Wendy

LittleKittyCat

We manage on $69k per year in Sydney (south), two adults and two children. Hubby works, I have a little business that I run from home, in addition to looking after our children, which doesn't bring an income at the moment (every cent gets reinvested) but will hopefully turn in to a full time job once smallest child goes to school. However, we have a tiny mortgage, no car loans, no credit cards etc, having brought the proceeds of a house and business sale in the UK over. We are worse off here for the time being, but in the long term it will be better.

renth

Bottom line is how much mortgage/rent people choose to pay.

$100k and big mortgage = doing it tough.
$100k and no mortgage = great lifestyle.

chris955

I have to agree, it applies in whichever country. if the stars align we will be in the UK with no mortgage on who knows what money but it wont matter as we will be where we want to be. As long as you can live fairly comfortably at least it really doesn't matter if you are where you want to be.

ukecadet

Oooo let's have a guess!Give us clue though.Which end of the scale are we looking at George Clooney or Danny DeVito?

KJCherokee

Probably Warren Clarke (Dalziel from 'Dalziel & Pascoe')

Amazulu

You would be okay on $100k with a reasonable mortgage but you would be saving little towards your retirement - apart from 9% super, which is not enough.

paddyo

You sound as if you have a great life so enjoy it. There is always others better off but that is subjective.
If we had a paid for or low mortgage house here and a 100k salary I would be as happy as a pig in the proverbial. Not fussed about city life, I enjoy the beach and if needed the city is only hour or so away.
As others have said, the salary isn't the issue...its the location of your property and whether you are able to buy without a huge mortgage.
Right now we have a house in UK which is 9 yrs into a mortgage, at present even with the economic downturn we would make at most 40k sterling pounds clear profit. That MIGHT get us a 10% on a shitty fibro/weatherboard house to get us on the property ladder here in Oz but to be honest I find the houses here, in a location which suits us demographically, are not value for money. Right now I rent here, pay the mortgage for house in UK and use that as my 'investment' even though I am losing 400 pounds a month on it. I do not see the point in selling right now, I would rather bide my time until the situation changes and in the meantime rent here in homes/areas which I like and can afford to rent in but not buy.

geordiebloke

When people say $100k per year, are they referring to gross or take home pay

paddyo

I was assuming it was salary...as in Gross.
If it was net e.g. take home then life comfortability increases!! Again assuming low/zero mortgage.

tum

I would love to 'struggle' too on $100k a year . I reckon you would be able to live a lovely although maybe not excessively luxurious life on $70k. All depends on what u want and choose (if you have a choice that is) to live.

KJCherokee

It all depends on why you are leaving your original country and what you hope to get out of living in Australia. Someone working as a shop assistant in Manchester could probably have a better lifestyle working as a shop assistant in Brisbane, even though the pay would be significantly under $100k. I know a shop assistant would probably not qualify for a visa, that was just an example.

My experience is 30 years old so may not be applicable today, but I left a job in a factory on Slough Trading Estate where promotion virtually depended on people above me retiring and came to Australia where I landed a job that took me all round Australia and the SE Asian region and gave me great opportunity to progress so that now my income is well in excess of $100k (and would be more if I didn't take around 12 weeks holiday a year). Staying in England I would never have got so far.

kips

Yes very good point. I was thinking gross salaries. I thought about it afterwards.

kips

I would agree with that. We are renting at present about to build a house so our mortgage will be about $350,000. Losing $30,000 on our house in NSW to move to Perth didn't help.

We have some savings but nowhere near enough for our future and haven't been here long enough to acquire a decent amount in super here.

I'm 47 and my husband is 55 so we haven't got years and years to put into super. Can't see us retiring at 65 Hubby doesn't want to anyway.

And I am living off my savings until I get a job that makes the nest egg even smaller.

moneypenny20

Bloody hell I dream of having an income of 100k coming in. We're surviving, just, on half that - three adults one 16yr old. Life is a fricking struggle but it's only been that way recently when I lost my job. We moved with enough capital to buy outright so no mortgage but it doesn't stop me from waking up at silly o'clock feeling sick to the stomach about money. However we were 'broker' in the UK and had a mortgage so it's no different really. 100k and we'd be in clover.