Can we afford to move? Please Help!
Jul 31st 2010, 1:09 am
#31
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 47
Re: Can we afford to move? Please Help!
On $68.5k your take home per fortnight will be $1979.83 assuming you don't join Kiwisaver (pension scheme) you will have just shy of $1,000 per week to play with. You can probably work it backwards from there, looking at how much rent you can afford, rather than trying to work the other way.
For basic necessities you need to eat, heat and light your home and travel to work. From there I guess it's up to you how many 'luxuries' such as going out, hobbies, clothing, broadband/telephone, Sky TV plans you add. Essentially you can afford to live here, however any unexpected large costs will seriously rock you, don't have any rainy day funds.
Rent $400 to $500 per week
Heat & Light $30 to $50 per week depending on time of year
Allow $100 to $130 per month for phones and internet
Weekly groceries $140 to $180 per week
Around $80 to 100 per month for car and house contents insurance
Petrol obviously depends how far you drive to and from work, I average around $30 per week driving 125 kms per week
So far we've spent about $775 of your $989 take home pay and you start to notice that your weekly income doesn't go far and you will not have very much left at the end of each week to spend frivolously at the shops, go on holidays or indeed save for replacing major household items. If you live like this now then it should be no real hardship.
For basic necessities you need to eat, heat and light your home and travel to work. From there I guess it's up to you how many 'luxuries' such as going out, hobbies, clothing, broadband/telephone, Sky TV plans you add. Essentially you can afford to live here, however any unexpected large costs will seriously rock you, don't have any rainy day funds.
Rent $400 to $500 per week
Heat & Light $30 to $50 per week depending on time of year
Allow $100 to $130 per month for phones and internet
Weekly groceries $140 to $180 per week
Around $80 to 100 per month for car and house contents insurance
Petrol obviously depends how far you drive to and from work, I average around $30 per week driving 125 kms per week
So far we've spent about $775 of your $989 take home pay and you start to notice that your weekly income doesn't go far and you will not have very much left at the end of each week to spend frivolously at the shops, go on holidays or indeed save for replacing major household items. If you live like this now then it should be no real hardship.
You're pretty spot on with your numbers, our income at the moment is just over 60,000 a year and we only just get by. We replaced appliances and white goods in the years leading up to the move with makes that came with 10 year guarantee. We have no debt and we set aside some money in a trust so that our children could continue in private education.
Purchased second hand small japanese cars because our criteria was cheap to run/insure/repair - and that has paid off (touch wood)
We do pay into kiwi saver, but we have no medical insurance, we don't save anything which is the most terrifying thing of all - and we won't even think about a holiday or even a weekend away for another 2 years.
If you come over on a budget, you need to be debt free before you start and have a fund put buy for emergencies. The most difficult thing is being disciplined enough not to dip into it.
We're over half way through our plan and we're on track for my husband to be in the right job within the next 12 months. That said, though I never really have a melt down - I feel a constant, low level kind of panic and stress from the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep. It's because it took 20 years to build what we had and we've gambled it all to be here, financially we've never been this exposed as a family before and it's pretty frightening.
We did discuss all of this before we came over and decided the short term tough stuff and risk would pay off to have a permanent home in the country we wanted to live in.
The children are all thriving, and we've made a lot of kiwi friends - all of who have been supportive and so willing it to work out for us it's amazing. We're growing our own veggies, getting stuck in with bulk buying home kill and in season veg/fruit and I've turned into a jam/chutney/preserve machine.
Personally, this is tolerable for now - but I don't think I could cope if I thought it was our long term future. At this point in time, I don't think we've made a mistake - I just have to stay sane for another year!
