zander

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I'm new to this so indulge me a little.

How much is enough (self, wife, 11 year old child) when contemplating a move to Australia?

I've read about people emmigrating with enough cash to buy a house outright and be left with no mortgage. Is that the normal position? I've got nowhere near enough for that but could manage a fairly substantial deposit. We intend to rent until we get work.

I hope to have around $80,000 which is a hell of a lot of money to me. I know that this will satisfy the immigration authorities, but what standard of living would that allow us if we can't get employment immediately. By that I mean how much do people need to live adequately (decent place to live, expenses, transport and enough for a little leisure) rather than luxuriously (subjective, I know).

The DIMIA information says a family of three can expect to spend around $950 a week. Is that realistic? In the worst case scenario we would come back home if employment wasn't forthcoming in the first 6 months (with something left in reserve,hopefully).

Not fussed about what jobs we do initially, but some comments I've read here indicate that the majority of Australians are scratching a living and putting in more hours than there are in a day, workwise. Is this true?

Some doubts creeping in now

Grateful for any views.

Ta

Alex

Sandra

Depends Depends

nope not very helpful but the depends is on where you might plan to move to in Aus, there are many sites that will give you a general opinion on cost of living and as taken overall will give just that 'an overview'. Ask someone in Sydney a living wage, the answer is very different than Perth or Brisbane. House prices vary state to state as do job prospects and opportunity.

Give a little more detail of what you hope to do and I think you will find people on this site willing to give you examples of how they are doing.

I paid 780,000 for my house. here in Sydney.....does that buy me a big house in Perth?

PS I have a huge........HUGE mortgage!!!!

Cheers

owieb

Very difficult to say, depends on what kind of lifestyle you want. You can easily blow your $80K as soon as you arrive, buying a car, deposit on a house etc.

When we came out we budgeted $4,000 a month to rent a nice place, hire a car and enjoy the lifestyle. There is only two of us.

I think we are roughly spending about $3,500 a month, and have a great lifestyle, can't complain. This figure would probably increase by another $1,000 if we bought a place similar to the one we are renting.

Salaries are a lot lower, and it's difficult to know what your earning prospects are. The average Perth salary is around the $35K-$40K mark, but you may well/and probably will be able to earn more than this.

At the end of the day you work as hard as you want. If you can live comfortably doing a minimum amount of work then great, if not then you either have to increase your work, or dip into your savings.

Best advice is to try it and see, like you say if it doesn't work out you can go back to the UK.

yafm

The australian government insist that a person retiring to australia (and therefore with no assistance ever of any sort from the government) MUST have $47,000 year income. This should include the private healthcare they insist upon also. That comes to $8000 per month but we can see that this is much more than would need to be spent.

Even in suburbs of Sydney (60k distant) you can rent a 3 bed size house for $200 week or even less and buy the same for about $380000. Food obviously differs on what you like to eat and how much you drink and go out for entertainment.

DianeOZ

Hi Alex - We came out with that sort of money but we bought in Perth in a cheaper area but that was our decision cos we didn't rent due to not having millions in the bank.

We are a family of 4 and we probably fork out about $3000 per month for everything like food, bills, fun time, cars etc
We don't pay rent but we pay childcare costs which almost equate to a weeks rent!!!

You have to forget about your English money when you arrive and starting thinking in dollars and how much you take in each week. You will get rent assitance to start with and a bit of child benefit.

Good luck

jayr

I have about $3500 per month after rent to live, seems to work (just) for a family of four running one car. Should be able to manage on a budget of around $1000/week (after tax of course).
Over to those who manage on $50 of groceries a week to offer an alternative cheaper lifestyle.

Kiwipaul

This question is hopeless to ans as it depends where they live as houseing is the biggest expense. If they live say Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide, you should be able to rent 3 bed for $200-300 per week, Sydney or Melbourne twice that, out in the sticks half that. So rent alone could vary from $100-600 per week and this is your average 3 bed nothing spectacular.

Now now Jayr don't feel too bad that your incapable of budgeting, but $50 per person per week is reasonable for groceries. Mind you price of meat is increasing but I'm still within my budget.

Also petrol is anything from 78c /litre to $1-20 in some places, so if you buy or rent one of the large 4x4 you will spend a fortune on petrol, if you buy a 2litre sedan you'll do much better.

jayr

Trouble is that's $200/week for my lot

Kiwipaul

Me budgeting skills is failing me at the mo, bought 10 tins HP Baked Beans 420g last week from Coles for $0.80 as normal price is $1.20 that will last me 10 weeks.
This week Wollies is doing Watties BB 420g for $0.65 which are just as good

jah4reds

Hi Alex,

I have a family of with 2 kids (with insatiable appetites).

Below is a snaphot of *some* of my major expenses last year...

The rent was expensive - airconditioned townhouse - we have since moved into a cheaper (and older) house. I still have no idea how 4 people can consume so much food (we are all slim - honest). However, we eat a lot of organic food so that does inflate the price.

It's not a completely accurate picture because Medicare repays part of the doctors bills, and I have budgeted a trip to NZ in the expenses as well.

But I hope this gives you some idea of costs

AndyH.

Megalania

Most people buy too much food, eat too much and waste too much. Should have a Year of Going Hungry every year.

DianeOZ

Bleedin hell - looks like you eat all the time and cos your petrol bill is so cheap must walk everywhere to build up such an appetite.



Does that include beer

dotty

Eek, bulk bulk buying beans.

I thinks most immigrants are dreaming of steak, prawns and seafood not cheap beans. Are you trying to put them off?

Just think tho if I serve up beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I can feed me family of four X 21 cans per week each for $54.60 now if thats not worth emigrating for I dont know what is.

Pheeeeewwww :scared:

jah4reds

Actually this joke is more accurate than you think. The car is only used for shopping (!), as a ferry (to schools) and weekend jaunts up and down the coast. I walk and take the train to work. We all try to get out and walk, play in the parks, beaches as much as possible on the weekends.

And yes my grocery bill includes booze for only 2 of us of course. The household bill must be mostly kiddy toys(!).

AndyH

dotty

We use about $50.00 for each car in Petrol a week, I think the other person had transport in there too, perhaps he takes a train??