Trailing_Hubby

So, hello! First post, but have been lurking for a while. We are in a fortunate position and are lucky to be so, and I hope this won’t come across as flippant, but I would very much be interested to see people’s thoughts on where we are at the moment.

Bit of background – we live in London, and have a combined salary of a shade under £100k. We like it here, but have always said that we would be interested in working abroad should the opportunity arise. We don’t have that burning desire to move to Australia that some have but would love to go if we got the chance. We wouldn’t be emigrating as such, more working in a different place for a while. If it ended up permanent then so be it, but we have no kids and are pretty flexible with where we go. I’ve never been to Oz, but Mrs TH was there for a month working. I’d be comfortable moving without visiting, aware that there is no land of milk and honey and that there’ll be just as many problems there as the UK – we have our eyes open!

The offer is for Mrs TH, who currently has a much better job than me – about $120k + car + super + a flight back for her a year. The job is Clayton way, so first thoughts are to rent a flat in the CBD (some of the ones on St Kilda Road look nice on realestate) and take the train out. She loves St Kilda and the areas around there, so that’s also an option. Now, I know that this “2.5x UK salary” thing is hotly debated, but it’s obvious that simply using the exchange rate as a comparison doesn’t work. If we move we want to have the same standard of living, if not better, than we have here i.e nice flat, eating out, travelling, putting money aside etc. My first thoughts are these:

1. The offer isn’t high enough for Mrs TH. I read in a similar thread yesterday that $120k would be much like £40k in London. I know it’s all subjective and everyone spends differently, but this would effectively be a cut in “spending power.”
2. Bit worried about jobs for me. I have an ok job here, but not anything that would get me a visa on my own. I see lots of threads from people in Melbourne struggling to find work, and although I can do any number of things I think I might struggle to find something in what seems like a worsening job market. We could obviously live on the wife’s salary if it comes down to it, as we’d hardly been in poverty, and I’m sure I’d have no problem working in a bar or something, but it doesn’t really fit in with the intention to do better than we are now.
3. Not sure what the visa is. Assume it’s a 457, but we obviously need to confirm.

Further complicating matters is that she may also get an offer from a company based in Europe, which would be considerably more money. Obviously not as interesting a place to live as Melbourne, and a foreign language to make things harder to settle into, but I could go skiing every weekend…

I hope this isn’t coming across as pretentious. It’s a lot of money, but what we don’t want to do is come across and find out that we are worse off, which I think might be the case here. We know we would love living somewhere new and would embrace everything Melbourne has to offer, but with it being such an expensive place to live we want to get as much info as possible before making the decision.

Thoughts are welcome, even if it’s just to tell me it’s not all about money...

Reaver

I think the problem is that your comparing the standard of living to the wrong place, London is substantially more expensive to live than pretty much most of the UK. If your cost of living in London is £100k, then outside of London, it would be around 2/3's of that. So taking that into account I would say you would be fine on $120k in Melbourne, from what I understand, if you were talking Sydney it would be a different matter.

I live in the North of England, we have 4 kids and live on around £25k, and we have said that we need a combined salary of $100k+ for us to consider going to Aus, so I think you and your OH will be fine......

With regards to your job, you haven't stated what you actually do for a living, so I think people will struggle to offer you any advice without that information....

As for the skiing, you can only ski in ski season, even in Europe, and I understand theres some nice ski resorts out towards Jindabyne and that area, and if you wanted to push out a little further, New Zealand is just on the doorstep.....

Hope that helps a little....

.

Trailing_Hubby

Cheers for that. I'm aware we can live quite comfortably on that one salary, and that many are quite happy on much less, which is why I hoped I don't come across as flippant.

I've done allsorts - estate agent, pub manager, insurance sales manager and am currently working in proposal management. The chopping and changing has in a large part been because I've moved with Mrs TH around the country, so doing this in another country isn't really too scary. I know I'll be able to get a job, just not sure about a "good" one...

I was definitely too flippant about the skiing I know there are places fairly close, and I'd definitely look to go to Japan as well.

steve_kelly_and_boys

how old are you both ??

what do you do for a living ??

can your o/h go back to her old job easily if you come over and then decide to go back ??

if she can and you want a different life experiance / adventure then come on over

melbourne is a great place to live

we live on less than that between us with 3 kids and we are pretty comfortable

Trailing_Hubby

Both mid 30s. OH is in a position now where she has very transferable skills so no worries about moving back to the UK, or even on to somewhere else.

The other potential job is muddying the waters somewhat I think...

Bermudashorts

This single salary would be a significant cut in purchasing power from your current £100k in London, you would need to earn something in the same ball park to maintain a similar sense of financial comfort. That is not an answer to the completely separate question as to whether it is possible to survive on it, the answer to that is, of course it is possible.

As a couple with no parental responsibilities who have always wanted to travel and experience living overseas, it seems like a no brainer to me.

There is a trade off between finances and life experience, on paper we would be financially better off in UK working in London, but we are still comfortable here and quite happy to sacrifice a drop in disposable income we don't need to survive just for the experience.

Trailing_Hubby

Yeah, that's the crux of it. The consensus does seem to be that it would be a drop financially - I'm confident of getting a job, but not on the same level. But of course that isn't the be all and end all.

steve_kelly_and_boys

also just to say i would earn double what i earn over here if i was still in London

are me and my family happier over here ??

100% yes

elice_in_oz

It sounds like a pretty good package to me as, if you add it all up, it's probably closer to $140,000 all inclusive.

Roughly, with just Mrs TH's salary, you would be living on $1,600/week, which, even with rent of up to $500/week (would get you a very nice flat in St Kilda. This one is $410/week in a very good location - I used to live in that street ) is not a bad income for a couple. Add to that your salary once you get work, and I would suggest that you might find you are not worse off than in London. Especially if you get the car paid for and at least one flight.

Not sure what your outgoings are in London, but you said you were on a combined income of £100k. I haven't lived in London, but if it is like any capital city in Western Europe, I would surmise that COL is similar to Melbourne's, if not higher, even with our crazy high COL If you were moving from elsewhere in England, it would be a different story...

Trailing_Hubby

Great flat Elice - I confess I had been looking at 2 beds...

elice_in_oz

Still plenty of those under $500/week

Buzzy--Bee

Hi, we live in Mordialloc, very close to where your wife's job offer is. We also moved from London to Melbourne so hopefully our experience is useful to you. When we arrived I earned exactly 2.5 time in $ what I earned in pounds when I left London, and I found things cost "the same". So on average, everything that cost 100 pounds in London, cost $250 here. Some things are cheaper, some things more expensive. However we have a much better standard of living here, mainly due to the fact that we sold our house in London, exchanged the money at 2.5 to 1, and bought here. Unfortunately emigrants now don't have that luxury, although renting here is much cheaper than renting in the UK.

And btw, the skiing here is far more accessible than in Europe, you can drive from Melbourne and be on the slopes in between 2 - 4 hours, however the runs are not nearly as long as in Europe!

If you want any other info about moving from London to Melbourne, please ask.

BB

Luthien

Monash uni and CSIRO are in Clayton. They run shuttle buses from Huntingdale station. Takes about 35 minutes from Flinders St to uni.

Lots of skiing in Victoria http://www.visitvictoria.com/Activit...es/Skiing.aspx

If you go to Falls Creek you can stop at Brown Brother winery at milawa or do a Winery walkabout weekend in Rutherglen. Beechworth is worth a visit for the bakery.
http://www.brownbrothers.com.au/ourplace/cellardoor

http://www.beechworthbakery.com


If you are looking for things to do in the city The Wheeler Centre run regular debates and Melbourne Uni run a public lecture series

Mike-S

You'll be fine with that package, anything you can then get will just be bunce for exploring.

Having come over here last October following my wife's job (albeit on slightly more than that) we've not found it to be a struggle once the initial 3-4 months of "OMFG, they want *how much* for whatever insurance / bond / other widget" was over. I've now picked up a job and things are becoming much easier, not that they were particularly difficult before but we've spent more than most would anyway on bringing out 2 cars and renting a house that costs far more than we needed to spend, but hey ho, you only live once.

Melbourne's great, you'll enjoy it. Just be aware you could live a bit further down the coast than St Kilda and save a few more $$'s if you're concerned about money.

Trailing_Hubby

Cheers guys, interesting responses. Interesting that most people seem pretty positive, but I put the same thread on another forum and there were a few more people recommending staying in Europe.

As it stands at the moment we are saying no. If our ambition was to move out then it would be a no brainer, but although we would love to have the opportunity we don't want to make a compromise in terms of what we earn. We are both at the stage of our careers where our next jobs will be a step up, and if we go to Melbourne it will be sideways at best.

I assume I'm coming across as money obsessed, which isn't fully the case and it's a real shame to have an offer and not take it up, but we have to think long term.