What Do You Plan to Spend Your $250 'Cost of Living' Payment on?

Just curious what people are planning to use this money for?
Bills? Clothing? Shopping expenses? Holidays?
If this questions becomes popular we can add poll…
Looking forward to some creative answers!

https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/cost-living-payment

Comments

  • +71

    Spelling and grammar lessons.

    • +59

      Ha, thanks. I'm not prefect

      • +7

        Same. That's why I want to improve.

      • +3

        Pobody's nerfect

        • +5

          Tahts nucking futs!

        • Great song

        • +1

          Sive drafely!

    • +1

      But that is usually “free” from us commentators. Of cos it’s not really free as someone gave “something” :).

    • +1

      Savage!

    • +1

      oh snap!

    • *gramma

  • -8

    I would use it to buy Bitcoin.

    Btw wot $250 are you talking about?

      • 👍

      • I would use it to buy a $250 gpu to mine crypto.

    • +25

      We're not eligible

      • +6

        Ohh well, I guess I've to keep tweeting to make ends meet.

        • +7

          Neither :( but adds to the inflation, that my income's slowly disappearing too.

          Time to get another payrise rejection.

      • We're

        "We" as in the Royal we … or we as the majority … or we oz-bargainers?

    • +4

      I would use it to buy Bitcoin.

      It would just be a tiny "bit bit bit bit bit bit bit biiiiiiiiit of a bitcoin"…. lol

      • -5

        I don't care about the amount nor the price when I stack sats.

        I BTFD at $40,000, $30,000, $20,000 and all the way down.

        • +32

          Heres a newsflash for you - no one cares about your bitcoin investments. Nobody…

            • +6

              @rektrading: I'd love to hear about your bitcoin investments, mainly to piss off the "bitcoin is backed by nothing, but FIAT is fantastic" people

              • +6

                @Tonyh87: I heard the Australian gov is going to hit ↩️ to give $250 for free to buy votes.

                Six million Australians will receive a $250
                https://7news.com.au/sunrise/on-the-show/millions-of-austral…

                🖨️ $1,5B 💵 out of thin air and they call #Bitcoin a scam.

                People that work (PoW) are getting shafted and their time devalued.

                • +11

                  @rektrading: Yep, they call it a scam because they have no control over it, where as the privately owned federal reserve lends every dollar to the government with interest attached, meaning that from the very first dollar that was lent, the federal reserve was owed back more money than actually existed. Compound that over a few decades and it is not hard to see why inflation is out of control and their system is imploding!

                • @rektrading:

                  People that work (PoW) are getting shafted and their time devalued.

                  Well, for every vote received the party in question receives ~$3(?) dollars.

                  Not too shabby to give money to 6 million battlers.

                  Very angry about giving millions to a political party for each vote received.

                  • -1

                    @LFO:

                    Well, for every vote received the party in question receives ~$3(?) dollars.
                    Not too shabby to give money to 6 million battlers.

                    This is the worst investment in the history of 💩 investments.

                    Spending $1.5B to get back $18M or a -98.90% return.

                    • +2

                      @rektrading:

                      Spending $1.5B to get back $18M

                      Actually "spending" is zero as it's our tax dollars not the political party's money.

                      Money from votes goes straight to the party's coffers, not the government.

                      Win-win investment.
                      No costs, no risks, only returns.

              • +3

                @Tonyh87: I'm not saying fiat is fantastic, but it's hard to see how we could have economically recovered from 2009 financial crash and COVID if we weren't able to print money.

                Look at what happened with Greece and the Euro, a currency they couldn't control, it was basically Bitcoin to them. I think something like Bitcoin being the main form of currency would increase inequality even more. Each country is unique, a global currency just might not work. You just have to hope you have good economic managers.

                • @[Deactivated]:

                  but it's hard to see how we could have economically recovered from 2009 financial crash

                  The GFC was a direct result of accounting fraud perpetrated by the lender and the accounting firm that looked the other way for billable hours.

                  For many years prior to its demise, Lehman Brothers employed Ernst & Young (EY) as the
                  firm’s independent auditors to review its financial statements and express an opinion as to
                  whether they fairly represented the company’s financial position. EY was supposed to try to
                  detect fraud, determine whether a matter should be publicly disclosed, and communicate
                  certain issues to Lehman’s Board audit committee. After Lehman filed for bankruptcy, it was
                  discovered that the firm had employed questionable accounting with regard to an
                  unorthodox financing transaction, Repo 105, which it used to make its results appear better
                  than they were. EY was aware of Lehman’s use of Repo 105, and its failure to disclose its use.
                  EY also knew that Lehman included in its liquidity pool assets that were impaired. When
                  questioned, EY insisted that it had done nothing wrong. However, Anton R. Valukas, the
                  Lehman bankruptcy examiner, concluded that EY had not fulfilled its duties and that
                  probable claims existed against EY for malpractice.

                  It would be impossible for Lehman Brothers and EY to hide what they did if the ledger was on a public network.

                  • @rektrading: That's a good point, whether crypto can prevent all economic collapses is a different question and whether without the ability to print money, if we can recover doing what we normally do.

                  • @rektrading: are you going to put your family finance on a public network?, it is a ridiculous suggestion

                    nothing can prevent fraud, if someone want to engage in illegal activities they will
                    and you got law enforcements to deal with it.

                    it is a risk that one must factor in when investing, be it fraud, bad management, market crashes, my tenants burned down my houses etc…

                    but that silly right? bitcoin will solves all the world financial problems and possibly world hunger and wars

                    no system can be designed to deal with people emotion, that what it comes down to people emotions when money is involved
                    greed, fear, panic, FOMO, FONGO, HODL.

                    • @Hearthstone:

                      are you going to put your family finance on a public network? it is a ridiculous suggestion

                      It's an immutable public ledger with anonymous addresses. Both transactions and audits would be 100% tampering proof.

                      It would be impossible to hide income and cheat on taxes. Gov / political spending can be accounted for down to the last Sat.

                      People can show proof of assets in Court or other legal/official cases while being anonymous to outsiders. The Family Court can use bots to track deadbeats in child support and alimony/term maintenance cases.

                      • @rektrading: this is a contradiction, how can you stayed anonymous and then link back to who these record belong to?
                        to catch the bad actors you have to have way to link these records that belong to someone?

                        and by the way these public ledger is not complete anonymous, they can be trace back
                        this is a myth spread by crypto bro, it not complete anonymous

                        • @Hearthstone: Addresses can be verified by signing a Tx.

                          • @rektrading: These are all just sound like benefit of transactions being recorded on a blockchain, not benefits of cryptocurrency vs fiat. You can have one without the other.

                        • @Hearthstone:

                          and by the way these public ledger is not complete anonymous, they can be trace back
                          this is a myth spread by crypto bro, it not complete anonymous

                          I don't know where you're getting this information from but I can assure you that addresses can be 100% anonymous.

                • +3

                  @[Deactivated]: I think FIAT is the answer personally. They say the danger of fiat money is that governments can print too much of it, resulting in hyperinflation, but I say too many aspirins can kill you too! We get high inflation even without it, so use it diligently.
                  The story I like is a father trying to keep the house clean and respectable in the street, and offering the 3 kids his business cards for chores. Nothing happened till he said to the kids he wants 30 cards back each month to keep the kids fed, warm and happy and give them their pocket money. Immediately the kids started working to get the cards, mowing the lawn, clearing the table, making beds. The kids even started trading their marbles and other things between themselves. And so a currency was created, the house improved, people were working, and dad looked after the family as he always did.

                  • -1

                    @Waltervp:

                    The story I like is a father trying to keep the house clean and respectable in the street, and offering the 3 kids his business cards for chores.

                    Immediately the kids started working to get the cards,

                    The lesson from that story is at fiat 💵 🖨️ makes children lazy and that PoW teaches children the value of work for reward.

                    Free 💵 🖨️ creates 🦥 👭.

                    PoW creates 💪 👭.

                  • +7

                    @Waltervp: This is the correct answer!

                    There is nothing wrong with fiat, it's how you manage it that counts. You see real wealth is the product of human labour. This can be in the form of goods or services.

                    i.e. making widgets, developing tools, building iOS apps, growing food, mowing lawns, cutting hair etc

                    As more and more people create more and more wealth, then there is no problem having more money being created to represent that wealth.

                    It's when there is a mismatch that things go bad. In our case, the Americans pumped $850B stimulus into the economy but didn't produce anything for that money! Same with our jobKeeper. Our government spent $90B but did they build or make anything with it?

                    Compare that to the $42B stimulus for the GFC.
                    BER (building education revolution) build schools and school halls
                    DER (digital education revolution) laptops for every school kid in high school
                    HIP (home insulation program) to reduce peoples home energy costs.
                    NBN well we all know this one.
                    $900 stimulus money to everyone.

                    This pandemic stimulus was poorly done and didn't produce anything!
                    We have created a lot of money but didn't building or make anythings to represent that money, so as a result we have inflation.

                    • @xavster: damm how can i follow this guy
                      i like his explanation - simple and easy to follow

                    • @xavster: The pandemic stimulus stopped the unemployed or those that couldn’t work from rioting.

                      :/

                      Totally agree with everything you said.

          • @dogboy: but but but I do care….

        • +1

          Love me some discounted sats.

        • Hey here's my financial history and why you should buy into my mlm scheme! This is completely solid financial advice! You can't lose money!

  • +29

    Kfc zinger boxes, hair loss treatments and a cheeky slap on the pokies.

    • +5

      Your honesty is amazing. Cheers for the chuckle.

      Pro-tip: Accept your hair loss and spend more on KFC

  • +12

    A steak.

    "To get the Cost of Living Payment you must be a Centrelink or Department of Veterans’ Affairs customer."

    Well no steak for me then….

    • +1

      we can always have a steak in our dreams.. mmm dream steak

  • +56

    planning to use this money for?

    Not eligible for scomos blindingly obvious voter bribe payment.

    Inflation up 4+%?? Don't worry, scomos sending 1/4 of you $250. What a fiscally responsible genius.

    • +1

      what do u mean bride???
      here have some more money!
      $250 dollars for all swing voters
      and anyone who will vote liberal
      heck $250 if you dont think and just say the word lib

      • +3

        I would expect brides cost a little more than $250.

        • Depends where from and who they're marrying I'd think /s

  • +17

    Saving it to pay off my -$1500 LAMITO bill from Scovid and Frydenturd.
    Or maybe it's to pay for the inflation that has happened and will continue due to this bribe payment.

  • +18

    What $250 payment? lol

    • Taxpayers may get up to $420 more back this year.

      • +4

        So this means that taxpayers have been paying too much taxes?

      • +10

        You may want to double-check that, mate

        Hidden tax increase
        What the Treasurer didn’t say is that the additional $420 tax offset for low and middle-income earners he mentioned will stop entirely at the end of this financial year, on June 30.

        The extra cash bumps the tax offset up to $1500 this year which ends on June 30.

        This means that despite the extra cash given to them this year, those on this tax offset will be $1500, or almost $30 per week, worse off.

        • +11

          But you're not going to miss that $1080/$1500 until July-October 2023 - well past the only date that matters - May 21, 2022.

        • +2

          Did they really make the tax offset number 420? I thought this was a joke at first.. of all the numbers to use they use this one?

      • +1

        Unless it's there's a change in the tax brackets, I never get any of that rebate stuff.

        • +3

          Apparently they want to drop the 32.5 bracket to 30.

          • +1

            @brendanm: Who is "they"?

          • -1

            @brendanm: That's scheduled for 2024-2025 according to this https://www.superguide.com.au/how-super-works/income-tax-cut…

            But then there'll be those that look at a comparison table and say that the people on higher incomes get more tax cuts than they do and cry 'the rich get richer…….'

            • +5

              @bobbified:

              But then there'll be those that look at a comparison table and say that the people on higher incomes get more tax cuts than they do and cry 'the rich get richer…….'

              And you're saying that's not the case?

              • @pjetson: What I actually meant was that people who earn less will cry that the people on higher incomes, who pay more tax, get a bigger tax cut. 😋

                • +5

                  @bobbified: And, again, are you saying that is not the case?

                  • +1

                    @pjetson: It is the case… but their problem is, "it's not fair", without taking into account the fact that those people pay more in the first place!

            • +1

              @bobbified: Tax cuts we can ill afford. But the “superior economic managers” think otherwise. Look forward to services been cut further to fund this.

              • @Randolph Duke: The government is going to collect taxes one way or another. If they don't get it from income taxes, they'll get it from somewhere else. So it's more like a "redistribution". Now, whether you think that redistribution is "fair" or not will just depend on where you sit.

                • -2

                  @bobbified: Isn't the point that they're redistributing away from the top tier wealthy, while the middle class always seem to get the brunt of it. In a just society, the ultra wealthy SHOULD be paying a larger proportion of tax. As an extreme example: obviously it makes more sense for someone who is on $1M a year to pay 75% tax (take home 250K) and someone on 50K to pay much less say 10% (take home 45K), vs. the current brackets. And they're working to reduce the max tax for the higher brackets even more. How is that justice?

                  • +3

                    @Smol Cat: I didn't say what's fair or what's not. I said that whether someone thinks it's fair or not will depend on where they sit:

                    Using your figures, someone who is on $1M/year is not going to think having to pay $750K is fair. But someone who is earning way less than that will probably think that the people who earn that much should pay more.

                    You make it sound like the people on high incomes have, by some sort of luck, just hopped into that position and not because they worked hard or took big risks to get to where they are, and those that are on low incomes have simply drawn a short-straw.

                    If someone is forced to pay 3/4 of their salary in tax, is there any incentive for people to work hard or work more? It's like a penalty for working hard!

                    I pay over 35% of my salary in tax and sometimes I feel I would like to take up a casual weekend job for fun and just something to do. But there's absolutely no incentive to do so because any casual weekend job will likely pay the minimum wage, but I'll still need to pay half of it in tax.

                  • +2

                    @Smol Cat: I have a high income because I've taken risks and worked very hard. I'm not even close to $1m/ year, but I would leave any country which exploited wealthy people by taxing them at 75%. You assume that wealthy people can't just move overseas and pay tax elsewhere.

                    • +2

                      @CouponSteve: Those were extreme EXAMPLES. Obviously no one is advocating for 75% tax, but I sure damn am against lowering the top tax rates even more from where they stand now as it does not do a country any good. I am in the top tax bracket but I don't want them to reduce the taxes as I'm against tax cuts for the ULTRA wealthy, I'm not talking about the better off than normal folks on 180K a year that you lot seem to be taking offense about. I am talking about the mega wealthy who take advantage of tax loopholes and use all the accounting tricks in the book to avoid more tax than your regular middle class citizen.

                      Often a high tax rate is a direct correlation to better social services and support and a much nicer area to live. Do all you people who complain about high tax brackets both want your cake and eat it as well? Coz that's exactly what you're arguing for. New flash: having nice things, good support services and looking after your citizens costs MONEY = higher taxes. You can't have both.

                      So yes, if you somehow find some hole that is a tax utopia, then move. It's a free country after all.

                      • @Smol Cat:

                        New flash: having nice things, good support services and looking after your citizens costs MONEY = higher taxes. You can't have both.

                        Of course, they can.

                        Buy, borrow, die.

                      • @Smol Cat: I haven't taken offense to anything, but I appreciate your concern.

                        In most cases, the ultra-wealthy contribute to the economy by creating jobs. As companies, they have a responsibility to shareholders to not pay more tax than legally required. So while it may seem unfair, it makes sense. Kerry said it well here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e97kq2XflKE

                        In terms of services, I agree. It takes money and they need to generate funds somehow. This is a problem that they are paid to solve.

                        Ultimately, reducing the top tax rate helps retain good talent & skills in the country and helps to make Australia a prosperous country. (Which is very important considering we don't manufacture anything).

                        • +1

                          @CouponSteve: Hmm ok good point about retaining talent. It does seem to be a very fine balancing act that is beyond me

                    • -1

                      @CouponSteve: I really wish ALL the wealthy people moved to one wonderland country where they can enjoy their hard earned money without having to subsidise the masses. No cleaners and nurses and other such plebs. Only the truly excellent people.

                      • @loropy9: Are you referring to Monaco?

                        P.S. Nurses aren't plebs.

    • You know, the TrumpBux ScomoBux.

  • +29

    I don't live off the teat of the federal government… so no money for us wage slaves.

    • +17

      Bit of a judgmental comment. The majority of those eligible aren’t trying to ‘milk’ welfare. Have you seen the rate? Don’t think many people would be choosing that life. $250 extra….wow…game changing stuff from the Feds as usual and totally not a thinly veiled attempt to buy votes of those who are most likely to turn their backs on the Libs this election.

    • +1

      Yeah you do. You just don't know it.

      • -1

        Yep.
        Kids go to private school, they get more money than the public schools per kid.
        Pays private healthcare. The gov spends just as much on them if they get properly sick.
        Owns more stuff. Police might actually care if something happens.
        Can get courts system to actually work.

        • -1

          Gets funded through uni and Medicare subsidised for life and thinks they know of the real world.

  • +1

    Donation to Liberal party/jk

  • Property speculation or around the world cruise.

  • +13

    Ah, getting back $250 of our own taxes, that came from us. It’s not enough to cover the inflation we are seeing with grocery and fuel.

    I would just think of it like a tax return “refund”.

    • +7

      getting back $250 of our own taxes

      That would only be true for those who have actually worked and paid their taxes before. There are many of those on 'eligible payments" that have never worked a day in their lives.

      • -1

        There are many of those on 'eligible payments" that have never worked a day in their lives.

        You would wonder who they’ll vote…

        • +5

          I don't know if $250 is enough to buy votes! haha

          • +1

            @bobbified: Looks like for these 2 groups.

            You’ll get it if you’re residing in Australia on 29 March 2022, and either:
            * getting an eligible payment
            * have an eligible concession card.

            You know the saying “everyone has a price”… some cheap some not so cheap. 🤷

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