waikatoguy

The NZ online tax calculator seems to come up with different results here :
http://www.salaries.co.nz/
Don't know why that is.

Assanah

Well, the average gross income in 2011 in Germany was about 645€ a week which is roughly $1000.

If I compare my life in Berlin with Auckland I fall into a rage....about myself that is:
Berlin:
Rent for a big apartment with modern heating, nice wooden floors, stucco at the ceiling and wooden carved swing doors:
€520 a MONTH
including gas, electricity, phone and internet (flatrates of course): €640 a month

Auckland:
Rent for a small house without insulation and heating (and no charm, tiny rooms, ugly old carpet etc. pp) including electricity and internet (capped): $1500. And that is quite cheap!!

Food: just the basics, in Berlin €200 for 2 per month, in Auckland $400.

Transport: €70 per person monthly pass for excellent public transport in Berlin; in Auckland we had to buy a car and a scooter with all the associated costs and hassle.

Entertainment: movie ticket in Berlin €9.50 in Auckland $17, cheapest musical ticket in Berlin €38 in Auckland 75, opera in Berlin €20 in Auckland $170 (I am not even considering the difference in the level of performance here)...

waikatoguy

They should include that tax free bit in those online tax calculators things. Would make them more accurate.

waikatoguy

I think I found out where that difference with the calculator comes from.
According to this site http://listentotaxman.com/index.php on a UK salary of 30,000 pounds, you also pay 2,688.96 in National Insurance.
30,000 pounds income
4,379 paye tax
2,688.96 National Insurance
= 22,934 pounds net
Unless not everyone pays National Insurance.

BEVS

The first 7592 pounds is free of NI charges.
The rest would be 12% of 22408 pounds making 2688.96 NI charged.

simonsi

"Median" is just one type of average. At least that's the way it was when I did maths, that might be where the confusion is coming from.

simonsi

unfortunately I think it is easier and quicker to come here for a year and actually experience the whole cost-of-living vs income vs lifestyle "thing" than it is to try and calculate every permuatation of costs and income and come up with either "the" or even "an" answer....

Catchafire

I dont understand the point of this thread! Other than trying to score points in a whole Berlin vs Auckland. If I was to compare my life in the UK to here, the cost of tomatoes does not really come into it.

Surely everyone must realise that these are two very different places! Berlin, has a high density of apartment living and most people rent rather than own their homes.

Assanah

Well, this thread was originally part of another thread and was then moved by Bevs, not by me. So this is not about scoring points in a Berlin vs Auckland thing, it just so happens that Bevs used my post as a first post for this new thread.

Expat Kiwi

I think it will be interesting to see comparisons with other countries too, not just Germany, UK and Australia.

Expat Kiwi

I couldn't agree more. Whilst these surveys have a certain academic interest I've always maintained none of them are substitutes for real life experience. http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...=750705&page=3

Would you buy a car without test driving it, why should shifting countries be any different?

BEVS

All this was within the simple grocery list thread intended as a ...wait for it....simple listy.

I've no choice about the opening post though when moving posts to a new thread. They pop up in order of posting.

mbar19

Find this thread really interesting. You surely can't expect to just move somewhere miles away and expect all your costs, your wages, you home quality, your car prices etc to just 'be the same or better'.

The tax issue you all debate is obviously dependent on how much you earn, but for someone moving up the ladder, seems to be pretty sweet deal in NZ.

UK tax works out at 23.5% of gross salary a year for a middle-earner c. £30k.
(that is AFTER allowing for tax free allowances). Student loan repayments are also deducted from any wage increase at a rate of 9% FYI.

NZ tax works out at 20.1% of gross salary a year for a middle-earner c.$60k including ACC.

So on a tax basis, as a middle-earner, the comparison isn't as 'one-sided' as seems depicted in this thread.

EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE! It's pretty simple. If you want to move from the UK (or Germany or anywhere!) and expect comparable everything, then you are pretty short-sighted and moved for the wrong reasons.

If I want a low-mileage Audi, Saab, BMW or VW in NZ, it will cost me THE EARTH compared to in the UK/EU. If I want to fill up my 60 litre tank full of petrol, it will cost me 15% less in New Zealand.

In the UK, we pay council tax, even if we are renting a property off someone else. The council tax/rates can cost around £1,200 for an average home in an average area. How much do I pay in New Zealand for the same? $120 a year to get my rubbish collected (not $2,400 ish as the landlord pays for the rest).

Property here? Pricey. Property in the UK? Pricey. Property styles here? Generally 'lower' quality to UK homes. But I've not moved to the UK, expecting a semi-detached or terraced house. I've moved to New Zealand to experience something different. So what if the all houses / flats aren't as incredibly built as those back home, what is the point in having as many specialists and expensive building materials and practices going back over the last 100 years when the population is so much smaller and isolated?

You live with what you have around you, and you make the most of what an area has to offer, whilst minimising the stress that things that aren't to your usual taste can cause.

And FYI, mortgage interest rates here are high, but so are savings rates. All generally speaking. It's all relative and mixed up in exchange rates.

If you are a highly material person and you value possesions and money more than other things in life, then coming to NZ is probably an expensive way of achieving that (i.e. for the same standard home and car, major outlays).

But come one, who really cares if my milk costs 10% more? Or my car insurance costs 30% less? Live within your means, adapt to the surroundings you find yourself in. If you don't like em, hightail it back to where you came from that is so much better, or make a fresh move to pastures new. The world is so small today, the grass isn't always greener, yada yada yada.

sr71

Not too hard to see that NZ isn't the finest place for that.

Though Germany does have it's faults. The shops I find are quite expensive, maybe that is tempered by the lower rents. Also the salaries and income tax are not that attractive compared to the UK.

And I think freedom in workplace probably a bit old fashioned. More weight placed on titles, length of tenure etc. Which can stifle the young and ambitious.

Bo-Jangles

Yada, yada, yada, it remains to be seen if you will be quite so nonchalant about the cost of things when you get your first Kiwi pay packet and start living the dream on money you actually earned here.