That's exactly what I kept on coming back to and thinking as far as a franchise goes.  You pay for what you get and I don't have that sort of $$$ to throw around.  Priority is to leave as much money as possible on the mortgage as redraw and if I happen to spend any large amounts it will be on an asset that I can sell if needs be and get most if not all of my money back on as well as tax breaks and not something that I can't touch such as goodwill.

I actually got my official payout figure today which is a tad more than what I had worked it out at so I let them know that I formally want to apply for the VR.  Looks like I might have to work through to the end of April though.  The tax concessions are pretty good, I pay full freight on my annual and long service leave they owe me but the other stuff (51 weeks pay) is taxed at next to nothing at about 1.01%.   

So as mentioned earlier, if I take the VR, I get close to 5 times as much as what I would if i just resigned tomorrow.  At this stage of my life it is simply too hard to knock back.