Dylan T

Wife and I are professionals in our mid 40s with 2 young kids aged 10 & 11. We are thinking of moving to Melbourne next year with about A$1M after selling our houses etc. As we have worked pretty hard here, we would like to have quality time with the children etc and so think of just working parttime instead when in Australia. With that amount of money, there may not be much left after securing a house. I read many threads in the forum and the cost of living seems higher than I expected. Any advice? Would a parttime job with say A$1500 pw be able to make the ends meet? Would that weekly wage incur much tax for a household of four?

moneypenny20

What on earth occupation do you believe pays $1,500 pw parttime?

Max&Ozzy

Escorts... actually, make that high class professional companion services

kporte

Yes , we do.

ABCDiamond

Yes, I would, actually I did

Dylan T

Sorry folks, I meant $1500 as the gross family income with wife and I both working part time. If there are escort jobs, I believe wife doen't mind...ME taking them!

Centurion

I am semi retired and enjoy it greatly. As my mother in law used to say - you'll be a long time dead.

sonlymewalter

Depends on the bills mate, including where you want to live and the type of jobs you're looking for?

jad n rich

You could easily find no change from 1M in many suburbs of melb (and elsewhere) for a pretty ordinary house.

However 1500 minus tax would cover costs for a family of 4 if there was no mortage, hardly a flash lifestyle though. OZ is not cheap

You do realise any age pension in OZ is means tested you need to provide your own pension here, unless you rely on a employer providing you superannuation and hope that would be enough. If your not going to work, are self employed etc australians have to provide their own retirement funds

koalakim

You could buy a nice decent family house down on the Peninsula, our West, East, North for around 500k and then pop 500k in the bank - as at least you get some interest here!

Problem would be to get a decent part-time wage you'd have to commute but then if it was say 3 days a week then you'd have 3 yukky days followed by 4 lovely days!

Our plan was to be able to buy for cash (or small mortgage) and take a step backwards out of the rat race by becoming self-employed..ha ha ha...since we've been here houses have shot up, cost of living has risen and the pound dived = working even harder!

It's doable depending on where you live and your lifestyle and trying to find a decent paid part-time job. Best thing to do is some research on Seek for your professions and that will give you an indication of whether it's possible.

Good luck!

MartinH

I am in a very similar position to you (although no longer living in Australia), and my kids are slightly older at 18 and 14. The idea of “downsizing” or retiring early is something I have pondered again and again. I have some state and private pensions that will kick in progressively from 62, so I occasionally think that with a frugal lifestyle we could survive if I were to retire now (at age 45).

But I think you need to think very carefully before you make any dramatic decisions. At your age whilst it might be easy to get part time employment, it will probably be more difficult to get back into full-time employment should you subsequently realise that it was the wrong decision.

Secondly, what about schooling? Are you really happy with state schooling? What about when the kids want to go to university? Sure, like many others they could borrow their way through college but if you are in the same position as me then I would get you will want to give them a helping hand.

Finally, at the end of the day its all about options and I have personally come to the conclusion that my 40's are all about increasing my options (i.e. accumulating cash). By the time I get to 50 (assuming I can remain healthy) then I will have one child through university and the other just starting but I will have another (equivalent of) $1 million in the bank, no mortgage, increased pension rights and probably the perfect tipping point for retirement.

Of course everyone is different but I would say you are too young with too many commitments to be considering partial retirement unless you are prepared to take a serious decrease in your living standard.

ozzieeagle

I'm almost in a position to do this. Been thinking about it. I'm a bit older though @ 55.

To cut a long story short. I visited the wifes uncle this weekend who is being treated for serious life threatening cancer, and asked him what he feels he missed out on in life, and any pointers he can give me so as to avoid regrets later in life, One of the questions was re work and retirment. He reckons work as long as you can to make sure you have more than enough money to "enjoy" retirement. Sorry to put a morbid slant on this. However I think people in his situation probably have the most reasoned out answers. I didnt expect him to answer that way either, took me aback somewhat.

.



.

Dylan T

Thank you Martin & Ozzie, very awakening messages.
Perhaps we have been too naiive, thinking we could rely on the Medicare (well the ausssie public health system would not send one away if one had a serious medical problem, or would they?) and might work the minimal hours just to make the ends meet, ie our current saving could be put aside for the future and hopefully would be able to supplement our small pensions.
Ozzieeagle, we do see life is too unpredictable and so having good time with family and loved ones may be more important than building up wealth. Financial security is by all means important, but the point is how "secure" one needs. How about in our situation, if we spent 600K on a family house, the 400K left on an investment unit for generating rental and capital gain. We then live on wages from part time work (we are in the health care, so jobs should be OK) and downsize when really necessary for children's uni or something. So this has been too optimistic? How much in general a family of four will need each week for paying bills and foods etc (no rental/mortgage)?

jad n rich

We have two teens, no mortage and one of our incomes is 130,000 which might sound good, but after tax is only 7000 a month. Thats not much more than the 1500 week you are talking about. We put all our food, petrol, general bills like rates. elec, phone, health insurance, school fees, state school but still nearly 1000 per year, etc on visa card and pay it off from that income each month, monthly visa card is between 4 and 6 K a month depending on which wad of bills come in, NO mortage or rent in that.

Our investment property is basically a retirement scheme, rents in OZ dont anywhere near cover the cost of the property, prices are too high, weve had good capital gain from it, but are talking long term.

Rest of that income goes to the big stuff, trip to UK 4 airfares in school hols, is around 10 K before youve spent anyting else. New car recently, we do a LOT of miles here, $28,000. Out of pocket health expenses, this year will be about 3 grand again, thats after private health cover and medicare levy, that nearly 2 grand for one crown by the way

Without other income we would probably just cover our expenses OZ is expensive and although a million bucks would have set you up good an proper 10 years ago, now its really more a nice start rather than something to set you up for the next 40 years, it just wouldnt stretch that far IMO.

Just my 2 bobs worth and I would be happy to read how people would stretch that amount for a family with teens in a major oz city and retirement, assuming at 40 you are probably going to have to fund another 45 years or so.

Shellfish

Really? Because we are in a similiar situation except we have a mortgage and we pay DS's daycare fees ($160 p/w - before rebate) and we manage OK. Admittedly, we probably only go back to S.Africa every two years but the flights are more expensive