Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

Simple question really.

The general feeling seems to be that the cost of living in Oz is roughly the same as it is in the UK.

So if I'm earning say £25,000 in the UK & i get Offered $50,000 in oz, Will i be financially better off in Oz.

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

$50,000 is quite low (if you mean a year). Then again depends if you are on your own or a family.

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

Surely it depends on a few other factors. Say you live in London and earn £25k and you moved to the Adelaide suburbs you would probably think the cost of living is cheaper in Oz. Likewise the reverse say you earned £25k and lived in Middlesborough but you moved to Sydney then you would probably say its more expensive in Oz.

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

Wife, 2 young children & 2 dogs.

By the same token, do you think 25K is low for a UK salary.

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

Where are you planning on living?

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

Brisbane at the moment.

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

No expert but basic things like groceries are more expensive here than the UK and housing costs more expensive in the current market also.
I earn just under $50,000 and have a husband and 2 kids (no pets) and if he didn't work my wages would not cover our living expenses. We pay $300 a week rent for a place that is really too small for us all but if we get a mortage that $300 will double.
Wouldn't want to be anywhere else tho :)

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

Has anyone on the forum ever done a breakdown of living expenses, utilities, car insurance etc.

It would be really useful to see where all the cost come from.

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

There have been a few, here is a recent one.

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

I asked a similar question in another thread recently and was directed to this cost of living comparison calculator:

http://www.gomatilda.com/calculator/index.cfm

In a nutshell, the conclusion I drew from the other thread was that if I earned 100,000 groats in the UK, I'd need to earn about 75,000 groats in OZ to maintain a similar quality of life.

In other words, if I earned £100,000 (a nice round number for calculation purposes) in the UK, (this works out to AU$200,000), then I would need to earn AU$150,000 in Oz for it to work out the same.

Or, to put it another way still, £1 spent in the UK has the same purchasing power as £0.75 (AU1.50) spent in Oz.

I don't know if any of this is true. It's just based on what others on BE have quoted and a few number typd into the above web-site.

- CDM

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

so if your on £30k in uk, by these calculations wouldnt you need to earn $45k? isnt that a little low for aus?

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

Obviously it depends on your lifestyle, where you choose to live, etc... but it is a fair guide to say (like the OP) that you need to have twice as many $ as £ to have the same standard of living. This guide has been good regardless of the exchange rate. (All the exchange rate determines is the value of the £s that you're bringing over.)

Although people bang on about groceries being (debateably) more expensive here there are lots of things that are cheaper: petrol, council tax, eating out, most entertainment, insurance to name a few.

Now I know some people are going to come in and say that some of those things are more expensive and it may depend on where you live but usually it's because they're comparing apples and pears and it comes down to their own personal choices or circumstances. The classic is that although the petrol is cheaper here you have to drive 3 times as far. Per capita Aussies drive about the same average miles as Brits so on average people are not driving 3 times as far, it's the people who've decided to live a long way out. I moved from city to UK to countryside Aus and I am driving further. However I'm not driving further than if I had moved to countryside UK (which would have cost a lot more).

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

Hi,

We now earn around the same or as we did in the UK, and seem to have more cash available at the end of the month. We were trying to figure out why, when in general, our mortgage is higher, shopping is higher, but in the end with lower rates, petrol etc I reckon the overall costs are the same. You spend less to entertain yourself and the weather helps. I think the difference for us is that we do not feel like we have to have one or two holidays abroad a year just to get a bit of sun and that probably saves the equivalent of around $5k - $10k a year for a family of 4.

Julia

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

Agreed.

You may also find that the tax is lower. People are often misled by the lower advertised rates of tax in UK but are for most people higher.

:)

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple
 

That's a very good point, perksy. I think many of us forget we're coming from a 3-bed Barratt Box in a provincial town or minor city where property is relatively cheap, to one of Australia's major cities and expect a McMansion with en suites, pool and rumpus room for the same money. Which also needs heating/cooling and maintaining. (Yes, huge generalisation just to illustrate the point.)

Another good point - it's all about tax minimisation here, isn't it? Consult a tax accountant and pay for as much as you can out of pre-tax salary, for instance. We've come from somwhere we paid about 12% income tax so it's a bit of a shocker but I don't think it would have been if we'd come straight from the UK, as we were both in the highest bracket anyway.

edit: Or was there an even higher one? Can't remember now, out of touch.