inkedneonurse

Good evening to all those on the other side of the planet.
So you all say NZ is expensive compared to the uk..even my mother in law says this (resident for 13 years) and I get that every pound earned and spent is taxed....however what is the basis for comparison as the uk is becoming hideously expensive especially for those of us who have taken a 14% result time pay cut...vat is now included on more things..we still get tax free allowance though because tvwe shall see how long that last. I'm just wandering if you've all managed to make it back to see what the uk has/is becoming?

MrsFychan

Lots have returned and the comments are always how cheap stuff is and how much choice

garethwm

I think a lot comes down to relativity. It wasnt that long ago that $1 NZ bought you £0.33 UK and NZ was at that stage considered cheap. Now $1 buys you £0.54 so everything here is more expensive to what it used to be. However at the same time wages in comparison have shot up by a similar amount. The NZ salaries look better than they used to. At the end of the day, I would say if youre earning £30000 in the UK, you should be aiming for about $75000 in NZ. And forget the taxed on every dollar thing. The income tax rates are lower here, so by the time you are earning average wage, you will be paying less income tax by comparison. As for the current UK situation, I cant comment.

inkedneonurse

On the wage ratio I'm good then I earn 24k here and pay at same grade over there is 64k

garethwm

Yep I think youre good with that comparison Inkedneonurse.

wez130

At current rates, £30k = about NZ$54k whereas last year, £30k would have been about $65k. That's going to change all the time, naturally. I don't think it's ideal to compare the 2 countries otherwise, you'll feel cheated.

You need to factor in the cost of living there too, most things are more expensive, if you rent a property, you don't pay rates (council tax) like you do here. Car insurance isn't compulsary in NZ, i've just come to the conclusion that it's swings and roundabouts and you just have to shop smarter in NZ than you do here. Just don't think you'll be going over there and being as confortable as you are here.

bourbon-biscuit

The exchange rate means next to nothing when trying to figure out the cost of living difference. How much $$$$ a GBP buys only matters when/ if (a) you initially move over with a lump sum, and (b) you continue to get an income from the UK or pay off a loan, etc.

I can't get over how people keep referring to the exchange rate when thinking about the cost of living. Do you intend to earn in GBP? If not, it is virtually meaningless.

Over the years, folk on this forum (and others) have tended to broadly agree that a reasonable multiplier for getting a similar lifestyle in NZ to the UK is in the region of 1:2.4-3. I would be worried about a family of four coming on a family income of less than $100k (without huge equity) without obvious prospect of improving that. Cue posters popping up and declaring themselves living like kings with 6 kids on $55k, weaving yoghurt and so on (true story, almost!), but I'm talking in generalisations here.

Nurses in their early career years tend to do quite well emigrating as they are paid more in NZ and Oz in the early years.

In terms of making the observation that the CoL is higher in NZ than in the UK, yes lots of people observing that are either recent migrants or recently returned to the UK migrants. There's also a reasonable amount of research data available that indicates the CoL differences in various countries so you can always use Google to find some of that and see if there's a broad consensus.

It is more expensive to get by in NZ; this is more salient to migrants who are looking to earn less than the above ratio in NZ and/or don't have equity to sink into a home. It helps if you adjust your lifestyle to a more Kiwi-average one, which includes not expecting overseas holidays. It also helps not to have kids, but we won't go there!

inkedneonurse

Could have used that thinking 13 years ago

BEVS

I don't compare. To me it is about actual net income v cost of living. So, once we were here and settled for a few years we felt that NZ was more expensive overall than it had been for us in the UK.

We have been here for over a decade now and in our personal opinion & experience NZ has become even more expensive. Wages have not really kept pace. Mind you, the folk around us echo this same opinion so we're not that out of step with the local Kiwis and other nationalities where we live.

I always, but always, suggest to anyone thinking of coming out to write down a list of all their current net income , expenses , savings and the like. Be really tough with that and include absolutely everything.
Then try to do the same using the possible net income here + the same list of expenses and costs. To that add that which is not an expense in the UK , like GP fees for instance and take away that which does not apply to NZ . If you buy a season train ticket for instance.

At the end of the day you want enough disposable income to allow you to enjoy your life wherever you are.

Oh and top tip - forget the 'free stuff' mantra. There is free stuff wherever you go if you have the will and interest .

Parnell

2GBP jar of chocolate spread = $17 in NZ

SSky

Yea exchange rates mean diddly squat once you're here and earning NZ dollars. It is more expensive to live here, we all have left family and relatives in the UK so it's easy to see that they can buy a lot more for their pound than we can do here in NZ for our earned dollars.
You'll just have to make sure you're coming over to a good income, also you may have enough money to not have a mortgage although most of my UK friends seem to have one now so I don't know what went on there!? We have one too even though it's a little one.
We seem to be less secure and covered over here than we ever were in the UK which is a recent realisation of mine since my husbands illness, seems like if things go tits up you're on your own majorly.
It's not all negative though, if you can buy a property outright and earn a good income you'll be ok. We have a lovely lifestyle block and I'm never going back to living next door to someone, we'll just buy a cheaper lifestyle block and carry on.
I'm just remembering my first grocery shopping trip here, OMG the wave of sick shock at how much it was will never leave me.

Genesis

I do hope your hubster gets well soon. Very sorry to hear that he is very ill XXXX

Genesis

One thing that folk coming here need to be mindful of is that NZ was, and most certainly probably still is one of the most expensive places on earth to buy a home in relation to earnings.

Apparently the median house price should be something like around 3 x times the median salary. Look below it is now almost 6, almost 9 in Auckland. Twice what it should be nationally and 3 times in Auckland!!!! Good god!

Median Multiples | interest.co.nz

SSky

Thank you Genesis

Pom_Chch

Basis of comparison is:

1. How much disposable income do we have left after all essentials are taken out? Much more than in the UK.

2. How does our standard of living compare to when we were in the UK? Head and shoulders above here in NZ.

I don't worry about exchange rates or much else for that matter, just the top two points.