Dnyanesh Kelkar on inflation and life in Australia
Dnyanesh Kelkar is originally from Mumbai, India, and currently lives in Perth, Australia. Between 1994 and 2007, he lived in the Netherlands and worked at IBM. The pension he accrued as an IBM employee in the Netherlands is still with SPIN. We were curious about his history and life down under. And how inflation is handled there.
I got to know the Netherlands by living and working in different cities
‘I worked at IBM Netherlands for about 8 years and then another 4 years at IBM Australia. I started at Philips in Weert in 1994. After studying Business Administration in Antwerp, I lived and worked in different Dutch cities: Sittard, Emmen, Utrecht and the last 5 years in Hilversum. This is how I got to know the Netherlands. Finally, in 2001 I came to IBM Netherlands via PwC.
I should have looked into my pension more at the time
‘In 2007 I was able to join IBM Australia, in Melbourne. I left my pension with SPIN. I did try to transfer my pension to Australia, but that proved very difficult. The Netherlands and Australia have no treaty on this. SPIN can’t do anything about that, of course. I have just turned 50. I now realize that I did not think carefully about the pros and cons of value transfer. I just didn’t look into it enough at the time.
It’s not a big deal either. Before that, though, I had always opted for value transfer. So all the pension I built up in the Netherlands is with SPIN. I do follow my Dutch pension, mainly through the website and the magazine. But I actually have no idea of the purchasing power of my pension. And that becomes important now that inflation is rising, of course.’
In Perth, life is even more expensive than in Melbourne!
‘In Australia everything is much more expensive than in the Netherlands anyway. Fortunately, my salary went up considerably when I started working at IBM in Melbourne. So that didn’t bother me so much at the time. In 2010 I moved to Perth in Western Australia. Living there is another 25% or so more expensive than in Melbourne. In Western Australia the corona measures were also extremely strict. It has recently become possible to travel a little again. Very unfortunate, because I have not been to the Netherlands for a long time and still have many friends there. And now with the war in Ukraine, international travel is becoming difficult again.’
A beer can just go up 10% in price here
‘In the Netherlands, inflation has been very low for a very long time. In Australia, inflation was always slightly higher. Again, in terms of inflation, the situation in Western Australia is different from the rest of the country. In Western Australia, the economy fluctuates enormously, and so does inflation. It really is boom or bust.
The economy here depends on agriculture – especially wheat – and commodities such as iron ore, copper, gold and gas. Prices can skyrocket in a very short period of time. The economy slowed down considerably because of the pandemic. Now things are improving, we are back in a boom period. That’s nice on one hand, but inflation is huge. A beer or a cup of coffee can easily become 10% more expensive. Oh well, you adjust. Take it as it comes, that’s kind of the attitude here; the same goes for me. It is also possible, because employees are usually compensated in their salaries. Although I have not worked at IBM since 2011, I have continued to live in Perth as usual. And it will stay that way for now!