mike&chrissy

How much money is feasible to expect to live on in N.Z. A lot of people on this forum have talked about high living costs and low wages. So what sort of salary would you need to live comfortably? Not high flying, just normal day to day stuff and running cars and a house.
We are looking to move to Aukland. (Still waiting for the job offer....Yawn)
Any info would be great.
thanks
Chrissy

Joshlin

we were advised that you would need $4000 net per month - we used that as our general budget and for a family of 4, 3 bed house, 2 cars in christchurch it has been about spot on - you may need more for a similar family size in Auckland. We have a joint income of $86k annual gross which gives about $2600 per fortnight take home.
hope this helps
Vicki

newkiwi

greatly depends on how big your mortage will be

if you have a mortgage look at $1000 a week (net) realistically, but you may be able to get by on less if you are really budget orientated. Without a mortgage obviously less than that, maybe $700 or so a week.

$1000 a week net is about $80k pa gross, in round numbers

IainW

It'll vary from person to person. How much do you live on now? That'll tell you how much it'll cost you in NZ. We've found costs here pretty much the same as in the UK. Some things less, some more - it all balances out roughly. So $25000 will get you the same lifestyle as someone on 10k pounds in the UK. $80k = 30 grand UKP, give or take. Property here is a bit cheaper depending on where you live, but mortgages more expensive.

mike&chrissy

The job hubby has applied for is $75,000 p.a.
Just wondering if I would need to take a job too. In what way are
mortgages more expensive? Is it higher interest rates? :scared:
If we sold our house here we would probably have about £50.000 left over to bring with us.
Thanks for all your advice so far. Its nice to get an insight to a new life from people who have already done it and are still doing it !!!!!

IainW

Yes. Much higher.

assuming 2.6 exchange rate, 50k = $130,000, which is a decent enough deposit. You say Auckland, which means houses start at around 350k for a doer upper in an average area, up to 450-500k for a moderate family house in a decent area. So I guess you're looking at a mortgage of 300k ish which equates to just over $500 a week (very roughly)

75k per year = net weekly $1030. So 500 a week left over for everything else, I'd have thought that's tight, but doable if you're reasonably frugal. An extra wage would make it more comfortable though.

theduke

We have just started toget things sorted we are $500p/w for rental for 1 year lease 4 bed pool nice section great schools and in auckland, we have 2 decent cars which we decided to take a loan on instead of spending a chunk our cash on them which is $1000p/m so there you go straight of $3000p/m plus say $1000p/m for living so $4k per/m in auckland would work, my walk our pay per month is $6000, so we have a some left over to put away toward our land purchase, and self build.

Shopping for groceries do a shop online with tesco and then with say one of the nz ones and see the difference it is very little we did this before we came here and found a difference of a few pounds.

It is very hard to budget until you actually get here everyone lives differently. Fuel is a good bit cheaper although all the kiwis complain about the price, we filled our land cruiser which has the same size of tank our shogun had in the uk, NZ cost $70, UK cost £70, now at 2.6ish to the pound that is good.

sky

Gosh you're not giving yourself much for electric, phone, rates, food, school clothes, shoes, school books, subject fees, activity fees, school camps, dr's, dentists, car insurance, house/ contents insurance, health insurance, petrol, wof, reg, car upkeep costs, hairdressers the occasional trip out or a meal etc are you!
I don't reckon $1000 would cover all that!
I know you don't pay rates when you rent but you will when you buy.

IainW

I agree, my fixed outgoings are:

Telecom (including b/b internet) 170
Medical insurance 68
Leccy 170
rates 31
insurance (car, house & contents) 85
refuse collection 24
Sky 45

That's around 600 a month. We probably spend around 150-170 a week on shopping (for 2 non-smokers, no kids). So that's a total of 1200ish a month + mortgage just to survive. A quiet night down the pub costs $30-40, a meal out $30-$100, cinema for 2 $30 etc.

Some things on my expenses are far from essential (Sky, broadband) and you could spend less on food if you budgeted, but $1000 would be cutting it close.

newkiwi

interest rates are way higher............look on the websites of the nz banks to get an idea of the interest rates and what it means in terms of repayments. look at westpac, nbnz, asb or anz for instance.

our mortage is about $325k and repayments work out at about $550 a week.
75k pa is doable if you keep to a budget, especially if you do not mortgage yourself to the hilt. unfortunately Auckland is expensive, but there are still relatively cheaper houses in nice areas, albeit a bit further out of the central area. do you know which area the job is likely to be in?

you may want to rent first, that way at least you have more time to look around for a property that suits you in an area you like. it will also allow you to see what your own spending habits are, everyone is different, then you will be able to see how far 75k goes.

at the end of the day it will be a bit of a trade off in terms of what is important to you, ie being at home vs the extra comfort of a second income.

we spend about $120 a week on groceries, utilities are about $120 a month for the phone including dial up internet, same again for electricity, insurance is cheap, around $30-50 a month for car and household insurance ( ithink i cant remember now)

just allow some extra money for savings, as most NZ companies do not offer pension schemes as part of teh remuneration package.

mike&chrissy

[/QUOTE] do you know which area the job is likely to be in?

Not far from the airport I think.
It seems the cost of living isn't too far from what we pay now.
I've noticed that people say their mortgages are so much per week. Does this mean that the mortgage is paid weekly?

I would like to rent I think and maybe start stashing some cash away to buy some land for a build. Have always wanted to do that. Not sure what Mike wants to do.....

I work 5 nights a week from 7 til midnight at B & Q and my l'il Lucy hates it. She cries when I leave and she misses me at bedtime. Would like to be there for her as much as possible if we make the move. And Eldest daughter still adamant she isn't coming with us. I feel that Lucy will be very upset at not having her big sister with her.
I am fully qualified in Swedish massage. I love the holistic therapies etc. Maybe I could start my own business giving swedish massage to all the ex pats who are having to work extra hours to make more money.....
I feel a plan forming here.....
I would love to earn extra money but not at the same expense it is for me now and for my family. So working out the cost of living is very important to me.
Thankyou for all your advice and help. Always a pleasure to be on the forum and reading as much of it as possible so I can familiarise myself with N.Z.
Keep it coming....

newkiwi

do you know which area the job is likely to be in?

Not far from the airport I think.
It seems the cost of living isn't too far from what we pay now.
I've noticed that people say their mortgages are so much per week. Does this mean that the mortgage is paid weekly?

I would like to rent I think and maybe start stashing some cash away to buy some land for a build. Have always wanted to do that. Not sure what Mike wants to do.....

I work 5 nights a week from 7 til midnight at B & Q and my l'il Lucy hates it. She cries when I leave and she misses me at bedtime. Would like to be there for her as much as possible if we make the move. And Eldest daughter still adamant she isn't coming with us. I feel that Lucy will be very upset at not having her big sister with her.
I am fully qualified in Swedish massage. I love the holistic therapies etc. Maybe I could start my own business giving swedish massage to all the ex pats who are having to work extra hours to make more money.....
I feel a plan forming here.....
I would love to earn extra money but not at the same expense it is for me now and for my family. So working out the cost of living is very important to me.
Thankyou for all your advice and help. Always a pleasure to be on the forum and reading as much of it as possible so I can familiarise myself with N.Z.
Keep it coming.... [/QUOTE]

the airport is to the south of the city, actually in Manukau City. If youre not fussed about living in a city and are looking for a more out-of-town type lifestyle look to the south of Manukau, in Franklin district. I can think of areas around Papakura or Pukekohe (sp?) for instance. there may be some other nice areas out that way as well. it will be far out of the CBD but close to the airport. Houses there will be much cheaper than in Auckland.

If you do want to stay in the city it will pay to look around in Manukau and south Auckland, as there are some nice areas but also pretty rough areas. You would not want to end up in a crummy neighbourhood. Areas i would tend to avoid would include Papatoetoe, Otara, Otahuhu (think NZ gangs!). but like I said there are very nice places too.

sounds like you would prefer to stay at home, I hope it works out for you. Im sure if you keep a level head and keep your expectations realistic you will be fine.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you, emigrating is pretty exhausting!!

camelot

I live in Auckland. Been here 10 yrs. Of course when I arrived houses were cheap, cheap, cheap, but have sky rocketed along with every other country in the world.

But good news, they seem to be dipping at the moment (probably due to interest rate increase) at least by 30K to 50K in West Auckland.

Rents are anything from $300 - $350 a week for an average 3 bed house in the burbs, or about $270 for a 2 bed, (if you're lucky).

I think $1000K a week is comfortable to live on for 2 peeps in Auckland.

Good luck.

P.S Aren't you the one who is bringing us the ben & jerry's? You should be raking it in if you can bring that franchise down here - you'll probably be moving into a mansion on the waterfront whilst us peasants scoff your imported b&j ice-cream! ha ha ha.

camelot

Oh yeah, a good tip, buy your cars (by bidding) from Turners Car Auctions (in Auckland) they are great and reputable, they don't sell duds like car yards and private sales sometimes can.

We got both our cars from there (and lots of peeps we know did too) and they were at least $2K cheaper than getting exactly the same car from a car yard. you get fantastic bargains for really reliable cars - I wouldn't go anywhere else now. The car auction here is way better than UK - they sell good cars only -and you can even test drive the car prior to the auction...

Turners Car Auctions is the best and most reputable (don't go anywhere else - I believe Turners is the most reliable - our cars have not let us down and we've had them almost as long as we've been here).

Andrew Cross

Dont work there by any chance do you - sounds like a radio advert !!