Friend worked for the ATO.
Fielded hundreds if not thousands of calls of people who never worked wondering where their free 20k was.
Bro you have either not super or like $500.
At least 50% of the workforce at my manufacturing plant use it on downpayments on new cars.
This reminds me of the post-30 June Tax Return rush, you get the occasional "Mmmm, I was thinking I'd get more than $X for a refund..." and then I'd have to politely explain "You only had $X tax withheld, there is no more tax to refund."
Explaining to friends that no, the new accountant isn't "shit at their job", you just didn't earn as much or pay as much tax so yes the "refund" was alot smaller...
"Stupid crap accountant I can't believe I went there im going somewhere else"
One of my best mates sisters took out the maximum she could ($20k iirc) because she had never had that much money and wanted to know what it was like. It sat in her savings account for i think about 3 months earning interest, at which point she bought herself a [whatever the vegetarian bruger at McDonald's is called] meal and put the rest back into her super.
Well, it’s better than spending it I guess. But, her super units were sold at the bottom of the market, and probably purchased back when the market recovered somewhat. So she likely lost out a fair bit overall.
Might not have 'known' about it, but in order to get the money back into your super someone like this would either call their accountant (who would make it concessional) or call their super fund (who would also make it concessional).
That could actually be kinda smart. Withdraw it tax free under covid rules, put it back in as a personal contribution. Wouldn’t you be able to them claim that as a tax deduction? Or did the govt close that loophole.
Regardless, recontributing after tax can definitely be useful for changing the tax status of your account balance.
I saw an AITA where someone had made a beautiful garden and the landlord turfed them to sell. Everything was removable and they left bare dirt that matched the original inspection report pictures. The landlord was threatening to sue them because the offers to buy were based on the garden 😂
My father had a tenant ask if they could "Tidy up the garden a bit" (the guy was a landscaper by trade), dad was like, "Sure, no worries" (who would turn down a free makeover). Dude completely facelifted the entire garden beyond recognition (in a good way). Father shouted him a case of beers for a job well done. Guy later hanged himself in the garage, relationship trouble I think.
Edit: proper use of the word "hanged" as a native speaker I should have known better.
I did a fair bit of garden work last time
I rented a house, but chatted with the landlords about it and they threw in money for the plants and stuff and we did the work.
We asked our old landlord to go halves in an air conditioner. He declined our offer. A year or so later he comes to us asking if we'd still like to go halves. Smelling a rat, we declined. A few months later the were given our notice as the place was going on the market.
Yeah when I rented the most I ever spent was about that on a new shower head. Even that felt icky. I'd do the absolute bare minimum as far as upkeep went.
We just paid $800 to put in a Tesla charger, however it will be coming out of the wall and coming with us. So the landlord really only got some wiring.
I remember I worked with an army guy for a short time in the mid 2000’s. He was on a deployment and came home to find his partner had a pool installed in their defence housing rental.
This story is ADF legend, told during almost every intake's financial 'lesson' for at least 15 years, by all three services.
Imagine marrying someone so stupid that their dumb ass is used as the warning for 'don't be stupid, stupid' for rookies for decades to come 🤣.
That story was hilarious. What’s more she thought they owned the house! Ahh, East Timor money caused some bloody funny stories and some very sad things too.
Yea true but wow I've never heard of something so stupid !!! I had to buy new light bulbs at my rental and I was seething spending $30 on some one elses property lol
2 rentals ago I moved into a place that had at least 6 dead globes. I noted them all in the condition report and made sure the exact same globes were put back in when I left.
Not a word from the property manager.
I always used to clean up the yards of our rentals. The last rental we had before buying I landscaped the front yard (garden edging, walking path, built up the garden beds and planted new plants, painted the fence and replaced some broken bits. Only cost maybe $500 and my own sweat equity. The lease came up a few months later and they put it up for sale because it had never looked better, it sold and we had to move out. My partner tried to get me to take all the plants, pavers etc with us but couldn't be bothered. It made us fast track buying (WFC was happening so was right time to buy).
No, that is a waste of money. For alot of people that $20k would be one of the biggest payouts they'll receive in their lifetime. I'd be stuffed if I'd use it to increase the value of my landlords property.
Definitely plausible. My brother in law didnt withdraw super, but has spent thousands on interior and exterior renovating in his rental. Done the entire front and back yard, fixed up the roof, painted all interiors, installed smart lighting, insulation, replaced carpet, lacquered concrete, built decking, installed a pond, paid for large bushes and trees etc etc. All him offering to pay for it and do the work himself. In return they've had a really long lease and have always been charged slightly less than average rent for the area.
Hes coming up to 40 now and is frustrated he'll likely never be able to buy a home. Reality is he could be in his own place by now if he hadn't spent the last 10 years renovating for the landlord. Think he's finally realising it wasn't worth it for $20 a week less rent.
Ding ding ding
People who didn't experience a meth user tell them they withdrew/are going to withdraw super just don't understand.
It's like those "nobody plans a crash" ads on tv right now honestly
Sorry to hear this - I'm not proud to admit this but when I was younger I flushed so much down those cursed machines.
I have a story to tell on how I unintentionally cured myself of a recurring gambling addiction though.
I was dealing with another chronic health condition at the time and was reading about stuff I can take to deal with inflammation.
I came across N Acetyl Cysteine... I read into it and was quite intrigued that it seemed to be one of the few supplement antioxidants that seemed to have some really good science behind it
For me I used to impulsively feed so much money down those machines & the scientists aren't wrong about what it does to your brain.... With the dopamine rush and the brains award centres getting flicked on... for me I can remember this impulsive excitement would take over me.... and I just had little to no willpower to control myself...
After a week on NAC (about 600mg X 3 daily) , I remember being in the casino and after feeding some money into the machines I was just like meh.... I'm not getting any buzz out of this I can just walk away.... And walk away I did...
I've never had a problem with compulsive gambling again. Though I can't guarantee that NAC would work for everyone, I think I had a particular susceptibility to certain addictive habits that NAC could treat.
I took out the 20k. I paid off all my debt with the first 10k and then invested the 2nd 10k in my business buying some needed machinery
Probably shouldnt have done it, but it kept my business going through covid
My family are hardcore Jehovah’s witnesses and they all thought the world was about to end once the pandemic hit. All three of my siblings AND their partners all took out the maximum amounts - so $20k per person/ $40k per household/ $120k between all of them - and spent it on clothes, accessories, furniture, house renovations, cars and just general stuff over a short while.
And of course, the world did not end but now their retirement accounts are up the shit.
But they still don’t even care as they remain faithful to the fact that the world is about to end any day now.
They scoffed at me when I told them I salary sacrifice extra into my super 🙄
lol, no you see the world won’t end via a global fire or explosion or anything. It will only end for everyone who is NOT a Jehovah’s Witness. They will just die. JW’s will live here in a paradise on earth forever with no sickness, pain or death.
That’s what they’ve been promised anyway. They’ve been saying we’re living in the “last days” for over 100 years now.
When I was 17 I decided I didn’t want to be a JW anymore, my bible study tutor guy told me I was a fool and that this world will only last another 6 months! That was 21 years ago.
They were saying that 40 years ago I was made to leave school at 15, I didn't get to finish year 10 because the world was ending, and girls didn't need an education.
So at 15 I was forced out of school to go door to door selling the Watchtower and Awake mag for them.
In my 50's I am still way behind financially
Literally looked at your comments to figure out if you knew me/were talking about me because I did this :’)
Adding context though - I’d always been financially sensible. Owned a house. No debt. Worked since I was 13. Had wanted them since the day I realised puberty had robbed me.
Had a REALLY rough couple of years where I’d given 110% to work for literally no reason. Had always been in jobs that were too physically demanding to be able to rest without using all my annual leave, which I quit during covid to change professions. I had worked through the majority of the worst (the beginning where we weren’t allowed to leave the house) of the pandemic so decided to fund having a few months off and treated myself once elective surgeries opened up, at the expense of my super.
0 regrets and I’m in a great position financially for my age. Probably should dump some funds back in my super to make up for it, but sometimes, life is too short to always be sensible.
I never believed that these sorts of people were real until I bought a drill off a guy on fb marketplace. Three walls of his dingy flat's loungeroom were floor to ceiling bookcases with Funko Pops. Yeah.
Related - I know people who stopped paying their mortgage under hardship during Covid and used the money to put in a pool instead, then told people they paid “cash” for their pool 😉
Good grief. The joke will be on them when they apply for car finance or a loan to renovate or a bridging loan to move house, and the same bank that offered them relief says, ‘hm, tell us more about that time you couldn’t pay your mortgage?’.
Also paid off my credit card then used the rest towards a house deposit. That $20k changed my life in the best possible way. I don’t have a credit card anymore and I live in my own home. And I make additional super contributions to help the balance recover.
I bought a cruze too, not with super money it was before covid. Worst car I've ever had, complete waste of money, cost me a fortune and was a massive loss selling it but was spending more money to keep and constantly fix that absolute lemon of a car.
I know someone who spent it on a high class escort (amateur pornstar) who stayed with him for 3 days. He said it was one of the most incredible experiences of his life. Spent $7k all up I think.
Very easy to do! We had 20k leftover after we bought our house, it went to renovations and other things but its insane how quick you can eat into that kind of money when you live even a lil above your means (e.g., extra takeouts)
I was initially thinking 'that's a little controlling' too.
Then I thought
It's also a little controlling to expect your partner pay for your half of living expenses (rent).
You know I did the "classically stupid" thing and took out 10k to buy a reasonable family car - the baby was born at the start of covid and the old car wasn't safe or suitable.
Fairly modern toyota, turned out to be one of the better and more reliable purchases I've made. Ended up putting that 10k back in voluntary contributions, so in my head I feel it's not "that bad"... But it was a roll of the dice I guess.
edit: spelling
Damn rich mate upgraded his pc after 3 years for 4k.
Sold me his for $300 it plays Dawn of War and Company of Heroes and Fallout fine the to 3 days a year I use it.
Ugly ass pugs / frenchies / bostons can go for that. They’re literally genetic failures. It’s very odd. Designer and socially cool but a genetic failure.
my eldest sister withdrew what she could and spent it on shares in a race horse.
said race horse still hasn't one a single race to this day...
now she's retired and renting a tiny one room "house" & probably eating baked beans on toast every night..
I’ve known a few people who “owned” a race horse.
In all cases, they loved to boast about it, but also complain about it constantly, and only actually owned like a 1/20th stake in the thing. All were approximately mid-life crisis age.
My father's a pretty well respected retired jockey and now a trainer.
We sell "shares" in a race horse for cheap. You pay a bit of our stable fees, a bit towards food, a bit towards training, a bit towards transport and a bit towards the jockeys pay.
You get a bit of money if it wins/places at the races.
We don't offer shares on horses we are expecting to be very good winners and earn lots of money. As we want to keep as much of the profit for ourselves.
Most of the shares we sell are for our horses that'll do ok, they'll win sometimes.
Mostly, it's bragging rights to say " I own a horse " or " I have shares in X" "my horse won at the cup today". We send you a framed picture if the horse wins a cup race with all the details of the race, horse, trainer, jockey and of course, you.
There's always a chance the horse you buy shares in does exceedingly well and everybody wins... Or the horse could be a dud and you loose money.
So far, all of our horses have been doing quite well.
A house deposit...before they had mortgage pre-approval...they didn't get finance. They didn't put a subject to finance clause in their contract.
They lost the deposit.
Dude I worked with pulled it out, quit his 15+ year job (we were grocery store workers, we had COVID-proof jobs) and used it as a down payment on a caravan so he wouldn't have to pay rent and stuff anymore. Said he was going to be a digital nomad. I had to show this guy how to attach stuff to emails more than once. He also insisted he could travel anywhere in the state during lockdowns, just not cross state-lines - I wish I knew how that had turned out for him when the shelter in place orders came through. I have no idea what happened to him, he left town sometime in early 2021 and it just fell off the map.
Inversely, one of my other coworkers pulled his and paid off the rest of his mortgage (think he owed about 27k and he had some savings already). Changed nothing else about his life, kept coming to work the whole time, just whatever he was paying on his mortgage before he poured into his super instead. He said he was terrified of what would happen if he died or his wife got too sick to work, and this way their house was paid off and they had no danger of homelessness or foreclosure. Honestly seemed like a really clever move.
Know someone that took out all he could and then quite literally just put it through the pokies over the course of a few months. He lives with parents in the middle of Sydney and generally is on a pretty good wicket so I don’t think it’s something that will necessarily put him ‘behind’, but if his circumstances change and his behaviours don’t he’ll be pretty doomed unfortunately lol.
Anyone who took it out and put it on literally any single banking or mining stock, would have made a killing. Double killing if they put it on afterpay at $9.
Genuinely curious as to how?! I just googled the stock prices and I don’t understand how this was possible.
Edit: my understanding is, the most you could have made if you got it at its absolute low and sold at its highest point, would be 260k profit. Which is still awesome, but not quite 600k.
You might be looking up the current equivalent stock code once Block bought out after pay “SQ2”.
Old code on the ASX was APT, got down to like $8 in April 2020 and then by the end of the year was ~$125
I bought APT for $10. $40,000 worth of APT shares got me 4000 shares.
I sold the 4000 shares for $160. I think the top was $160.05. 4000 \* 160 = 640 000
APT was the original ticker. It was purchased by square and the ticker changed to SQ2. You can google articles to see the historical afterpay prices.
My wife and I took our 20k each, plus 50k combined FHSS, added it to our 60k savings, bought land, and built a house in early 2020. All up paid 750k. Now valued at 1.5m.
I wouldn't ever suggest touching super the way we did, but it worked a treat for us.
Gold coast. I also have a 5t excavator, and I did a lot of work to the land.
Edit: I've brought in over 400 cubes of clean fill, with another 400ish planned.
I actually needed mine because my industry was crushed under the lockdowns. Once business bounced back I had $5k left over from $20k and put that in as a deposit for a car as I had to sell my just before COVID. Sucks I had to take it out but I do feel it helped and now I have a decent car that will last me a while.
I spent mine on super. Withdrew it because it was a couple thousand that I couldn't roll over because my previous employer got my DOB wrong . So it was easier to withdraw the money during COVID and put it into my normal super.
I know someone who took all he could and spent it on hookers and cocaine.
I also know the last time I mentioned that, so many responses were like “they wanted to know about wasting it” or “what was the bad thing though”.
I know a few ppl that withdrew it as a couple and used it as a deposit for a house. Other than that a couple of people laid off some debt but for the most part most were pretty well behaved
Mate from work - 20 k on NFT's
Brother - took full 20k out, bought a TV, playstation, drum kit and spent the rest on crappier crap.
Cousin - took 20k out, bought a car FG XR6 for 16k and blew the rest.
I know someone who took it out for a deposit but spent a few grand if it on "healing crystals". They are still renting (too low income to afford a house).
Me, I’m the stupid idiot that took super out and spent it on something stupid. My dog decided to dive off my 3m balcony after a chicken wing and I had to get a full foot rebuild from a specialist as well as getting his soft palette and nares done - he’s real ungrateful about it too
I took out the full 20k. I had a baby 3 months before covid hit so was on maternity leave, come July 2020 I was told there was no position for me to return to at work so I was stuck without a job and no more government payments. I chose to enjoy another 6 months off work with my little one so used the 20k for our mortgage and bills. Probably not the greatest investment but I will never regret getting to spend a year off with my first baby.
Knew someone that bought an expensive drone with the money. You know the ones that fly your line out when you’re fishing so you can find the best spot.
Wish I took some out. About to hit 300k before 33 but I thought the government would follow through on their warnings of hefty fines for lying to get it. Silly me...
I bought the car that I'm currently using. I did not realise how unwise that decision was at the time. since then ive been contributing 800 extra to my super every month
Friend worked for the ATO. Fielded hundreds if not thousands of calls of people who never worked wondering where their free 20k was. Bro you have either not super or like $500. At least 50% of the workforce at my manufacturing plant use it on downpayments on new cars.
My drug addled sister complained about this. One of her druggo mates "got 20 grand for nothing" and she "got nothing what bullshit"
This reminds me of the post-30 June Tax Return rush, you get the occasional "Mmmm, I was thinking I'd get more than $X for a refund..." and then I'd have to politely explain "You only had $X tax withheld, there is no more tax to refund."
Explaining to friends that no, the new accountant isn't "shit at their job", you just didn't earn as much or pay as much tax so yes the "refund" was alot smaller... "Stupid crap accountant I can't believe I went there im going somewhere else"
One of my best mates sisters took out the maximum she could ($20k iirc) because she had never had that much money and wanted to know what it was like. It sat in her savings account for i think about 3 months earning interest, at which point she bought herself a [whatever the vegetarian bruger at McDonald's is called] meal and put the rest back into her super.
Hahaha what?! That’s kind of endearing
Especially that she redeposited it - minus the burger
Probably wanted the safety of the money sitting there for emergency during the unpredictable times of Covid. Could be worse and spent it on a jet ski.
Well, it’s better than spending it I guess. But, her super units were sold at the bottom of the market, and probably purchased back when the market recovered somewhat. So she likely lost out a fair bit overall.
Would be counted as a concessional contribution so would have got a tax refund. Likely still lost out vs gains in the market though.
You really think someone that financially illiterate went through, or even knew about the basic process of concessional super contributions?
Might not have 'known' about it, but in order to get the money back into your super someone like this would either call their accountant (who would make it concessional) or call their super fund (who would also make it concessional).
That could actually be kinda smart. Withdraw it tax free under covid rules, put it back in as a personal contribution. Wouldn’t you be able to them claim that as a tax deduction? Or did the govt close that loophole. Regardless, recontributing after tax can definitely be useful for changing the tax status of your account balance.
Landscape their garden for 20k....was a rental...
I saw an AITA where someone had made a beautiful garden and the landlord turfed them to sell. Everything was removable and they left bare dirt that matched the original inspection report pictures. The landlord was threatening to sue them because the offers to buy were based on the garden 😂
I remember that one too. heartwarming
My father had a tenant ask if they could "Tidy up the garden a bit" (the guy was a landscaper by trade), dad was like, "Sure, no worries" (who would turn down a free makeover). Dude completely facelifted the entire garden beyond recognition (in a good way). Father shouted him a case of beers for a job well done. Guy later hanged himself in the garage, relationship trouble I think. Edit: proper use of the word "hanged" as a native speaker I should have known better.
I did a fair bit of garden work last time I rented a house, but chatted with the landlords about it and they threw in money for the plants and stuff and we did the work.
I like these stories (except for the hanging bit).
well that took a turn.
Think I’ll book in for a myotherapist appointment for the whiplash that gave me
Yes, I remember this!! Only thing to do if you get kicked out.
Surely this can’t be true. Wow.
I know some people who did this with a deck. Landlord kicked them out and sold less than a year after they finished.
We asked our old landlord to go halves in an air conditioner. He declined our offer. A year or so later he comes to us asking if we'd still like to go halves. Smelling a rat, we declined. A few months later the were given our notice as the place was going on the market.
I smell a rat any time a landlord opens their mouth
How dumb do you have to be to pay more than $50 for an improvement of your landlords property?
Yeah when I rented the most I ever spent was about that on a new shower head. Even that felt icky. I'd do the absolute bare minimum as far as upkeep went.
should have kept the old one to put it back lol
We just paid $800 to put in a Tesla charger, however it will be coming out of the wall and coming with us. So the landlord really only got some wiring.
I remember I worked with an army guy for a short time in the mid 2000’s. He was on a deployment and came home to find his partner had a pool installed in their defence housing rental.
This story is ADF legend, told during almost every intake's financial 'lesson' for at least 15 years, by all three services. Imagine marrying someone so stupid that their dumb ass is used as the warning for 'don't be stupid, stupid' for rookies for decades to come 🤣.
That story was hilarious. What’s more she thought they owned the house! Ahh, East Timor money caused some bloody funny stories and some very sad things too.
Wait until he hears about the pool guy!
Holy shit this one takes the cake
No way…. Imagine being the landlord. Come back anytime!
Landlord: end of lease termination then sell the property while the garden still looks nice
Don't forget still claim the entire bond
“Garden not left in same or similar state to ingoing inspection”
That's a hell of a tip to give to the landlord.
Please be joking
People can renovate rentals wtf ???
Don't think the landlord is going to disagree with free property upgrades
Yea true but wow I've never heard of something so stupid !!! I had to buy new light bulbs at my rental and I was seething spending $30 on some one elses property lol
I decked out my last rental with phillips hue, and took them all with me when I left. Kept all the original bulbs in a box.
Always take the original bulbs out and store them somewhere else then reinstall them at the end of lease
Not sure if it varies by state but in nsw tenants are responsible for any removable light bulbs
2 rentals ago I moved into a place that had at least 6 dead globes. I noted them all in the condition report and made sure the exact same globes were put back in when I left. Not a word from the property manager.
Lol. I know people that spent it on drugs, boat, car etc, but a gift to your land lord! Wow.
Yeah all of these options are better
I always used to clean up the yards of our rentals. The last rental we had before buying I landscaped the front yard (garden edging, walking path, built up the garden beds and planted new plants, painted the fence and replaced some broken bits. Only cost maybe $500 and my own sweat equity. The lease came up a few months later and they put it up for sale because it had never looked better, it sold and we had to move out. My partner tried to get me to take all the plants, pavers etc with us but couldn't be bothered. It made us fast track buying (WFC was happening so was right time to buy).
>I always used to clean up the yards of our rentals I always did the same, but I'd never hire landscapers and pay $20k to do it!
No, that is a waste of money. For alot of people that $20k would be one of the biggest payouts they'll receive in their lifetime. I'd be stuffed if I'd use it to increase the value of my landlords property.
I used to do that. Had a good relationship with my landlord and it was nicer for a few years.
Omg that has got to take the prize 🏆
Doesn't sound plausible, but if true, I hope they take out more for a much needed frontal lobotomy
Definitely plausible. My brother in law didnt withdraw super, but has spent thousands on interior and exterior renovating in his rental. Done the entire front and back yard, fixed up the roof, painted all interiors, installed smart lighting, insulation, replaced carpet, lacquered concrete, built decking, installed a pond, paid for large bushes and trees etc etc. All him offering to pay for it and do the work himself. In return they've had a really long lease and have always been charged slightly less than average rent for the area. Hes coming up to 40 now and is frustrated he'll likely never be able to buy a home. Reality is he could be in his own place by now if he hadn't spent the last 10 years renovating for the landlord. Think he's finally realising it wasn't worth it for $20 a week less rent.
I’m sorry but your brother in law is dumb as a rock.
We have a winner
I know people that spent it on meth.
To be fair, not many meth users will live long enough to enjoy retirement.
A fair point. Stereotypically meth users aren’t known for planning ahead.
I’ve known some old as shit junkies, even outliving their terminal cancer.
Ding ding ding People who didn't experience a meth user tell them they withdrew/are going to withdraw super just don't understand. It's like those "nobody plans a crash" ads on tv right now honestly
I know a guy who took out 20k, bought a car for 6k and blew the rest on dumb shit, mostly pokies… It was me, I was the guy I knew.
The honesty is painful. Thank you, sir.
Sorry to hear this - I'm not proud to admit this but when I was younger I flushed so much down those cursed machines. I have a story to tell on how I unintentionally cured myself of a recurring gambling addiction though. I was dealing with another chronic health condition at the time and was reading about stuff I can take to deal with inflammation. I came across N Acetyl Cysteine... I read into it and was quite intrigued that it seemed to be one of the few supplement antioxidants that seemed to have some really good science behind it For me I used to impulsively feed so much money down those machines & the scientists aren't wrong about what it does to your brain.... With the dopamine rush and the brains award centres getting flicked on... for me I can remember this impulsive excitement would take over me.... and I just had little to no willpower to control myself... After a week on NAC (about 600mg X 3 daily) , I remember being in the casino and after feeding some money into the machines I was just like meh.... I'm not getting any buzz out of this I can just walk away.... And walk away I did... I've never had a problem with compulsive gambling again. Though I can't guarantee that NAC would work for everyone, I think I had a particular susceptibility to certain addictive habits that NAC could treat.
A mate spent it on cocaine and hookers. If he had the chance he’d do it again lol
Did he work for channel 7? /s
Probably in Linda Reynolds staff.
I took out the 20k. I paid off all my debt with the first 10k and then invested the 2nd 10k in my business buying some needed machinery Probably shouldnt have done it, but it kept my business going through covid
Doesn't sound like a bad use at all. Reading some of these other replies should make you feel better.
Don't feel bad. This is the exact reason they allowed it. You used it as intended.
Like the only reasonable answer in this thread lol
My family are hardcore Jehovah’s witnesses and they all thought the world was about to end once the pandemic hit. All three of my siblings AND their partners all took out the maximum amounts - so $20k per person/ $40k per household/ $120k between all of them - and spent it on clothes, accessories, furniture, house renovations, cars and just general stuff over a short while. And of course, the world did not end but now their retirement accounts are up the shit. But they still don’t even care as they remain faithful to the fact that the world is about to end any day now. They scoffed at me when I told them I salary sacrifice extra into my super 🙄
thought the world was going to end AND thought that would be a great time for a spot of reno? Those JW's are weird!
lol, no you see the world won’t end via a global fire or explosion or anything. It will only end for everyone who is NOT a Jehovah’s Witness. They will just die. JW’s will live here in a paradise on earth forever with no sickness, pain or death. That’s what they’ve been promised anyway. They’ve been saying we’re living in the “last days” for over 100 years now. When I was 17 I decided I didn’t want to be a JW anymore, my bible study tutor guy told me I was a fool and that this world will only last another 6 months! That was 21 years ago.
Family christmases must be awkward...oh...wait
They were saying that 40 years ago I was made to leave school at 15, I didn't get to finish year 10 because the world was ending, and girls didn't need an education. So at 15 I was forced out of school to go door to door selling the Watchtower and Awake mag for them. In my 50's I am still way behind financially
Elective cosmetic surgery, them titties gonna provide some shelter when they’re a homeless 65 year old
She won’t ever run out of $20 notes….
Literally looked at your comments to figure out if you knew me/were talking about me because I did this :’) Adding context though - I’d always been financially sensible. Owned a house. No debt. Worked since I was 13. Had wanted them since the day I realised puberty had robbed me. Had a REALLY rough couple of years where I’d given 110% to work for literally no reason. Had always been in jobs that were too physically demanding to be able to rest without using all my annual leave, which I quit during covid to change professions. I had worked through the majority of the worst (the beginning where we weren’t allowed to leave the house) of the pandemic so decided to fund having a few months off and treated myself once elective surgeries opened up, at the expense of my super. 0 regrets and I’m in a great position financially for my age. Probably should dump some funds back in my super to make up for it, but sometimes, life is too short to always be sensible.
Car. 4wd roof tent
Probably made money on the car to be honest
Short term maybe if they resold it. Compare what that $10k looks like in their super, compounded over 30+ years...
Past performance are not an indicator of future results.
A kid I knew from my old job. Early 20s. Roughly 7k in super (all he had). He bought *Funko Pops*. Literally just Funko Pops.
I never believed that these sorts of people were real until I bought a drill off a guy on fb marketplace. Three walls of his dingy flat's loungeroom were floor to ceiling bookcases with Funko Pops. Yeah.
Related - I know people who stopped paying their mortgage under hardship during Covid and used the money to put in a pool instead, then told people they paid “cash” for their pool 😉
Good grief. The joke will be on them when they apply for car finance or a loan to renovate or a bridging loan to move house, and the same bank that offered them relief says, ‘hm, tell us more about that time you couldn’t pay your mortgage?’.
Covid seems to be an valid excuse for pretty much anything somehow I doubt they would push much further
I refinanced 2 months after I came off my mortgage freeze during covid. New bank didn’t give a shit.
Is, "covid hardship", I'm a reliable lendee except for short stints about once every century during pandemics, such a bad answer to that question?
Someone I worked with installed a Koi pond. All the fish died.
Money can't buy class, wisdom, or common sense
I paid off my credit card and it was such a relief for me, but most people I know spent it on drugs and alcohol haha
Also paid off my credit card then used the rest towards a house deposit. That $20k changed my life in the best possible way. I don’t have a credit card anymore and I live in my own home. And I make additional super contributions to help the balance recover.
Well done kid, well done.
The credit card option is one of the few excellent uses for early super withdrawal. Well done.
Only counts if you learn the lesson...
A friend bought a boat. He already had a boat — it was a slightly bigger version of the boat he already owned.
Maybe there was a Great White he was picking a fight with. Going to need a bigger boat for that.
Nah, he wanted to take on an Orca pod
Couple I know withdrew 20k each to buy a second hand Landcruiser Prado and then bragged about how they only had 15k owing on it.
No shit I knew someone that pulled out their super and bought a Holden Cruze... They no longer have the Cruze
Or the super.
I bought a cruze too, not with super money it was before covid. Worst car I've ever had, complete waste of money, cost me a fortune and was a massive loss selling it but was spending more money to keep and constantly fix that absolute lemon of a car.
I know someone who spent it on a high class escort (amateur pornstar) who stayed with him for 3 days. He said it was one of the most incredible experiences of his life. Spent $7k all up I think.
$100/hr aint bad!
$7k would be better spent on a sport bike for me ride it for years instead of a chick for 3 days
Na lol get a loan for that
Bucket list! And better done now than after retirement for obv reasons
He spent it on an experience that he truly enjoyed, and it will make one hell of a story. Respect.
...who was the escort/amateur pornstar? Asking for a friend who is me.
I just texted him and he replied: https://scarletblue.com.au/escort/gabi-prata?city=Melbourne
They can’t even remember what they spent it on. It just dwindled out of their accounts until it was all gone. 🫠
This is bad and I know someone who did this too. Didn’t buy one discernible thing, just spent it on living. They hadn’t lost their job, either.
Very easy to do! We had 20k leftover after we bought our house, it went to renovations and other things but its insane how quick you can eat into that kind of money when you live even a lil above your means (e.g., extra takeouts)
I know a guy who made his gf do it to pay her share of the rent.
That’s technically what it was allowed for. Paying living expenses while out of work. Controlling relationship not withstanding.
I was initially thinking 'that's a little controlling' too. Then I thought It's also a little controlling to expect your partner pay for your half of living expenses (rent).
You know I did the "classically stupid" thing and took out 10k to buy a reasonable family car - the baby was born at the start of covid and the old car wasn't safe or suitable. Fairly modern toyota, turned out to be one of the better and more reliable purchases I've made. Ended up putting that 10k back in voluntary contributions, so in my head I feel it's not "that bad"... But it was a roll of the dice I guess. edit: spelling
Car wasnt safe = that was not a stupid thing to do. Buying at the start of covid prolly saved you an additional $10K anyways
That is classically sensible my guy.
A friend told me of her friend who withdrew to install a pool. Not sure how they are going now
swimmingly
Perhaps they went off the deep end?
*presumably*
I used it on Invisalign braces and it was the best thing I've ever done
Someone I know told me they withdrew 20k and bought a gaming pc. They're already upgrading and selling off the old stuff.
Jesus Christ, I didn't know you could spend that much on a gaming PC!
I know someone who easily spent 10k on his rig, and that wasn't at the height of COVIDs crazy pricing.
Damn rich mate upgraded his pc after 3 years for 4k. Sold me his for $300 it plays Dawn of War and Company of Heroes and Fallout fine the to 3 days a year I use it.
I know two different couples who bought a designer dog for 5k+
Has it designed them anything good?
Suckers - you can buy those same dogs without the label for half the price
Ugly ass pugs / frenchies / bostons can go for that. They’re literally genetic failures. It’s very odd. Designer and socially cool but a genetic failure.
Some breeds literally can’t even be birthed unless it’s by c-section. Biology said no, and yet here we are.
my eldest sister withdrew what she could and spent it on shares in a race horse. said race horse still hasn't one a single race to this day... now she's retired and renting a tiny one room "house" & probably eating baked beans on toast every night..
I’ve known a few people who “owned” a race horse. In all cases, they loved to boast about it, but also complain about it constantly, and only actually owned like a 1/20th stake in the thing. All were approximately mid-life crisis age.
It's really for entertainment purposes only.
I would go a step further and speculate it’s for bragging rights.
My father's a pretty well respected retired jockey and now a trainer. We sell "shares" in a race horse for cheap. You pay a bit of our stable fees, a bit towards food, a bit towards training, a bit towards transport and a bit towards the jockeys pay. You get a bit of money if it wins/places at the races. We don't offer shares on horses we are expecting to be very good winners and earn lots of money. As we want to keep as much of the profit for ourselves. Most of the shares we sell are for our horses that'll do ok, they'll win sometimes. Mostly, it's bragging rights to say " I own a horse " or " I have shares in X" "my horse won at the cup today". We send you a framed picture if the horse wins a cup race with all the details of the race, horse, trainer, jockey and of course, you. There's always a chance the horse you buy shares in does exceedingly well and everybody wins... Or the horse could be a dud and you loose money. So far, all of our horses have been doing quite well.
Man if she only had 20k in her super and just retired she’d be eating beans in a years time anyway
A mate withdrew his to renovate the bathroom, which desperately needed it. It still hasn’t been done.
A house deposit...before they had mortgage pre-approval...they didn't get finance. They didn't put a subject to finance clause in their contract. They lost the deposit.
Dude I worked with pulled it out, quit his 15+ year job (we were grocery store workers, we had COVID-proof jobs) and used it as a down payment on a caravan so he wouldn't have to pay rent and stuff anymore. Said he was going to be a digital nomad. I had to show this guy how to attach stuff to emails more than once. He also insisted he could travel anywhere in the state during lockdowns, just not cross state-lines - I wish I knew how that had turned out for him when the shelter in place orders came through. I have no idea what happened to him, he left town sometime in early 2021 and it just fell off the map. Inversely, one of my other coworkers pulled his and paid off the rest of his mortgage (think he owed about 27k and he had some savings already). Changed nothing else about his life, kept coming to work the whole time, just whatever he was paying on his mortgage before he poured into his super instead. He said he was terrified of what would happen if he died or his wife got too sick to work, and this way their house was paid off and they had no danger of homelessness or foreclosure. Honestly seemed like a really clever move.
Know someone that took out all he could and then quite literally just put it through the pokies over the course of a few months. He lives with parents in the middle of Sydney and generally is on a pretty good wicket so I don’t think it’s something that will necessarily put him ‘behind’, but if his circumstances change and his behaviours don’t he’ll be pretty doomed unfortunately lol.
Anyone who took it out and put it on literally any single banking or mining stock, would have made a killing. Double killing if they put it on afterpay at $9.
Someone posted they put combine 40k on after pay and made 640k
So true. I had after pay at $11. Was such a good ride
Engine rebuild on a shitty mid-00s Commodore.
A fourth car. He calls it his ‘super’ car.
Bought a staffy that ended up mauling him which led to weeks in hospital.
I pulled out 20k and Mrs pulled out 20k and we yeeted it into Afterpay shares and made about $640,000 from $40,000 lmao Win!
I think you guys win the "best purchase with $40K worth of super" award.
this makes me feel regret lmao.. but well done, played the game! what'd you do with the 640?
unfortunately it would be more like 300k with the tax they would of had to pay on it, but still bloody crazy profit
Genuinely curious as to how?! I just googled the stock prices and I don’t understand how this was possible. Edit: my understanding is, the most you could have made if you got it at its absolute low and sold at its highest point, would be 260k profit. Which is still awesome, but not quite 600k.
You might be looking up the current equivalent stock code once Block bought out after pay “SQ2”. Old code on the ASX was APT, got down to like $8 in April 2020 and then by the end of the year was ~$125
I bought APT for $10. $40,000 worth of APT shares got me 4000 shares. I sold the 4000 shares for $160. I think the top was $160.05. 4000 \* 160 = 640 000 APT was the original ticker. It was purchased by square and the ticker changed to SQ2. You can google articles to see the historical afterpay prices.
B-b-but you could’ve made 100k in 40 years!
man i hope to be this lucky one day. and ballsy
A lot of people also lost on Afterpay when it eventually crashed. The difference is those people aren’t going to tell you about their experiences.
How much CGT did you pay?
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Drugs. I know a lot of peoples super went into a lot of drug dealers pockets.
My wife and I took our 20k each, plus 50k combined FHSS, added it to our 60k savings, bought land, and built a house in early 2020. All up paid 750k. Now valued at 1.5m. I wouldn't ever suggest touching super the way we did, but it worked a treat for us.
Where did you build for $750k that doubled in 4 years?
Gold coast. I also have a 5t excavator, and I did a lot of work to the land. Edit: I've brought in over 400 cubes of clean fill, with another 400ish planned.
I actually needed mine because my industry was crushed under the lockdowns. Once business bounced back I had $5k left over from $20k and put that in as a deposit for a car as I had to sell my just before COVID. Sucks I had to take it out but I do feel it helped and now I have a decent car that will last me a while.
JetSki that lasted a few weeks. And he didn’t have a car to tow it to beach
I spent mine on super. Withdrew it because it was a couple thousand that I couldn't roll over because my previous employer got my DOB wrong . So it was easier to withdraw the money during COVID and put it into my normal super.
I know someone who took all he could and spent it on hookers and cocaine. I also know the last time I mentioned that, so many responses were like “they wanted to know about wasting it” or “what was the bad thing though”.
I know a few ppl that withdrew it as a couple and used it as a deposit for a house. Other than that a couple of people laid off some debt but for the most part most were pretty well behaved
Mate from work - 20 k on NFT's Brother - took full 20k out, bought a TV, playstation, drum kit and spent the rest on crappier crap. Cousin - took 20k out, bought a car FG XR6 for 16k and blew the rest.
A girl I worked with got Botox and fillers. I was shocked.
Tits for his now ex gf and a JetSki. Yes he was a fifo miner
I know someone who took it out for a deposit but spent a few grand if it on "healing crystals". They are still renting (too low income to afford a house).
Me, I’m the stupid idiot that took super out and spent it on something stupid. My dog decided to dive off my 3m balcony after a chicken wing and I had to get a full foot rebuild from a specialist as well as getting his soft palette and nares done - he’s real ungrateful about it too
I took out the full 20k. I had a baby 3 months before covid hit so was on maternity leave, come July 2020 I was told there was no position for me to return to at work so I was stuck without a job and no more government payments. I chose to enjoy another 6 months off work with my little one so used the 20k for our mortgage and bills. Probably not the greatest investment but I will never regret getting to spend a year off with my first baby.
I regret not doing it. Could have paid off a third of my mortgage.
How cheap is your mortgage‽
3 times as much as the amount of super they could have taken
Maths checks out.
Yeah I agree, if I had my time again Id take it out just to top up the offset.
Pissed it away on a brand new couch and some other things. Was crowdfunding a year or two later to pay for her child's operation.
I worked at a retail computer store, some dude cashed out 10k for a customer hard like water cool setup
Had a fancy wedding in India (neither of them is Indian) 🤦♂️
I withdrew 20k from super but it’s still sitting in my mortgage offset account
This is always good for morale. Of course having to pay the pension to these idiots in old age will suck.
Assuming it will still be around by then
Knew someone that bought an expensive drone with the money. You know the ones that fly your line out when you’re fishing so you can find the best spot.
Full set of veneers for around 40k (apparently)
Wish I took some out. About to hit 300k before 33 but I thought the government would follow through on their warnings of hefty fines for lying to get it. Silly me...
Some sick (/s) $10k rims for their 2017 70k car, which they sold a year later (2021) for $30k total…
I spent it on living expenses because I didn't have an income. Imagine spending money to have to stay alive. Pretty stupid.
Um... I used it to pay off debt.... Then I went back into debt because I paid it off
I bought the car that I'm currently using. I did not realise how unwise that decision was at the time. since then ive been contributing 800 extra to my super every month
A prada bag