john82

After reading posts over the last few weeks im concerned, their seems to be allot of negative stuff regarding the cost of living compared to the salaries paid now. Has it changed that much? for instance we where looking at Perth and my salary their would be 70 000 - 80 000AUD (40-45K in th UK which is a great wage) as a bricklayer and people were saying you could never survive on that salary and for a family of 4 we would need at least 120k. Over the last couple years we have had a terrible time and since losing a business amongst other things we have managed to live on 20k for family of 4, so 45k seemed brilliant.
Sorry we just need a bit of reassurance before we pay anything towards our visa app, I heard their has been a rise in interest rates which has slowed down the construction, Does their seem to be much going on in Melbourne, Adelaide or Sydney at the min.

We would all appreciate some honest opinions
thanks
John and Sabrina

Amazulu

My opinion:
You need a minimum household income of $80k to have a fairly comfortable life for an 'average' family. Anything less than this and you are just surviving and will not be saving the extra needed for retirement.

freebo

I'd like the answer to this one too - but one thing worth bearing in mind is that the pound has gone down a lot against the Australian dollar, a year ago that $70,000 would have been about £31,000, so the salaries look good when compared with the UK but all your expenses will be in $'s too, so the same conversion will make food, rent, cars etc seem much more expensive in £'s

spalen

no-one can tell you this because everyone has different expecations of what "normal expenditure" is.

you need to search and search and search and find all the lists of peoples expenses and model it.

you also need to look at the tax rebates you'd get based on your kids ages/did your wife work/etc. You get a lot of tax breaks at that wage (apparently).

You need to look at houses on the aussie house websites and do some model mortgage values and rental property rates and see what you'd be paying. Account for all the things you spend at home today - and just re-do you r budget in aussie prices - tax is higher here than in UK so comparing a UK Salary with an Aussie salary is not going to cut it

People have posted their groceries etc (You could go on coles online - and do a 'shop' compare with whatever you normall ybuy)

freebo

Found this link for average wages which may be of interest...

http://www.livingin-australia.com/salaries-australia/

kporte

I'd agree with this, with the rider that even on that amount, you would have to have a fairly organised budget.

ABCDiamond

That is absolutely correct.

But the size of your mortgage will be a major deciding factor in how much you really need.

chrissystevo

Carry out all your research, look at what you think you'll be paying, prepare your estimated budget and then increase that by about 50%. I spent hours and hours researching living costs but it isn't until you're out here that you relaise how very expensive it is to live.

knockoff nige

I think Super has a say in this also. You might have a company contribution pension at home. Here, it is generally factored into the offered salary. Meaning 7% of the offered salary has to go to Super. Of course thats not money lost (unless we hit another stupid financial crisis but it does have a say in your take home pay. Health insurance is also an issue. You might get it paid by your employer at home. You'd be doing well to find that here.

ABCDiamond

If the salary is quoted as a salary 'package', then they tend to include the 9% compulsory super in the figure.

However, when quoting 'pure' salary, they must quote the figure before the super.

The super is calculated as 9% on top of your gross salary.

knockoff nige

Yes but its generaly the case that super is included.

DadAgain

I've never had a job (in 10 years) where the salary quoted was 'inc super'. Its always been expressed as: "$100k + super".

The only time the dollars have included super was when I contracted in which case the rate was expressed more as '$100 per hour'.

(numbers chosen at random ).

knockoff nige

Well we've had very different experiences then.

ABCDiamond

A selection of local jobs from Seek

If the employer just mentions a salary, with no mention of super or package, then by law, the 9% must be in addition to that figure.

If a salary is quoted as just one fixed figure, eg: "salary $90,000." then it may be worth just checking with them that it is $90k + super.

When a salary range is quoted, eg: "$100k-$130k" that could be $100k + super up to $130k including super.

knockoff nige

I understand how it works. I was saying that if your super is packaged in, you'll have to accept that your take home will be less.