What do you consider a comfortable after tax wage?

[Value Collector]

I am just wondering what people think is a good amount of after tax income that they would be happy to retire on or earn where they could feel like they were comfortably living well, eg how much do you need to meet your needs and wants.

eg. how much net income would you be happy to receive in your spending money account each week after all taxes etc are paid, or how much do you aspire to earn where you would start to feel like you were doing well.

The reason I ask is that I am in the process of setting my wage that I pay myself each week for the next few years, and I kinda of just wanted to get the opinion of what others think, to make sure I am not either being to frugal and selling myself short or to wasteful given that what I don't spend in my life will go to charity when I die. Being self employed for a fair while I have kind of lost track of what people consider a good wage, especially because its not considered polite to ask what people earn, I thought I would like to get some opinions here.

Thanks in advance for anyone who offers their opinion.

 

[SirRumpole]

I guess it depends on what you want to do.

Overseas travel 3 times a year ? Golf club fees ? Supporting a partner ?

I reckon about $70k assuming not paying any rent or mortgage, not supporting children .

 

[PZ99]

$500 - $1,000 per week easy. I don't require meds yet so that would alter things later on.

 

[macca]

You could always use the average wage in Oz as a guideline for living expenses, create an annual total and then add any special events that you opt for each year.

This gives you an annual total required for your chosen lifestyle

 

[moXJO]

Depends on your rates, rego, electricity bill, food bill, insurances. If you retire and are not going to move in a hurry then make sure no major expenses are coming up in maintenance of the house (think roof rusting, plumbing, termites)

For me the $1500-$2000 is the doable amount for my situation. I strive for more though, that's probably the base for me.

You can get away with lower with cash for emergencies. I could probably live on $300-$500 a week if it were just me and a super no frills lifestyle.

I don't subscribe to the live frugally and retire young bs though. I don't want to live like a bloody miserable tightwad. I enjoy buying things for family. So I always look for ways of boosting cash flow.

Keeping the partner reasonably happy is important too. Otherwise learn to live on half, while having to re-buy all your stuff.

Its the blackswan events you have to factor in. So calculate what you think you need a week, then add another $500.

 

[sptrawler]

I guess it depends on what you want to do.

Overseas travel 3 times a year ? Golf club fees ? Supporting a partner ?

I reckon about $70k assuming not paying any rent or mortgage, not supporting children .

I'm with you, I've been self funded for 9 years and I reckon $70k give or take $5k, if you are doing overseas travel.
Staying at home like this covid year, $50k give or take $5k, because we have spent more than usual on the house (replacement furniture etc)
But we don't eat out much, do buy what we want, but don't waste on a lot of entertainment, do waste on plants IMO lol.
Do drink, don't smoke, run a car and a motorbike but use bicycles a lot.
Another thing we do is allocate a certain amount each year (usually around $2-$3k each) that is just your money to be spent on whatever you want, but can't justify it.
It saves a lot of arguments if I want to buy something for the motorbike, or the other half wants something that I think is a waste of money.

 

[Value Collector]

You could always use the average wage in Oz as a guideline for living expenses, create an annual total and then add any special events that you opt for each year.

This gives you an annual total required for your chosen lifestyle

That’s what I did for the last year, I took the average wage x 2 (me and the wife), it ended up being a bit to much for us this year due to COVID canceling our holiday plans.

but that got me thinking also about taxes, obviously the average wage is before tax, and I was thinking maybe I shouldn’t be doubling it for the wife and me.

prior to that I was just putting 50% of my after tax investment earnings into my spending money account, that worked well for a few years, but with FMGs big dividends it was more than I felt comfortable spending on my self.

I have been tracking spending this year, both regular and unusual amounts, with share those figures when I get back into my office tomorrow but this year is a pretty strange year, so spending has been super low, except for a holiday back in Jan and some dental work that was pretty expensive.

 

[wayneL]

70-90 k of passive income would be easily comfortable for us, so long as it was self indexing.

More would be nice, but not necessary.

Plus a bit of artistic blacksmithing, both teaching and to flog off at the markets to keep me p1ssing off the missus by being around the house too much.... and a bit of mad money

 

[Smurf1976]

My costs of survival are stuff all, $400 a week would do it easily, but to actually live requires considerably more.

I'm not into gambling or drugs of any kind, I've no need to impress others with expensive cars or clothes, I've no loans of any kind, everything's owned outright so my day to day costs of simply existing are stuff all.

I would of course like to do more than simply exist and things like travel costs money.

 

[PZ99]

My costs of survival are stuff all, $400 a week would do it easily, but to actually live requires considerably more.

I'm not into gambling or drugs of any kind, I've no need to impress others with expensive cars or clothes, I've no loans of any kind, everything's owned outright so my day to day costs of simply existing are stuff all.

I would of course like to do more than simply exist and things like travel costs money.

Yep - same position here.

 

[SirRumpole]

My costs of survival are stuff all, $400 a week would do it easily, but to actually live requires considerably more.

I'm not into gambling or drugs of any kind, I've no need to impress others with expensive cars or clothes, I've no loans of any kind, everything's owned outright so my day to day costs of simply existing are stuff all.

I would of course like to do more than simply exist and things like travel costs money.

So what sort of figure would you need to reasonably satisfy your needs and wants ?

 

[Smurf1976]

So what sort of figure would you need to reasonably satisfy your needs and wants ?

Pretty sure I could spend $100k quite easily.

Three quarters of that would be on entertainment and travel though. That's by no means essential but I could certainly spend more time traveling overseas and that isn't cheap.

I'm not a fan of 5 star hotels, first class travel and owning a Rolls Royce though. You meet more interesting people traveling economy on a train and driving something like a Trabant is far more exciting than a fancy car albeit for all the wrong reasons*

*Should you ever drive one, never forget that the fuel tank is right below the windscreen between you and that burning hot air-cooled engine. Also remember that the brakes aren't much good. Remember these points always.

 

[Value Collector]

So far for the first 11 months this year (which is unusual due to covid19), my personal spending has been as follows.

$47,066 - Regular living expenses
$23, 456 - other (Some expensive dental + holiday spending in January)

So Total this year excluding December is $70,522.
Thats $1,479 / week or $76,933 / year

If we ignore the holiday and dental spend it works out as
$987 / week and $51,344 / year

That amount also includes a $450 / week allotment I make into my real estate account, essentially as if I am renting my home from myself it covers all the housing costs but runs at a surplus that helps build up my realestate portfolio (I am not claiming personal costs as tax deductions or anything like that, its just how I manage my money, I pay "rent" into my realestate account and all cost come from that account)

So my home life is pretty cost effective, but yeah Travel is where I spend a bit, I am leaning towards some where between $2000 and $3000 per week once the gates are opened again to allow for nice holidays and some other larger purchases as needed.

 

[moXJO]

I am leaning towards some where between $2000 and $3000 per week once the gates are opened again to allow for nice holidays and some other larger purchases as needed.

Do you have kids VC?

 

[Value Collector]

Do you have kids VC?

Only fur kids, no human ones yet hahaha

 

[moXJO]

Only fur kids, no human ones yet hahaha

Lucky bastard.
Kids can throw financial plans out the window.

 

[Value Collector]

Lucky bastard.
Kids can throw financial plans out the window.

According to the smith family, a family that earns $895 / week or less is considered to be living in poverty.

Thats not really the image I have of poverty.

https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/poverty-in-australia/what-is

 

[Smurf1976]

Lucky bastard.
Kids can throw financial plans out the window.

An unfortunate choice of words there....

A family member of the 4 legged variety recently ran into the lounge room at full speed chasing an insect.

Long story short = smashed the window.

It gets better too. No glazier wants anything to do with it because it turns out that the window frame contains asbestos putty.

True story yes.

Kids cost more but furry creatures aren't free that's for sure.

 

[Smurf1976]

ccording to the smith family, a family that earns $895 / week or less is considered to be living in poverty.

Not but by earning but in terms of spending it would seem that I've voluntarily put myself into poverty then.

With the pandemic going on, there just hasn't been that much to actually spend money on that I wanted to do and was still able to.

 

[SirRumpole]

An unfortunate choice of words there....

A family member of the 4 legged variety recently ran into the lounge room at full speed chasing an insect.

Long story short = smashed the window.

It gets better too. No glazier wants anything to do with it because it turns out that the window frame contains asbestos putty.

True story yes.

Kids cost more but furry creatures aren't free that's for sure.

Vet fees are worse. I hope the animal was not hurt.