Smurtonio

Hi everyone, this is my first post here and hoping some of you might be able to help, I am a plumber and looking at the option of moving to Christchurcch, for obvious reasons there is plenty or work options, there will be my wife and four children,8,3,3 and 1 years,so hard to do the sums but I would like to know is $1000 a week enough to live on, this is not including rent as we would be buying a property . So food, fuel, electric and general living, any input would be welcome, thank you.

Woodlea

$1000/week after tax and no rent/mortgage is plenty

Smurtonio

Thank you Woodlea, I have read lots of post about how expensive life is in Newzealand and I guess no point going any further if we could not afford to live,thanks again.

Mark Smith

Rents appear to be going down in the city. We've got friends who rent out their 3 bedroomed house and have had to drop the rent from $570 to $480 a week, which is good news if you are renting.

Tom H

I presume you won't be requiring a mortgage?????

BEVS

I'll admit Woodlea that I am a little confused by the idea that $1000 gross is plenty for a family of 6 to live from in the Christchurch area, although that rate is good for an overseas plumber with no NZ experience or qualifications

Smurtonio. My husband is a UK time served plumber and gasfitter. He is now an New Zealand fully qualified certifying plumber and gasfitter .

Not that we are you at all and we are not in the Christchurch area nor your age group but I truthfully cannot say that we have plenty of $$ to live from at around $1000 per week gross and we have no mortgage or rent to pay.

As others will probably write, do your sums very carefully. You have 4 children , one school age and three who will be coming into school age with the costs involved with that.

Will you be mortgage free for instance?

MrsFychan

so if you are getting a wage of $30 per hour for 40hours a week your take home wage would be $974, not sure if that includes ACC levy so could be less, after tax deduction? Obviously if you are getting less per hour the take home will be less, check out https://brc1.ird.govt.nz/web-determi...bal?user=guest to get rough idea.
Have a look at sites like countdown to do a weekly shop, find out how much GP fees are in the area you hope to settle as they can vary a lot, gas, electric, if you have to pay for water, insurance costs, (if you are buying you have to insure for the cost of a complete rebuild which includes removal of previous house and all debris) car insurance is voluntary but strongly advisable. cost of public transport if your OH needs to get the kids out and about. set up costs after the move or waiting for the container.

also if you have not lived here before I would serious advise not to buy until you have been here for at least 18mths so you can really get a feel for the life here and its challenges, if you have lived here before I would still say wait as the country is going through changes and places may not be what you remember.

Smurtonio

Thank you Bevs, that is why I have posted this thread, can you reall y be accurate about cost while not living in that country I was basing it on earning between 7-800 dollars, with 4 children we will be entitled to child benefits because of my low wage which would take it to around $1000, please inform me if this is off the mark, I can only go with what I have read, we will be mortgage free and we are not the type of family to be expectng to live a lavish lifestyle, family things on the weekend, one decent family vehicle and a runaround for me for work,, we live in Cornwall presently and our food bill was £900 last month so perhaps it will not be such a shock, the UK especially the South wext is quite expensive too

moonie2011

Hi we live in wellington and there are 2 adults and two kids, 9&12 yrs old. We get $1800 take home a week and to be honest there's nothing left to save. We have a mortgage which takes about $600 a week. We run two cars. The rest goes out on bills and food etc. Energy bills are around $100 a week.
We don't go short but it's not comfortable at times.

MrsFychan

sorry I'm confused.

how are you getting a roof over your head? you are not including any payments for that in the estimate of $1000 a week, IF you can get child benefit.

Sorry why would you want to come and go on benefit just to just get by?

Have you checked that you can uplift a visa that would allow you to move and live here permanently or just on a temp basis?

Smurtonio

I would be coming over on PR visa as a plumber,we would be able to buy a property outright, I am not coming over relying on benefits, I have worked all my life for the last 30 years so I am not trying to get something for nothing,I asked without rent or mortgage because we could buy outright could we live on $1000 approx

BEVS

I'm really not sure what to think about this.

The well heeled have perhaps lavish lifestyles all around this world, or maybe that should be easier lifestyles. The rest of us earn a crust; pay our bills; budget hard and try to save for the nicer things in life. Just like anywhere else.

Low wage? I thnk you are pulling our legs. Actually , for a plumber it is a very good wage & much more than many earn.

As for 'benefits'. You have not worked & input into NZ for 30 years. In fact you have not contributed anything, although you have worked in the UK for 30 years as many of us have. So perhaps you can understand that it isreally odd to read of someone calculating their new NZ life as including a benefit.

I've no idea about NZ benefits as neither of us have ever claimed a bean anywhere, ever.

Anyway. Hopefully someone with children will come along to help you with your sums for the Christchurch area.

Good luck .

lardyl

One thing I would add is that if you are looking to take the new immigrant tax exemption (that was available to us 8 years or so ago) you can't also claim family tax credits. So if you have some UK income, say from investments, rental over there, etc, then you will have to chose which to take. Not sure that helps but I have kids and had to make that decision at the time, which in our case was the wrong one (another story though)....
Good luck.

bourbon-biscuit

The poster was talking about tax credits when he used the term 'benefits', as far as I can tell. Also, I read his nod to having worked all his life as explaining that he intends to work and support his family and why he is able to be mortgage free.
When we moved out here all those years ago, we sure as hell factored in tax credits.
Now, a family of 6 living on appprox 1000 $ a week without mortgage: whether or not that is a good salary for a plumber it will be a bit tight. I think it depends on what you are used to in the UK. The 900 pound food bill last month rings alarm bells for me as on your kiwi income you will want to restrict food budget to 250ish per week, assuming that you still have bills to pay etc. I suggest you tell us more about your current lifestyle. We get lots of people who post asking about whether x is enough to live on but we need some qualitative info about current lifestyle and aspirations for nz to be able to advise. What's your current take home minus housing costs? What do you like to do as a family? What are you hoping to get from nz?

Tom H

$1,000.00 a week without a mortgage...

That should be doable. We live off $1,500,00 a month when you take away the mortgage from ours, and we have 2 kids. I think you'll get about $75 FTC and $150 IWTC (or the other way round) per week for your kids. We get $38 per week for our two since the wife doesn't work anymore. Lets just say for us, that money pays for the infant formula since my wife can't breast feed (before the judges arrive).

It mainly depends on your lifestyle mind.