newy7

I am looking to emigrate with my wife & 3 kids to Melbourne in next 3 months. Have job offer paying $130k - taking Lafa into account roughly what will be my after tax amount? Can a family of 5 live OK in Melbourne for this? Will we live the Oz dream of 4 bed (rented at first) house with pool with money to spare for fun weekends........................

I assume we will need to pay around $2500 per month for decent place to live, not sure if that is right. If so need to work out how much we have left for living, cars & fishing.............really appreciate any help & guidance on this.

Sherro

yeah for $2500 a month youd get a decent place in the bayside suburb of Hampton to accommodate the family. or bentleigh or anywhere like Mentone, Cheltenham, they are the areas I know. Brighton will be a stretch and you probably want to ease up on the rent for first 12 months.

id go easy on the 'pool', that always tends to be a luxury most people end up using once and coming into autumn and winter you ll be lucky if it gets any use at all, just needs cleaning.

lafha is based ont he rent you pay etc, but your take home would be about $7450 per month (about 89k net) and with LAFHA allowance on top would probably go to about $8800 a month of slightly less.

You should be able to get a nice place and support a family on that.

Buzzy--Bee

You'll be fine. Plenty of families survive well on considerably less than that.
I reckon without LAFHA you would be taking home over $7000 per month.

BB

spuddyo

That's over twice the average income for a job here. I'm sure you will manage.

Weebie

OP has made it clear that he wants to live in a good area. It will help if your partner works. IF that is your sole income then it's average at best. Family of 5 to live off that comfortable in Melbourne well you can live off it certainly won't be doing what you may want.

itigo

That's fine to manage on. Seriously, no pool. Down here, you wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost and maintenance.........

Buzzy--Bee

Some people do, some don't. One of our neighbours almost never use their pool and another one use it every day for 6 months of the year!

BB

Peepster

$2500 per calendar month is only about $580pw which won't get you anywhere near a 4 bed with pool in Bayside, Port Phillip, Boroondara or Stonnington I'm afraid. You'll need at least $1000pw and even then that's not going to get you much. You might get something decent if you go further down the bay or inland though. Depends on how long you want to spend commuting. If you want a pool in Melbourne - make sure it's solar and gas heated, otherwise you won't get the use out of it. If you're going to pay someone to service it monthly including chemicals expect to pay around $100per month.

Buzzy--Bee

You might have to come out to my area which is still a nice area and by the beach but a little bit further from the city -

http://www.realestate.com.au/rent/wi...ic+3195/list-1

Peepster

Not really though...There is only 1 on the search which is a 4 bed with pool in Mordialloc. Surely best to be further up the bay and do without the pool, but even somewhere like Sandy or Hampton they'll be struggling to get something decent.

spuddyo

I must be living on a different planet. After tax that salary is $7000 per month. If you used a massive $4000 of that for a home it still leaves $3000 for living expenses. That's plenty for an average family to live on.

I used to live in't shoebox int' middle 'at road. aye.

haggis supper

This is a very subjective question as it very much depends on what you're expectations are and what your current standard of living is and your current UK salary. Do you want 2 cars, a pool, foxtel (SKY), mobile phones, foreign holidays, dining out, weekends away etc etc etc ? Do you want private education for the kids or state ? How old are the kids, what do they need and want ?

What is luxury to some folks is basic to others. My salary is higher than you mention and I was told by HR folks that I would "live like a king". Sadly that is not the case, I had much much more disposable income in the UK.

Bayside is a fabulous area but its also extremely expensive to rent and buy. Many folks rent in Bayside suburbs to start with (easier with LAFHA) and get kids settled in schools only to find out that its impossible to then buy in the area and are faced with removing kids from school or a long trip to/from school.

In the Bayside areas of Brighton, Hampton, Sandringham, Black Rock and Beaumaris its hard to find a good property for under $1.2m. Property is in demand, especially from Brits (not called Little Britain for nothing) and Asians. I work for an Australian company with a UK outlet so we bring many many Brits across each year. In the last few years though its become difficult for them to stay due to the exchange rate and the cost of UK housing as opposed to houses here.

Rental is also ridiculously high. We know two families in Beaumaris currently renting good (but not outstanding) 4 bedroom places with a pool for $1,400+ per week.

Mentone and Cheltenham are good alternative areas which will be cheaper but still easy to commute from - drive or train - and close to all amenities and the beach.

Re a pool, I would always have one. Nowhere near as difficult to clean/maintain as some folks suggest. Over the years it can be costly (covers, pumps, salt, cleaning) but we love ours and we usually get a good 5 to 6 months use out of it - though not this year

As many others have already said elsewhere, Melbourne/Australia is also a rather expensive place, we were shocked (still are) at the price of things.

I reckon that in the UK I would have retired in my early fifties, or at least reduced my working week considerably. In Melbourne I'll certainly won't be giving it up that early.

However...our quality of life is much better. I don't quite feel the need to retire early, life is easier and more enjoyable. We're closer as a family, happier and the kids are thriving. Strangely enough the financial side is less of a concern.

Good luck with the decision. If you need any more info feel free to drop me a PM.

Cheers
Col

RobgW

Just ion response to your question, i did not read all the replies so this is my honest reply.

We have one child in daycare 'full time', we both work earning more than $130 each.

Leasing one car renting and a two bed house, plus two holidays a year and that's about it. Sure we may get a 4 bed house and pool way out west but working in city would be a nightmare and the schools arnt as good. Plus these areas can be a little rough. Yes council estates are here too! 1hr 30 to drive to a beach too. Sure the weather is better yadda yddda

But please dont wear rose tined specs. A decent loaf of bread from coles is $5 (over 3 pounds). Food is almost twice the cost, so are clothes and cars and insurances.

Dont get me wrong i love my life here but you do have to pay a lot for it!!. I live near the beach out in Manly Sydney, as there is no point coming all this way away from family and friends to live in a suberb miles away from the lifestyle you dream, I think you will agree

A 4 bed house and pool close to our work would cost $1500 to $1750 per week!. Our two bed is currently $900 a week. Day care for i child $550 a week.

If you need access to the City CBD's for work, you need to be quite close as commuting aint easy. Please research and realised that $130 minus your super net, wont leave you a lot to run a family here.

Id hate for you to move all this was and manage just to rent a house in Melbourne miles away from beaches and with a pool you can only use 4 months of the year, because Melbourne has UK weather, its very cold!


Check out DOMAINE REAL ESTATE SITE


Sure it's miles better than the UK but it aint all you think it's goig to be.

Just be realistic and do your research as you will be coming here and starting all over again,

Buzzy--Bee

Bear in mind when you read this post that the poster is in Sydney and the OP was asking about Melbourne:


I can't think of a single suburb in Melbourne that would be over 1 hour drive to the beach. One of the reasons we chose Sydney over Melbourne.

....don't buy bread from Coles then. Decent loaves of bread are $1.80 - $3 at the local bakers one block from our house.

Manly is one of the most expensive suburbs in the whole of Australia.

Sydney prices seem to be more than Melbourne's from what you are saying which is a surprise to me as I understood the two cities had now evened out.

To the OP: If you want to know about Melbourne's weather, listen to people who live in Melbourne, not Sydneysiders, Melbourne is cooler than Sydney for much of the year, thankfully it also gets about 1/3 of the rainfall that Sydney gets.

Melbourne is like the UK plus 10 degrees, we never get frosts or snow here by the bay, summer days are high twenties to early forties. Today it is 27 degrees which is pretty good for Autumn.

BB

Weebie

In terms of exclusiveness and expense Melbourne Bay Area > Northern Beaches