Eeyore

Hi all,

We're a British expat family currently living in Dubai. A former colleague of mine who moved to Sydney years ago has asked me if I'd be interested in moving there to work for his company.

This is all as early-stages as it gets and we're not at all sure we're interested in moving that far away from our families in the UK (3000 miles seems way too far at times), but we also don't want to turn the idea down flat without at least considering it.

The *very* rough salary that's been mentioned is about $8000-9000 AUD per month after tax. So how nice a lifestyle could that buy us within easy commuting distance of Sydney? We're a family of four, kids aged 7 and 5. We'd want to rent a house with a garden in a reasonable area.

Absolutely no idea how the school system works in Australia, but here in Dubai there's no choice but to go private and be gouged for fees; we'd want our kids to go to a decent school (obviously) but would much prefer a good state school to a fee-paying one.

This offer has come completely out of the blue, so we're totally clueless about everything to do with the modern cost of living in Australia. We've had two wonderful holidays there, but that was in 1994 and 1995, when the exchange rate was massively in the pound's favour.

Any advice or insight greatly appreciated

old.sparkles

Have visas been mentioned at all?

Eeyore

My friend is senior in a large Australian company that you will all know very well indeed, so I'm assuming he's fully aware of those sorts of issues and wouldn't be asking if he expected there to be problems.

Since this is so early-stages, I'm really mainly interested in knowing what kind of lifestyle we could afford on that sort of salary. We're not looking for an extravagant beachfront lifestyle at all, we're happy to live in suburbia, but we don't want to have to penny-pinch either, or live an hour's commute away from Sydney to be able to afford a decent place to live.

old.sparkles

Well the salary seems good to me, but the visa will affect whether or not you need to pay school fees in NSW.

For property's you can have a look at realestate.com.au to get a feel for styles and prices but I would expect that you can live well on that salary. Having said that, I'm in Adelaide which is cheaper in terms of housing costs and there is only two of us

Beoz

Go for 10 - 11 k after tax and you'll be doing pretty well. Or send the Mrs back to work.

carolinephillips

Is the 8-9k inclusive of superannuation?

Bermudashorts

Strange way of describing salary, making assumptions on your tax profile and it seems not many people are paid monthly here either, you also do need to know with or without super, my employer always quotes with super.

I think this probably translates to about $150-170k depending on super and if it were $8.5k per month take home then about $2k per week, which I am mentioning as Australia doesn't use per monthly rates for house rentals either.

Overall a well above average salary, but nothing flash for Sydney. You mention you are a family so I assume you want a house not an apartment but $2k a week take home is not putting you in a nice suburb with a short commute, not unless you wanted to spend well over half your pay on rent anyway. I think you would need to be commuting for an hour or so, unless you get a dual income.

Other than that, quite hard to comment as we all live our lives differently. But probably this would be similar to living in London on say £60-70k, so if you can visualise that it might help you.

quoll

It'll cost you $10kpa to put the kids in a government school which needs to be taken into account. Catholic schools probably just over half that and prestigious private schools, twice that.

Dorothy

The visa issue is an important one. If he's going to sponsor on a 457 you'll be paying school fees for your kids no matter what school they go to. You will also not be likely to be eligible for Medicare coming from a non reciprocal country, so you're going to have to factor in the costs of medical insurance.

I don't live in Sydney, but I think the cost of living would be similar to Perth. The salary looks ok to me, but when you have to pay all the extras I would say not so much.

If your friend is going to sponsor you for PR from the get go, then that's a whole different story and the salary would probably be fine. That way you're not paying for school fees (unless you send the kids private) or medical.

quoll

Was just thinking - a couple of years ago (and assuming prices not gone down since then) we, as a couple in Canberra (probably around the same or bit cheaper than Sydney), no rent/mortgage (and rates paid elsewhere) were spending on average around $5k per month on the credit card for everything (and paid off each month, LOL!). That included running two cars and paying private health insurance, doing a bit of DIY and going out for a meal maybe once or twice a month. So if you add $2-3k per month for rent (not unusual) you'd be making ends meet but not saving huge amounts especially if you have to factor in $1k pm ball park for kids' education.

Bermudashorts

As OP appears to need a house and doesn't want a long commute, they will be unlikely to rent for $2-3k per month in Sydney. I'd double that to be on safe side, depending on size of house required.

quoll

True! I've lost touch with Sydney rentals!

Eeyore

Thanks for the replies so far. Clearly I need to ask what the actual visa situation is going to be before we can make any true determination about whether it's really worth considering making the move.

Eeyore

...and I've just got the reply, and it would be a 457. Salary 130k per year plus 9% superannuation. The UK does of course have a reciprocal arrangement with Medicare. Or would it be based on our country of residence immediately prior to moving to Australia, rather than our nationality?

So maybe not such a great deal financially for the Sydney area?

Looking at the 457 restrictions, we're living under largely similar conditions here in Dubai - we're sponsored by our employer and our residency is reliant on that. If we lose our job, we have one month to find a new sponsor or leave the country. However, we don't face any issues getting credit cards or driving licences. What's the reality of that for people on a 457? How long do you actually have to wait to get a licence, and is a credit card as necessary in Australia as it is in many other countries for making hotel/flight/rental car bookings etc?

quoll

Be careful about the Medicare reciprocal thing - it's only for necessary medical intervention and there may be times when you think you need medical intervention but Medicare isn't prepared to pay for it so insurance will be important ($300 pm give or take) and given that you haven't come from UK I've no idea if that means there is no reciprocity. They expect you to go home for expensive medical stuff which they deem elective.