Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Well maybe that comfort is relative, that it changes with time of life and as we gather family and responsibilities through life. Also the cost of living in London has increased enormously over the last 20 years.

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Is just you numbers mean nothing to me...you talk about $ and was that for a year?
This makes no sence at all to me

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

i think the current plan means penury but as the poster is a nun they wont have many worldy needs

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Sorry the grant money was 3500 pounds for about 9 months and I made about 400 per month over the 3 month summer holidays, so I lived off 4700 pounds per year and had a comfortable life. My point is two fold, London was a lot cheaper back then and when you're a single student you can live comforatbly on a little. As I've got older my expenses have increased, but I've always tried to keep things simple. I've had my car for 14 years and my expenses (excluding my house) are 1500 dollars per month (about 900 pounds). Of course it's probably very difficult to live on that if you have a spouse and children.........

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Why would the information that you live on 1500$ in the US help me on my question about living in London??

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Try this

http://www.workgateways.com/working-cost-of-living.html

I think average weekly grocery bill is per person, max 2 people.

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Good point it doesn't really help. Of course your original post was a little vague. Comfort is very relative. I'd suggest you do what I did in figuring out my expenses if I come back to the UK. Look at house costs at

www.fish4homes.co.uk

Then go to a bank site like
www.hsbc.co.uk
www.halifax.co.uk

to get the cost of the mortgage.

you can find salaries for jobs on www.monster.co.uk

and other living expense info at http://www.workgateways.com/working-cost-of-living.html

Doing this I figured out that the cost of living in the US is similar to that in the UK, but that UK salaries are about 1/2 to 2/3 of those in the US. Of couse this has large regional variations.

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Nun, just out of interest, what part of the US were you comparing, and to what part of the UK?

I agree that regions vary a heck of a lot. I have the possibility of moving to Pontypool and the house prices look very reasonable (for the UK). However, I wouldn't consider moving to any area of the South of England, because I just could not afford a decent house without spending most of my monthly salary (in academia, salaries do not vary much from region to region).

The Glasgow area (where I'm also looking) is cheaper than most of England, but house prices have gone up a lot, and are certainly more than Pontypool.

For me, house prices have turned out to be the #1 economic factor in deciding where in the UK I might end up (because your mortgage is such a large part of your monthly outgoings).

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

You could buy my house........!!! I live about 2 miles from Northwood and have a 3 double bedroom house in immaculate condition, new kitchen, new bathroom with twin sinks and spa bath, 8 mins walk from tube, 70 foot garden with large garage, greenhouse and shed.

Not on the market yet, but will be in the New Year for a shade under 300k.

PM me if you want more details!

Cheers

Buzzy

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

I live in Boston, so its one of the more expensive parts of the US, particularly for housing, items like petrol, city taxes and groceries are all above the US average. I compared the cost of living in London and found them to be quite similar. Some things like petrol were obviously a lot more expensive in the UK, but hosing costs were close. The thing that amazed me was the low average salary. When I return to the UK I'll be living in North Yorks or Durham, areas that are a lot cheaper than London. I just applied for a job up there are was dissappointed that the salary was between 35k and 38k pounds a year. This is above average for the UK, but far less that I earn in the US, so I decided to wait a couple of years and save some more to fund my retirement up North.

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Have you looked at how much you would actually take home in UK vs. US?

I just found this Web site: http://www.i-resign.com/uk/financial...calculator.asp that tells you what your take-home pay would be for a given salary. When I plugged in my current US gross salary (i.e., converted from USD to GBP), the take-home was 20% higher than my current take-home.

Of course, if you have a mortgage, the UK doesn't give tax relief on mortgage interest, and there are lots of other intangibles (like exchange rate) that you have to take into account. It's all very confusing!

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

I just did the same thing and eraning the same as I earn in the US I would take home 6% more in the UK. However, as I work for the state I don't pay social security, instead I pay a mandatory 11% of gross salary into a retirement fund, so I think I'm actually a bit better off in the US. But the numers are close and it just points out that overall income tax rates are quite close in the US and UK. However the the UKs 17% VAT can be hard to deal with sometimes. The biggest thing to get over is the lower salaries in the UK. I'm in academia and when I move back, and if I get a similar job, I'll be earning
approximately half of my US salary

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Hah...you should come to Belgium...we pay 21% ;)

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

Wow, really? I'm in academia too, and I haven't found it to be quite like that (as far as my own job is concerned, I mean).

When I moved home in 2000, my UK salary was about the same as my US salary (at an exchange rate of about 1.60 at the time).

Admittedly, I have seen only a few jobs so far, but the UK salaries were either similar, slightly higher, or slightly lower. I spoke with a department chair recently, and he seemed to think a salary that is equivalent to about 1.3 times my current salary was very do-able.

Of course, the 9-month (US) vs 12-month (UK) contract thing throws a whole other factor into the mix that makes it hard to compare.

Re: How much do you need to make...
 

I've been looking at jobs back in the UK with some management involved, I'm an engineer so I'm looking at technical program management, or lecturer level stuff and the salaries seem to range from 30k to 45k pounds depending on experience.
The salaries are a bit higher outside academia. However, this is a lot less than someone whose's mid career at a US institution gets. Of course if you get a nice pension with the UK job that would make it more attractive, but even that's becoming a thing of the past.