Key takeaways
The average Australian worker earning $120,000 a year will likely pay over $2 million in tax across a 40-year working life.
Most people drastically underestimate this lifetime tax bill, thinking it’s only in the hundreds of thousands.
These are dollars that could have been redirected into building wealth through property, investments, or securing your family’s future.
Have you ever wondered how much tax will you pay in your lifetime?
If you’re like the average Australian worker earning $120,000 a year, you might guess a few hundred thousand.
But what if I told you the true figure is over $2 million?
Yes, that’s right - if you simply earn your salary, pay your taxes, and spend what’s left, you will likely hand over more than $2 million to the tax office over a standard 40-year working career.
Now here’s the painful part: those are dollars you could’ve redirected into building a property portfolio, securing your retirement, or creating a multi-generational legacy for your family.
Every day you delay smarter financial decisions, you're not just missing opportunities and you’re handing over your future freedom.
We’ve all heard the phrase: “Just pay your fair share of tax.”
But who decides what’s fair?
The current tax system is built on a progressive scale, meaning the more you earn, the more tax you pay - not just in dollars, but in percentage terms too.
That’s why working harder doesn’t necessarily make you wealthier. It often just puts you in a higher tax bracket.
Let’s say you work overtime, push through weekends, or take on extra consulting work.
What happens?
You simply pay more tax.
You move up the ladder… only to find the treadmill moves faster under your feet.
The wealthy play a different game
Here’s what the wealthy understand: The tax system is not just a burden; it’s a tool, if you know how to use it.
They don’t work harder; they work smarter.
They don’t blindly hand over their tax, they legally redirect it into their future.
How?
- By investing in growth assets like residential real estate.
- By borrowing to invest, thereby creating deductible debt.
- By leveraging depreciation, gearing, and income splitting.
- By structuring their affairs through trusts, companies, and SMSFs.
And most importantly, by surrounding themselves with strategic advice from experts who know how to make the rules work for them.
It’s not tax avoidance, it’s tax effectiveness
It was the blunt but ingenious billionaire Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer AC who famously explained to a stunned Parliamentary committee exactly how the tax system works.
“I am not evading tax in any way, shape or form. Now of course I am minimising my tax and if anybody in this country doesn't minimise their tax they want their heads read because as a government I can tell you you're not spending it that well that we should be donating extra.”
In my mind that quote is just as accurate today as it was when it was made in 1991 and will probably remain accurate for many decades to come.
At Metropole Wealth Advisory, we don’t advocate illegal or aggressive schemes.
But we do believe in legally minimising tax and maximising what stays in your ecosystem—your family’s ecosystem.
Every dollar you lose to poor structuring is a dollar that could have:
- Bought you another investment-grade property,
- Paid down a loan faster,
- Funded your child’s education,
- Or boosted your retirement nest egg.
Think of tax not as a cost, but as a choice - between handing over your future… or building it.
You can’t build a legacy on what’s left over
If you simply “hope” your salary will get you ahead, you’ll always be chasing financial freedom but never catching it.
Why?
Because the system was designed that way.
If you’re a high-income earner, you probably already pay more than your share.
But unless you break out of the earned-income mindset, you’ll stay stuck in a cycle of taxation, consumption, and dependency.
We believe the answer is clear: Use the rules that the wealthy use. Play the game, but play it strategically.
Take control of your future
Let me be blunt: if you’re earning good money and not investing smartly, you are subsidising someone else’s future - and it’s probably not your children’s.
At Metropole, we help professionals, business owners, and property investors legally reduce tax and build intergenerational wealth through tailored structures, estate planning, and strategic property investment.
You don’t need to earn more. You need to keep more.
Your financial freedom is too important to leave to chance.
Want to stop funding the ATO’s future and start building yours?
Let’s have a Wealth Strategy Session and explore how we can redirect your income from tax liabilities into wealth-building assets. Click here now and we’ll be in contact to organise a time for a chat to explore your options.
Because it’s not just your money at stake - it’s your legacy.
