Cost of living #3

[SleepyBear]

Not sure what next year's school fees will be but no shortage of enrollments. I have 2 kids in a high fee pre-K - Y12 school and they are actually expanding the school and have added extra classes to cope with the intake next year. 

[magic_marker]

The blame game is in full swing.

It's all the Boomers fault.

It's the big corporations fault.

Sigh.

After working hard all your life, you're now told not to spend your hard earned money because it's causing inflation issues.

Big corporations are definitley price gouging, so l'm going to agree with that one.

There are so many factors at play.

Others countries making decisions on petrol.

Whatever is happening with other countries and their property ponzi.

Can we really place the blame on one or two things?

I think it's a culmination of multiple factors and unfortunatley it's hitting mortgage holders the most.

ETA. The current interest rates are common to me.

What was uncommon was having record low interest rates.

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by magic_marker
Added ETA

[Mantis]

24 minutes ago, magic_marker said:

After working hard all your life, you're now told not to spend your hard earned money because it's causing inflation issues.

I get where you're coming from but what about the next generation who will work just as hard all their lives and have very little to show for it?  Nobody is doing anything about this and the government is re-arranging the deck chairs as the whole thing slowly goes under.

[magic_marker]

6 minutes ago, Mantis said:

I get where you're coming from but what about the next generation who will work just as hard all their lives and have very little to show for it?  Nobody is doing anything about this and the government is re-arranging the deck chairs as the whole thing slowly goes under.

I don’t have a crystal ball to say what anyone will or won’t have at the end of their working life.

Circumstances are so different to when l was growing up.

I was raised by people that lived through the depression.

So many things have changed in the last 100 years.

Along with attitudes.

[dianalynch]

People with savings spending a lot of money are contributing to inflation, there’s no getting around that…and while yes people in that situation probably did work hard, there was also a lot of luck and government policy on their side. I’m in the situation where I have savings, no debt, worked hard for a long time, and am now doing rather nicely out of rate rises.
 

But I certainly don’t resent being told that if I go around spending a lot I’m contributing to inflation, which potentially hurts others, and that my financial position is also due to luck and policy. They’re just facts. Not moral judgements. If we ignore these facts, how on earth are we going to get out of this cycle, so others have a better future that includes basic needs like housing, to look forward to? 
 

people like me are contributing to inflation. So are companies that are profiteering. So is high employment. So are supply led factors, like war. Lots of reasons.
 

All of them need to be worked on, where possible and desirable - personally I think high employment is a good thing, so I’d leave that be - and some supply led issues we can’t help but perhaps we can start to make more stuff here for the future - to bring inflation down. Even when it’s not politically palatable. 
 

As a society we used to come together to benefit others, what’s wrong with asking people to reflect on generational inequality, and perhaps ease up on some non essential purchases for a bit to benefit others? 

[Gumbette]

51 minutes ago, magic_marker said:

The blame game is in full swing.

It's all the Boomers fault.

It's the big corporations fault.

Sigh.

After working hard all your life, you're now told not to spend your hard earned money because it's causing inflation issues.

 

I don't blame the boomers for spending - what are they meant to do with their money??? I do blame the ones that comfortably own their own property and have turned into shouty NIMBY's at Council meetings.

[Rosie28]

12 hours ago, SleepyBear said:

Not sure what next year's school fees will be but no shortage of enrollments. I have 2 kids in a high fee pre-K - Y12 school and they are actually expanding the school and have added extra classes to cope with the intake next year. 

I do a lot of work (legal) for private schools and they’re building new facilities faster than at any time I can remember. Performing arts centres, science centres, sports facilities all going up at a rate of knots with no expense spared. Only struggling to get builders! So amongst high fee paying schools I’m not seeing that they’re having an enrolment issue. 

[magic_marker]

58 minutes ago, dianalynch said:

As a society we used to come together to benefit others, what’s wrong with asking people to reflect on generational inequality, and perhaps ease up on some non essential purchases for a bit to benefit others? 

I agree.

The finger pointing needs to stop. It gets in the way of finding the solution and keeping people in the cycle.

[dianalynch]

I have an expensive independent grocer that I go to for a few products…well bugger me if colesworth haven’t increased their prices by so much that some basic foods, like tinned tomatoes, legumes, corn chips, muesli, rolled oats, and potato chips are now, at regular prices, cheaper at the independent. Fruit and vegetables are similar prices, although a few things are cheaper, and the quality is much much better. I got a 5kg bag of high quality washed potatoes that taste amazing (and crisp beautifully) for $6 at the independent. $7 for 4kg is the best I’ve seen at coles recently. 
 

I will be revisiting my shopping, but it could be that a mix of Aldi and the independent works out to be more cost effective and better overall quality than the duopoly. 

[magic_marker]

I’ve been asking myself this question today.

How loud were the Boomers when interest rates were at 0.1?

How excited were home buyers that interest rates were at 0.1?

The tables have turned and now the media want to be upset with the Boomers.

Thats kind of shite.

 

[WaitForMe]

On the topic of school fees. I'm on a schools focused FB group and someone asked the question, how is it that so many people can afford them. The overwhelming answer was that often, grandparents pay for them. I was surprised. These grandparents are helping their children out with house deposits and now private school fees?

 

[Yogaalaates]

1 hour ago, dianalynch said:

I have an expensive independent grocer that I go to for a few products…well bugger me if colesworth haven’t increased their prices by so much that some basic foods, like tinned tomatoes, legumes, corn chips, muesli, rolled oats, and potato chips are now, at regular prices, cheaper at the independent. Fruit and vegetables are similar prices, although a few things are cheaper, and the quality is much much better. I got a 5kg bag of high quality washed potatoes that taste amazing (and crisp beautifully) for $6 at the independent. $7 for 4kg is the best I’ve seen at coles recently. 
 

I will be revisiting my shopping, but it could be that a mix of Aldi and the independent works out to be more cost effective and better overall quality than the duopoly. 

I was in one today for a really good advertised special, and got the most amazing strawberries at a comparable price, and also stocked up on my milk, which is 70c/L cheaper than colesworth.

[LemonMyrtle]

2 minutes ago, WaitForMe said:

On the topic of school fees. I'm on a schools focused FB group and someone asked the question, how is it that so many people can afford them. The overwhelming answer was that often, grandparents pay for them. I was surprised. These grandparents are helping their children out with house deposits and now private school fees?

 

It baffles me too, but that’s intergenerational wealth for you. Being the child of (poor) immigrants, married to a child of (poor) immigrants, the idea of getting any money from our parents, for anything, is just incomprehensible. They just don’t have any. We will be the first generation to actually get an inheritance from the generation before though, and we have done well for ourselves, but it’s a slow slog to build wealth.

[Gumbette]

16 minutes ago, LemonMyrtle said:

It baffles me too, but that’s intergenerational wealth for you. Being the child of (poor) immigrants, married to a child of (poor) immigrants, the idea of getting any money from our parents, for anything, is just incomprehensible. They just don’t have any. We will be the first generation to actually get an inheritance from the generation before though, and we have done well for ourselves, but it’s a slow slog to build wealth.

Our neighbours just moved away - lost their rental as the owners wanted to sell.   Had to up and find a new house with 3 kids (youngest only 6 months old), and only 11 months after they first moved in.  I was wondering why when they had the money for private school fees - 2 boys (3 one day) in a top tier Sydney school, would choose to rent.  Apparently her parents pay the fees, but wouldn't you help them with a house deposit first?

[dianalynch]

My good friend has 2 kids in a high fee independent (year 12 tad over $40k now)…her in-laws pay half the fees. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by dianalynch

[LemonMyrtle]

18 minutes ago, Gumbette said:

Our neighbours just moved away - lost their rental as the owners wanted to sell.   Had to up and find a new house with 3 kids (youngest only 6 months old), and only 11 months after they first moved in.  I was wondering why when they had the money for private school fees - 2 boys (3 one day) in a top tier Sydney school, would choose to rent.  Apparently her parents pay the fees, but wouldn't you help them with a house deposit first?

It can be cultural. Well educated kids means they can earn well for themselves and then support the older generation. A house is just a house. An education is worth more, long term.

in Korea. Educating your kids well (and to the extreme) is number one priority and all sacrifices go towards that. 

[onetrick]

49 minutes ago, WaitForMe said:

On the topic of school fees. I'm on a schools focused FB group and someone asked the question, how is it that so many people can afford them. The overwhelming answer was that often, grandparents pay for them. I was surprised. These grandparents are helping their children out with house deposits and now private school fees?

 

We might be in the same group. I was surprised at how many people said that grandparents paid. It makes sense- if this happens every generation then it is something to plan and budget for.

I didn't like the 'we prioritise education' comments. That felt icky. 'We priotise private education' would have been better.

I'm torn. We hope to not need private education but we don't know what our kids are going to be like, or what the local high schools with be like with the new, highly enforced zoning rules, and the local private school is lovely.  But I wouldn't ask my mum for money towards that, that just doesn't feel right.

[Gumbette]

10 minutes ago, LemonMyrtle said:

It can be cultural. Well educated kids means they can earn well for themselves and then support the older generation. A house is just a house. An education is worth more, long term.

in Korea. Educating your kids well (and to the extreme) is number one priority and all sacrifices go towards that. 

Irish in this instance so I assume not cultural, but I’ll be honest and say I don’t know! 

[dianalynch]

Irish Catholic? A Catholic education is then often a priority…of course I’m just speculating, no idea if the school they attend is Catholic 

I’m Irish Catholic…well that’s my heritage, I’ve long shed the Catholic 

[MerryMadigralMadge]

I think I'm in the same FB group - the constant digs at public schools are getting very old - ex and I both went to the most expensive schools at the time in Melbourne and we are both meh about it. And as a child whose parents scrapped every cent for my brothers and mine school fees, and really felt the pressure, the wealth disparity at school, felt out of place, made my parents park a block away if they ever drove me to school etc, it's not a great experience (at least ours wasn't anyway).

 

Also, my youngest sibling only paid off his HECS debt at about 35, and that was before the hikes in HECS - if I had that kind of money to pay towards my child's education, it would be directed at her tertiary education or supporting her in early adulthood, to be able to enjoy tertiary education etc. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by MerryMadigralMadge

[Bornagirl]

2 minutes ago, dianalynch said:

Irish Catholic? A Catholic education is then often a priority…of course I’m just speculating, no idea if the school they attend is Catholic 

I’m Irish Catholic…well that’s my heritage, I’ve long shed the Catholic 

Me, too.   Only to year 8, when we moved to an isolated area and had to go to school with the heathens.

Mind you, it came in damned handy in Israel and the West Bank in September, all of those names that seemed like they were from another world suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.  Let me tell you though, the Gardens of Gethsemane were a letdown from the pictures from my childhood.

I actually sent my daughter to a school that was token Baptist, where the religion was more inclusive than the stuff the kids got in RE at the state school. (Not for the blazer and the pool, so she'd wake up not in distress at going to a school that tolerated bullying.)

[dianalynch]

Snap @Bornagirl our girl goes to a school that is token Baptist, it’s very inclusive both in terms of religion, and things like gender diversity, sexuality…most wear a rainbow pin on the blazer 

no pool though, so a different school, sounds like similar values though 

[Gumbette]

17 minutes ago, dianalynch said:

Irish Catholic? A Catholic education is then often a priority…of course I’m just speculating, no idea if the school they attend is Catholic 

I’m Irish Catholic…well that’s my heritage, I’ve long shed the Catholic 

No this is a high fee Anglican school (one is in prep - $24k and the other is Y2 $28K)   If they wanted catholic there's a cheapie up the road where DS goes for under $5K a year, plus they'd get a discount for #2 & #3!

Edited November 9, 2023 by Gumbette

[Rosie28]

13 hours ago, WaitForMe said:

On the topic of school fees. I'm on a schools focused FB group and someone asked the question, how is it that so many people can afford them. The overwhelming answer was that often, grandparents pay for them. I was surprised. These grandparents are helping their children out with house deposits and now private school fees?

 

My grandparents certainly didn't pay my school fees, but my parents have said they will contribute to our kids' fees. We don't need them to, the kids would go to the same school regardless and we can afford all the fees and associated extras, but yes it is a thing. For full transparency mum and dad also paid the stamp duty on our first home, once we had proven we could pay it. Dad in particular is happy to help, but not until I don't need it.

[magic_marker]

Optus Fail.

200gb of free data.

That's nice.

What are you going to give customers on "unlimited" data?