u/Hungry_Opinion_6178

First of all it’s a rant based on my personal situation and I acknowledge that there are people doing much better and much worse than me. This post is not to gaslight anyone but a genuine attempt to understand what I am doing wrong and what else I need to do to improve my personal situation.

I work as software developer at a FAANG in Sydney making $240k before tax excluding super. But, I feel that this salary is not at all sufficient.

We are a family of three with 3 year old and partner does small part time gigs from home but isn’t earning anything significant.

We bought a small cookie cutter first house for $1.2m, 50kms from Sydney CBD and we are paying $6k in mortgage. Utilities and insurances are $1200 (gas, water, electricity, council, internet, mobile plans, health insurance, car insurance and home insurance ), gym membership and subscriptions another $200, groceries $800, eat out and take away $500, child care $1500, other baby expenses and miscellaneous $800.

$240k = $13,500 per month after tax
Above bare minimum expenses = $11,000

Now, we try to save up and travel every 6 months and even a trip interstate costs $3k, which is $500 per month. If we travel internationally to meet relatives overseas then we are basically putting ourselves in debt. Plus, there are occasional big ticket expenses like upgrading phones or some appliances which go bad and that’s another $500 per month on average.

So we basically end up saving nothing and even after working the most mentally taxing jobs, we just fulfill the requirements but do not build the account balance. Any recession or medical issues would result in losing everything immediately.

Why is Australia this bad? Taxes are insane and salaries are extremely low when compared to global counterpart locations like in US. Am I doing anything wrong or am I right that Australia is cooked?

First of all it’s a rant based on my personal situation and I acknowledge that there are people doing much better and much worse than me. This post is not to gaslight anyone but a genuine attempt to understand what I am doing wrong and what else I need to do to improve my personal situation.

I work as software developer at a FAANG in Sydney making $240k before tax excluding super. But, I feel that this salary is not at all sufficient.

We are a family of three with 3 year old and partner does small part time gigs from home but isn’t earning anything significant.

We bought a small cookie cutter first house for $1.2m, 50kms from Sydney CBD and we are paying $6k in mortgage. Utilities and insurances are $1200 (gas, water, electricity, council, internet, mobile plans, health insurance, car insurance and home insurance ), gym membership and subscriptions another $200, groceries $800, eat out and take away $500, child care $1500, other baby expenses and miscellaneous $800.

$240k = $13,500 per month after tax
Above bare minimum expenses = $11,000

Now, we try to save up and travel every 6 months and even a trip interstate costs $3k, which is $500 per month. If we travel internationally to meet relatives overseas then we are basically putting ourselves in debt. Plus, there are occasional big ticket expenses like upgrading phones or some appliances which go bad and that’s another $500 per month on average.

So we basically end up saving nothing and even after working the most mentally taxing jobs, we just fulfill the requirements but do not build the account balance. Any recession or medical issues would result in losing everything immediately.

Why is Australia this bad? Taxes are insane and salaries are extremely low when compared to global counterpart locations like in US. Am I doing anything wrong or am I right that Australia is cooked?

I am senior SDE at a big tech FAANG in Sydney making $240k TC excluding super. I might get promoted soon to staff jumping TC by 30-40k but the hike is not significant given the leftist socialist government steals almost half of the money at this tax bracket.

Given how expensive mortgage has become and how all other costs have gone up, I feel like my salary should be in 350-400k range.

US is heaven for a good tech salary but can I keep any hopes from Australia? Are there any tech companies that would pay this much for a staff software engineer? Not interested in very small startups.