spikeyjo

Hi,

Considering moving to Oz, my wife is a nurse and I am an account manager.

How much would we need to earn per annum to have a good standard of living and live in a decent area in Brisbane?

If you have moved to Brisbane, has the move lived up to your expectations? Should we go for it?

We are considering it, to hopefully give our son a better life growing up, but unsure if the wages, life etc will provide this? Is the education better than UK, whats crime like etc?

Any help much appreciated.

Many thanks

RachelH

Check out www.realestate.com.au for ideas on house prices - and then use a good currency convertor like www.xe.com/ucc to get the price in uk pounds.

Re jobs and wages - might be worth looking at some of the threads on the individual job types on here to get some impression.

Think you will find the cost of living is somewhat similar to the UK these days with GST (like our VAT).......I am not living in Aus (yet!) but am married to an Aussie so have lots of family over there. They get by ok but when it comes to overseas holidays and things its very very expensive.

Am sure someone who lives there will be along shortly to help you out more!

FluffyTheCampfireSlayer

Welcome Spikey!

As has been said, the cost of living is similar to the UK, in our limited experience! You earn less generally, but it's cheaper to live. The weather's great - at weekends, you go out and enjoy the great outdoors, the catch? It's free! HAving a good quality of life (in my opinion) is so much easier than here in the UK.
Good luck matey!

mike09

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matt-and-jenny

Hi Spikey
How much you'll need to earn is obviously relative. Me n Matt earn about $100k between us, have a 2 bed house 12km out of the city, and I think we live like King and Queen! You and the other hand may need $200k a year...

We love Brisbane and are very glad we moved here. Our lifestyle is completely different/better to what it was in the UK. One downside is not as many friends yet

I emigrated out here with my family when I was 10yo. And I'm so grateful to my parents for doing it!

Good luck with your decision
J

eddie007

how long is your piece of string and which horse for which course?

I earn more than I did in the uk and hubby earns less than he did...

I'm in high level stress job now, working all the hours God sends and he works a 37 hour week and enjoys a beer with his workmates almost everyday at 4pm when he finishes... we both are HAPPY with our choices...

What your wife will earn will depend upon what kind of nurse she is, her speciality... what kind of hours she wants and what kind of responsibility she wants and whether she works agency or permanant or casual... I started off making breakfasts for the worried well in a very nice psychiatric hospital (I could recomend it to anyone) and six months later have my own little facility and am Director of Nursing (kind of like a UK matro) on a nice little salary thank you...

There is plenty of crime here but it is some how 'different' and because perhaps we have no attachment to any area other than our own little town don't feel overly effected by it.... We are more concerned about tourists being swept out to sea whilst walking over to Penguin Island...

But we are in Perth.... not Brissie

Education.... well you can choose to recreate little Britain from a range of private schools which model themselves on the (frankly flawed) British system... or 'go native' like us and have happy little vegemites who are engaging well but not necessarily pushed (having said that child number 3 is possibly being put up a year because they noticed what we have known all along ie she is quite bright) depends what you want/ aspire to.. Private education certainly appears to be more prevelant and is cheaper here...