Right now, the temperature ranges from 7 to 14 degress. Pretty cold as most of the workers wearing hoodies, bonnets and thick jackets.
We had to turn the heater on every night and set it to 23 degrees to have a decent sleep. Good thing we have a ducted gas heating at our new place which save a lot money as compare to the electric oil fin heater we used when we’re still renting.
For office employees, They wear black jackets, blazers, scarf and bonnets. Most trades people wear luminous jackets with hoods.
Windscreen freezing is a common scenario where you need to put water on the screen to remove the ice.
Since it gets dark faster than any season of the year, its just but normal to sea headlights turned on earlier than usual.
You do not have to get a second job in Australia to provide a decent life for your family. In Australia, most of the job wages if not all follow the regulation. This means that all workers whatever industry they are in can live a decent life and be able to provide good life for their family.
What is a decent life in Australian Standard?
This mean that the average worker can afford to:
1. Buy a house/ property - A worker “single or married” can buy a property or a house with his/her job. A normal property can be a townhouse, 3 bedroom unit to a 4 bedroom house usually sitting on between 350 to 700 sq meter block of land. Present day migrants in Australia normally achieve this within their first 3-5 years of settlement. This is possible because of monthly income surplus, easy approval of home loan and Government support like 1st home owner’s grant or incentives which makes house ownership even more possible.
2. Holidays/Vacation - a 20 day paid annual leave can be use as holidays/vacation etc. With Australia’s good global currency value. One can afford to go holiday in most country they prefer. A popular destinations for Australian’s are Bangkok-Thailand, Bali-Indonesia, Fiji, Malaysia and USA. Most of them prefer Asia because their money goes far better than other region. They got high currency exchange for their aussie dollar.
3. Affordable food - One can easily afford to eat most of the restaurants he choose. Eating on Cafeterias, take away joints and popular fast food shops are equivalent to 30 minutes of working hours. Family restaurants are a bit more expensive but depending on one’s lifestyle, one can still treat his family whenever he likes.
4. Cars are affordable - A 2003 Toyota Camry Automatic in Australia cost around $10,000.00. If you have a job and earn $40,000 per year, this should just be a walk in a park. You can easily be approve for an auto loan or even a personal loan for this purpose.
With these things within arm’s reach, majority of Australians need not to get a second job to have a decent life. According to wikipedia, Australia ranked 2nd as the country with the highest standard of living in 2007. Second only to Norway.
Jordan Belfort is known as a Millionaire creator especially in the 1990’s. At the height of his career, he was given the title of “The Wolf of Wall Street”. Unfortunately, he was indicted in 1998 for securities fraud and money laundering.
As a founder of the company Stratton Oakmont, he employed 1000 stock brokers and run a boiler room with which he raised more than a billion dollar invested in a small cap companies creating artificial spikes in the stock market.
He served jail for 22 months after participating with FBI. He now lives in LA and was making a buzz a motivational speaker, author of best selling book “The Wolf of wall street”. His life story is being filmed in the movie entitled “The Wolf of Wall Street”. Its going to be played by Leonardo de Caprio and will be directed by Martin Scorsese.
Jordan Belfort does motivational speaking and will do world wide tour teaching how to achieve success without sacrificing integrity and ethics.
When it comes to car “Nothing beats brand new.” Is it? Think again. The moment the car roll out from its dealership, it sheds 15% of its value already. Now does this sound good to you?
Its alright if you have enough money. But if you are financially savvy. A more practical thing to do is to buy a slightly used car.
There are certain situations when a brand new car owner decided to sell his/her car immediately because of certain circumstances like moving overseas, facing financial difficulties or just merely change of mind. These are a very good condition to buy such cars. Some cars are just months old to less than a year with very very low mileage. They sell it for 15 to 30% off their purchase price. If you are patient and resourceful enough, I am sure you can get these deals easy.
The number one source of such deals are car sales website. Normally there are very good cars deals that are featured in the front page. You can choose whether you want from the dealer or from private owner. You can alo get one by asking friends or relative. Usually they know someone selling something.
No matter where you got it. Always be aware of the paperworks of the vehicle. Make sure to check it to your local transport agency. Check if the vehicle is not stolen or accumulated some penalties. Also check the service history. Make sure to get the manual and service history.
Another benefit of buying second hand is usually you can get the insurance free for a certain period where in you are covered till the policy expires. If the car is just 3 months old, that means you still got 9 months before you need to buy one. Unlike buying brand new wherein you need to add the insurance to the bill.
If you are looking for a place to rent or a house to buy, it is important to ask if the place has a gas connection. This will save you heaps of money in your power bill.
For more than 2 years of renting a flat, we’ve been paying high power bill every quarter. In winter we pay about $650 to AUD750 every 3 months. During normal season we are charged about AUD450. This is considered to be high. In our new place where we got gas connection. We only pay AUD150 for electricity and only about AUD90 for the gas. In total, we only pay $240 every quarter. Its more than 50% savings as compared to the place we rent before.
Its interesting to say that in our flat. We only got 2 bedrooms, 1 toilet and bathroom, 2 tv’s, 1 medium size fridge, 4 burner stove and less than 10 squares in floor area.
In our new house, we got 4 bedrooms, 1 bigger than average lounge, 27 squares of floor area, 4 tv’s, 10 point gas ducted heating, 5 burner stove. 1 children retreat area, 1 ensuite and a common bathroom and toilet and more than 50 liter side by side fridge. Still we save more than 50% than that of the previous.
Top tips
1. Make sure that aside from electricity connection, you must have a gas connection too. This is the most important thing. Gas is far more cheaper than crude. Just by doing this, you save 50% on your power bill instantly.
2. The place must have proper insulation. Like roof and wall insulation. This will regulate the house temperature. Not too cold in winter and not too hot in summer.
3. Get one company to supply your power bill. Not a big deal in terms of savings but it will be a lot easier to manage your power bill.
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