ozzieeagle

Blimey ours costs us 90 bucks per pop, (thats x 3 people as well) mind you he does visit us, does push the envelope, and does advise us what tax cuts to aim for in the following year.

IE: this year medical bills, next year training etc etc


BTW, do not use HR Block they are crap,

Badge

I reckon <40 and you are either starting out, inexperienced, in admin, in a situation where you cannot yet move to more money - move jobs or situation and you may suddenly get a big increase
I reckon about 40-50 is a good wage
60-80 is a very good wage
80+ wow

badge

I think a Brit expat family need at least a household income of 70+ to have a standard of living -all things being equal.

cadman

Isn't that why everyone buys an "investment" property? i.e. to "lose" money on it and thereby reduce their tax bill?

ABCDiamond

Hopefully that isn't the only reason they buy them

But it does help

The tax concessions on losses being able to be offset against earned income, may also be the reason that rents have tended to be so much lower here, than in the UK, when compared to the house price.

Pomster

My guess is whatever you consider a reasonable wage in UK for your circumstances- double it and that's about the same as you should earn here.

Hey and tax at 48pct?- UK rate is 40pct for top tax plus 11pct NI contributions, so UK tax is very similar!

TopCat3

Casual/Permanent
eg Casual Week 1 $250 (public holiday week) Week 2 $442 Week 3 $374 Week 4 $129 (sick three days)

Casual in January Week 1 $0 Week 2 $45 Week 3 $147 Week 4 $56 (Australia Day Holiday)
No superannuation this month didn't hit the minimum $450 gross for the month.

...get the picture

claire edwards

My partner was offered a position when we were out there for $70, I'm hoping for anything up to 100k....here's hoping!

I also depends if you are planning to go to the east or west coast, wages do seem to differ. Cost of living is higher on the east coast and therefore the wages reflect this.

lauralollipop

I thought that I was on a good wage till I read this.............

We live very well here compared to the UK, and appear to have more money than our aussie mates.

I agree that $40-$50 is considered a good wage here as most people earn less than that (from what I have gathered from talking to collegues etc.....)

But we could easily manage on less as we would just change our spending to suit our lives......

laura
x

steandleigh

Err...No, I don't actually.... - see, i can roll eyes too....

*MY* post merely said that everyones circumstances and standards of living are different...

*YOUR* post went on about what you have earned over 4 weeks.... which has absolutely *NO* relevance to my post whatsoever.

Have a G'day.

TopCat3

Just quoting you Laura cos your last sentence exemplifies something I fear many newcomers or folks still in UK maybe (respectfully) haven't grasped.

The less you earn, the less your retirement savings will be. Employers have to pay 9% of our gross income into a super fund for our retirement. Time is of the essence in super funds - as in any investments. The longer you're in, the more you "win", and anyone coming here in their 30's, or 40's has already lost the benefit of maybe 15-20 years "time in". This means to have a decent retirement nestegg we need to be salting some away ourselves, and if we opt for a lower salary, just a making-ends-meet type of scenario, we can't afford to do that.

My suggestion? Keep up your UK pension contributions. It's a fixed entitlement, and not means tested. And if the relative economies of the UK and Australia remain roughly as they are (no guarantees there, no crystal ball) you'll gain on the conversion sterling to A$. Better that than the paltry means tested Aussie pension in A$,I reckon. In order to do this one must have been employed, and NI contributions made, in UK for a minimum time (can't remember the length without looking it up). There will be tax implications here of course and everyone's case is different and needs to be considered in that light and formal, qualified advice sought, which mine is not and is not purporting to be.

ABCDiamond might have some useful input here, this sort of thing is right up his street!

Early night for me - 'night all

TopCat3

Steandleigh, I'm sorry if you thought I was rolling eyes at what you said. I think you have mistaken where I was coming from.

I was, in fact, supporting your point by adding to it with the example of the casual worker's scenario (not what I have necessarily earned over 4 weeks, I just picked these figures out of a hat to illustrate the up and down nature of the casual workers income and how it can be affected by lack of sick pay, no public holiday pay in this land-of-the-long-weekend, and the grinding halt we come to from 22nd December to 2nd January). And "get the picture?" was referring to me wondering if I had got my point across to everyone about the casual workers lot. (Evidently, I didn't! )

And the rolling eyes were a reference to the 40+% of the working population that have to live with this, since the increase in casualisation of the Australian workforce over the last 5-10 years.

Absolutely no way was I being sarcastic about your post or rolling my eyes at you and I apologise if I wasn't clear about what I meant resulting in some annoyance on your part. The people on here that have got to know my in the short time I've been here, I think would attest to that.

God I feel awful when anyone thinks I'm personally sarcastic, derogatory or denigrating, that is not my way at all, and I hate it when I see it happening on here or anywhere. Phew ....want one with me?

steandleigh

OMG, now I feel like poo. You don't need to apologise at all, it was *ME* who read your post the wrong way - very sorry for that.

Foot is now firmly in gob - sideways - and seems to fit just fine.

Will take you up on that . Thanks.

tracey.d

Lol.
It just shows how easy it is to misinterpret what people say on here. I always try to be very general in my posts but have been misunderstood and have also misunderstood others.

Glad that you have got to the bottom of it

Topcat3 - do you know if you can buy back years in your superfund like you can in the nhs pension scheme? I would be interested to know what the possibilities are.

Tracey

TopCat3

Tracey, no, you can't buy back years as such (if you could I'd take myself back to age 40 ) because super doesn't work the same way as NI scheme. It's basically an investment portfolio(Aussie shares, international shares, managed funds etc etc)in which everyone has an amount invested and can continue to invest in by virtue of being in the workforce. It's managed by an accredited superannuation company, of which there are several, some better managers than others. Fees are paid and contributions are taxed. So each year the value of the investment can go up or down according to the sharemarkets, the skill of the fund managers, the skill of the super fund managers, etc and fees are deducted each year regardless. There is no guaranteed final amount and no choice in the shares in which the fund is invested. So if like me you have strong ethical concerns around tobacco companies, big pharma and chemical/G.E. companies like Monsanto, Glaxo, Phillip Morris and Brit-Amer Tobacco, tough, that's where my money is invested That's why time in the fund is so critical, to ride out the ups and downs of the investment markets.

You can top up your super by regular contributions in addition to those which by law have to be made by your employer. Find a good accountant to advise you if this would work in your favour and whether you should make pre-tax contributions, called salary sacrifice, automatically deducted by your payroll office, or post-tax contributions i.e. out of your weekly/monthly nett pay for which you have to make your own arrangements. For lower income earners, the government will match dollar for dollar any extra contribution you make up to a certain value, that value being dependent upon your annual salary. Or if you come into some money unexpectedly, you can make a lump-sum contribution at any time. You cannot park money in there until you need it like a private shareholding/portfolio, once it's in, it's in and you can't touch it until you reach eligible retirement age, which varies according to the year you were born.

I think that covers everything and is reasonably factually correct as far as I can make it without getting out of my depth. It is very, very complex. I stand to be corrected by anyone on the forum who knows better/more than I.
Now I really must go to bed so 'night all

tracey.d

Thanks for that

Tracey