Author Topic: Australia: FIRE, Tax, Early Retirement and Other People  (Read 1853 times)

lincolnlancaster

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Australia: FIRE, Tax, Early Retirement and Other People
« on: October 27, 2017, 12:01:36 AM »
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%
« Last Edit: October 27, 2017, 01:27:22 AM by lincolnlancaster »

Ozstache

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Re: Australia: FIRE, Tax, Early Retirement and Other People
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2017, 03:14:16 AM »
Re contributing to society, your investments enable companies to do this on your behalf so you are in fact contributing.

Re friends who don't get it, give them some time then if they still don't get it, get new friends - seriously! Family are not so easy to dismiss but, speaking from personal experience, they eventually get over it.

It's your life, so live it in accordance with your values, not those of others.

stashgrower

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Re: Australia: FIRE, Tax, Early Retirement and Other People
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2017, 03:59:30 AM »
New friends time??? Tell them you now have plenty of time to do <25 hr of disability sector volunteering or you are generously giving up your paid job to someone who needs the work???

+1 Ozstache's last line.

marty998

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Re: Australia: FIRE, Tax, Early Retirement and Other People
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2017, 04:17:09 AM »
I'll bet it was the way you described it to your friends. This sounds a little bit petulant to be honest - you were not the boss, and you do not get to act like one if you've signed up to a particular workplace agreement...

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.

If your job is a full time job, or if you've agreed to sign up to shifts that total up to a full time load you can't very well request to do a part time load... who will do the remaining work for the 2 days?

Now if you helped your employer come to a mutually agreeable solution (e.g. by job sharing with another person in a similar situation), then you could have had your part time role and your employer can cover the workload appropriately.

Having said all that, well done for getting to a FIRE position, and enjoy your post work life :)

 

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