u/maybemyfirstrodeo

I'm 35 and just hit 400k in super (I've been salary sacrificing 10k a year for maybe 6 years, which is a decent amount but nothing insane). Invested in a broad international index - this will likely give on average a 5% real return (using the past 30 years of return and inflation info).

Assuming I want to retire at 40, without doing any further salary sacrifice and only adding employer contributions (from a 140k/yr salary), this will put me at 1.6mil when I am 60.

1.6mil* 4% = $64k/year.

I currently spend $65k/year including mortgage/holidays etc.

Is that not me done then from a super perspective, and I should now try and smash out the outside of super component of investing to get me between 40-60?

I hear a lot about needing to funnel every cent into super but I feel my path has not been that excessive and the power of compounding can do it's thing without me needing to break my back trying to put more in.

My income hasn't been that insane either, graduated uni 15 years ago, income started out 55k and has fairly linearly progressed to 140k today.

Maybe I have shit friend groups and family, but I feel like it's just human nature at this point.

I'm mid 30s and my friend groups are split between doing "well" (own houses with low mortgage, some money in shares, a couple have IPs) and doing "ok" (renting but able to save a bit). My family are cashed up from property investing. My wife's family aren't doing so well and are struggling to make ends meet day to day.

Anyway that's four different spectrums of people and literally all of them compare to those doing "better" than them. Those living pay check to paycheck are jealous of those who can save a bit each month. Those renting are jealous of homeowners. The homeowners are jealous of those with lots of disposable income not tied up in mortgage payments, and the cashed up boomers are jealous of younger people with the same/more money than them.

Comparison is the thief of joy and all that, but surely you'd rather feel gratitude/fortunate with your lot than envy/resentment. This isn't just financially too, but health, social, etc. I feel people are just programming themselves to be unhappy no matter where they're at.

Maybe it's social media driving it, idk what the point of this post is tbh. I'm just noticing it a lot more lately and it's annoying. I've also lived in the Europe and it seems way worse in Aus. We also have a lot of tall poppy syndrome where we try and bring others down

One of my colleagues recently bought a new 4wd for 100k. His wife has just bought a new SUV for 50k and they've just got back from a month long trip to Europe following their wedding (30k on Europe and 50k on the wedding)

The general sentiment around the office is that they must be doing super well to be affording all of this. There was a bit of a sense of admiration of what they had achieved. I was pretty stoked for them too given they're around my age (30ish)

It's probably no secret to most here how they're affording it but I still think it's interesting how rampant consumerism can skew what people think is important and financially ruin people. I think seeing others do it also encourages those around them to do it as well

So how are they affording this? I only know this cause he basically broke down to me at a boozy work do overwhelmed with stress

Refinanced their house to pull out 100k of equity (they bought at a good time and house value has gone up 200k)

Maxed out 40k credit cards, trade in value of old cars went to this but they are back at cap again

Borrowed 30k from his parents to pay for Europe trip

Car loans between 50-75k

He's working mad OT and Saturdays to try and pull them out of this situation

I'm not trying to drag them down with this post (I've changed a few details) and wouldn't bring this up in person, but it's crazy to see how two people on a good wicket (250k combined income, 300k mortgage, no kids) have put themselves in this position. I imagine it's a common story across Aus to keep up with the joneses

So the next time you see a flash car drive past maybe instead of envy you might feel sorry for the poor cunt inside with his 2k/month car payment

I work in WA state government, I am a L6 and the bottom of the band is 138k + super. Top of the band is 153k.

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I have 2 direct reports and one is a grad and the other is an admin support.

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My manager is a L7 and has 5 reports and is on 175k.

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Our director is a L9 and is on 220k with 3 direct reports and a total team of 40.

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I had a brief look at APS roles, I'm not sure on the equivalent levels but I don't think I could ever justify making the move across.

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Does every state department pay better than APS or is WA unique due to wages needing to be inflated to compete with mining?

Bit of a different one than the CGT changes/budget posts over the past few weeks.

My husband and I (both 45, no kids) have been plodding along in the corporate world living frugally to try and achieve financial independence. We both like work but the thought of being able to pack it in whenever we want is very tempting for us.

We just paid off our mortgage and have enough in cash/ETFs that if we stopped working today we could fund our cheap-ish lifestyle indefinitely.

However since we got together, it's been our dream to live on acreage (we both grew up on farms), as we're both green thumbs, love being out in nature, and love raising a few animals. We're very lucky to be in a position where this is possible. A hobby farm, growing mass veggies, and living off of solar and rain water tanks is deeply appealing to us.

Our house now is worth about 800k. It's a 3x2 on a 350sqm block (house is about 130sqm). Certainly very liveable for us, and many people live with less. 30mins from the city.

Our dream house is worth about 3mil, and is a 2ha block with a large 5x2 farmhouse, shed, and secondary 2x1. granny flat. 30mins from the city.

If we bought our dream house, it would push back our financial independence by 7-8years at least. Probably more when I factor in the increased insurance and maintenance costs.

Our brain is telling us that its insane to buy a house that expensive, but our hearts are having a hard time letting this idea go.

What would you do??

Hi!

I only discovered this community off the back of the budget release, but I've been saving for my future ever since I started working. I guess I'm fortunate in that I've always been frugal without needing to try and all of my hobbies are cheap/free. A few of my older colleagues were talking about investing at the very start of my career and I've been hooked ever since. I also can't lie, I get such a dopamine hit when the line goes up.

My partner is on a similar to income to me, but we like to do our finances separately. Some might find that weird, but works for us. We do not want children.

Our current plan is to try and be financially independent by 40, but probably won't stop work.

Career/Income:

I'm a mechanical engineer, in hindsight I probably would've done something else but it pays well and is tolerable enough. I think my income has hit a bit of a ceiling as I do not fancy managing people at this stage of my life, and to get higher than 150k + super I will need to do this in my industry.

March 20 - started full time - 63k

August 20 - switched jobs - 73k

January 21 - switched jobs (where I am today) - 80k

January 22 - 93k

January 23 - 101k

Janaury 24 - 118k

January 25 - 128k

January 26 - 145k

Networth Breakdown:

Cash - 61k

ETFs (mix of IVV, NDQ, VAS, VGS) - 229k

US shares (Meta, Google, MSFT) - 21k

Home Equity - 127k

Super - 88k

*Note - in the home equity I am only basing this off of the house purchase price. If I were to use the value of the house today, my share of the equity is 323k*. I don't count this because it feels like paper money and also a bit ikky. If I include the actual house value, NW is a touch over 700k.

The cash is so high because we are saving for our wedding, and we are considering a couple of investment opportunities which will require some cash.

https://preview.redd.it/98bjjx5dhl2h1.png?width=417&format=png&auto=webp&s=0fcfc9a901181eb59f0101431f36ddf0cf876fda

Spend

Including the mortgage, in the last 12 months I have spent 60k. This includes one international holiday, and some expenses for our wedding. Over the duration of my working career, I have an average savings rate of 60%.

Other bits

We utilised the FHSSS to buy our house, hence the grey line tanking in the chart above. We had a large deposit which is why the home equity starts out quite high.

Moving forward I think we plan on doing much of the same, with more of a focus on trying to put a bit more in the offset instead of shares until these budget CGT changes are sorted out/legislated.

I also received a cash amount of 20k from an inheritance, and was able to live rent free with my parents until I was 24. Obviously that helped out an incredible amount so I wanted to mention it.

My wife and I are both late twenties and in the **very** fortunate position where, if we liquidated everything, we would have enough money to be mortgage free (or at least, have a fully offset mortgage).

We bought our first home 3 years ago well below our max borrowing power. The house cost 650k, and we took out a mortgage of 500k.

The mortgage is now down to 400k with some additional payments, and our home is worth approximately 1.1mil (absolutely disgusting, I know). Our combined income is 300k, split fairly evenly.

Anyway, we have a combined ETF portfolio of around 300k, and 150k in the offset. We want to start a family in the next 3-4 years, and know that eventually we will want to upgrade to our forever home with enough space for the kids Our current house is a bit of a shoebox, but no complaints with just the two of us. This "forever home" currently costs around $2mil.

As far as I see it we have four options:

1. Keep doing what we're doing with ETF investing, paying down mortgage over time

2. Sell ETFs and fully offset mortgage, enjoy being mortgage free as we plan to start our family

3. Sell ETFs and house, leaving us around $1.15mil in cash. Borrow 900k-1mil and buy forever house

4. Do step 3 later, after we have kids and figure out impact to income and extra costs.

Our concern with option 4 is that prices will continue to escalate and we will be priced out, and we can technically just bite the bullet now. In the gap between now and having kids, we would aggressively save to offset as much as possible so that when my wife will have a couple of years off of work, we're not in mortgage stress.

Any thoughts? For what it's worth we're both naturally quite frugal people with cheap hobbies but have still been on a few international holidays. We are ok with sacrificing a bit now to build a better life for ourselves in the future.

My wife and I are both 28, and in the very fortunate position where, if we liquidated everything, we would have enough money to be mortgage free (or at least, have a fully offset mortgage).

We bought our first home 3 years ago well below our max borrowing power. The house cost 650k, and we took out a mortgage of 500k.

The mortgage is now down to 400k with some additional payments, and our home is worth approximately 1.1mil (absolutely disgusting, I know). Our combined income is 300k, split fairly evenly.

Anyway, we have a combined ETF portfolio of around 300k, and 150k in the offset. We want to start a family in the next 3-4 years, and know that eventually we will want to upgrade to our forever home with enough space for the kids Our current house is a bit of a shoebox, but no complaints with just the two of us. This "forever home" currently costs around $2mil.

As far as I see it we have four options:

1. Keep doing what we're doing with ETF investing, paying down mortgage over time

2. Sell ETFs and fully offset mortgage, enjoy being mortgage free as we plan to start our family

3. Sell ETFs and house, leaving us around $1.15mil in cash. Borrow 900k-1mil and buy forever house

4. Do step 3 later, after we have kids and figure out impact to income and extra costs.

Our concern with option 4 is that prices will continue to escalate and we will be priced out, and we can technically just bite the bullet now. In the gap between now and having kids, we would aggressively save to offset as much as possible so that when my wife will have a couple of years off of work, we're not in mortgage stress.

Any thoughts? For what it's worth we're both naturally quite frugal people with cheap hobbies but have still been on a few international holidays. We are ok with sacrificing a bit now to build a better life for ourselves in the future.