I know that answers will depend on individual needs, but having just read two posts about salaries, I thought I'd give this one a try.

We're a couple, would be living in downtown Vancouver at first, or maybe South Lonsdale. We're both 'professionals', so most of our time is spent working. But we sometimes like to eat out, we're members of a tennis club, gym, I do various courses (painting at the moment). We take two long-haul holidays a year and around 3 short-haul ones (these are 'longer' weekends). We have a car, but from what I've already gathered, we wouldn't need one in Vancouver. Oh, and I like wine and cheese.

We'd like to have a similar sort of lifestyle in Canada, so...what kind of salary(ies) should we be looking at?

May have to give up the travel (limited vacation at first) and wine and cheese...both are spendy.

Decent salary....the more the merrier....don't need a car fir lower lonsdale

What you do for a living x going rate in Vancouver is the most you are going to get. Find that out first and decide if it will fund your desired lifestyle. No employer is going to pay you more than you are worth just because you want more expensive vacations.

Within any given profession there is a spread of salaries though, so its reasonable to try and negotiate to the high end, whatever that is. Its cheaper in the end for a business to pay its prefered candidate a bit more than it is to go through the whole recruiting process again, or settle for someone you dont think is as capable.

Ive got the popcorn out because Im curious just how good a salary you would need for that sort of lifestyle on the West Coast....

The lady eating popcorn is just not me - you're entirely on the wrong track.

I'll be self-employed, so can take as much holiday as I want, as I can work from any place on earth as long as I have internet connection. Partner's leave is likely to be similar to that in the UK.
Unfortunately, I would love to compare to local salaries, but can't find the figures anywhere.

As for salary, double your uk one, it should give a comparable cost of living. So 30 k in the uk vs 60 k here. Costs are similar, but difficult to compare directly...some things more, others less.

Owning real estate is the down side, but rent is very reasonable and no council tax, principal bills included( heat, hot water, water, garbage removal)

Here are some everday costs off my head:

Pint around 6 to 7 bucks
Cinema 10 buks
Cheaper meal 10 - 12 bucks
More spendy meal - 20-25 bucks (main course no booze)
Cable (phone, Internet, tv) varies but around 150
Hydro....for typical one bed about 20 a month
Grocery this is a tough one, but I'd say at least 125 - 150 per week for 2

you dont actually say what you both do?..or what you earnt in the UK so how would we know what is decent?

Didnt you read? She's a "professional"- she's self employed, and just needs an internet connection. I've seen lots of documentaries on Ch4 in the UK about these people

Your best bet would be to do a dry run on costs.

By the sounds of things you'll be looking at some of the following monthly costs as a couple:

Rent - $1500+
Utilities - Somewhere between $30 & $100 per month maybe
Groceries - $400
Internet - $50
Phones - $100+
Eating out - $500
Commuting (if North Shore) - $150
Gym - $200
Other activitives - $?

Plus costs of your prefered vacations

Plus costs of getting around in cabs or car2go

Plus everything else you want to do.

Nobody can tell you what you need to earn to live the life you want but by the sounds of it you'll need to be earning a decent amount. Living and doing stuff in Vancouver isn't necessarily cheap.

Joint income of $250k. Cheese is expensive.

Yes I was thinking the 200K mark would do it nicely.

It's a bit odd to be a web based internet professional and not get that joke, presumably you're not a programmer, have you ever lived in Nigeria?

Thank you for the serious posts - very useful.

I'm not self-employed in the UK, but will be once/if we move to Canada. And no, I'm definitely not in the IT business.

I wonder if foreigngirl thinks you're joking.

To have the life they want, firstly i believe they'll either need a car or be a member of a car2go type company.

Secondly, to do what they want to do, and live downtown (not quite sure the North Shore will give them the lifestyle they want as easily) they'll need a good income.

We just booked to go to Hawaii for a week and dropped $5k. Do that twice a year, plus a few long weekends at possibly $1k+ a pop, it soon adds up.