Steve, yes I have been an employer, & a very good one, but at that young age, I was not much of a business man, & often took home, less than most of the employees.
I bought my first house when I was 20, with my dads guarantee for the loan. It was about the cheepest house in Sydney, a 4 room cottage, with an outside toilet, a fuel stove, & a chip [wood] bath heater. But I had an asset, which appreciated. The value of that land today, is probably equal to my net worth.
After many changes in my life, I found myself managing a tourist opperation which required long hours from all the employees.
All the staff, including me, earned around half what wage employees did, with penalty rates in a seven day, 18 hours a day business.
They were lucky. Very few in that industry did, or do, earn the average wage.
I spent 12 of my last 15 working years, running a couple of small companies, of a group of 8 companies south of Brisbane. No one there earned anything like the average wage. When the parent company went broke our long service disappeared, & there was no redundancy, in fact we were lucky to get our holiday pay.
For the next three years I earned $12 an hour, as a casual laborer when I could get it, on a horse stud, an egg farm, & a turf farm.
Believe me, going on the pension was a relief, & I didn't drop much income.
As my kids were into horses, I had bought a cheep, run down property, in the Wolffdene area, & when the dam was canned, spent a lot of money bringing it up to standard, over quite a few years.
How did I do it? I don't drink, smoke, or gamble. I do all my own maintenance around the place, & on my 26 year old car.
Life's a ball, if you stop feeling sorry for yourself. Give it a go, you might be supprised.

Hasbeen, I admire what you've done. Don't get me wrong, but you have something that a lot do not have and that's a quaranteed income for life...the aged pension. People on Newstart have a very different outlook on life. Ageism is rampant in many parts of Australia and for some, they're regarded as being too old to find employment, yet too young for the pension. Their lives are made miserable by a inhumane and uncaring Government who force them to jump through Centrelink's hoops. It's degrading and humiliating. I've been there as I struggled to pay my way through a nursing course. All I got for my troubles is a very uncertain future whereby my short term contract for the only work I can find in the area is constantly under threat by an employer who openly despises older workers. He wants them replaced by young "puppets" and there's not a damned thing we can do about it. As a casual a couple of years back, I saw first hand what Centrelink can do to a person in that "twilight" age group. Centrelink pushes them until they crack and end up attempting self harm. Yipee!! Now they're off Newstart and onto sickness benefits. Big bloody deal!! All that gets them is the knowledge that soon they'll be pumped full of chemicals and thrown back on the scrapheap at Centrelink again. What a hidious way to live out the last of your pre pension life. Paid taxes all their lives in some cases and struggling to simply stay alive, let alone live a decent existance. And Steve, you hang in there. There are some who appreciate your struggle. Keep up the fight.

Has been.

You have had a fortunate life. And I am glad you are having a ball. You are fortunate that your property is less than 2 hectares or you will have to sell it to qualify for the pension. I have worked for 30 years being paid well in the Television industry as a videotape editor. I did not buy a house until I was 40 and had it paid off by the time I was 44.

I then moved to the sunshine coast and built the house I live in just before GST. It cost me $175,000 in six years it is worth $500,000. In other words if I was to buy the same house the mortgage payments would have increased $600 per week.

I am fortunate to see my asset increasing in value, but I see the social dislocation this is causing. We are creating two societies in Australia. One with nothing but envy the other with nothing but contempt.

The budget super changes mean that people cannot retire at 55 as self funded retirees. It is not economically viable, so another 5 years to get the tax concessions why does the tax cut in at sixty when the availability of super is 55. More tricky and mean.

I do not feel sorry for myself, I have had a wonderful life, just not as I planned. I hope you keep your health, your attitude may change if you do not.

Steve, Hasbeen tells us he has 20 acres in one of his earliest postings. not under 2 hectares. Also, if you join the Airforce at 15 and retire after 30 years, you are entitled to an Airforce Pension. Not every young man has a generous dad who can afford to lend him the money to buy a house. Our governments intend to privatise most things, including education, transport and hospitals. Already the cooks and cleaners are contract workers for Army, Airforce, and Navy at least on land. They will still tax us the same level, just shuffle the papers around, and expect us to do for ourselves with what remains.

Has Beanie been telling us Porkies?

My property is about 19 acres, but fortunately, it is not as yet, valuable enough, to prevent me qualifying for the pension.
It is one of my worries, but if it happens, I will sell the place, & move west.
I do not want to move. I have spent 14 years getting the place as I want it, but the Qld government may yet force me to. Under their new plan, I am not allowed to subdivide, [& sell 16.5 acres], & the value of the lot, may rise to where I loose some, if not all pension.
Wildcat, I have had my experience with centrelink. I lost my job, just before my 62Nd birthday. Although they are kinder to the over 60s, I did not like what I saw, & went out & found work.
Not many people realy want a 62 years old laborer, which was all I could get, but, as the local younger ones, prefered to put up with rubbish, & get the payment, I found enough to get by. I realy did object to paying tax on my earnings, when they were rarely more than the benefit payment, which, I am told, is tax free.
My father did not loan me money, but he had to go guarantor, so the bank would.
I'm not sure about my health either. I had a heart attack in February, but recieved prompt, & excellent treatment from Qld Health.
After all the horror stories, I did not expect that. They appear to have given me an overhaul, making me better than before.
An old mate of mine uesd to say "Its no good getting old, if you don't get lucky", so may be, I'm lucky. But then the other one says "the harder you work, the luckier you get", so, perhaps I deserve it