I wanted to sanity check my ideas, and ask about the following:
- I've got a usual fulltime job earning 78,000 before tax, and super goes on top (just under $8k). Is this a decent wage for my job description?
- for a 2nd job, tax, would I pay 32-36% tax? or is it 50%??
- or do they take 48.5% out as PAYG and wait for tax return to square it?
- When doing casual work if you have no contract, is that still valid work experience? And if not being paid - volunteering?
- Thoughts on earning high salary in the food industry. Does anyone have pointers? Thoughts on the need/value of qualifications in this industry in Aus?
A little background:
I have a dayjob, earnings as above, Software developer with 8-9y experience in .Net, is this decent wage for Aus/Sydney?
I took a pay cut from $100k/package signed contract to instead work closer to home a while back. 90 min commute to CBD turned into a 20 minute cycle in the suburbs. There are seldom IT jobs available out here, this was a rare find to do in-house development at a local big freight company.I now cycle to my current job. It's nice, the pay and perks (free lunch..!) seem decent enough, but I'm not sure I have a reasonable expectation for pay.
I feel lucky in this job although I do experience frustration, boredom, and a sense of doing less for society by just helping maintain the ERP system out here. I'm 'unhappy' here but happy for now if that makes sense. Being stuck on "non-programming" tasks is part of the reason for current job dissatisfaction. Another reason is IT management style that just irks me.
I recently got inspired by principles of mustachianism to think of more ideal working conditions if money was no object. Firstly, as most IT developers might be able to relate, I would probably love to do IT either on contract basis, or just for fun. I still love programming. I've been having a big think, though, in the direction of the food industry. Ideally I'd love to prepare meals for kids or the aged, if i didnt care what the pay was like.
To facilitate this I planned to get experience cooking (instead of go to TAFE or college, at least at first). I have completed food safety - non accredited - today, and I'm about to go train/volunteer at a restaurant tomorrow. I'm lucky enough to be friends with the owner of a much loved restaurant nearby. I'm looking at getting experience and training now at the restaurant, with an eye to lower stress jobs "one day". It's practicality, since saturday night is a good time to work & learn at a restaurant and is the time I have available (ish). It might give me options later such as more restaurant style jobs, or plan A doing cooking at some kind of centre. If I like training, I'll keep volunteering and get the experience I want for a job change one day, and if I'm any good I might ask for pay too.
Cooking jobs are way lower paygrade than IT. Salaries under $40k/annual are common for full timeish jobs. I've been entertaining prospects of doing IT contracting/freelancing or part time to make up some of the difference in pay so I can still maintain a high income, and savings rate. Ideally I could scale the current job back one day and phase in cooking jobs to get that career track going.
Where I stay, a 2-kids 1-income family is pretty costly to keep afloat, but I'm learning how to do so cheaply as well.
Thanks for reading all
