lmartin999

That is a huge factor. I earn a decent salary in Toronto, but my mortgage (at current low interest rates) is not far off $2000/month. Not having that would make an incredible difference to what I could live on (and its only a 2 bed condo). Talking about what salary you need only makes sense once you look at what you need to spend on housing in particular.

Atlantic Xpat

Isn't it also the case that when we airily talk of needing an income of $100k or more, thats a family income. With two spouses working $100k is not an unachievable goal. Two nurses would make more than that for example. Or a nurse and a teacher or a brace of engineers, computer programmers whatever.

Of course (and I'm not proposing a fred drift here) if one spouse wants to be a stay at home mum/father then it's much more challenging.

Kaye5

I'm comparing what we get here with what we need to earn in Canada.

What I mean is that here, our mortgage take 30% of our income. We are looking at not having a mortgage in Canada, so can therefore have the same standard of living on 70% of our UK salary in Canada, which works out at around $70,000. So that is what we NEED to earn to achieve a similar financial situation here. We live in London, but the day to day living costs are not really any different to the rest of the UK, it is just the housing that is expensive.

Then I'm looking at minimum wages for our work as college instructor/legal secretary and hoping we will reach $70,000!

We have taken into account living expenses for a year if we are both out of work as well, and sidelined these.

We're not wanting to move halfway round the world for financial gain, so anything we get on top of $70k is a bonus. Of course, as we work our way up in the workplace, we will (hopefully!) earn more.

iaink

So, Aviators 38k was really 50k in current funds, but didnt cover retirement planning , and Im guessing that saving for the kids education was also a non option. Id say if you are coming here for the long haul then you need to be doing both those things, plus there is the reality of house price inflation, and the need to pay through tthe nose for a car on top, so really that gets me back to 70-100k again

And thats why I dont live in Vancouver.... although the skiing would be better.

dboy

this is realistic, depending on what you get for your home in the UK and where you buy here. Vancouver is comparable to areas of london for housing, even maybe more???

70 k as a couple is very doable, even a 100 k is.

dboy

very true - I earn much more now than i did 5 years ago but having gone through a divorce had having to start over has left me worse off.

dboy

that sucks

Aviator

• Senior management in the private sector
• Airlines - Senior Captains earn in that range and a bit higher
• Self employed/entrepreneurs
• Lawyers
• Doctors

What is an acceptable income is subjective. Expenditure plays a major role, if one has no mortgage or rent to pay that helps. It depends on what you want out of life, what's important. Unfortunately we don't always figure that out until it's too late.

When I was in the $38k job, I did it for fun and survived, but no spare for other stuff. I had a blast, then went back to work for a top level carrier, got paid well, but had to travel away from home a lot and missed lots of the kids growing up years. That was the price I paid. Flying a bus is not that exciting, watching instruments for 10+hours at a time and making sure you arrive where your are supposed to. It pales to flying a beaver up into remote inlets and taking freight to remote communities, then being home for supper, or at worst one night away.

printer

I agree but not according to post #8 where Brizzle says $70k minimum just to pay the bills!!! He wasn't even allowing for mortgages.

Alan2005

are you sure? - I assumed he meant all essential spending when he said 'bills'

Kaye5

You need to know what you can realistically earn when you land, rather than asking what you should earn. You can find that out by looking at job ads/pay scales for your type of work/talking to folk in the industry/whatever other method you choose.

Convert your UK outgoings to CAD (everything, not just bills) - you know what you spend in the UK and I think most agree that costs balance out - some things cheaper, some things more expensive, so that will give you a ballpark figure.

So long as the second figure doesn't exceed the first, you should stay solvent!

I can't afford luxuries like eating out, loads of holidays, designer clothes etc in the UK and I don't expect to be able to afford them in Canada. It is YOUR lifestyle here and YOUR lifestyle in Canada that you need to compare, not what others think is a good income.

I expect if someone asked the same question about how much you would need to earn to live in London, the answers would be way more than we earn, but we have still managed to survive 20 years in London on our salary levels.

brizzle

I am partly basing that figure on my own experience, so $70k would include payments on a small-ish mortgage (150-200k), so allowed around $800-1200 pm. Of course if you're mortgage free you can survive on less, rent will be about the same as that, and if you're mortgage payments are $2k pm+ then obviously you'll need more than 70k family income.

Chookie

We manage on slightly more than that - roughly $80K, with a mortgage around the upper end of that figure and 4 kids...

Not huge amounts of money left over at the end of the month and we have to be careful, but it is doable.

gryphea

Civil engineers may earn six figures that if they are senior and factor in bonuses etc

Almost Canadian

Lawyers earn six figures two years out of law school