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Cellar Scribblings
brianr:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on April 23, 2018, 08:39:01 am ---Thanks for the explanation, Brian. So in NZ and Australia does everyone get the same pension, regardless of how much they made when they were working? Is it enough to live on if you didn't have additional savings?
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In NZ everyone gets the same once they turn 65. There is a rate for singles and a rate for those married/partnered. There is also a supplement for those living alone. Our Deputy Prime Minister gets the same, as he is aged 72. Then it is taxed. In NZ you pay tax on every $ earned although the rate goes up with income. So I pay 18 cents tax in the $ on my income which is the lowest rate.
The amount of government pension goes up with the cost of living on April 1. It is now just over $400 per week (after tax) for a single person living alone. That seems to me to be ok for people who own their own home, difficult if paying rent and perhaps difficult to run a car. We also get free public transport outside of peak hours. As I said, the new government is going to pay a heating supplement for winter to all people on any sort of benefit., not sure of the details yet, will start next month. It was an election promise because of stories of people not being able to afford heating.
In Australia it is more complicated. It is not based on how much you earned while working but is means tested. There is an income test and an assets test. You have to report any income and any changes in assets (the home you live in is not counted). So, when I go overseas and spend $10,000 or more I have to report that my assets have gone down (and Australia gives NZ more money on my behalf :) ). Because of my assets I only get about half the full pension. Anyone getting a pension (even if only 1$ per week) gets a lot of benefits eg half council rates, cheaper electricity, free driving licence and cheaper car registration.
However Australia has compulsory superannuation. It began in the 1980's when all employers had to put 4% of wages into a superannuation fund and the wage earner also had to put 4% in. It is now (I think) 9% each. You cannot touch that money until aged 60 (unless exceptional circumstances like incurable illness). Once I paid off my house I began putting in 20% which is why I can now travel.
In Australia you do not pay tax on the first $18,000 of income (It was only $6000 when I lived there), the government pension is not taxed nor is any earnings from private superannuation after you turn 60. So, if I still lived in Australia, I would not pay any tax.
CellarDweller:
Hello Bettermost Friends!
It is good to be home!
Someone at work (one of the 'higher-ups) decided it would be a good idea to have a massive conference call for 2 hours, and start it at 3:00. I usually leave at 4:30, so it meant I had to stay an extra 30 minutes. Of course it ran over, so it didn't end until 5:30, and then a client needed help with something they could've looked up on their own, so I didn't leave until almost 6:00.
Traffic was a mess, and there was construction I had to deal with, and then at a busy intersection the left turn arrow stopped switching to green, so I sat at that intersection for about 10 minutes. I'm usually home by 5:15. Today, it was 7:20.
::)
CellarDweller:
Interesting information about pensions.
I remember when my grandfather retired from the railroad, he got a sizable pension monthly, and my grandmother got her own check as a part of that pension.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: brian on April 23, 2018, 03:07:13 pm --- It is now just over $400 per week (after tax) for a single person living alone. That seems to me to be ok for people who own their own home, difficult if paying rent and perhaps difficult to run a car.
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It would be impossible to rent on that here. Average rents in my city are something like $1,400 -- and it's an average size Midwestern city, not a notoriously expensive one like New York or San Francisco. But it's a bad situation even here, because of course lots of people can't afford that. They're trying to expand the supply of "affordable housing," which is housing that's no more than a third of your income.
The city government has proposed increasing affordable housing by allowing development of fourplexes in all city neighborhoods. Apparently now they're only allowed in a few. There's been a lot of opposition to that by citizens who think a fourplex would wreck their neighborhood of otherwise single-family homes. Personally, I hope it goes through. I once lived in a fourplex, and if you can tolerate your neighbors it's a nice size of apartment building.
--- Quote ---However Australia has compulsory superannuation. It began in the 1980's when all employers had to put 4% of wages into a superannuation fund and the wage earner also had to put 4% in. It is now (I think) 9% each. You cannot touch that money until aged 60 (unless exceptional circumstances like incurable illness). Once I paid off my house I began putting in 20% which is why I can now travel.
--- End quote ---
That's like what we call a 401(k) or an IRA. Except it's not compulsory and employers don't have to contribute to it. There's an effort to at least make participation a default "yes" -- that is, when you get a job that has a 401(k) you automatically get one and can contribute whatever you want (again, not necessarily with an employer's match). Or you can refuse to participate but that would be extra paperwork. At the moment it's a default "no," which means people like my son, when he worked for a place that offered them (again, no match), wouldn't do the extra paperwork to sign up, despite my strong urging. It's too much trouble and he claims he "won't live that long."
--- Quote ---In Australia you do not pay tax on the first $18,000 of income (It was only $6000 when I lived there), the government pension is not taxed nor is any earnings from private superannuation after you turn 60. So, if I still lived in Australia, I would not pay any tax.
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Here the bar is much lower. Again same son -- he was filing his income taxes for 2017, when he worked waiter's jobs for about half a year, so made maybe $7-8,000, $10,000 at most. He filed the taxes and reported the earnings on an online system that automatically calculates your refund as you go. He had worked at a bunch of places, and as he filled in each place's earnings he watched in dismay as the refund figure steadily declined.
brianr:
I am off to the Anzac Dawn Service now and will reply later. I love the Anzac Day services when I feel my dual citizenship most and proudly wear the flags of both my countries and sing both national anthems. This is only the 2nd time in Dunedin. I nearly always go to Sydney for Easter and stay for Anzac Day but Easter was very early this year. In 2015 I was at the Australian War memorial in Villers Bretonneux in France not far from where my uncle is buried. Back in 2002 I was at Gallipoli in Turkey where it all started.
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