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-   -   What is a decent salary? (https://britishexpats.com/forum/canada-56/what-decent-salary-905427/)

Shard Nov 10th 2017 9:07 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Partially discharged (Post 12379445)
Parts of the USA I could live in (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon) parts of northern California, Colorado. Other parts not so much. Florida/Arkansas/Alabama/Mississippi..never.

Texas?

Oink Nov 10th 2017 9:15 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Partially discharged (Post 12379445)
Parts of the USA I could live in (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon) parts of northern California, Colorado. Other parts not so much. Florida/Arkansas/Alabama/Mississippi..never.

If you're a white Brit, living the south is very nice. The weather is not great but there's lots of cool things and it's much cheaper.

Partially discharged Nov 10th 2017 9:26 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 12379449)
Texas?

Never been..but my inclination is no.

I haven't been to Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Delaware, Alaska, Hawaii

Shard Nov 10th 2017 9:35 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Partially discharged (Post 12379472)
Never been..but my inclination is no.

I haven't been to Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Delaware, Alaska, Hawaii

I haven't been to TX either, but it appeals. My first choice would be California or maybe Hawaii (have visited).

Oink Nov 10th 2017 9:39 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 12379480)
I haven't been to TX either, but it appeals. My first choice would be California or maybe Hawaii (have visited).

Texas is a bit meh.

dbd33 Nov 10th 2017 9:46 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by iaink (Post 12379436)
(BMW and Michelin both have huge facilities in the area)

At one of those I attempted to step outside for a smoke before my presentation and got stuck in the stairwell. I had to set the alarm off and arrived back at the podium ruffled, flustered even.

iaink Nov 10th 2017 9:47 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 12379439)
If you can afford it. Join a country club. It'll make life so much easier.

Where else would one go to golf;)
Ive seen memberships for $100 a month or so, which is about what we pay as a family for the "Y", and there aint go golf course at the YMCA:thumbdown:

Easier how?

iaink Nov 10th 2017 9:49 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 12379486)
At one of those I attempted to step outside for a smoke before my presentation and got stuck in the stairwell. I had to set the alarm off and arrived back at the podium ruffled, flustered even.

Smoking in a public space? You were lucky not to get arrested.

iaink Nov 10th 2017 9:52 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 12379480)
I haven't been to TX either, but it appeals. My first choice would be California or maybe Hawaii (have visited).


Originally Posted by Oink (Post 12379484)
Texas is a bit meh.

Texas is huge, I imagine there is quite a variety. Ive a brit friend in Texas (dallas / FW), he says its hot as hell in the summer, but he sticks it out as he is well paid, his kids are settled and his standard of living is way better then it would be elsewhere.

Oink Nov 10th 2017 10:21 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by iaink (Post 12379487)
Where else would one go to golf;)
Ive seen memberships for $100 a month or so, which is about what we pay as a family for the "Y", and there aint go golf course at the YMCA:thumbdown:

Easier how?

The initial fee can be quite expensive but I think you can sell your certificate back to the club. It's basically a share so you should be able to borrow it from a bank. You still have to pay your dues and any food and drink you have.

Meeting people, making friends who can help you integrate. Plus they'll put on charity events. You just pay for a table and invite people you think might help you. Its also a great safe place for kids to hang out or take sports lessons. Nice place to just go and have lunch or dinner.

And you'll need to go to church. Find a good episcopal one, which is basically the Anglican church without the allegiance to the British monarch.

iaink Nov 10th 2017 10:34 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 12379511)
And you'll need to go to church. Find a good episcopal one, which is basically the Anglican church without the allegiance to the British monarch.

Cant I just hang out with the other like minded people I find at the golf course on a Sunday morning?

Shard Nov 10th 2017 10:42 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 12379511)


And you'll need to go to church. Find a good episcopal one, which is basically the Anglican church without the allegiance to the British monarch.

That where my USA rose tinted spectacles get crushed.

dbd33 Nov 10th 2017 11:30 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 12379528)
That where my USA rose tinted spectacles get crushed.

Going to church isn't an issue if people go in the manner that the English go to church, that is, independently of belief. That's not a threatening thing at all. It's just people needing a social centre to their lives, and it's way better than finding that centre in, say, football hooliganism or Young Conservatism.

Oink Nov 11th 2017 1:57 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 12379544)
Going to church isn't an issue if people go in the manner that the English go to church, that is, independently of belief. That's not a threatening thing at all. It's just people needing a social centre to their lives, and it's way better than finding that centre in, say, football hooliganism or Young Conservatism.

Absolutely, it’s not about believing in some metaphysical entity, it’s just a social thing to say you share the same cultural foundations. It’’ll just make you and your family’s life that much easier. The South [lower Appalachia] is very different than Canada.

dbd33 Nov 11th 2017 2:10 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 12379591)
lower Appalachia

Heh, our blog about rural life around here referred to our location as Upper Appalachia. The other author was originally from Raleigh, something about Ontario's rural poverty and the religious history of places called Luther and Melancthon struck a chord with her.

scrubbedexpat091 Nov 11th 2017 4:18 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 12379480)
I haven't been to TX either, but it appeals. My first choice would be California or maybe Hawaii (have visited).

I would love to live in Hawaii and would be there if cost of living wasn't so high and of course so isolated from the rest of the country.

Shard Nov 11th 2017 4:39 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12379642)
I would love to live in Hawaii and would be there if cost of living wasn't so high and of course so isolated from the rest of the country.

Is cost of living that much higher than Vancouver these days? Isolated it may be, but what splendid isolation!

BristolUK Nov 11th 2017 6:29 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12379642)
I would love to live in Hawaii ...

Hawaii wins every time. Five-Nil. That was the score wasn't it? ;)


https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....82,268_AL_.jpg

Jerseygirl Nov 11th 2017 7:05 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12379642)
I would love to live in Hawaii and would be there if cost of living wasn't so high and of course so isolated from the rest of the country.

Me too and we would if it wasn’t so far away from everything.

Oink Nov 11th 2017 7:17 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12379642)
I would love to live in Hawaii and would be there if cost of living wasn't so high and of course so isolated from the rest of the country.

You wouldn't like it. It's boring, claustrophobic and everybody hates you.

JamesM Nov 11th 2017 7:36 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 12379998)
You wouldn't like it. It's boring, claustrophobic and everybody hates you.

What are the Hooters girls like?

Oink Nov 11th 2017 7:46 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by JamesM (Post 12380006)
What are the Hooters girls like?

Exotic

Tirytory Nov 12th 2017 12:27 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 12379591)
Absolutely, it’s not about believing in some metaphysical entity, it’s just a social thing to say you share the same cultural foundations. It’’ll just make you and your family’s life that much easier. The South [lower Appalachia] is very different than Canada.

It's hypocritical in the extreme. I could or would not pretend to be something I'm not just to fit in.

Oink Nov 12th 2017 12:35 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Tirytory (Post 12380129)
It's hypocritical in the extreme. I could or would not pretend to be something I'm not just to fit in.

Why not? If you don’t believe in it anyway what does it matter if you attend for your own reasons? It’s a nice morning out, listen to a few stories, have a singsong, make some friends and then go out for lunch.

Tirytory Nov 12th 2017 12:38 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 12380132)
Why not? If you don’t believe in it anyway what does it matter if you attend for your own reasons? It’s a nice morning out, listen to a few stories, have a singsong, make some friends and then go out for lunch.

Maybe having been involved in a deep almost cultish religion myself as a "youngster", I don't like to be false in any way.

And invariably the friends you might make that way, would absolutely not fit in with thoughts and beliefs ie Abortion, politics etc.

scilly Nov 12th 2017 3:19 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 
I HAVE lived in Texas ........... and would not like to repeat the experience.

Life in the south was and is so very different from everything I knew and believed in

Don't discuss politics

Be very careful about expressing your opinions on a whole range of things from Trump to Obama to single sex marriage, women's rights, gun control, religion, etc etc

Expect to see men wearing guns in holsters at their waists, and often with the holster open so they can grab the gun faster, and rifles in racks across the inside of the back window of the cab of trucks.

Shard Nov 12th 2017 4:30 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by scilly (Post 12380161)
I HAVE lived in Texas ........... and would not like to repeat the experience.

Life in the south was and is so very different from everything I knew and believed in

Don't discuss politics

Be very careful about expressing your opinions on a whole range of things from Trump to Obama to single sex marriage, women's rights, gun control, religion, etc etc

Expect to see men wearing guns in holsters at their waists, and often with the holster open so they can grab the gun faster, and rifles in racks across the inside of the back window of the cab of trucks.

So a bit like Alberta, then. :lol:

scrubbedexpat091 Nov 12th 2017 5:20 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 
Rural anywhere in Canada isnt much different to rural anywhere US.

I am not a fan of Texas but in their defense there are some nice pockets like Austin that are fairly forward minded.




Originally Posted by Shard (Post 12380169)
So a bit like Alberta, then. :lol:


Shard Nov 12th 2017 6:50 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12380182)
Rural anywhere in Canada isnt much different to rural anywhere US.

I am not a fan of Texas but in their defense there are some nice pockets like Austin that are fairly forward minded.

Yup. It's Austin that I like. Have to go there some day. Having said that, the recent shooting wasn't that far from Austin I think?

bats Nov 13th 2017 1:31 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by iaink (Post 12379054)
Thank you all for the warm reception, many familiar faces here still!
Not wishing to highjack the OPs thread but Im heading to Greenville SC area, initially on a Nafta TN visa, with the company committed in a non specific way to getting a PR visa. Serious downside to TN visa is spouse can come but cant work, so PR is the long term aim for us. Besides, as I remember it temp residency in Canada sucked, no employment options, no credit rating etc etc.

Its ironic that I first came to BE all them years (and posts, 30k? really??!) ago in order to get some idea how long Canadian citizenship takes to process as my job had previously gone tits up and I wanted to be Canadian in order to make it easier to leave Canada for the US if my job situation went pear shaped again, and now here I am years later doing just that.
Mind you, this morning in Quinte its minus 8 with -16C windchill with the youngest boarding the schoolbus bundled up in a snowsuit, so 18 and sunny in NW SC doesnt seem a hardship:) Plus its nice that they want to pay me significantly more than I was getting in Belleville.

I suspect I will be picking the collective US brains over the dual taxation thing and "duel intent" as unsurprisingly offspring #1 has no desire to leave her canadian life and education in favour of starting again in the US. Until we figure out how she can achieve her goals in the US system (Flying with the Air Cadets, Education at RMC and then flying for the canadian forces) its possible that she will finish high school here, which is potentially 3 more years of stradling the border. I guess thats fine on a temp resident TN visa, but not going to work on a green card.
Offspring #2 looked at the weather forecast and basically was like "When can we leave Dad"
So life has gotten complicated but Im excited by the move to a great new company , new location and new possibilites! Plus there are loads of cheap convertibles on the Greenville craigslist and Im long overdue a midlife crisis.

Congratulations! When is this all likely to happen?

Pulaski Nov 13th 2017 3:47 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Partially discharged (Post 12379378)
Golf, a deep interest in C & W music, believing that South of the Border is a true look at Mexican urbanity, Nascar, agreeing with Donald Trump, dropping the letter 'u' in many words, getting interested in college football (the 4 downs variety), and joining a mega-church glass cathedral type congregation. .....

Not really, those are just stereotypes perpetuated by people who don't live here. I arrived in the area, first Virginia, briefly before heading further south, and have managed to avoid all but two of those, and one of the two I have mostly given up on these days.

Originally Posted by iaink (Post 12379054)
Thank you all for the warm reception, many familiar faces here still!
Not wishing to highjack the OPs thread but Im heading to Greenville SC area ....

We'll almost be neighbours!

Most people get used to the summers - just don't fight the heat, take it easy. The winters are virtually non-existent - snow is usually transitory, in other words, don't shovel the snow in the morning because the sun is warm enough by lunchtime to melt it.

The religion and politics are much easier to ignore than most people imagine. I have been asked once, and only once, in fifteen years, which church I attend? Politics are personal, but I find few people will create a political discussion unless you invite it.

Guns you will rarely see, except in gun rack in trucks during hunting season.

scilly Nov 13th 2017 3:56 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 12380204)
Yup. It's Austin that I like. Have to go there some day. Having said that, the recent shooting wasn't that far from Austin I think?

Actually that was where we lived.

Pro:- lots of trees, nice houses, universities, cheap food, very active music scene (now!)

Con:- guns, red necks, little knowledge of anywhere else


Last year was the 50th anniversary of the shooting from the top of the university tower where 15 people were killed and 31 injured.

jerryhung Nov 13th 2017 5:08 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by scilly (Post 12380684)
Actually that was where we lived.

Pro:- lots of trees, nice houses, universities, cheap food, very active music scene (now!)

Con:- guns, red necks, little knowledge of anywhere else


Last year was the 50th anniversary of the shooting from the top of the university tower where 15 people were killed and 31 injured.

Red necks - is it because of education or because of Fox News or just cultural influences? Genuinely curious.

jerryhung Nov 13th 2017 5:09 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 12380132)
Why not? If you don’t believe in it anyway what does it matter if you attend for your own reasons? It’s a nice morning out, listen to a few stories, have a singsong, make some friends and then go out for lunch.

Um, it's super boring to sit there for hours listening to something you don't believe isn't it?

Jingsamichty Nov 13th 2017 9:00 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by iaink (Post 12378138)
I would not move to the GTA with a family of 4 for 80k unless I was heavily motivated by canadian (or north american) lifestyle factors. Its going to be hard to buy and maintain a place plus pay for family activities, child care etc on that level of income in whats loosely the "Greater Toronto Area". Sure there are people that get by on less, and good on them, but do you want to move continents in order to clip coupons to keep your grocery bill in check?

I was on a similar level of income out in the (cheaper) eastern ontario wastelands, and by the time bills were paid and kids activities paid for lets say we were not exactly packing the savings accounts to pay for trips back to see Grandad, or more practically to pay for college tuition for the kids.

Long story short I'm about to take up a job in the US that pays significantly more in the hope that its worth the level of family upheaval that its going to create.

Hey, welcome back stranger! Good luck with the move!

Shard Nov 13th 2017 9:43 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by scilly (Post 12380684)
Actually that was where we lived.

Pro:- lots of trees, nice houses, universities, cheap food, very active music scene (now!)

Con:- guns, red necks, little knowledge of anywhere else


Last year was the 50th anniversary of the shooting from the top of the university tower where 15 people were killed and 31 injured.

Nowhere's perfect ;)

scrubbedexpat091 Nov 13th 2017 11:55 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 
And one can't judge a city in 2017 from 50 plus years ago. City's change and the Austin of 2017 is far from red neck.

Red necks are just as common in Canada, once out of Vancouver and into the Fraser Valley guns are also popular.

Austin I believe is also the fastest growing large US city at the moment.

Austin also has a very diverse population including a vibrant LGBT community. The is ranked best city to live in the US for 2017.

Austin area is not your typical Texas city and is pretty much a democrat oasis in an otherwise conservative red state.




Originally Posted by Shard (Post 12380890)
Nowhere's perfect ;)


bats Nov 13th 2017 11:59 am

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by jerryhung (Post 12380705)
Red necks - is it because of education or because of Fox News or just cultural influences? Genuinely curious.

Plenty of rednecks in Ontario it's a way of life, the background. You can bet though that when you've broken down it will be a redneck in a truck that stops to help.

Pulaski Nov 13th 2017 12:27 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by jerryhung (Post 12380705)
Red necks - is it because of education or because of Fox News or just cultural influences? Genuinely curious.

What do you mean by "red neck". Lots of people get called that, and the term gets slung around mostly as an insult, so unless you have lived in an area where the term has some cultural history, you are just dealing with a stereotype that you don't really understand.

BristolUK Nov 13th 2017 1:37 pm

Re: What is a decent salary?
 

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12380952)
...Austin also has a very diverse population including a vibrant LGBT community...not your typical Texas city and is pretty much a democrat oasis in an otherwise conservative red state.

Sounds as if the rest of Texas might invade and put them right. :rofl:


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