Thread: standard of retirement living in australia

Hey,

Forgive the flippant comments - hoping for some debate here.

Following the thread about cheap tools in America and the thread about vertical milling tables I started thinking about relative prices of tools etc in other countries and other times.

Did a theoretical pension calculation for a 67 year old retired couple with negligible assets who own their own home.

In Australia they would qualify for approx $60k+ combined pension - approx 30k each. See this page https://www.australiansuper.com/tool...estimator.aspx (interesting calculator to have a play with)

Thats the equivalent of having $1,000,000 in an account earning 6%

So after the 2008 GFC when everyones super and pension funds took a dive the Aussie govt carried on paying my theoretical couple 60k per year.

Thats a pretty good deal. We could live on that and buy a new milling machine every year and have some money left over for cutters.

For me that is starting to say - spend up big - buy that milling machine and big lathe and a few expensive holidays - end up with zero assets and still get an income of 60k per annum - not bad.

What am I missing here ? - The big scary story whilst I was working was that by the time I reach pension age there will be so many baby boomers wanting a pension and there wont be enough people paying taxes so you had better put aside some dollars for your own future security.

However if Fred and Doris down the road are going to get $60k from centrelink, then in the words of Led Zeppelin .............. "Oooh it makes me wonder"

So yes we might pay twice as much as Americans do for our tools but look at the big picture - what sort of state pensions and health care do Americans get - or any other country for that matter.

Regards
Bill - (show me your finest milling machines please - hang the expense - money is no longer an object)