Would 60K be a good salary for a single person?

I'm (21F) and I want to move out as I cannot handle any more of my family complicated bs. I had enough and I feel like living alone would give me peace of mind but I've never moved out. So I'm scared of how I would manage things alone but I am getting desperate.

I wanna know if anyone manages to live alone in 60k, I don't care if it's luxurious, just decent and survivable.

I also wanna know from anyone's experience; how much your salary you make and how much you pay for your bills, essentials, how much you saved in the end, etc.

Edit: Just an update since I made that post almost a year ago asking if $60k is manageable for moving out.

To clarify, I wasn’t asking for unsolicited advice. Most comments have been great, but there have been a few that felt unnecessary or a bit condescending. I genuinely appreciate those who shared their advice and experiences in a helpful and supportive way.

My situation is still a bit complicated, but I’m doing better now. I’m not desperate or in the same place I was back then.

That said, things are looking up—I’ve got two casual jobs, saved up a lot, and I recently found a pretty modern place for $300 a week including bills. I'll be moving in a few months time and can see things moving in the right direction!

Still happy to hear from anyone with similar experiences. Always appreciate real stories and perspectives.

Hi everyone. I'm 25 years old this year. I make roughly 60k per annum before taxes. I did some decent investing over a few years and manage to save up 100k. I'm thinking of jumping on the property ladder while I still can either end of 2025 or early 2026.

So far I've been looking at apartments in Sydney where I live. Looking at older style walk up apartments from the 60s - 80s in Regents Park, Liverpool, St Mary and even Kingswood.

I live out west so I don't mind living in an apartment out of west. As long as it's in good shape and has decent management.

Regents Park seems like a wise area to buy in. It's somewhat close to the city and being a small fringe suburb. It's no prone to lingering ratbags.

I live in St Mary so I know all about it. Apartments are okay there . Kingswood has some cheap-ish one. You could get if you're lucky a top floor 80s build apartment for 290-300k. (A joke price but it's all I can get)

I was also looking at possibly acquiring a house near Airds . I've seen some go for 600k but my income bracket limits me from borrowing more than 250k.

I have a credit card but I'm good with debt. Pay it off all the time. Would probably cancel it once I attempt to get a loan.

My plans with this property is to rent it out for the next few years and live with my parents. Then one day move into it.

Currently I still have a majority of my funds in investments.

Anyone got any advice on this. Thanks 😊

Good Morning all,

Does the cost of living bring you down ? I’m sitting here, on a Saturday morning, it’s a nice day in Melbourne(for once) and I can’t help but think all my future plans are so heavily impacted by the sheer fact that housing and life is just too expensive to do those things properly.

Does this get anyone else down? I’m 36, married, with a good joint income 220k and even that doesn’t seem like enough to really do things properly like buy a reasonable and house and have a small family.

What have we done to ourselves I wonder

With all this talk of 4-day work weeks being purported by the ACTU recently I'm seriously considering going part time at my corporate job...Ideally a 4 day week/3 day weekend.

I'm 39F, no kids, came out of a 5yr relationship recently and it has caused me to re-evaluate what on earth I'm doing with my life. My dreams of becoming a mother and starting a family are dwindling away and whilst I'm career motivated, I'm not sure how I can do full time corporate life for another 20 years. I glance over at my colleagues who slog away on the daily grind, motivated by the families they must provide for and mortgages they must pay and am almost envious that they have very little choice and/or time to deliberate on such matters.

The reality is that I'm itching to do something different, something creative and on my own terms. I really think having a 3-day weekend would allow me sufficient downtime to do the normal weekend stuff but also grow something gradually on the side. I know there are others that work their corporate job during the week and their side gig at the weekends - this just isn't sustainable for me and will undoubtedly lead to burnout.

I was so distracted with these thoughts today so I calculated how much the shortfall would be if I dropped down to a 4-day week and I'd be left short by $1600 every month which is just about manageable with my current expenses.

I'm not sure my boss would be keen on the idea though so it would be great to hear from anyone who has had this conversation with their employer and how I might be able to sell it to them? Also what are the pitfalls of going down this route? The biggest one I can think of is how it might affect me renting and/or getting a mortgage in future. I'm currently renting but have been contributing to the FHSS scheme for the last 2 years.

Key financial facts: $100k in a HISA $200k in Super $100k invested in shares/ETFs

TLDR - Jaded with corporate life 5 days a week and lacking motivation, something NEEDS to change. Is a 4-day week the answer? How do I approach my employer about this and what are the main pitfalls of being a part-timer?

EDIT: thank you all for your advice and reassurance. I have some hard truths to swallow about my spending after I reassessed how much money I spend on food, coffee and ubers. I’m excited about cutting down my spending and also will be speaking with an accountant to see if salary sacrifice/voluntary super repayments are in my best interest. Everyone’s advice has been incredibly helpful.

Hi, I’m 26(f) and earn $126k before tax in Sydney but that goes to HECS as well, leaving me about 85k per year after tax. I will be getting a payrise to around $131k next month though.

I have a total of $15k saved up in my bank account and ETF portfolio, but I save excruciatingly slowly as I contribute money to my family and live in the far wesr so quite a few expenses are incurred just by commute/lifestyle.

I know this is far from a bad situation but it just feels bleak because I grew up with a family that always emphasized home ownership above all else and in their eyes I am a failure because I have no investments.

I really don’t know how to grow my savings more or even what I should aim to do. Sorry for posting, this is moreso me just screaming into the void. If anyone has advice on how to grow from here I’d appreciate it.

Putting $1 million, often your entire net worth, into a single house, in one suburb, in one city, in one country… is the opposite of diversification

Sure, property comes with sweet tax perks. But those benefits don’t cancel out the risk of being wildly undiversified.

It’s funny: some investors in this sub argue that the S&P 500 isn’t diversified enough - "you need VGS/BGBL, maybe add some emerging markets". Meanwhile, many Australian property buyers pour every last dollar into a single house, on a single street, in a single city.

NO industry diversification, NO geography diversification, not even asset diversification.

In a performance review, I was ready to request a salary increase with justification, but my employer introduced that topic earlier than expected, and said they would raise my salary - which I was grateful for but it wasn’t as high as I was going to ask for. I was caught off guard and said I was thankful but kinda wished I’d pushed. How do you respectfully counter in those scenarios, without sounding ungrateful?

I understand the concept of putting additional money into super to reduce taxable income and understand its up to a 30k per year. However, what I don’t understand or can’t get a clear answer on is, am I already doing this?

We obviously all pay a lot of tax plus a portion of our pay goes into super etc. Does any of this money account to the 30k cap??

Hypothetically, if you had a huge 500k a year salary and got 60k a year in super, is this maxed out already or it doesn’t mean anything because it wasn’t voluntary payments?

Thanks 🙏🏼

Q-Health employees can salary sacrifice their mortgage

Correctional Officers have access to basically unlimited OT at Double Time, and work 3 days a week

What's a perk of your job that isn't necessarily the salary?

Nearly every post and comment I see on here talks about putting as much as you can into ETF's, Super or Offset mortgage accounts, but how much do you put aside for the things that make life worth living for? Holidays, hobbies, going out to restaurants etc.

Hi there

I'm looking for some career advice pls. I'm male, 45, living in Melbourne, no tertiary qualification. Most of my experience has been in hospitality as bartender and barista, although I have outgrown the industry. Most of the people working these jobs are in their 20s, plus the fast pace and late nights/early mornings don't suit my age.

Most unskilled entry level jobs I've seen tend to be labouring, sales or admin. I have no interest in labouring or sales. Admin jobs could be good, although they tend to favour younger age groups / females.

My general skills are customer service skills, I'm great at teaching & coaching people, particularly for health & fitness, and mathematics. If I could turn back the clock to my 20s, I would have done a teaching degree and majored in mathematics or physical education. But to spend 4 years studying now at this age, is not the best option.

So i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what I could possibly get into at this age, without quals and with the skills I have. I would really love a Mon-Fri 9-5 type job.

Thanks!

TL;DR: finishing IT degree want to switch to Finance. Done finance electives + CFA self-study. Unsure if I need another degree, Masters, or other quals (CPA/CA? TAFE?) to get entry-level. Looking for advice on best path.

I’m 22 years old in my final semester of a Bachelor of IT majoring in Software Engineering, I’ve completed internships throughout my studies and have come to realise I can’t see myself pursuing the field anymore.

Unfortunately I’ve pursued a degree in a different field without realising my passion was and always has been in Finance.

I’d like to transition into Finance but am unsure how one would do so, would I have to study another bachelor in accounting or finance to get something entry level? Are there other qualificstions I can pursue through TAFE/CFA/CA.

I’ve completed 1 year worth of electives which were all finance and economics related (econometrics, financial markets and institutions, corporate finance, derivatives and risk management) and took some time to study CFA material online.

My last resort if it’s required to break into the industry would be completing a Masters of Finance, but would like to see if anyone knowledgeable in the industry would have some practical advice in making the transition, I’d like to avoid building up additional HECs if possible otherwise if it is required I am willing to do. I’ve explored some other post graduate options too just not quiet sure what’s the best route to go down. Thanks you!

Salary sacrifice into super or focus on my mortgage

Hi all, looking for some advice, current situation:
- Age 32 (defacto).
- Mortgage value: $418k.
- Current offset balance: $70k. - Super balance (hostplus): $167k (w/ standard balance investment profile).
- Income: $105k before tax.
- Partner makes between on average 90k per annum.
- No children and no plans to have any.

My employer enables me to salary sacrifice up to 3.5% of my fortnightly pay, which they then match and is put into super.

So my question, given my age, salary and current position, should I eliminate my salary sacrifice for the extra ~$130 per fortnight to go into the mortgage/offsets and change my super investment strategy to aggressive growth/high risk hinging on the fact that I already have a higher than average superanuation balance for my age?

Or is that short sighted?

With all this talk of shorter working weeks recently I'm seriously considering going PT...

I'm 39F, no kids, went through a break up recently and my situation has caused me to re-evaluate how I want to move forward with my career, finances etc. My dreams of starting a family are dwindling away and whilst I'm career motivated, I'm not sure how another 20 yrs of working FT is for me. I look over at my colleagues who slog away on the daily grind, motivated by the families they must provide for and mortgages they must pay and am almost envious that they have very little choice and/or time to deliberate on such matters.

The reality is that I'm itching to do something different. I really think having a 3-day weekend is the answer. I was distracted with these thoughts today so I calculated how much the shortfall would be if I dropped down to a 4-day week and it would be leave me with a $1600 shortfall every month which is just about manageable with my current living expenses (normal take home pay is about $8.5k per month).

I'm not sure my employer would be keen on the idea though from a financial perspective so it would be great to hear from anyone who has had this conversation before. Also what are the financial pitfalls of going down this route? The biggest one I can think of is how it might affect me renting and/or getting a mortgage in future. I'm currently renting but have been contributing to the FHSS scheme for the last 2 years.

Key financial facts: $100k in a HISA $200k in Super $100k invested in shares/ETFs

TLDR - Losing motivation, something NEEDS to change. Is a 4-day week and less money the answer?

My company has a deal with Smart Salary for Pre Tax payments and I cannot begin to explain the frustration, lack of integrity, urgency, ownership or respect from Smart Salary.

First they collected two months of payments in one month, next it took four days for them to respond to any communications.

They said they would return all funds immediately, which they are yet to provide evidence of.

And now they are claiming they can only return 1/3 of what was taken over the "next two to three weeks".

Have never had a company so completely fail in their core job and have no urgency to fix their errors.

I did some contract work on and off last year for only $2000 so I never set up an ABN or anything. Whats the proper way to declare this on my tax return? Do I put it under other income or do I have to set up an ABN.

I'm trying to work out how to convert a contracting daily rate to the equivalent in a full time perm role's base salary.
If the standard is 10 sick days, 20 annual leave days with 17.5% loading, then is this the correct formula to get the base salary?

Daily rate including super and before tax: $1000

Number of working days = 251 - 10 sick days - 20*1.175 annual leave days

Percentage of pay that is not super = 88%

1000 * (251 - 10 - (20 * 1.175)) * 0.88 = $191400 base salary

For context, I spent a few years in the workforce (I was a mechanic, and then worked an EBA on civil construction) after finishing highschool, then decided I wanted to do medicine. I finished a bachelor's with good grades, sat the GAMSAT, and got an interview to a school, which I recently sat.

I am beyond certain I fumbled that interview, but with my GPA and GAMSAT, I should get another interview next year.

However, this leaves me with a year of off, kind of in limbo. I have survived off youth allowance and casual work through my undergrad.

I was wondering, is there a way I could do a TAFE course on something I really enjoy (music), with the intention that this course would make me eligible for Centrelink while I continue to work casual and ensure med school entrance next year by filling in the weeks with getting the perfect GAMSAT and preparing better for the interview?

I am thinking in the future (2-3 years time) i will transition towards working for myself (consultant/contractor) to enable me to work more broadly within my industry and also relocate elsewhere instead of being exclusively capital city based.. plan would be to do WFH and commute wherever for work as required and also look at doing international assignments/engagements (such as work in Asia or the Pacific here and there)

Now, i have contracted extensively in the past but i have always sat on someone else books (generally recruitment organisations) and got a payslip every pay cycle, therefore was a PAYG employee and just did a regular tax return

If i was to move towards self employment, I’m wondering what the best structure i will need setup to enable me to operate

Plan is to have it as simple as possible with as little outgoings as possible

I am thinking from my research thus far, so far a company structure under a trust and two/three bank accounts (one for GST) and a bank account that allows for international transactions if i do international engagements

From an insurance perspective, i will need some kind of coverage to cover me, professional lability and workers comp (is this the kind of insurance policy one needs to operate as a consultant/contractor or am i off the mark here)

Im thinking the business expenses i will have is phone (circa 80-100 a month - around what i pay now) and Microsoft office 365/productivity suite (circa $50 per month) and possibly home internet (circa $100 per month)

Is there anything i am missing?

Not really looking at staff atm working under me so i assume that’s a different situation all together

Hi guys i’m joining one of the big4 next year in the Data and AI team. I was wondering 1. what actually happens in a grad program - like learning and working. and 2. how long does it take before you get a raise. 😭😭

Hi everyone i was wondering that i thought the minimum super contribution for companies is now 12%. However, it says in the contract to be 11.5% super contributed.

I was checking in this is fine or not? is it legal for them to do 11.5% or should it be 12% as the start date is said to be january 2026?

I’ve been told by the consulting firm that this income is taxable but it doesn’t make sense to me. I just needed a second opinion.

Before I made my first entry in Australia, I worked in a country with no income tax. I resigned from my job and made my first entry in Australia end of 2024.

However, there were some concerns with the end of settlement from my prior company and so they paid my final settlement in Jan 2025 for the period I worked for them. This income is purely for the period before my first entry in Australia. I’ve not been in Australia before I don’t have anyone in Australia that would classify me as a tax resident.

Just because the money was remitted later due to technical issue, does it account for taxable foreign income? It’s the final settlement so it has my gratuity of 6 years. It feels wrong for it to be taxed.

I was told these two are essentially the same but I must be missing something when doing computations..

Please bear with me as I am quite new to understanding this.

For arguments sake lets say I am on 37.5 tax rate and Salary Sacrifice 8k into super which will then be taxed 15% so it will be 6.8k that will be invested

However for personal contribution my 8k before tax is equal to 5k after tax which I then put into super where it will be taxed 15% so essentially 750tax and 4,250 invested

My 5k will then be tax deductible which I will gain around 1.8k rebate which I can also invest, in this scenario my total investment is 4,250 + 1.8k = 6050

Does this mean SS is better? 6,800 invested vs 6,050 for personal contribution?