anya4oz

What an excellent thread, Grayling - well done.

I can identify with much of what people here say. FWIW, have posted our budget model for monthly living costs in Melbourne on Hev's thread about 'Living the dream, mortgage free'. See;

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=235861

Good luck to all on this one.

Anya.

Timber Floor Au

Nail on the Head,

After a while instead of everything BEING 2.62 times less than the uk equivalent , the ratio becomes 1:1...

Its a very POIGNANT subject, and when looking at earnings vs expenditure its all to easy to get caught up in the currency conversion route.

Friend in Melbourne who owns a huge aussie company, pointed out to me FORGET 2.62 aud = 1 gbp just think of it as 1$=1£

And although weird it sure as shit works !!!

phyonics

Great thread Grayling - I'm gathering all the info I can whilst our application is going through, so this again has proved very useful.

I think the ability to budget is going to be really important for everyone when they get there as we'll all face a bit of an unknown. I expect there'll be startup costs that everyone forgets about and we all know how easy it is to spend a little too much from time to time eh?

Right I'm off to catch up on Hev's thread now then....

Marko

MikeStanton

$80,000 would be regarded as a good salary for most of Oz.

Many people, especially outside Sydney and Melb, earn a lot less than $80k. Remember Deb's husband on the TV program (family on Sunshine Coast)? - he earned ~$35-40k per year.


With the caveat of 'it depends', some things to think about:

1. A gross income of $80,000 is ~$57,000 after tax. Or ~4,800 per month.

2. A rough idea of monthly outgoings - say, for a family of 4:

food: 1,000

utilities: 200

car (incl. depr, insurance,tax) : 500


fuel: 150

rates: 150

other (say $250 per week): 1000

- ie ~60%+ of the net income.

But, you also need to think about putting aside $ for:

- further medical insurance (eg for dental work), life insurance
- pensions
- schools (if private)
- work travel
- holidays

It doesn't leave a lot!

Which is why, just like UK, there are a lot of 2 income households.

MikeStanton

When I arrived in Oz all those years ago, I was also told to think of 1$=1£, ie "What costs you 1 £ in UK, costs 1 $ here [in Oz]".

It's true in certain areas - mainly buying a house (except for Sydney), eating out and local travel. But, now that I'm back in the UK - it's swings and roundabouts for most other things. Eg food - in UK more expensive for some things, but cheaper for others. White goods are cheaper in UK. Clothes are comparable in UK or same price for higher quality. And international travel is cheaper (even the UK-OZ journey) in the UK.

Andrea_amp_Rich

Hi,

Can anyone give me a better indication of what a Welder First Class will get regarding wages in Brisbane.

We are hoping to be in Victoria Point by August and will have about £70,000 to take over with us.

We have 3 children and will be looking for a mortgage of about $310,000 and info would be grate. Got me worried now.

Andrea & Richie

Bix

Good joints ?

Really don't know but hope this may give you an idea

https://www.payscale.com/login.asp?m...eport%2Easp%3F

Grayling

No point in worrying too much but forewarned is forearmed

Good luck

G

Jensen Healey

So are you saying that a salary of $40k in Oz will give a similar lifestyle to £40k in the UK?

MarkMyWords

Not a chance!

jerzy

Steve,

This is exactly how I feel, I've spent the last 10 years working long hours to build up my business and I've missed out on some precious times.

I don't expect to have anything like the standard of living in terms of consumer luxuries that I enjoy at present (in fact I'm selling most of them to fund the move !).
My general impression from reading the threads on this web site and from talking to friends who live in Oz is that life's essentials (food, housing etc) are generally cheaper in Oz than in the UK but that luxury items can be much more expensive.

So if your BMW is important to you it's probably not the place for you, if you can re-align your values and be happy driving a Holden, you'll be fine.

Before I'm shot down for simplifying the Oz economy the above is meant as an analogy.

Thanks for listening

darkless

Personally I don't agree with this as a general rule. It all depends on what you are used to here and what you are going to there.

For me a few years ago during the IT boom, I was earning £30 ph and had a pretty good income. However I fell foul of the downturn and then ended up taking a £23,000 pa job which was a massive come down! I guess that for many this is what they will experience when moving to OZ, and to get past this you have to sort that out in your head first off.

But anyway, my point is that i would get approx $45,000 for the same job in Perth. The missus is a school teacher on just over £20K in the UK. In Perth she will earn approx $45,000 too. Therefore a total of $90,000 compared to say £45,000 in the UK.

Given on my trip to Aus, taking a couple of products as examples, i bought a beer - say $4.50 in bar. In the UK that beer would have cost me £2.30 in the UK. A three-pce leather sofa i saw in a free leaflet shoved through the door in perth was $2,500. Again for £1250 here in the UK I could probably get a similar sofa. Therefore it costs exactly the same amount of buying power because the income is twice as much (in raw figures, not including taxes etc.).

When I look at prices in Aus, i therefore don't calculate everything back at the exchange rate of 2.62 or whatever, but i do use a times 2 calculation to equate the two buying powers.

Maybe this is a very oversimplified calculation, but it seems more appropriate that 1:1 because if it was 1:1 then I don't think most people could afford to do anything in Perth. Would I pay £4.50 for a pint in the UK - not on a regular basis I wouldnt!!

Finally, i would therefore agree that $90K will give us an ok standard of living, but then if i can replicate being able to go out for a meal once a week, have a few beers, etc as I do in the UK, BUT i can do this in Perth, sitting on a beach, relaxing in a park in the sunshine, then for me this is an improvement.

Only my 2 pennys (or do i mean 4 cents)

Dave

Peter

Depends where in Australia you make that $40K. It won't get you far in Vaucluse or Hunter's Hill if you rent, etc, but if you make $40K say in Normanton or Cunnamulla, then yeah, it'd probably go a long way. Australia is a huge place that essentially covers every demographic.

kong

Christ I wouldnt live in Normanton if I earned 40 grand a week!!!

It had to be up there with the Isa and Coober Pedy as the most remote barren inhospitable backward hell hole that Oz has to offer.

Also a great town to see first hand how aboriginees are treated by the white Aussies. Normanton had 3 pubs, a white pub, a "abo" pub and a so called mixed pub "the purple pub". What a dive photos of pig hunting with bull terriers on the wall and blokes throwing up at the bar, whilst talking to the barman!!! A little bit diferent to the cities where the arsehole doorman wont let you in if your wearing shorts and trainers, of if you smell of beer, because you obviously must be drunk

hevs

The point of this thread was to highlight the fact that on a day to day basis we PERSONALLY find our bills a lot higher here.

Our mortgage in the UK was tiny cos we bought in 1992 and made a big killing when we sold

I have never owned a BMW, but we had 2 decent cars in the UK and we have got similar ones here

Its not so much values, but more the standard of life that you were used to, and weighing up if its worth a downward step or not