growth scenarios. Markers show the release year under each.
Dashed line at 80% LVR: the release threshold. The earlier a curve crosses it, the sooner Point Cook is freed.
How your non-PPOR investable capital evolves across the key milestones: now, after your first Carlton sale, at Dad's 60, and into mid-retirement. The Point Cook bar shades from "pledged" to "unencumbered" as the guarantee releases. The super bar grows from our top-ups in the 2033-2038 window.
Estimated figures. Point Cook is the house you live in — shown to illustrate the pledge state, not as investable capital.
At Dad's 60, your non-PPOR investable capital lands around $1.18-1.36M — comfortably self-funded retirement territory by ASFA's benchmarks (~$800k-$1M required for an ASFA "comfortable" couple lifestyle). You reach preservation age with genuine optionality.
Structural comparison of the two plans. Same target property. Different capital structure, different impact on your retirement.
| v1 (original) | v2 (this plan) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash from parents in 2026 | $190k gift | $20-30k stamp-duty buffer |
| Carlton sale tied to our timeline | Yes | No |
| Point Cook | Unencumbered | Pledged ~$135k for 4-6 years |
| Parental capital at risk | $190k permanently gone | $135k Point Cook equity (returned on release) |
| Our monthly per brother | $1,773 | ~$2,285 |
| Target property | $820k | $820k |
| Your position at Dad's 60 | ~$1.03M non-PPOR | ~$1.27M non-PPOR |
| Your retirement timing flexibility | Reduced | Preserved |
| Our side of the deal | Just "thanks" | $200-300k super top-up 2033-38 |
Non-PPOR investable capital under each plan. Both assume current trajectories hold.
Six things worth surfacing so you can pressure-test the plan honestly.
I've assumed a 20% cap on the guarantee. Follow-up NAB meeting needs to confirm: exact cap, whether sibling joint applicants qualify for the standard product, fees (typically $500-1,500 + valuation), and whether staff-rate pricing applies to guaranteed loans.
If Footscray stays soft and rates stay elevated, release may slide to year 6-8. Point Cook stays pledged that long. We'd manage by directing any surplus (bonus, RSUs, partner board) to principal paydown.
If downsizing Point Cook is on your 5-7 year horizon, the active guarantee creates friction — NAB would need to release early or substitute security. If this is possible, tell me — we'd pivot to $60-80k cash gift + First Home Guarantee (government program, unlimited places since Oct 2025, no income cap, covers LMI on properties under $950k in Melbourne).
Moral, not contractual. If either of our circumstances changes materially (serious illness, career setback, family dissolution), the $200-300k target is ambitious. Stable but not guaranteed. I want to be honest about this rather than pretend it's locked.
The ~36% housing ratio is the tightest piece. If rates move 1-1.5% above 5.64%, per-brother monthly climbs $250-380, taking ratio to ~39-40%. Approvable at our income but uncomfortable. Mitigations: partner board, split fixed/variable, or a larger buffer gift ($40-50k instead of $20-30k).
If the guarantee path doesn't work (NAB pushback, Point Cook plans shift), the fallback is First Home Guarantee + slightly larger cash gift ($60-80k). Worse for your retirement position than the guarantee structure, but entirely workable.
Three things to finalize the plan. Rough answers are fine — enough to sanity-check the shape.
That's the whole thing.
Happy to walk through any of the above, adjust assumptions you want to challenge, or have your accountant validate specific numbers before we commit to anything. If the Point Cook pledge doesn't suit you for any reason, the FHG fallback is ready.