Could we (2 adults, 1 toddler) live a reasonable life on this in Perth (excluding mortgage)? Have a chance of a job for me, but if we move with no job for him indoors can we get by? I keep reading websites that say we can, but we're spending a lot more than that in Singapore at the moment.

Well that is over £40,000 per year. Many, many people live on an awful lot less so I'd say yes, most definitely.

Depends what you call "survive" I guess? There's 5 of us and we survive on half that amount!! (UK)

P
x

Best things in life are free!

....And for everything else there is mastercard!

(sorry couldn't resist that one!)

Why post a message when you known the answer to be honest your taking the p... go & have a nice life & use your money wisely & I hope you acheive what you want but you do sound like a dickhead. ( no offence meant)

$85,000 pa with no mortgage, would be pretty nice. It's a lot more than we (family of 3) live on.

Geez $85000 without a mortgage sounds a bit tight to me, may be on the breadline there

WE survive on a lot less with 4 kids and a mortgage. Of course you can survive very comfotably with no mortgage on one wage, but if you've been used to living a very high life you may find it tight. Be aware that Perth is not Singapore and there's probably not so much to spend your money on. You will also find it very quiet after Singapore,but if that's what you want go for it.

When we visited Perth the best job offer my OH had was $55k and a car with a share in the profits at the end of the year. That is above the average package in OZ.

Really, was there any need for that? You may have done lots of research and know the answer but let's be honest, there are a lot of different opinions on this site alone about how much money you need to survive here, live comfortably here, have a great life here, etc. When we were deciding to move I really had no clue on the cost of living here, and I have to say it is even higher than I thought.

OP, I don't know what Perth is like, I don't know what you envisage your lifestyle will be like in Perth - I'm sure the champagne brunches will be few and far between - but excluding rent (and not accounting for the fact that if we owned we would need to pay buildings insurance and rates, etc) in Sydney I reckon we 2 spend about $50k pa just having a comfortable life, not accounting for any holidays or trips to the UK, so I hope your $85k is post-tax.

I'll get shot down for that but if you do a search on "cost of living" and my username you will find some discussions and some people agreeing with me, some disagreeing of course.

I have a spreadsheet I can send you. Naturally

I agree, Seasider. But I expect that if me and OH had no kids we would still spend most of our money each year, and just indulge ourselves a little more. When you have a family you tend to cut back and pour it into them somewhat.

As you say, what one person thinks is perfectly acceptable as an income another will consider totally inadequate. I know it can be done comfortably on a lot less than you will be earning, and I believe Perth is a cheaper city to live in than Sydney or Melbourne, but the wages will be higher in S or M. OP, have you been to Perth?

It depends on your lifestyle really, to me $85k per year without mortgage sounds like a huge amount of money, we get by on significantly less than that but then that is us and not you.

Do you eat out alot? Do you have expensive hobbies/shopping tastes etc? Would be you happy with a small house on a small plot surrounded by lots of other similar houses or do you yearn for big house, big pool etc? All of these will affect how you spend your $85K.

For us, we are less financially well off than we were in the UK and have to be more careful with our budget, generally our weekly shopping costs more and somethings like shoes or books are more expensive.

But as already said by the more of us, it is really subjective and hard for others to give you a yes/no answer but good luck with whatever you do.

Sam

Take this as a lesson never post when you are pissed off about something & it was nothing to do with this. SORRY

Does the $85k include superannuation or is this in addition?

$85k base salary = $2372/fortnight after tax

I'll be baited by your post so let's assume rent of $1200/fn for an innercity apartment that leaves you $1172/fortnight or $84/day to piss up the wall...

According to ABS, for Nov 2008:
Earnings ; Western Australia ; Males ; Full Time ; Adult ; Total earnings ;
$80,412.80

or
Earnings ; Western Australia ; Persons ; (Male & Fermale & Full & Part Time) ; Total earnings ;
$53,144 (before Super)

Sorry to those I've inadvertently offended!

It was a serious question as I've not that much idea of the cost of living in Perth (or indeed in the UK as left 12 years ago). We live a non-extravagant life in Singapore (by which I mean cheapish apartment, don't eat out much, 1 (relatively!) cheap car) but get through a shedload of money as food is dearer, healthcare is expensive, and cars cost a bloody fortune. It's hard to know what a simple (but not poverty stricken life) would cost in Perth. Which I was asking here.

Not mortage free, unfortunately, (quite the opposite) but I think we'll have to dip into the savings to pay the mortgage until other half gets a job.

We live a comfortable (but not extravagant) life in Singapore but we don't really like it here, but we both have good jobs so it's a lot to risk if we make the wrong mistake. If it was just us it'd be OK, but we want to make our son's life better not worse.

No champagne brunches currently consumed or intended.

(P.S. This would be pre-tax)

P.S. Will now re-register under another name