all this is very interesting and does bring up the vast gulf that exists between the well-paid and pensioners of all types which makes me think of anotrher thread to start...
just how much does a couple need in super to be able to retire???
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all this is very interesting and does bring up the vast gulf that exists between the well-paid and pensioners of all types which makes me think of anotrher thread to start...
just how much does a couple need in super to be able to retire???
Gentlemen, My Posts always seem to invoke a good clear response and brings up issues I had not thought of.
Firstly, I need a change, Bricklaying in Summer is not fun anymore, unlike most other trades there is no shade working on a concrete pad day in day out my thermometer often reads 60degree's on forecast days over 40:eek: on the pad.
Secondly I'm 42 I have two properties here in WA and some land in southeast Tassie of which are nearly paid for So money isn't a big issue
thirdly the big carrot for this particular job is the offer to buy into the company as a unit trust holder after 12months, 8 of the 9 supervisors there have done this and are sitting on a decent salary after profit share.
Lastly like Jason said I have my tools if I don't like it I can go back to my 150k+ back busting job and buy more houses:D.
It was good to get the scope of things, you guys on pensions I feel for you especially the Military Pensioners you deserve more and if a Govt levy was to be put in place to boost yours I would give it over with a smile year in year out, Medical disabled pensioners the same, for the run of the mill I hit 65yrs and don't have a pot to pizz in category you get what you deserve think of it as getting all those years of tax back, My dad is in this category and it makes me sick to see how he has squandered his life .
When my generation gets time to retire there will not be a thing called a pension, self funded , consider that and on top of our heavy income tax, we pay tax on our self funded pension on its way to our bank and when it comes out again:mad:
In conclusion I am going to take the job, Mon to Fri 8 till 5.. opposed to mon/tue to friday lunchtime 6 till 2:D will be the only hurt.....I'll give a go, got nuthin to lose. thanks for all your helpful contributions, except for mittadisco's freakin sermon which pizzed me off:p
but everyones is entitled to an opinion and I respect that.;)
:BigThumb:being self employed myself i don't think i would last long in a job that requires you to be there everyday for the same hrs:(
take today for a example:D
taking from today till Tuesday next week off ....
going camping with family and friends over the long weekend:firedevil::beer:
no amount of money could out do that ;)
thats all the wealth or money i need:D
good luck with the new job DirtyDawg
I always feel a bit amused when I hear people talking about this - most seem to have forgotten that the top marginal tax rate is the lowest it has been since the introduction of income tax. For a substantial part of my working life I paid 67 cents in the dollar marginal rate, and so did most other people in the seventies and into the eighties making a bit more than the average (if they were on wages or salaries where the opportunities for avoiding tax were minimal).
This is something that ought to be remembered by those complaining about the cost of upkeep of the elderly. These taxes paid for your upbringing and education etc.
John
To a large extent you are right - but as you say there is a shift to indirect taxes. But there used to be a whole range of hidden taxes - for example wholesale sales tax, which, while it was levied on only some goods, on many of these it was at far higher rates than GST is today - and since it was at the wholesale step, retailer's profit percentage was added to it. In addition, there used to be additional costs of manufacturing protection, which while not exactly a tax, had the same effect as far as prices go. And the level of the marginal rate has a big psychological effect.
And society as a whole is so much more prosperous, that the tax "burden" is less of a burden, even though the amount of tax as a proportion of GDP is as high as it has ever been. Of course, a lot of this extra prosperity is spent on things which were either non-existent or rare fifty years ago - for example, mobile phones were virtually non-existent, indeed less than 50% of houses had phones at all, many homes did not have a car, particularly in the cities, very few houses had television, and so on.
And there have been major improvements in non-monetary ways as well - life expectancy is way up, rate and perhaps even number of road deaths is down, virtually no polio, very little TB, very few children die these days of the diseases which fifty years ago were still killing thousands a year (although it was a lot better than it had been twenty years before, and the really big advances were in the early years of the 20th century.
John
I had a conversation with a colleague at work today about similar things. He was complaining that his son and D-I-L couldn't afford to buy a house on his single wage. I commented that expectations had risen well above the achievable.
For example, my parents first home that they purchased together in 1972 was a 3 bed, single dunny, 1 bathroom, one combined lounge/dining and totalled about 9 squares of plain brick veneer. I asked if his son and D-I-L would accept that now as they are 'cheap' first homes. No way I was told, they need a double garage for their 2 cars and a rumpus room big enough for their home theatre!
Does anybody not see the irony here? Materiel goods are fine and dandy but the priority is all wrong in some cases IMHO.
Ralph
It probably has mostly been like this - I find myself having to guard against telling people that their priorities are wrong, just because they are not my priorities. But by the same token, I don't have to listen to their complaints about what they don't have as a result.
I have set my own priorities through life - if I had put making money as a higher priority, no doubt I would be a lot richer today, for example. But I look at the people I know who put money first and think "do I really want to be like them?"
John