It’s been a while since I last blogged. That’s because I have been busy. Before Christmas my daughter and I took a cruise to New Zealand and after the New Year we took a cruise to New Caledonia. I might post some pictures about that some other time.
After the cruises I have been preparing my youngest (and me) for University. This means both my children are now independent young adults. Except they are not. They cannot be.
I calculated before Christmas how much each of us should be contributing to the joint coffers per week. It was a real eye opener.
I consider myself fairly frugal apart from the book (and cruise) purchases. I mean, we hardly ever eat meat, I have solar power and water tanks, I take quick showers, spend almost nothing on clothes (I do a lot of mending), grow some fruit and vegetables, etc, etc. BUT the cost of living at home – cruises excluded – turns out to be almost 1.5 times what my children will receive if they leave home and set up in a shared house with someone other than family.
i.e. The cost of living is almost 1.5 times what the government will give them to live on while they study full time.
On top of that if my superannuation runs out before I turn 67, I will be expected to be competing with them for low skilled work. I am too old to do the skilled professional work I was doing. My brain just doesn’t cope well with constant change any longer. This meant I had to stop work in that very skilled area. If I need to work again, I will be hunting out a low skilled job. How many employers when confronted with reliability, a government handout, and experience at compliance in the work place will choose a callow youth over an older person? So where do our youth get their start in life? How can they find money to supplement their Youth Allowance? Or better still earn enough to not need a Government Handout?
To add insult to injury, the Government in its wisdom have decided I no longer have any dependents. They are both adults, aren’t they? But when either of them apply to the Government to receive Youth Allowance, MY income determines how much they are eligible to receive.
So my adult children are not independent. How can they be?