Barrybran - New Thread

[Barrybran]

Well tonight is an interesting night. The Federal Government handed down their 2014-2015 budget and there are cuts galore. Our government spent their way through the GFC and Australia was the only nation in the world to avoid recession. To achieve this, our then-Government spent a record sum of money, taking us from a record $20b surplus to a record $30b deficit. For a nation of 23 million people, this is a huge sum to make up. Noone cared though because the good times rolled on and everyone received $900 from the Government if they'd submitted a tax return in the qualifying period. Six years later, the effects are finally being felt.

Most reactions I've seen on Facebook since the budget was handed down, including that of my wife, are negative and/or outraged. I'm actually a fan of the budget. As much as I like America, there is a fundamental flaw in monetary policy when one side of government can hold the other side to ransom by shutting down congress with the threat of defaulting on interest payments and then resolving these potential defaults not by paying off debt but by changing the figures. It's gonna sting for a while but it'll be better for my kids and grandkids. For many people my age or younger, it'll be their first experience of hardship and even then, it's hardship in the first world. It's not like people will starve or become homeless; just that people may have to rent a three bedroom house instead of the four-bedroom house they've become accustomed to.

So that was a fairly long preamble. This can affect me in a huge way. Firstly, I've been considering for a while now whether to return to university or not. I already have a business degree that has gone to waste and I don't want to accrue another large debt for a degree that doesn't get used. Part of the Government's budget tonight however is the deregulation of higher education fees meaning universities will be able to set their own fees. In other words, it pays for me to get my butt into gear and knock out as much of a degree as possible before the deregulation occurs.

The second interesting part is how it affect my wife's family payments. All of our Government support payments go to her. I could claim a portion and I've considered doing so. I feel it would create more problems than it would solve, even though I would be acting for myself and my kids. In a nutshell, the kids are getting fed, I can live off my portion, my wife is happy, so why rock the boat? The Government plans to freeze family support payments and lower the thresholds which affects our situation in two ways: 1) Our combined incomes would be above the threshold for receiving Government support, particularly for childcare. Remaining separated would lower each of our incomes and therefore we'd qualify for support; and 2) conversely, freezing her payments would mean less disposable income each tax year making it harder to support herself in her own house, if she were to move out on her own. Of course, you don't enter into relationships for what you can get out of them financially. It will no doubt enter her mind if we get to a point where her feelings about me change. It came up when we got back together last time and money is a lot tighter this time.

I don't really care how it affects my wife's finances. I'm committed to this marriage even though it's on the backburner and I am focused on myself and the kids right now. The uni part is a definite spanner in the works as I've thought recently about whether I see myself at Subway as a 50-year-old man working with teenage girls and I can't honestly say that I do. That means I need to move in a different direction, even if I stay with Subway for 10 years, and the Government may have inadvertently pushed me. Of course, more study means less free time, less disposable income and more stress. It'll also be relatively short term and really allow me to focus on me.

I guess I'll be emailing the university again tomorrow.