kancell

hey guys, been in canada for just under a week now and loving it! spent 3 nights in Toronto, which had lots to do, but I certainly wouldnt live there! Now we have spent 3 nights in Manotick, Ottawa and are really enjoying it.... apart from the weather! i keep getting told that its going to heat up soon, but the long term weather forecast isnt looking great!

Anyway, im an electrical engineer with a BEng Hons and 10 years of UK experience. I have had 2 interviews so far, with another 5 planned! First one went ok, i really didnt take to the guy but i walked away with a potential job offer of $50k. The second interview went brilliantly and i clicked instantly with the president and vice president. This time i received a firm job offer for $65k with a $10k rise in a year once i had gained canadian experience. This is slightly more than i earn in the UK so happy with that, but i'll see what the other companies say also.

My real issue is that my girlfriend is a primary teacher, and we know its going to be a hard slog for her to get a job. We've been advised she would probably pick up supply work for the first few years until she gained enough canadian experience to get a permanent job. Hopefully girlfriend can contribute a meaningful amount to our finances, but in the meantime would my $65-75k be a reasonable salary to allow us to live a good lifestyle.

In the long term if we were to move over we would sell our UK house and put the £75k ($150k) equity down on a $350k house in South Ottawa. This would leave a mortgage of about $200k, would this be comfortably serviceable on a joint annual income of $100-125k? i haven't really worked out all the figures yet, but i'm just looking to get a feel for whether we would be financially better off in Canada....... not to mention all the personal/non-financial benefits of moving over!

cheers

XCMTBer

sent you a note

iaink

Congrats, sounds like its going well.

$100k should be OK to service a $200k mortgage, but if you dont have kids then maybe somewhere smaller would leave more disposable income. Without kids even your $70k might stretch on its own.


If you do end up with kids then you wont have any disposable income regardless of how much your income is

kancell

no kids just now, although it may be a different story in 2-3 years! if we were going to buy somewhere it would be with kids in mind, so spacious, nice size plot and good area like Manotick would be fairly important! we are certainly hoping we can live a cheaper and comfortable life in Canada, and if possible we would like to do this on 1 full time and 1 part time salary. i am very encouraged that it's do-able so far....... we just have to cross the leaving the family issue which GF is struggling with

iaink

I dont think the cost of living is substantially lower here, the main advantage is that homes like the one you have in mind are substantially cheaper. Plus, you seem to be in the same boat that I was which is that you will be paid more than your were in the UK once you get here. Once qualified teachers seem to be well treated here too, but its not the easiest career path to relaunch on.

G77

Curious as to why $100k is only enough for a $200k mortgage? Isn't normally 3x salary a rough indicator?

dboy

Yes it is. 100 k is plenty. A 100 k after tax is roughly something like 5800 bucks a month while the mortgage would only be around 1000 - not including property tax etc.

Very dobale. Don't get too carried away. Many brits come out here and end up no better off - just have bigger vehicles and bigger homes.

kancell

exactly, we're trying to focus on the other benefits of being here, of which i can see plenty. however i would like to think we would also be slightly better off financially without having as big a mortgage as required in the uk for a property nicer than ours. it would also be nice to pay considerably less for petrol and utilities! i'm also choking for a ford mustang at only $22k!!!!!! but no doubt would end up with some 4wd monster like a ford F150!

G77

You say you want to pay less for petrol and then mention a Mustang or F150 - you've seen the mpg on those right? Plus the distances here are greater- you'll be spending more on petrol with those two....

XCMTBer

I know a couple of brits who splashed on the big truck when they got here, the trucks have gone now, the bummer is when it does not fit in your residential garage in the winter.

kancell

i was just joking mate, as much as i would love either i would probably end up with a boring ford taurus or something equally sensible!

G77

Like me - Ford Freestyle....yawn! Mustang though.... one day, one day....

iaink

The property here is relatively cheap, but it seems to me you pay a lot more for maintainence, the climate takes a toll on roofs etc, you need a furnace and to some extent A/C that works, cars take a beating, and where I've chosen to live you certainly need a car....it all adds up.

Personally I am not entirely comfortable with what the banks will lend, but maybe thats just me. Id rather have extra funds available to pay it off faster than be struggling to meet the payments. As it is my morgage is less than 20% of my take home pay, and yet other expenses eat the rest anyway. If you are staying here long term you need to give serious consideration to retirement savings from early on for example. .

I would rather err on the side of caution in giving financial type "what can I afford" advice here, its all to easy for people to get carried away and buy a 3 or 4000sq ft house with no though to what its going to cost in property taxes, insurance and to maintain its value. In the last 5 years Ive been on the hook for;

Water softener and UV system ($1500)
Furnace and water heater ($4k)
Replacement oil tank ($1000)
Replacement Roof (Shingles) ($5500)
Replacement Central Air ($1500)

Hopefully thats it for a while, but I doubt it. Anyway, my point is that all that would have been a financial struggle had my mortgage been the max that the bank would allow me...

Tuppence

I absolutely agree with this. Our mortgage is roughly the same in dollars as we used to pay in pounds back in the UK (so effectively half what it was), and we are getting paid nearly double what we used to make in the UK. You would think we would be way better off, but we don't seem to have a lot more spare. It's all those little incidentals at $1k to $5k that seem to come out of nowhere.
My fear is the municipality suddenly decide to put mains water in our street, or our septic field gives up the ghost, and then we are $20k in the crapper (pun intended )

bodgerx

How often have you replaced your roof over the last 10 years?