I live semi-rural, 28kms from the city centre. I'm one of your haloed 'professionals' (shit, I hate that word) and earn a pretty high salary. How is my way of life affected?

I'm pretty sure Two Rocks plus is way more than 28km away.

It is, Amazulu doesn't live in Two Rocks.

This evening myself and Mini (4) went to one of the many playgrounds near our lovely home; the kind of house I'd have aspired to at the beginning of my professional career (and no, I don't just have low standards).

We played in the pristine park and looked at the sun setting over the sea and Mini turned to me and said "Mummy, my quality of life is seriously effected by living in the outer suburbs."

I was so horrified by the mis-use of "effected" that I am immediately removing him from his state school and moving to Shenton Park.

What a stupid snobby remark and an insult to the thousands of families who live in the outer suburbs, don't earn $9,000 a month net but live in nice houses. In what way does living in the outer suburbs affect your way of life in Perth, apart from the travelling distance ? To suggest you can't live in a nice house in the outer suburbs shows what a tosser you are.

Weebie,
Can I just ask...... In your opinion what constitutes a nice house?

Is it style? Is it size? Is it price? A mix of all three? Or is it purely down to location?

Really interested to know.

Its nothing to do with if you can survive on the amount. It is to do with will you be able to buy the things they can in the UK on GBP81k as you can on $130K. It could be any too amounts. As i have mentioned, i earn about that
and dont have Children but our lifestyle is not as good from a material point of view as it would be in the UK. It doesnt mean that i am complaining i cant afford to live. I am saying i dont get as much as i would on 80k sterling. The amount could be in the millions or the tens of thousands. The answers would be the same.[/QUOTE]


If the OH was simply interested in material wealth then there is no point in coming to Australia never mind Perth. If you base your decision on moving to Aus by comparing what you can buy for 81k sterling, compared to what you get for $130,000 here then you are never going to make the numbers work. My husband and I don't earn $130,000 in total but we live less than a 10-minute walk from a gorgeous beach and in a lovely 4-bedroom house we had built two years ago in a small, extremely friendly coastal village. We literally have kangaroos hopping across the street.
When it's freezing cold in the UK we can be walking on the beach in dazzling
sunshine under a cloudless piercing blue sky. Absolutely priceless.

I would suggest that you fly to Perth on a holiday before you consider making the move as the only way to find out is to visit yourself. There is alot of advice on these sites but at the end of the day everyone is different and you cant make a decision by asking other people. We lived in Melbourne for 4 years and moved to Perth a month ago and it is very different. It depends what lifestyle choices you want as others have said but Perth is a very expensive place to live.

I also think that in professions such as management consultancy that unless you work in the resources/mining field that you will not get paid as much as you would in Melbourne or Sydney and in my view the cost of living is cheaper in Melbourne and Sydney due to greater competition and availability. Also, from what I have seen - career progression seems to be somewhat capped in professions like management consultancy and are usually controlled from the East Coast so it is likely that your OH may be answering to a boss over in Melbourne or Sydney.

As others have said also, you cannot convert AUS to GBP and then think you are getting paid what the pounds equivalent is. The best thing to do in my view is to look at your costs and work them out as a % of your income in the UK and then try to do the same in Aus and see where you are better off.

We fly back to Melbourne later on in the week after trying out Perth and concluding all of the above. I would recommend Melbourne but am very biased! Good luck!

I never mentioned Two Rocks, I live in Kalamunda - so according to you, as a 'professional', I'm living too far out of the city and therefore out of the 'professional' loop.

BTW Dude, can you use the quote system on this site - it makes conversations much easier to follow

If the OH was simply interested in material wealth then there is no point in coming to Australia never mind Perth. If you base your decision on moving to Aus by comparing what you can buy for 81k sterling, compared to what you get for $130,000 here then you are never going to make the numbers work. My husband and I don't earn $130,000 in total but we live less than a 10-minute walk from a gorgeous beach and in a lovely 4-bedroom house we had built two years ago in a small, extremely friendly coastal village. We literally have kangaroos hopping across the street.
When it's freezing cold in the UK we can be walking on the beach in dazzling
sunshine under a cloudless piercing blue sky. Absolutely priceless.[/QUOTE]

Of course there are other factors. But would you have come to Oz if all you could live in was a 1 room appartment and would struggle to do anything other than sit and watch roos all day? Of course not. It is the same regardless of how much money you have. If you move somewhere that would mean a major curtail in lifestyle, regardless of how high or low that lifestyle is, would you do it. The answer has to be no. That is what the OP is facing. It would be like you comming to Oz and being told that the job you do is only going to pay $20k a year. You can probably live on it, but you would not want to do it as it would be a serious lifestyle hit. No differnt for the OP. I earn about the same at the OP is being offered and would i move to somewhere that i would be seriously worse off. No.

Sunshine is nice, but it would quickly tire if thats all i had.

130k in Perth does not equal 80k in London but you do have to take the net income into the equation here due to the LAFHA, with this taken into consideration the buying power of both salaries come much closer together.

Whether or not someone thinks that your career is more progressed at 80k in London compared to 130k in Perth is not really relevant because I'm sure the OPs Husband has enough good sense to understand whether both roles are comparable in regards to seniority.

The fact remains that even with the LAFHA taken into consideration you will probably still be worse off in Perth in regards to buying power but there are other things to also take into consideration such as lifestyle and these may well outbalance the slight difference in monetary income.

Yeah well your in Perth mate now so you better get used to it.

This is a first i think, but i actually agree with Weebie on this one. I think if someone said my life was going to be spent in the sprawling burbs that are the foundation of Perth being known as Dullsville then i would rather slit my wrists with a rusty spoon.
I have never figured why anyone would move to the other side of the world to live in one of the big burbs. What was the point. Might as well have stayed in blighty and used all the money spent comming here on some extra holidays to sunny climes for the sunshine fix.

There is nothing wrong with living in the outer burbs. Just be aware that the locals probably won't want anything to do with you if you choose to live out there.

With regards to the OP who is clearly a professional would he want this if he went to Perth? I doubt it. Vegemite and Amazulu I'm sure you are aware of this.

Cheers

The 9000+ a month after tax sounds good, but OP has to remember thats only as long as they can claim LAFHA, once that is gone they will be looking at only 7000 approx a month.