Hi Folks,

The VISA process and the wait (painful)is one thing that we all have been discussing in the various threads. Can some knowledgable souls share their views on life in OZ, after arrival as a permanent resident. The specific issues to concentrate on should be

A) What's the average income level in Australia?

B) What are the salary levels - OK fine I'm asking about the IT industry - But what is it like for teachers, Accountants, finance professionals etc.

C) What's the cost of living like in places like Sydney or Melbourne?

D) How much would one be able to save (average) with a family of three (couple and on primary school going child)

E) How expensive is schooling? Or is it free?

F) Is the savings potential comparable to the rates in USA/UK/CANADA. I would say comparing to CANADA would be more realistic as these are two economies with similarities in size and migrant attractions.

G) Can salary earners save a fortune, over a period of time, like in the US?

Any other angle that would be of interest to the PR aspirant community here....

Cheers

Tom, three good sources of the sort of information you're after (apart from this board of course!):

1) A great book by David Hampshire called "Living and Working in Australia, a survival handbook". I've read through it once already, now I just read through looking for the bits I want to know about. There are chapters on finding a job, accommodation, TV & radio, education, public transport, health, insurance, finance, leisure, shopping and loads more. The chap has a pretty wicked sense of humour too and there are some amusing illustrations. I ordered it from Amazon, there's further info on the site, the ISBN is 1-901130-00-2 and it cost 12.95, or you could try the local library.

2) Or how about booking your tickets for the migration exhibition "Emigrate 2002" on March 15-17? We went last year and we came home with armfuls of leaflets, glossy brochures etc. and spent a good day chatting to various exhibitors trying to find out answers to similar queries to yours.

3) The Australian News, sent to us monthly from the same company who organises the above exhibition, a newspaper specially written for would-be migrants to Oz.

Further info for both newspaper and exhibition is on their website http://www.outboundpublishing.com, it's worth taking a look.

By the way, how did your medicals go? We seemed to sail through all ours, I'm sure the doctor would have said something if there was anything to worry about.

Thomas

How long is a bit of string :}

E) How expensive is schooling? Or is it free?
Free and very good if you pick the right school

D) How much would one be able to save (average) with a
family of three (couple and on primary school going child)
One Salary/Wage

G) Can salary earners save a fortune, over a period of time, like in the US?

I regulary watch the Nightly Business Report and Newshour
and have a brother coming back home after 10 years in the USA.Also have worked there myself .
I think that the exact oposite applies to saving money in the US allowing that everything is on a user pay basis.

The Nightly Business Report claimed the other day that the average credit card debt was US$ 56,000.00 per houshold.

Savings have moved into negative

http://www.google.com/search?q=avera...=Google+Search

http://mwhodges.home.att.net/product.htm#savings

Regards
Steve

Jacqui and Steve Thanks for that info.

Jacqui, the pointer to the book and the migration exhibition are really interesting and I shall look into both of these.
I've got an appointment for the medicals on the 19th (Saturday) as on working days, I don't intend to take time off for this. Shall keep you posted on the outcome.

Steve, thanks for the info about the US economy. While I acknowledge your info. the question is would you be able to give an idea about what would be the savings rate for a family in Australia.

Do you have any idea about the average salaries in the different industries? If you do, would you care to share the info with us. Thanks.

By "One Salary/Wage", I beleive you presume both, the husband and the wife working and one of their salaries could be the savings.

Cheers