LoisHedley

Hi, looking for help please, I am trying to get an idea of what salary my husband can expect for an experienced telecoms account manager (business to business). He worked for BT for 18 years. We have worked out that we would need around $6500/month to live off (please correct me if I am wrong) for a family of 3 plus dog, 3 bed house in inner city (Renfrew, Bridgeland, Sunnyside etc around £2K/month rent I think) - so that would be $110K a year - this seems a lot? I am also trying to work out if that will be working from home with a company car or not. I'm finding it difficult as not many of the job vacancies posted online have salaries or specifics like hols, flexible working etc. I will be studying full-time at SAIT so we will be going down to one income (I currently work PT) and will need to pay for car, before/after school care and dog-walking. I am trying to figure out if we can afford the same standard of living we have in the UK in Calgary. We don't live a particularly lavish lifestyle but we are comfortable. Let me know if I am way off with my research and any advice will be much appreciated.

zdenka

Is your heart set on these areas? If you were willing to move further from the city, you'd get a better deal on rent. If you go to SAIT you will get a free transit pass as a full-time student (I went there). If your husband finds work downtown, he can also use public transit to start (many professionals do), I heard parking downtown can be over $200 a month. I live a short walking distance to Brentwood C-train station (close to the university in NW) and it takes me about 30 min to get downtown.
The reason companies do not list salaries is because they do not want to commit to paying a certain amount. There is a great difference between wages depending on education, experience, hours the applicant is willing to work etc. I do not have any account manager friends to ask about the pay or the job situation. It might be smart to plan on being without a job for a few months once you get here.
BTW childcare is crazy expensive here but if you need only before and after school, it might be a different story. I have heard some day homes cost between $800 and $1500 a month (that is full time though).

LoisHedley

Thanks for your reply, we wanted to be close to friends and close to SAIT/downtown, as will be only getting one car and my course is FT possibly 8-5 so school drop of and pick up will be difficult. I've allowed $500/month for childcare.

zdenka

Oh yeah, that's fair. It's important to be close to your friends, especially in the beginning. It can get lonely otherwise. You can DM me if you want to. I cannot help with the children related stuff but I know SAIT. What program are you taking?

LoisHedley

Thanks

Siouxie

That may be too low... depending on the age and how many children you have. Some Before and After School clubs are run by the schools.. which may be a little cheaper.
https://www.kidsu.ca/the-high-cost-o...re-in-calgary/
https://informalberta.ca/public/comm...cartId=1005451


You may want to see if the Uni has child care facilities perhaps.

The Wiki may be of help to you.
https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Calgary
https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Childcare_Options-Canada

Photoplex

If you know where I can find downtown parking for $200/m, let me know. Prime downtown is in the $400-$650 range, and my crappy, edge-of-downtown, open air, I pray it doesn't hail and destroy my car, parking space is costing me $350/m.

There was a report a few years ago that compared downtown parking across all north american cities. Calgary was third most expensive, after only Manhattan, and downtown New York...

Edit: Here's an article about it. Bear in mind this was 2010. So 9 years ago! And the downturn has done little to curb those parking rates.

Photoplex

In those areas? You're easily looking at $1000 - $2000 per child per month for a licensed daycare facility. We live in the "inner city" (Killarney) and pay $1300 a month, but only because we were on the waiting list for ages for that daycare. The two other daycares near us are are $1700 and $1900.

You could find cheaper with an unlicensed day home...

Not really.

The company car culture does not really exist in Canada, much less in Alberta. It's highly unlikely any corporate job will include a company car. I've certainly not heard of one in my 12 years here. Only exceptions are engineers and tradespeople, but those are work trucks - not cars.

Par for the course here, unless it's a government job (municipal, provincial, or federal). That's all handled in the post-offer negotiations.

Siouxie

Do make sure to have a read of our wiki about job hunting/ working in Canada - the hiring culture and working conditions are somewhat different to the UK. Two weeks annual leave is pretty standard unless you are in a high demand profession where you can negotiate; company cars are a rarity - and even if he got one (or an allowance) it would be a taxable expense; flexible working unusual. His experience in the UK may not be taken much into consideration as it's not in Canada - does he have any certification (if so, has he had it assessed?),

How long is your course for - will it qualify for a Post Graduate Work Permit and is it your intention/hope to apply for Permanent Residency at some point? Have you checked that one of you will have enough points under Express Entry to get an invite from the pool? Better to find out now before you spend lots of money! If you post a new thread to our Immigration Forum there'll be people that can help and advise on that subject.

You mention dog walking.. to be honest if the course is only a couple of years I'm not sure I would put a dog through the upheaval unless you intend to apply (and have a good chance of getting) Permanent Residency after - plus you will find it harder to find a rental with a pet.

There's a few jobs in the industry in Calgary https://ca.indeed.com/jobs?q=Telecom...=Calgary%2C+AB

Try looking at jobbank.gc.ca for jobs and salaries..... https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/marketrepo.../1350/geo25411

or Glassdoorhttps://www.glassdoor.ca/


For job hunting general advice etc., look here: https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Categ...Hunting-Canada

For other general info: https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Categ...gistics-Canada
https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Categ...ada_Challenges

dbd33

I've been chatting with my daughter, who lives in Vancouver. She mentioned that among her circle of friends she's the only working mother. I wondered if that was because the others were from old money or had sold houses well. She said it was the other way around, she was the only one who could make enough money to cover the cost of day care for two children. Similarly, It was never financially viable for her mother to work. I used to think that Canadian mothers stayed at home because it's a bit of a redneck country but, in fact, it's just the economics; you need to have a very well paying job or you make a loss on doing it. At least, that seems to be the case in the three cities and Calgary, it may be different in Saskatoon.

zdenka

Holy smokes!

Holy smokes again!
I always said I would have as many children as I can afford on my own.... children count today = 0

whytrigg

While I know this is from a few months ago, its information that is hard to find unless you've lived here so anyone else researching may find this useful.

I live in Calgary, we are a single income family, 2 kids, 2 dogs - own our own home, 2 cars.

I track my expenses, and this is what we spend in general on an average month:

Household Expenses
Mortgage $1700
Utilities $136
Home insurance $118
Car insurance $128
Property Tax $301
Vivint (security) $23
Internet $57
Enmax (gas + electric) $270
Gas (petrol) $204
House hold Total $2,937

As my wife stays at home and only 1 kid is pre-school age, we spend $250 a month on 3 half days a week pre-school, then about another $100 a month on activities for them, they are young so this will probably be x10 in a few years time!
Kids Total $350

groceries, which include toiletries and things like toilet roll etc
Groceries Total $1500

dental, health, pharmacy, travel vaccines etc (my insurance refunds 90% of this)
Healthcare $500

travel pass $106

we spend about $700 on "other stuff", like buying pumpkins or christmas lights or clothes, wine etc
Other $700

Total $6,093

There seem to be lots of random costs that crop up on top, for instance registering your cars annually, or citizenship fees etc, but for the most part that is all my families expenses over a month. What we have left we save (with kids RESP etc is important). My daughters are also celiac so I think my groceries probably cost a little more than they should.

Flossie and Jim

If your child is in school full time (Grade 1 up) then before and after care comes in around $470-$500 a month (I know a few people who pay around this amount including myself). This also includes professional development (teacher training days), but you may need to pay extra for child care in spring break and over the summer holidays. Theres a huge range of summer camp options at varying prices, anywhere from $250 a week upwards.

Full-time daycare is more expensive as others have already mentioned. Also if kindergarten age bear in mind its only half day at most schools so you need to find child care for half days as well.

If you're at SAIT maybe look at the communities in walking distance of the NW (Red line) - Tuscany, Crowfoot, Dalhousie, Brentwood, University, Lions Park, SAIT, Sunnyside. This would work for both SAIT and downtown commutes. A monthly transit pass is currently $106.