Author is a swing voter, and not in favour of the 30% minimum because it's a regressive flat(ish) rate tax,

normally the wet dream of radical regressive hard-right politicians and 1%ers. This is demonstrated by

the models, with the higher relative impact on the lower earners.

That said, all pollies make promises they struggle to keep and do stuff outside their mandate. The 2018

LibNat un-mandated introduction of the superannuation transfer balance cap was also substantial.

They do what they have to do, which I respect, but I wish they would kerb bloat in the public sector

instead, which would provide the added benefit of reducing inflationary pressure on the economy.

This change is anti-productive because of its administrative cost, and spinning it as "return to 1999"

"OLD" means pre-1-Jul-27 tax rules

"NEW" means post-1-Jul-27 tax rules

conveniently forgets averaging and ignores the NEW 30% minimum. Fingers crossed that they're right,

and house price growth slows, providing sorely needed help to first home buyers.

The change is material for a person pursuing FIRE, however the change is not as costly as many pundits

and media are describing it to be. I hope this model helps someone make sound financial decisions.

Instructions following change of a variable

If you have the Solver Add-in enabled:

Change the variable, go to OLD sheet, run Solver

Go to NEW and run solver

If any of the numbers are unreasonable, e.g. a negative cost base withdrawal, try running it again

If the Solver Add-in is not enabled:

Vary salary on NEW. OLD is dependent.

Several other variables can be changed in NEW.

Then set contribution manually.

Follow steps below.

Adjust as follows.

Description

Set salary level you want to test

NEW worksheet, cell D1

Set weekly contribution to nearest dollar, minimise at a positive number around $500 to $2,000 terminal value (cash)

Contribution:

Terminal value (cash):

Check withdrawals change factor, modify to align withdrawals to provide 90% to 91% coverage for final year

Last year liquid coverage:

repeat above steps 2 and 3

Contribution:

Terminal value (cash):

Set weekly withdrawal to the penny, just high enough to eliminate negatives in final cost base withdrawal. Terminal cash takes care of itself ( ~ 500 to 2000)

Last year liquid coverage:

While doing this, set the DHHF Diversion, to achieve target coverage (1.50). Setting to nearest 500 is usually fine.

Set weekly contribution to the penny, however raising or lowering it to align surplus cash with OLD (+/- <10 dollars)

Contribution:

Terminal value (cash):

Review Coverage 90% to 91% (should be fine, tighten if you like). Weekly contribution may need a penny or two tweak after changing this.

Review Coverage 90% to 91% (should be fine, tighten if you like). Weekly contribution may need a penny or two tweak after changing this.

Terminal cash from other model for convenient comparison:

Go to Output

Scroll and review for sensible outputs, check comparison of terminal cash (+/- 10 dollars) which confirms completion of the comparison

Terminal value (cash):

Output!D113 and E113

Copy | Paste-Special 'Values' to appropriate pair of columns. If making new columns, follow up with Paste-Special 'Formats'

Tested at 5 minutes to change a variable with familiarity (Solver takes perhaps 20 seconds including review)

Why is this a bit of a pain to do?

I used this method to avoid circular references. (Note also that tax is paid the year after calculation, and there is a minor penalty from PAYG ignored.)

I'm not willing to use iteration because of the difficulty I have trouble-shooting changes with iteration running.

Consider effect of PAYG relative to booking tax in the following year

Done and ignored for now, $5 a week while working ($300K plan)

See bottom of D8C2Cov10NEW

Set waterfall charts to K$X.X or even $X - "to the dollar" infers precision that simply isn't there. Three significant figures is better representation.

Learn how indexation might, will, could, or should affect capital gains included in ETF distributions, after 1-Jul-2027, then build it into the model

Place holder ready for this.

Using 5% discount which I believe to be LOW.

Gather all comments, drafts into one worksheet.

Compare to superannuation Transfer Balance Cap, brought in by the LibNats in 2018 with no election mandate.

I think that was a bigger change, increase in taxation, and done with no mandate. Might be useful for partisan and anti-wealth bickering.

When adding other worksheet sets back (15-5 and 20-10)

Re-align rows first

Add last two year's reduced interest calcs

Change calc in Z258, then delete sums in Rows AC12 to AC16

Copy clearing calcs and descriptions from Distributions, Savings Account and DHHF

Calcs under DHHF, copy 3 rows

Change Row 85, retired, today's dollars, retired only, on all sheets

Fix up Tax reconciliation - simple copy calcs

Un-merge stored values title on Output

Review all precedents on Output

Add DHHF diversion to Output

Check function of Portfolio value on four new sheets

Research this question:

When you flip from Save to Spend, you're no longer contributing, but you have been based on your income. This creates room to do something else with the annual contributions capacity. (Reduces spending need v. pre-retirement)

Do you carry on with the same spending, but use the extra capacity to reduce your total spending need? Or go on a tear, buy a boat, scuba in the red sea, learn to fly, give it to the kids, what?

If it's planned to go into defraying spending needs, that could be built into the model. Or it could be a variable. I'm currently using 65% of prior after-tax income, but it could be lower, making FIRE more achievable.

The "65% of prior after-tax income" calculation allows higher lifestyle after contributions to savings are stopped. 60% looks realistic.

Now all one file: RetirePre60V4.3

Worksheet naming

Description

Age timeline

Save - Spend

Current worksheet names

Comparative Sheets end with OLD or NEW

All end at 60

D for DHHF, 8 for 8 years, C for Cash, 2 for 2 years, Cov for Cover, 10 for 10 years