curiousThe biggie, though: lifting the retirement age, for people who were born since 01/01/57, to 67 years of age. I'm lovin' it. That's an extra two years to plan for my retirement, and finish paying my house off.
And the subject of salary packaging raised its ugly head today at my half-yearly appraisal. Apparently I can get better pay rises through being packaged than I can by relying on the union-negotiated increases; that is, providing I continue to perform. I've sat down and worked out the minimum packaged equivalent to my current wage, taking into consideration the loss of holiday leave loading, flexible bank holiday, paid uniforms, and inclusive super, and added a 4% premium to account for the enterprise agreement rise due in a few months' time, so if my boss comes back to me with a figure I'll know exactly how it compares.
There could be some pretty handy benefits, too. When I'm ready to replace my car I could look at a novated lease paid out of pre-tax dollars; same with my desktop PC. And I can increase the amount I salary sacrifice into super as well. It does bear thinking about, provided the offer is a good one. I wish we had the same packaging scheme as a few government depts have, where the employees can salsac into a range of things including their own home loans and credit cards, and for ordinary bills such as telephone and electricity. That would be excellent!
