reece325

Hi i have been offered a package within financial service in Bermuda of US$130,000 as far as i know they pay medical, half my housing (up to $2,500 pm) and thats it.

Is this enough to survive on? I have 2 children and a wife! One child will need to go to school in a year and the other is new born so four years away but i would like to plan for the future assuming all in school etc with the fees.

I have used various sources and for my own situation i have roughly calculated the below costs - they seem very high to me which causes me to think that the package is not high enough and to let this one go but any input would be appreciated!

SALARY $10,833

TAX -$569 (5.25%)

RENT -$2,500 (other half of $5,000 pm rent on 3 bed place)

SCHOOL FEES -$3,000 (2 children)

HOUSE INSURANCE -$333

UTILITIES -$600

FOOD -$1,250

CELLPHONES -$250

HOME TV/INTERNET -$250

GYM -$200

CAR/SCOOTER TAX -$250
INSURANCE/SERVICING

PETROL -$167

CLOTHING/OUTINGS -$1,000
DINNERS ETC

Pistolpete2

In my experience it is not really necessary to consider private education until the secondary level if you live in certain parishes such as Smiths where there are good pre-school and primary schools within the state system which they should be able to get into. If they go private those fees are correct*.

House insurance of 4,000 per annum seems an awful lot if it's just for contents. Should be more like 1,000.

You are advised to have GAS for cooking and I would guess that unless you use the AC throughout you could come down by 1,000 per annum and if you are careful, a lot more than that.

Food looks right (incl wine and beer), but you can always budget and shop around for specials to save 250 per month off this. You will not suffer by doing this and junky stuff can really add to the grocery bill as well.

TV/Internet should be half that figure if you shop around.

Car etc. basic costs seem OK but petrol looks low by 100 per month even if you live in the Central Parishes.

If clothing etc. plus dinners etc includes two nights out per week plus incidentals such as gifts and hairdressers/barbers that looks ok. To keep to my budgets I always shopped for clothes and shoes in the seasonal sales.

No trips?

I'm scaring myself for my trip back to Bermuda in August.

*Getting your kids safely to and from their schools at an early age is where a lot of the gasoline costs come from unless you live nice and plumb next to a good private school such as in Devonshire or Warwick or Richmond Road on the edge of Hamilton.

You need to check whether they also cover Social Insurance (30.40 per week employee cost).

Once you are designated as permanent you will be obliged you pay into your employer's pension scheme, typically 5% of gross pay matched by your employer.

reece325

Thanks for coming back to me!

I am looking for a place to live in either Southampton or Warwick with the view that my children go to Warwick Academy.

They have offered to pay 7.5% in a defined pension pot and have allocated $7,700 toward the annual cost of private medical for myself and family which i think is 100% of the cost.

They have not mentioned Social Insurance but $120 a month i can cope with!

By the way i live in London at present (in suburbs) so i am guessing my cost of living is 'closer' to Bermuda than say an American resident!

I have told them i need $150,000 basic plus the benefits for this to work for me personally as i still have a Sterling mortgage to fund the role also pays a 30% bonus which i was planning to repay debt in UK so in 5 years i am mortgage free!

reece325

Re. Trips i think realistically we were thinking of spending time in U.S. and Canada maybe Mexico as well have only been to Miami so lots for us to explore! Flights wise seem very cheap to New York etc so hopefully i can use my annual bonus to fund our trips!

SnowPetals

I lived in Bermuda 3 years ago and although it was just myself and my now exhusband, one thing to bear in mind is that you dont actually spend a lot of money on social activities (unless you intend going out drinking and with a newborn I quess not ) as its so nice just going to the beach, walks etc. Having said that I would def push for $150 as on that salary you should be fine.

Kerly

Hi reece315, we just moved to Bermuda from London, almost 4 weeks ago. We have a 4 year old boy and we are just getting used with the new live stile in Bermuda.

All I can say for the moment everything is looking good. The most important this is obviously the job and all the benefits that you'll get.
When my husband negotiate his contract he asked for a starting bonus wich helped us a lot....we had bills to pay for a month in London inclusive morgage and the bills in here as well.

Also we had to look quickly for a car.....is very difficult to go around without the car in here and in most of the cases the wife is driving....taking the children to school, playgroung,shopping..etc and the husband is using scooter to go to work. In BErmuda is aloud only one car per household.
Regarding the house allowance I think is really great....2500 allowance is really good, you could look there are nice 2 bed flats between $ 3500 - $5000 and you could negotiate....my husband managed to take down around $800.

One of the best places where to look for cars and flats is www.emoo.bm

Food in my opinion is more expensive then london....dont know about alchool and cigarets as we dont buy them.
And the most important the weather is great....is the best place for children....my son said that he doesn't want to go back to London, he really enjoy it.

I hope that you'll take the best decision for your family, I'm really happy that we moved here.

Kerly

We just moved to bermuda 4 weeks ago from London.
For us it really helped a starting bonus that cover most of the bills in here and in London. My husband came here in may and we joined him middle of june. The company helped renting a flat for him and then he looked around for accommodation for us. The $2500 it's sound great, there are nice 2 bed apartments for $3500 -5000 and you could always negotiate

Kerly

You could get an idea of flats on emoo.bm
Also it's good to get a car asp in here as is difficult to travel around without, there are no pedestrian sideway on all roads. Usually the wife is driving the car ( school, shops...) and the husband is using scooter. Almost every family has one scooter here and one car( only one car is allowed per household in bermuda)

Kerly

Funny post, it came up after one day....

reece325

Thanks for your responses! We have a trip out there this weekend for a few days to see everything.

One thing that does worry me is there only seems to be 3 options for schools...so hopefully my son can get into at least one of them! Also the bugs really worry my wife! Especially the flesh eating brown spider that apprantley hides in the closet!

We have a 5 bed town house in London with a small garden so we was kind of hoping to at least get a 3 bed house with a small garden and maybe a shared pool....for max $4500-5000 per month hopefully that is doable?!

FYI i have managed to push them up to basic of $145,000 and a 20% bonus plus all the benefits inc housing allowance etc above that is there final offer seems ok i think.

Kerly

I didn't see any spiders or bugs up until now, but I've seen little ants and little lizards....I dont particulary like lizards but they run away if you'll get closer.
It's good to have a pool around, we have a shared pool and it's great
Good luck with everything!!!

Bermudashorts

You seem to have done ok on the salary negotiations. I think you might get a small house for $4500-5000. It is four years since I lived there and my three bed plus study was $9000 but that had large proportions.

reece325

So we took our trip......first impressions are very good! We visited Saltus and Warwick Academy both seem really nice schools much nicer than state schools in the UK but you have to pay so thats expected i guess, Warwick is $2k cheaper, more centrally located and seems to have slightly better facilities so we are going to try and get my son into there they are oversubscribed for next year already but apprantley there is a shortage of boys this year so we may get lucky!

On the housing front we view a single level house in Devonshire up for $5,500 per month however agent and friends out there told us we can heavily negotiate and that since the crisis thousands of expats have left the island due to the economic climate so prices have come down 30% or so since the boom times, actually the general feel from expats was that life is a little better now a few thousand people have left the island (not as busy and cheaper).

Food was a shocker but as expected about 50-100% more than UK overall, chicken was double although fish was about the same but better quality there. It looks like anything American branded is not too bad, our diet might actually be more healthy if we have to pay $2-3 for a choc bar i'd probably buy an apple instead!

I took some time to read about some of the island politics as well it looks like the current party in power is anti expat to some degree and corrupt in that any revenue raising or quick political boosts are usually gained at the expense of the non Bermudians however most people were alot friendlier than other countries i have visited and there are elections this year which look like a more friendly party may win which would be good news for us!

Bugs - only saw some ants and huge slugs nothing major though didnt seem much different to the UK, i didnt see one cockroach!

Crime - we felt reasonably safe walking around Hamilton during the day but in the local papers there is definatley a gang and gun crime problem but seems to be confined to the Pembroke parish some what so i guess we just wont go there at all apart from central Hamilton! Not sure why there is any crime on an island that small but when the local police are related or grew up with the criminals it expected.

Overall though seems safer than UK, not as overpopulated as South East UK and commute times are 20 mins on a scooter we really noticed going around town when we came back to UK everything seemed so busy i think to say Bermuda is the 3rd most densely populated place on earth is unfair i checked the stats and most London suburbs are 2-3 times more packed in as Bermuda!

Just waiting for visas now which can take 2 months

Kerly

Hi, I'm glad you like Bermuda, good luck with visas and see you on the island.

dfjordan

Glad you liked the place. As is the same everywhere, there are advantages and disadvantages. I spent 3 very pleasant years there, and in general found the locals accept you, but they will never accept you as real friends. You get used to the high costs but as you've seen, these can be offset by the better quality of life. To me, going from Devonshire to Hamilton every morning on the scooter was a real delight, and even those days when a surprise shower drenches you, at least the rain is warm! Good luck to you and enjoy yourselves as it's only temporary anyway.