I had some friends over for dinner last weekend and the conversation turned to finances. They know that I no longer work full time and asked how I managed to do this. I explained to them that I was sick of working full time as you have to work a mountain of unpaid hours and any money you are lucky enough to get over 37k a year you end up giving most of it to the Government 37% as per the table below with GST 10% that's a 47% loss of spending power. I have paid off a modest home on the outer suburbs of Brisbane and have quite a lot saved and live a comfortable and healthy life growing a lot of my own fruit and veg through an Aquaponics hobby.
This all went over well until I explained that I will now be resigning from my casual job in the disability sector as my current employer doesn't accept the fact I don't want to work more than 25hours a week and had threatened me with dismissal, if I refuse to work more hours.
Apparently, somehow I am now lazy as I don't want to work and instead opt to live off investments and according to them I should be working regardless and "contributing to society" paying tax towards the aging population and the country, apparently people like me are just as bad as the people drawing welfare :O
After this response from my friends and the backlash from my family. I kind of wish I had never said anything. Has this ever happened to anyone else ?. Do you think it is often best to keep this information to yourself ?
Taxable income Tax on this income Effective tax rate
$1 – $18,200 Nil 0%
$18,201 – $37,000 19c for each $1 over $18,200 0 – 9.65%
$37,001 – $87,000 $3,572 plus 32.5c for each $1 over $37,000 9.65 – 22.78%
$87,001 – $180,000 $19,822 plus 37c for each $1 over $87,000 22.78 – 30.13%