holsie0

Anyone living on such a wage in the Brisbane area?
How hard is it

Wendy

That's like living on about £1000 - 1200 per month in the UK. Could you manage on that there? Will you have a mortgage to pay, or are you lucky enough to pay outright for a house? Lots to consider really.

We get £4000 ish (after tax) and manage OK - couldn't live on less though (and that's in Adelaide with cheaper house prices, we have a mortgage).

holsie0

Would have to have a small mortgage but would never manage on that in uk

cranni

If you are a family, centrelink will make it up.
When we first came hubby was on that, and I got 500 a fortnight, 3 kids.
It was great,
Now we earn more we dont get centrelink.
Our outgoings where:
250 a week rent
100 put away for bills.
300 per week food shop.
40 petrol
100 0uting

We managed just fine, it just depends on your lifestyle.
Denise

Wendy

It really does depend on a lot of other things. Like how many of you are there? What sort of lifestyle are you looking for? What sort of house are you looking at, and what would the mortgage payments be? (ours are $1600 per month, which is why I wouldn't be able to afford any less than what we get now).

You need to sit down and go through your finances as they are now, then find out what them things would cost here on average. Then you'll be a bit closer to seeing what you can and can't manage on

I can work out approximate centrelink payments for you if you let me know how many kids you have and their ages (you can PM me if you like ) Providing you are PR

cranni

You can also go on the cenrelink website and work out what you would get, it really was a great help to us when we got here.
Once I started working and hubby wage increased we did not get any more.
It is true it depends on your lifestyle.
Denise

Nu-Shooz

We were told that if you earn $1500 a week then you will be OK. Anything less, you will struggle.
I believe it to be true.

BadgeIsBack

Unless you are a high level professional or on 2 incomes or have your own business most won't get that though.

I have a half decent income of about aus90k a year more than most report on this site and I don't take home $1500 a week.

Nu-Shooz

We are self-employed.

If OH was to work for a company he would be getting $900 a week tops.

Glad we made the choice to go alone.

holsie0

Just started to do the comparison bit (good advice).

Just looking to be comfortable, 4 bedder for family of 5 North or central Brissy. Will look to have a mortgage of no more than $250,000 (will have a good deposit). Children are 11,8 and 6 (closer to 12,9and 7 when we finally make the move). Annual salary will be around $46-50K with ample overtime.

NKSK version 2

Does he mean $1500 after tax?

Even in Perth I don't think you'd really struggle if you weren't bringing home $1500 per week. I reckon less than about $1200 gross per week would be our struggle value.

BadgeIsBack

I considered that but wasn't sure. I think any salary of 1000 per week take home *or* gross is doing alright (!) relative to the low salaries people claim they earn. What they can do with this is another thing - altogether. [Ed:"What they can do with this is another thing"]

Kapri

It surely all depends on your mortgage situation.

We will need a motgage of about $375,000 to buy a half decent house in Vic as we don't have a huge deposit. If prices drop much more in the UK then we may need more.
The repayments for this on a home saver loan with ANZ are $3000 per month.
Interest rates in Australia are a fair bit higher than the UK. Our current interest rate here in the UK is under 5%. The lowest one I could find in a quick search of Aussie sites was about 8%.
I think for migrants arriving in 2008 things will be tougher financially than for those who are already there.

holsie0

Think you could be right, that is the worrying thing