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Post by ozneil on Jan 5, 2015 2:12:08 GMT -1
I do have a question, actually Is the 250 dollars state pension per person per week? I ask because here a single person gets about £100 or so, but a couple don't get double that, very far from it. There's talk here of mandatory pension contributions being taken out of salary, whether you like it or not. On the face of it, it would seem like a sensible idea. Then you remember that your own government has indeed, over time, ROBBED your pension pot and you get back--if you're lucky--a fraction of what you paid in. Many, including me, would prefer to invest/save their salary in ways to best advantage us if we ever actually reach old age. Such as property or other tangible assets.. nit picking but it isnt a State( in my case NSW) pension but a Commonwealth Government one. Here you are I see I was slightly out used per per person in a couple per week. I was bit out of date should be $298. ($1= £0.55) www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/age-pension/payment-rates-for-age-pensionHere contributions now come out of employers funds so obviously comes out of salary increases.(Plus salary sacrifice) there never was a pot here just came out of general revenue and was at govt's discretion. They robbed it blind This way is much better govt cant get hands on it. Ours at work was with the NAB (see Im a part owner of Clydesdale) My own super fund with only 2 Trustees & 2 beneficiaries (me & mrs Oz) consistently outperforms the big funds. Regs are tough so need a good accountant and the accounts have to be audited but well worth it. Minimum withdrawal pa is 5% no max. If you blow it all on a world cruise you can go on pension same if you plain run out. I dont think value of house included in assets but it could be now. As an aside there is now a huge pool of non-government cash around for investment and it shows
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Post by notanimby on Jan 5, 2015 7:09:00 GMT -1
Rolo rote Genuine answer I hope Ok since 1980s employers are required to pay 9% of employees salary into a recognised Super fun chosen by the Employee. Most employees go with the one the employer recommends but they dont have too. Most employers try to choose wisely and use a large recognised fund Some are very good some are not so good but most in long term give a good lump of Super. Employees can use " salary Sacrifice " ie put some of wages into super and get tax benefits . Super cannot be withdrawn before retirement or death except in very exception circumstances as ok'd by the Tax Office (they administer super) You can roll over your super to another company if you feel they are better. When I retired I rolled my Super into an Aproved Self Managed Super Fund where I look after my own funds rather than fund managers. Thats about 40% (I think could be +/-)of retirees non reliant on government support. The remainder A pension is paid on a sliding scale depending on income/assets The more you have the less you get , dont ask me figures I dont know, The really needy get enough to live on and tun a car if they are fairly frugal. Starts with a basic of I think $250 a week then starts the "add-ons" partner, carer , rent, rates, utilities (water,light & power), medicine etc etc These start at virtually nil for someone that is just under the predetermined level which I believe isn't too bad up to enough to live fully on. Part of problem is you just cant stop people wasting money on horses, booze, drugs etc, they have to be catered for eg food banks and charity Of course the whole thing is means tested through "Centrelink" If you need you have to ask If you dont ask you wont get it ...simple Going back to the $250 a week our household food bill is under $200 a week and we live on good food. As Clear as mud .. if anything yo not clear about ask ... I prob wont know Do the australian government ever rob ( oops tax) peoples pension savings? Here they have, despite pension savings being "tax free" Rolo - we do have mandatory pension contributions taken out of our salaries already, its called national insurance - arf
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Post by ozneil on Jan 5, 2015 19:12:02 GMT -1
No Nota both Super and Pensions are tax free, The tax office does charge a levy of $385 on fund for "Admin" purposes God knows how they arrive at that figure. Income on Super fund is also tax free. ie income generated by investments
I believe "salary sacrifice" is taxed at I think 15% but not sure
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Post by notanimby on Jan 5, 2015 19:14:53 GMT -1
No Nota both Super and Pensions are tax free, The tax office does charge a levy of $385 on fund for "Admin" purposes God knows how they arrivw at that figure. Income on Super fund is also tax free. I believe "salary sacrifice" is taxed at I think 15% but not sure Pensions are tax free here but that doesn't stop the government having "one-off" raids on funds every so often - how many one-off raids can one do?
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Post by ozneil on Jan 5, 2015 19:17:20 GMT -1
The only raid I can remember was a 0.5% levy on all income including super payments to pay for Bush fire and flood damage a few years back ... I dont think anyone objected in that case
Our super funds are in control of the people not the guvmint so bit harder for them to get their sticky fingers on thr cash
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Post by bormes on Jan 5, 2015 20:54:50 GMT -1
Gordon Brown the Pension Bandit. The rat who raided people's pensions, yet let the Banks unrestricted behaviour and allowed them their bonuses and bailed them out. Traitor.
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Post by notanimby on Jan 5, 2015 21:00:46 GMT -1
The only raid I can remember was a 0.5% levy on all income including super payments to pay for Bush fire and flood damage a few years back ... I dont think anyone objected in that case Our super funds are in control of the people not the guvmint so bit harder for them to get their sticky fingers on thr cash Pension funds aren't in day-to-day control of the government here either but isn't a barrier
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Post by ozneil on Jan 5, 2015 22:23:29 GMT -1
Back on Super in Oz and away from the iniquities of Brown.
we have 534,0000 Self Managed Super funds having in total over a mill members. These vary in size from 1-4 members. Ours has 2. As well as the big banks, insurance companies and Industry( eg Construction Industry fund) funds. Be bloody hard for any government to raid them. There are regs on how they are run but if you do "the right thing" and dont try to be a "smart ass" generally there are no hassles and if you make a genuine mistake the tax office will allow you to correct it.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2015 19:44:53 GMT -1
Rolo - we do have mandatory pension contributions taken out of our salaries already, its called national insurance - arf Common misconception, Nota, that's not actually true. As I understand it, the current generation of taxpayers' NI goes towards those currently eligible for state pensions. The older generation's NI contributions went towards the generation above them. This is the nub of the whole issue: with an ageing population there's no longer enough in the present day NI coffers to service their pensions. And it's looking even worse for our generation...hence the hectoring by the UK government to take out a private one. Except we all see through that, unless we're on civil service gold plated ones. Very few of us, even if we're on better than average salary, can afford the sizeable monthly outlay, especially given the rip-off fees and taxes. This due mainly to the rise in daily living expenses, particularly energy and food, but most of all, to the sheer size and length of mortgages. Forget pensions, I say. Put your hard earned in tangible assets, like property. Not gold though, Brown sold our reserves off cheap years back.
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Post by notanimby on Jan 7, 2015 20:25:04 GMT -1
Rolo - we do have mandatory pension contributions taken out of our salaries already, its called national insurance - arf Common misconception, Nota, that's not actually true. As I understand it, the current generation of taxpayers' NI goes towards those currently eligible for state pensions. The older generation's NI contributions went towards the generation above them. This is the nub of the whole issue: with an ageing population there's no longer enough in the present day NI coffers to service their pensions. And it's looking even worse for our generation...hence the hectoring by the UK government to take out a private one. Except we all see through that, unless we're on civil service gold plated ones. Very few of us, even if we're on better than average salary, can afford the sizeable monthly outlay, especially given the rip-off fees and taxes. This due mainly to the rise in daily living expenses, particularly energy and food, but most of all, to the sheer size and length of mortgages. Forget pensions, I say. Put your hard earned in tangible assets, like property. Not gold though, Brown sold our reserves off cheap years back. All state pensions are paid out of the " current account" , it doesn't matter who receives it, as its still garnered from the NI paying citizenry. There is no "pension fund" per se for state pensions. As for "private" pensions, they are virtually all a fekkin rip off, the only people doing well from rivate pensions are the crooks flogging and "managing" them. At least dick fucking Turpin wore a mask and used a gun, he didnae have government license to rob ye blind As yerself, we don't have personal pensions, its all in the property etc, I would pish it up against a wall before I gave it to a pension fund. An example, my mother paid into the NHS superannuation scheme for over 40 years, in the last 10 years or more before retirement she boosted her payments considerably, so much so that when she retired, ma da and her were quite comfortably off. When she died after five years of receiving pension, my dad then got a widowers pension of less than 10% When he died a few years three years later, they had the brass neck to write to me looking for me to payback an over payment of a couple of hundred quid ,oh how I enjoyed telling them to go fuck themselves. The parents never even got back what they had paid in FFS
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2015 21:15:47 GMT -1
Your ma and da will have believed they were doing their best and have been badly let down by pension robbing Westmonster bastards. It's fecking INFURIATING Hell though, we need to get smart and play them at their own game. They rely on people being stupid with their money. But the tide's turning and people are wising up to their racket. Oh yes.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2015 21:20:25 GMT -1
Oh and Pee Ess. Got my gas bill today, hot on the heels of the leccy a couple weeks back. So. Chez Rolo have cut our consumption of both by 20-30% in the last 12 months yet still paying the same ££££s as last year. WTF? While the price of oil has dropped by 50%. I'm gonna heat the house by burning the ridiculous amount of paperwork the utility companies send out. MMMMMMMMM....toasty!
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Post by ozneil on Jan 20, 2015 22:17:40 GMT -1
Now that our Government has scrubbed the "carbon tax" our gas and electricity bills have dropped.
Most of our gas is Natural gas and electricity is gas or coal generated so drop in oil prices doesnt affect it much
Petrol is now under a $1 a litre (got it for $0.98 yesterday)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 0:11:35 GMT -1
Now that our Government has scrubbed the "carbon tax" our gas and electricity bills have dropped. Most of our gas is Natural gas and electricity is gas or coal generated so drop in oil prices doesnt affect it much Petrol is now under a $1 a litre (got it for $0.98 yesterday) Price has dropped at bit at the petrol pumps here too, Oz. Good for those who need their cars.... No sign here of pubic transport dropping their fares correspondingly though. I'd not mind that too much if only they put the huge savings on fuel into giving their employees a wee bit of a payrise. I'll not hold my breath
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