wbexpat

hollyanne

Believe me I have been trying to find out this sort of thing but alot of info on the internet is conflicting. I just thought other people who are already bringing in a wage, paying rent, buying groceries would be able to comment and help but think I may of been wrong.

christmasoompa

Or perhaps the OP genuinely thought that some nice people might actually be able to help her assess whether that's a decent salary and if she and her family should move their entire lives abroad, given that she's never lived in Canada before but the vast majority of members of this forum have?

Seems a fair enough question to me, it's not her fault if she'll be living on more than some people on here, and if she has no clue about costs of things in Canada, then asking on a forum like this seems a good starting point for research.

Welcome to the forum OP, sorry that not everybody has been welcoming but hope you've got some useful answers amongst the jealousy.

iaink

Well, to recap and answer your two original questions (again)

Yes, its a good wage, enough to live on in either Vancouver or Calgary, although it will go farther in Calgary.

Tax depends on what you can deduct, but you wont go far wrong thinking 30% in Alberta and a couple of points more in BC. If you to check out more specific scenarios the calculator link posted above is one of the more accurate ready reckoners.


Seriously though, at twice the average household income you don't need to worry about grocery costs or average heating expenses, and unless you have multiple ex wives and horses to provide for, or a grade A narcotic addiction, you will likely be able to make ends meet.

For basic Canada lifestyle information I recommend browsing the excellent wiki section that has been provided by members here over the years...there is not much not covered there in general terms regarding immigration and day to day living here, although it can be a bit clunky to find your way around.
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Category:Canada

AmyDavid

Me neither...thank god for credit cards....

hollyanne

Thankyou, this is a genuine question as I have been told that the cost of living in Vancouver is considerably higher than living in Calgary and was hoping for some help from people living in both places.

AmyDavid

Erm...I'm not having a go at the OP.....watch you don't trip over that box once you get off your high horse.....

bodgerx

Ahhh, now if you had asked that, then you would have got a reasonable answer.

AmyDavid

I think the general train of thought is, go take a look at MLS, see what kind of house you can get for the money you want to spend. Use the mortgage calculator on there to get an idea for your monthly payment (always use a higher than average rate so you get a worse case scenario payment).

When we were planning on coming out, we split our UK earnings down into percentages - ie we spent x% a month on mortgage, x% on food, x% on bills etc etc and then split the new CAD amount out in the same way, using the same percentages and see what you are left with.

$130k anywhere in CAD is a nice wage.

Flogger

Its nearly 3 times the average salary for a quantity suveyor in BC. so its not bad.
That took me 10 seconds to find via google.

hollyanne

And then people would have said how can we answer that when we don't know your salary etc..

I think I was in a no win situation whatever I posted.

AmyDavid

It's just one of those questions that really we cannot answer. Only you know how you spend your money - for all we know you might have a secret shoe addiction or something... Mine is flip flops so a considerably cheap shoe addiction really..!

bodgerx

Personally, if I was wanting to know if the area was livable for me, I would have asked:

What are people paying for?...:

1. Property tax (giving cost/size of house and location).
2. Heating/Electric per/unit (giving size of house and location).
3. Groceries (possibly asking for links to typical supermarket flyers for the area).
4. Motor Insurance costs (giving car details)
5. Mortgage deals available for area and newcomers.
6. Anything else that I would pay for in a given month.

gryphea

Lifestyle makes a huge difference. If the family want to ski a lot, get ski lessons, skis etc it can easily begin to eat into it. The flights once a year are a really good deal though.

BristolUK

So if we went skiing a lot we'd need an extra $112,000 to bring us up to $130k.