lardyl

yeah I had to negotiate a trial separation from The Black Country, she still wants me back but it's been nearly 5 years

witty

If your an experienced mental health nurse then you will be able to demand a better salary than that. I came over 15 months ago on 62k I would think you can get that as well. In fact I have a job going here (am now acnm) in forensic. A CV would help though......I can pass it on to the people that matter

BEVS

Good one Witty.

Assanah

Well, I disagree. We are two and live on not much more in Auckland. We rent and have a car (old car). I think it is alright and we can save some money every month. Really depends on how often you want to go out, do you drink alcohol, eat lots of meat, do you need a modern kitchen, do you want sky etc. pp. We don't eat meat and rarely drink alcohol, we live close to work and we don't shop at PaknSave, only in Asia supermarkets ;-)

Dumbledore

In Auckland you woud definitely be poor on a wage of this and you would absolutely struggle to make ends meet.

Hamilton is a lot cheaper but very much a country, small town with not too much going on. Your $44k would go a lot further down there but I don't really think you would have much left over every month for social & recreational purposes (Eg: weekends away, holidays etc)

NZ has got ridiculously expensive. I first came here in the late 90's and your money definitely went a lot further then. We pay exorbitant prices for just about everything due to the fact that we are a small country in the middle of nowhere with very lack lustre & weak politicial leadership.

Expect to pay $3.60 for 2 litres of milk, around $200 for a decent pair of leather shoes that will last 2-3 years, average food shop around $150 for two, petrol $2.06 currently, pub meal out (one course) with drink each around $50- $60. NZ lamb and beef is also very dear with all the good quality stuff being exported. Friends of ours who are up in the Middle East actually pay less for NZ lamb and milk than we do locally in Auckland and I believe milk is also considerably cheaper in the UK.

NZ is a beautiful place to live and no-one is too stressed at work - everyone works to live rather than it being a big rat race. However - after being in Australia for 3 years - my view is that we get constantly ripped off in NZ. Most people cite "lifestyle" reasons for coming to live here but in fact you can have a very similar lifestyle in Australia with a better standard of living- although I must admit you will work a lot harder in Sydney !!

Everything in Australia is cheaper other than housing - and even then if you buy a house, at the end of the day you still have an asset once you have paid the mortgage. Everyone thinks the cost of living is huge there - which it is - however wages are significantly higher over there (I was earning around 60% more in Sydney vs Auckland) and local purchasing power is second highest in Sydney worldwide (refer UBS survey recently produced) - meaning your money goes furthest (I think Auckland was 30th from memory). That is why huge numbers of Kiwis - particularly the Gen Y - are leaving and transferring over there.

Have you considered Australia ? We looking to quit NZ for good in about 6 months time and go back to Sydney permanently as it is just so hard to get ahead in NZ. OH and I are hardly poor and both work full-time but there are serious lack of career opportunities here (has got much worse in the past 5-10 years with lots of companies being bought out by foreign owners).

NZ is a low wage economy and has been getting poorer over the last 7 years or so since 2003 / 2004. There are also lots of future problems looming here - paying for ageing population (most Kiwis have very low personal savings and not the huge levels of super Aussies have built up over the past 16 years through their compulsary super); the costs of rebuilding Christchurch which will be borne ulitmately by the tax payer added to the fact that the Govt's emergency disaster fund has now been wiped clean - meaning that if a big earthquake hits Wellington anytime soon we don't have any money in the coffers to pay for it; and the high combined level of public and private debt (currently at Greek levels at around 85% of GDP).