Mr&MrsPom

How do regular Aussie's survive on their wages, most of us are fortunate (I am assuming here) that we will be taking out a fair wedge to buy a house if not outright at least with a very small mortgage.

I found a website last night where people had posted their Annual salaries, whilst I realise this probably only reflects a small percentage of people it still makes disturbing reading. We found that people were earning as little as $27k, how can you survive on this let alone purchase a house.

Our friends have an income (pre tax) of $70k and live in Perth, they have a $90k mortgage. They can afford to live but there is nothing left over for saving. It really concerns me because as much as I want to go, I do not want to live in poverty, even if it is in paradise.

My husband is a 'Jack of all Trades' 'Master of None', this is because in his work environment, they spend between three and five years in a dept then move to another dept, so he might be in the Alarms section, then move to Telephony, then on to a Help Desk and in between that may have a posting where they do everything.

He is going for a trade telecommnications engineer, not because that is exactly what he does, but because he can supply all the relevant certificates and work experience to gain the tra. He is looking at Network Voice/Data engineer. I had looked on Hayes Salary site and in Perth it showed salaries of between $60k and $80k, which would be livable. However, once again my spirits have dropped because maybe these jobs just dont exist.

Does anyone know what sort of companies we should contact, someone suggested calling them and having a chat, he said that he had done this and they were very helpful.

Thanks

Merlot

With great difficulty. There are a LOT of working poor around Oz.

To give an example, I know a "food kitchen" on the NSW Central Coast, supporting the homeless and people in need.

I know that there are complaints that smartly dressed families come in who work. Now are these people trying to get something for nothing? Not at all.

When I spoke to them you find that Hubby works in a respectable but not highly paid job in Sydney (3 hours commuting everyday). His wife works part time and 2 kids at school. Their money literally goes on the mortgage, bills, kids stuff, etc. Leaving little left to feed the kids. These folks don't drink, smoke or gamble.

A sign of the times in every land? Just an observation.

NickyC

I don't think a family on 27k could afford a buy a house anywhere. You'd need two incomes of that amount (ie a couple, both working) before you could even begin to afford to buy anywhere. You could survive on 27k as a single person, renting somewhere cheap, but you wouldn't be taking any flash holidays or buying much.

Not sure what the average Australian income is supposed to be (it was $37000 in NSW two years ago) but I don't know anyone who's on that - seems really low to me. Maybe the statistics are produced from Tax returns so incomes are - shall we say - understated? In reality, I think most average families count on having two incomes most of the time.

A common scenario seems to be - newly married couple put largish deposit on first home, having saved as much as possible beforehand. Average mortgage amount is apparantly $160k. They attempt to pay as much as possible off the mortgage as soon as they can (none of this waiting 25 years). Then when the babies start arriving they can reduce the repayments and manage on one income for few years. When the kids are a bit older, wife goes back to work. When they have reasonable equity they trade up to a bigger house or renovate/extend existing house.

You only have to look around the suburbs to see that a lot of people have a lot of money. Someone is buying all those houses with huge price tags and it's not all English migrants.

I also think that if you're on $70k, only have a $90k mortgage and you're only just surviving, then something's wrong somewhere. That should leave around $900 a week after the mortgage is paid - what on earth are they doing with it?

evorobin

That sounds like crap to me. Maybe they shouldn't have car payments on two new cars and credit card habits to keep ansett afloat. If you are for real you will be pleasently suprised at the low cost of living, provided you don't go mad!

Went shopping today and saw a ben Sherman shirt for more than a days wages. Didn't depress me at all it just made me realise some sucker will waste nearly $200 on a shirt...

Mr&MrsPom

hang on they sent us a spreadsheet with their expenses on. Will find it and post back

Goodpubmisser

The answer is that a lot of Australians live on the edge of their income.

By this I mean that they have large credit card bills, a large mortgage, a car loan etc. They thus live off next month's wages.

That is the way the Australian economy works - everyone has a high debt and no one saves. Thus when bad times hit and people start losing their jobs the economy goes down very quickly. Australia is very much more boom and bust than the UK.

Amazulu

That's right, when they have a recession in Australia, they really have a recession.

evorobin

Too true everyone buys cars on HP and have mortgages that are about six times their income. Due to this it amazes me that house prices are so high in relation to income. To the point where its probably a higher ratio than England yet houses are still cheap compared to UK when converted directly.

Does anyone know when the aussie dollar is due for a fall?

Mr&MrsPom

Ok, my mistake they do have a car loan, their expenses are as follows:

Monthly Expenses

Food 1000
Private Medical 200
Electric 66 ( paid quarterly)
Gas 50 (paid quarterly)
Telephone 140 (Assume this covers internet as well)
Car Licence (1) 37 (paid 6 monthly)
Car Insurance 58 ( paid annually)
Water Rates 57
Shire Rates 72 (paid quarterly)
House Insurance 48
Car Licence (2) 37 (paid 6 monthly)
School Fees 207 (this is for eldest, two more to follow upon reaching secodary education)
Mortgage 600
Car Loan 326

Ok, added this up and it comes to approx $2604.00 per month, just have to see what you need to earn now to make this liveable, of course there are no costs here for clothes, hair or entertainment etc

ABCDiamond

This is an example of our essential spending, not including Mortgage, Holiday, Capital items etc. Averaged out over last 12 months. Hope it helps a bit, in the comparisons.

$ 8.71 Bank Fees
$290.65 Cars (two)
$ 80.71 Electricity
$127.52 Rates & water
$433.72 Food
$113.42 Medical ( 2 adults, 1 child)
$ 82.22 Phones

$1,136.95 Month Total

Goodpubmisser

q

evorobin

The wife sat down the other day and worked out we spend $18K / year without holidays, restaurants and other luxuries. In reality that probably didn't include mobile phones or haircuts etc. Pretty scary although we own our cars and don't have any loans so it's not hard to budget.

We both work p/t and earn enough. It's not a huge amount but we NEVER have our son in childcare and get to spend quality time with him/each other. OZ is about working to live not living to work which I did in the UK

Megalania

Almost as relevant is how will they survive.

A typical family, age 35, $100 k savings, retire aged 65 dead aged 85 needs to save ~$20 k / year inflation adjusted to have a retirement invome of ~$50 k / year until 85.

Many retire at 55: need to save ~$50 k / year for retirement income of ~$50 k / year until 85.

This on top of a mortgage.

Most will not get near.

chippy

The Chippy rulebook says that pensions/savings are an in-efficient means of achieving financial security. :lecture:

ABCDiamond

I'll second that.
And I feel that i am just as comfortable now, as when I was earning 3 times as much. Maybe its just the relaxed state versus the stressed, but high paid state, coming out about equal.