Posted on

Price of petrol July 2018

priceofpetrolThe price of petrol I paid during July 2018 averaged $1.46 per litre for 91 Octane unleaded petrol add up to 15 cents more for 95 Octane petrol and usually up to 25 cents for 98 Octane petrol, location is Melbourne Australia. Very little change from last June.

The last time I looked diesel was price $1.52 per litre.

Note that fuel prices vary according to area, the level of competition and a whole heap of other factors like shopping discounts and so forth, however unreasonable high prices (relative to crude oil prices) is greed. Also note that the Octane level I post here represents Australian measurement which is different from those in other countries eg. US.

Posted on

Financing your life in Australia

Something different this week. Australia is a great place to live and I often get asked how much does it cost to live comfortably this country. Apart from living here all my life, I have lived in all the states except for South Australia and Tasmania have had plenty of wage earning jobs so feel experienced enough to to provide some details.

Average income in Australia on some websites is claimed to be just under $80,000 excluding income tax and GST but that is not the reality. If you check the ABS website you’ll see a bunch of average weekly wage figures splitting the income between government employees and private sector. The government sector or public services jobs average $1826.90 ($94,998.80 per year) but you will find it hard to get a public sector job as they’ve been reducing size for years.  The private sector is where you’ll probably find the job and the average wage is $1634.30 ($83,200 per year) and less if you’re a female purely due to the statistics. However the final statistic is the most important and that is $1164.60 is( $60559.20 per year) which is the all time average and from payroll it is pretty much correct and the average Australian wage.

If you’re thinking of coming and working in Australia and not particularly skilled or you don’t speak english and not working full time you won’t be getting this level of wages. On the other hand if highly skilled to a in demand sector than your wages will be much higher. More telling is how inaccurate these figures are  when you compare them to the the average household income statistics which  comes in just under $70000 per year. You’d expect the figure to be higher as there are usually and average of 2 people per household. I’m sure if you delve into the statistics you’ll probably find the answer to why there is such difference. But that’s not the point of this series of articles.

Is earning the average wage of $60559.20 a liveable wage for a single, couple or a family? Welcome to my next series of articles examining the cost of living in Australia.