LoobyLoo!

Hi everyone,
I keep on reading on here how living expences are extremely high and how skint everyone is in austarlia Is this really true or is it just a case of wealthy people from the uk just not being as wealthy?
In uk we (a family of four) live on my husbands wage of £22k (plus overtime when available) and are mortgaged to our maximum, we always manage to pay the bills, can afford the odd treat, drive a second hand car and are completely happy with this, we are not in loads of debt but not rich either.

Now we have tried to find out how much he would roughly be on in Oz but no jobs seem to show the salary. I did find one site however that says his average wage would be about $55k to which everyone on here says $50k is not liveable on

This converts to about £22k same as we have here, and from what i have researched is enough to buy a 3 bed house in a reasonable area, but realistically are we going to be alot worse off??

I am currently a stay at home mum for my baby and toddler and would want to continue this over in oz (personal preference).

So i guess i'm worrying as all though money isnt everything and is certainly not the reason we are thinking of moving over, we wouldnt want to be alot worse off and struggle.
Any insight anyone?
Thank you.

Grayling

Everyone is different....it may be fine for you.

One thing to take into account is that many people have found houses to be much more expensive that they expected (despite internet research) but that may depend on the area you want to go to.

G

louise4

I can only give you my experience from 4 years ago, the last time we were there. We were in sydney's northern suburbs.

OH earnt $55
we rented for $345p/w
i stayed home with the kids
we drove second hand car
managed a social life and everything else.
we managed just fine on this

But, i have no idea if things have gone up in price drasticly over the years. i am sure others will let you know.

Karl & Ann

I think if you allow for the same household bills/running costs as in UK you won't be too far wrong. It will then all come down to what areas you like, and what mortgage/rental you can afford.

Petrol could be a pleasant surprise if, like us, you run two cars in the UK and get through up to £80 per week in juice.

Karl

Here comes the sun

The same thing was worrying me but to be honest myself and hubby earn around £45000 a year combined as i work part time in aus the salary will be around $45000 for him and part time ($25000) equivelant for me. We cant afford to live in the best areas in the uk and the same will be true in aus. However im hoping our money will get us something we couldnt have in the UK
1. Detached house
2. Decent sized garden
3. Sunshine!
4. Hopefully swimming pool
From the places ive looked at this is realistic (perhaps not in sydney) every suburb will have good and bad parts and it does come down to opinion and everyones view point is different. Ive lived in some supposedly bad areas in the uk and never had a problem.

If your worried check out
www.realestate.com.au

dottyspots

We have 4 children and aren't exactly raking it in (well, who can with 4 kids)

I think it boils down to what people are comfortable with in their lives - second hand car and no foreign holidays (or UK ones atm ) are generally fine here (just occasionally I think I'd like to jet off somewhere, but with my currently tantrumming 3 year old it probably wouldn't be very relaxing), because that's the decision we took for me to stay at home and not have a regular second wage.

We're in a similar set up to you, life toddles along and unless there's a housing market crash in the next year or so (the one thing that does worry me, because we need our equity to move and have some money to tide us over for a while pending dh finding work ) things are ok.

We're not expecting that a move to Australia will make us rich - I'm realistic and even though I'm a bit ahead of myself looking at houses, I'm looking at the lower end and know that the area will be the Aussie equivalent of where we are now and that's fine - chav central here folks, but there are some lovely people here and that more than makes up for the prevalence in Burberry caps.

The challenge is what we're up for!

TraceyW

It all depends on many things really, just the same as in the UK.

We're about as broke as we were in the UK. No difference. The living expenses are just about the same as in the UK when you work it out.

A lot of entertainment here is free when the weather's nice...parks, beach etc.

Jensen Healey

No, it isn't that bad if you go there with an outlook like this!

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=421240

LoobyLoo!

Thankyou all, i feel better already
I've just been feeling so overwhelmed reading some of the threads in which people cant live on this and you need private education etc.
We dont have it here and certainly wont have it there, but as long as we can tick over and be happy thats all that matters.

I was beginning to think we were very disillusioned
But at least i know we're not alone.

Wendy

If you get $50k a year wages you'll spend most of it, if you get $100k wages a year, you'll still spend most of it

seasprite

we found food a bit more costly overall by about £15 p.w, but with the fuel differences etc it all evens out. We did find the houses to be more expensive. Generally the ones on the internet that look great and affordable are in a naff area near a huge highway.Also, no work for professionals, even in the cities! (solicitors anyway)

LoobyLoo!

WOW what amazing people! Truly inspiring

We will (thank goodness) have some equity to bring with us but so dont want to have to use it to live on, its for a deposit (one day)

Bushpig

really helps reading posts like threads like that, did your oh get into the police?

Jensen Healey

Not my OH! It was the OP's OH who was applying. From the other thread it looks as if they're still waiting...

Ozzidoc

Can I just say that its not the "raking in" that's a problem for most people, its the...erm....whatever the reverse is LOL ie the expenditure. ie I earn 20K so I spend 20K or I earn 76K so I spend 76K.