maged_mmh

hello;
been advised to fish for some thoughts here all the way from Africa forum
here you go:
little intro: working for telecom company; like myself, includes a lot of hopping around: I've started off in Egypt (home country), transferred then to UAE - Persian gulf, Qatar, Malaysia, France, Saudi Arabia, then back to Qatar. now it is time to move for permanent relocation to either New Zealand (Wellington) or South Africa (Cape Town), due to recent market share loss in Qatar.
I'm in a real need for objective evaluation for both choices; pro/cons, lifestyle, family-friendly-ness, education reviews, nominal household income for 3 pax family (including diving pie share), cost of living, hazards ...etc.; I would appreciate feedback from who are living/natives/ been there for long term (especially about South Africa - since majority of the info I got from surfing is quite repellent, it seems nice country though from governmental websites).
any thoughts are welcome.
cheers!

j19fmm

Hello, I'm sure someone will be along to help. Question, what exactly does the above mean???

maged_mmh

sorry not to be so clear
meant that how much does it take to make a decent living including basics+entertainment for 2 parents and 1 child

BEVS

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you need to hear from a South African living in New Zealand.

There are plenty of the pros and con threads here on the NZ forum. Have a good browse .

newkiwi

As for how much money you need to live in nz, it depends on a lot of factors. How much cash are you bringing over, will u ue that as a deposit on a house etc. Look at trademe.co.nz for prices for accommodation, and on some bank websites like nbnz.co.nz there are cost of living calculators. It also depends where you will be living, ie Auckland is more expensice than wellington or christchurch. look on seek.co.nz for jobs to see where you are likely to find jobs. for food etc look at woolworths.co.nz or foodtown.co.nz

It also depends how good you are at saving/ budgeting and how much you would like to spend on holidays, entertainment etc. you prob need to work out a resonable personal budget for yourself based on you personal factors.

As a guide, some people get by on 50k, but id suggest this is at the lower end, so you are prob looking at 70k and upwards, but it depends on you personal circumstances realy.