asprilla

LAFHA allowance is a good thing, do a few searches on the internet to find out the details.

If I was in your shoes, I would be thinking very hard about the cashflow situation I would be in, with 3 kids in Sydney. How much will rent, food, clothing & bills cost me? Will my take-home pay be enough ? Will I have enough left over for other essentials, and also a few of the nicer things in life? Will I be able to save for the future?

At the end of the day, it is all relative to the lifestyle that you expect / are used to.

This is what I'd do, if I were you :
a) work out how much I'd be taking home after tax each week.
b) work out, with 95% certainty, how much $$$ I would need to spend on housing,food,bills,etc..each week.
c) if (a) turns out bigger than (b) I'd give it a go !

good luck !

verystormy

What job are you going to be doing?

wbbugs

Graphics Pre Press Artist

asprilla

Also, one other thing to consider.

If you are in the habit of converting currencies and thinking "$72k is a good wage when you convert it to £", then don't fall into the trap of converting $72k using today's fx rate of £0.47=$1.

If you do, you will get an artificially inflated amount....you'll be thinking that you'll be earning the equivalent of £34k in the UK.

Multiply it by 0.40 instead, as this is a fairer reflection of FX rates over the past few yrs, and it is also a little prudent too. This gives you a rough figure of £29k in UK terms. The LAFHA will give you a little bit more, so bring it up to maybe £32k.

I would also adjust this down a little bit as Sydney is fairly expensive. Lets drop it down to £30k (or approx £27k with no LAFHA).

So, if you use this line of thinking, then you might ask yourself "In the UK, what kind of lifestyle would my family enjoy on £30k?"




ps- none of the above should be construed as advice in any way. I have plucked the numbers out of the air, and they are rough approximations. Just something to think about !!

asprilla

fk it, here's one other thing to consider...

I'm always optimistic and try to look at the bigger picture... If I was emigrating to another country, I would expect nothing less than a bit of a struggle in the first few years. But I would work hard and make it pay off later.

cheers !!

Kooky.

I posted these figures before, and was told they weren't far out. I've tweaked them a bit since then but the overall outcome is pretty much the same. They're what I see as the bare minimum, don't even include clothes, haircuts, going out, booze. They're for a childess couple, for a month.

Mortgage on A$500k over 25 years @ 8% 3,900
Council Rates 104
Water 92
Building Insurance 83
Contents Insurance 40
Electricity 100
Gas 42
Phone & Broadband 100
Satellite TV 100
Mobiles 108
Groceries 867 (this may be OTT, I need a special diet)
Health Insurance 260
Cost of running a 1.6L car (incl finance) 650 (this came from the RAC)
Gym - Membership only 173 (yes I see this as essential, I have health issues)

That totals A$6619 a month.

By my calculations, on a salary of A$120k pa, and not taking into account any salary sacrificing, you would take home A$6925 a month. That's after Tax and Med.

That doesn't leave a lot.

edit: The mortgage equates to 900 a week, if renting you can substitute with rent figure and maybe take out Rates, Water and Buildings Insurance.

asprilla

well, I'd remove the gym membership as it isn't an essential for most.

For the car, I'd buy one for $15k and then would say $350 p/m running.

Mobiles -you could half that on PAYG...

Satellite TV - not an "essential".

Mortgage on $500k @ $3,900.... I would replace this w/ renting at $500p/w. This would also get rid of the council rates and building insurance.

So that brings your $6,619 down to $3,905 !

wbbugs

MARKALLWOOD

That sounds about right. Dont need the gym. Plenty of space to walk in OZ.
Agree with the mobile and sky comment and Rent is definitely what we will be doing initially.

stevemich

Well done on the offer - one thing to bear in mind as you have kids :
NSW charges (I think $4.5k per year per kid) if you are not a permanent resident.
Obviously this depends if your kids are school age or not.

Good luck

Kooky.

Sorry, Mark, I think I edited as you were replying.

That's good info; I would be delighted to be corrected! And yes, I'm not suggesting everybody will have those exact expenses but it's easy to switch them in and out.

You're right about Satellite - certainly not essential to me as we haven't had it for 4 years but I know it's the norm for a lot of people.

Gym IS essential for me (I have pretty severe osteoporosis, amongst other things). I've left out the Personal Trainer that I currently have.

I've also left out meds which I know not everyone will need.

We will be renting initially but do intend to buy, and that mortgage figure is probably low. Unfortunately.

asprilla

cheers, though I wasn't correcting you We are both right. It's down to the individual...

...and, we have both left out lots of things like entertainment, eating out, clothes, holidays, school costs and other bits & bobs. So, for renting @$500p/w (and I don't know what you'd get for that) $4,000 really would not be enough..... I couldn't say how much more $$$ you would need for that stuff.

asprilla

wbbugs, just remember that seasider listed a rough idea of the bare essentials......there are lots of other things that you will need to spend money on, so make sure you consider it carefully.

cheers !!

wbbugs

Yeah cheers.

Thats all I have been doing lately. Its a really big step and this needs to work. So I have tried to cover everything. This website is a gold mine and its really nice to chat to people who are doing or have done the big move.
Cheers again guys.

paddyo

Agree with markallwood with his comments. Plus LAFHA only goes with rental, not with mortgage. Your LAFHA amount will include rental figure agreed between you and your employer (with size of your family I would go for $650 as a mininum per week) and the food figure which is a set amount decreed by the ATO (for 2 adults and 1 child it is 340 per week for example).
By the way, your higher salary figure may be because your employer has now factored in Super which is a compulsory 9% salary deduction (similar to NI contributions really). You will need to ask if your salary is inc or exc of Super and what the rental component of LAFHA is set at.
If you pm me I have a great little excel calculator that helps you work out your take home pay after super and all lafha.

asprilla

good one mate, forgot about that !!!