rabrol

I'd say thats plenty for a family to live on - at least here in Edmonton it is. We make a lot less than that, pay rent of $1200 per month and run 1 vehicle. Granted I walk to work every day, so that keeps costs down a bit. We don't have a large surplus every month, but enough to eat out with the family (5 of us) once or twice. We do have to choose carefully where the money goes, but we always get to do the funs stuff like swimming, skating, fishing etc. We didn't do that in the UK a few times a month!

Rob

Juliew

Hi there,

Based upon your salary expectations you should be fine. Nurses are generally way better off in North America than in the UK. I am currently based in Tunbridge Wells and my husband and I are moving to the Fraser Valley this August. We are orginally from the Vancouver area. Although we know where to shop in the Vancouver area and we are quite frugal, we believe that we could live comfortably (not including mortgage payments, maintaince of house and property tax) on $2000 a month for two adults and a child. I base this on the following calculations ($600 for food (shop at Superstore), $350 for gas and insurance (based on one economy car and insurance with 40% discount), $100 for TV, phone (including long distance) and broadband - see Shaw's packages, $150 for heating and electrics, $400 for weekend entertainment, $200 for clothing and incidentals, $100 for gym-not private but a local community centre and $100 for unaccounted extras.
This would be a tight budget, but not unreasonable. If you were to add an extra $1000 you would be quite comfortable, but it all depends on how well you manage your money. Also note, if you are going to be working at a nurse you may want to pay into a pension which will probably consume another 7% of your gross pay. Also don't forget to take off deductions such as medical plan contributions and extended health benefits. Although many employers will contribute to this, expect to pay approximately $80 to $100 a month. Also, union dues can be quite high, but are well worth it in my opinion (just compare nursing pay in BC compared to the UK)- possibly $50 a month at least. After all these deductions, I would guess that you would take home approximately $3600 to $3800 home a month. Oh I forgot, if your children are under the age of six you may qualify for an additional $200.00 a month from the government - look into that.

If your husband starts work you will be quite comfortable - without a mortgage that is. Just to give you some reassurance, most of my Canadian friends take home approximately $5000 to $7000 a month-generally two people workin. In this they cover mortage costs, living expenses, holidays and etc. In this salary range they live very comfortably; however it really depends on how you spend your money. Also, don't forget that as mentioned in a previous post that you may earn a lot of extra pay through overtime.

One last point, nurses are in demand in the Vancouver area, so you may want to look for a job in Coquitlam or Burnaby as opposed to North Vancouver.


Good luck
Julie

JonboyE

I agree with many of the posters above. A lot depends upon your choice of lifestyle, but IMO on $65k a year with no mortgage you will be just fine, comfortable even.

As a nurse I assume you will be working shifts? If so, don't worry about the commute too much. Hwy 1 is busy westwards 6.00 - 8.00 am and eastwards 3.00 - 6.00 pm. Otherwise it is a breeze. The only place that is almost always busy is the approach to the Port Mann bridge westbound. If you are looking in the Coquitlam/Tri Cities are you will avoid this. It is however, something to think about if you extend your house hunting to Surrey and Langley.

I don't know The Tri Cities (Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody) all that well, but enough to know they have some good areas, some very good areas, and some not so good areas. There are no real areas to avoid - it just depends on how important things like access to the freeway, distance to shopping, and distance to the ocean/rivers and the back country are.

One downside of the area is that it is close to the North Shore mountains so it does get more than it's fair share of rain.

If you are visiting for a "looksee" I'll be happy to meet up and give you my perspective on things.

nursemakeyouwell

Great tips, thanks very much. Might take you up on your offer of meeting up, we are coming over in October, so I'll keep in touch and let you know nearer the time.

Does it rain more on the North Shore than the rest of the area then?

Yoong

The problem is driving home after night shift can be a challenge.
It is just like impaired driving , most of my co workers and my self
included have had own near missed accident experiences.

I know it is like throwing away money when renting,but sometimes
you need time to look around before buying a house.
Or bite the bullet and buy a house in North Van. with a
small mortgage.

Overtime is plentiful, with shift differentials,stat holidays,etc
and to be conservative you could easily earn $70-80K.Some of my
co workers earn over $100K and above due to overtime.

Yoong

JonboyE

Yup, about 70" a year on the North Shore compared to 44" in Vancouver and 40" in White Rock

nursemakeyouwell

sounds promising - good point about the long post night shift drive though.

nursemakeyouwell

at the moment in the UK we laugh in the face of your 70"!!! half of us are drowning in our wonderful british summer! so I don't know why i'm even worrying about the rainfall, as we are rainfall veterans!!!

JonboyE

The summers here are just gorgeous, but the rain usually starts in the middle of October. Depending when you come you might get to see a Pineapple Express in its full glory.

Yoong

You will find out more from your coworkers when you get here.
Yoong

nursemakeyouwell

pineapple express????!!!!!

nursemakeyouwell

where do you work, it sounds like you are a nurse, too, poor soul!!

JonboyE

It's when the jet stream blows the air mass from Hawaii to Vancouver. It happens once or twice a year. It's warm, but boy does it rain when it hits the North Shore Mountains.

nursemakeyouwell

interesting!!

JonboyE

I hope I'm not putting you off.

It is really very lovely here and I've never regretted our move for a moment.