zoglet

How do people survive in New Zealand?

The wages are much lower, yet the costs are close to UK costs. Tax is far greater too. How do people manage to own all the toys on display at the beach given how proportionaly expensive life is here? I just don't get it, can anyone explain it to me?

Is there a secret place to shop or a secret card that gets you everything cheaper? If so, please let me in on the deal!

TeamEmbo

I think the deal you seek is called HP. Nothing mystical just the basic principal of debt upto the eyeballs to live life to the full now and not worry cos the house will pay it off ... one day... in the dim and distance future, which shouldn't be worried about either cos its as ages away as.

CarolineSwan

We dont have debt, apart from our new mortgage, though we do own the land ourselves, and will pay house off when we can

I think you just have to buy what you can affoard, dont go daft

wages are crap compared to what we had back home but we still manage to save, and thats good going seeing as i still think money grows on trees

Genesis

Not all wages are crap. I think insurance, petrol and lots of other things being cheaper even things out a bit. What's important is that folk get their sums right before coming to NZ. We worked out we would be better off here than we were in the UK working one third less of the hours we did in the UK..Kate's a nurse by the way not a banker!!! I would not have made the move personal;ly if it had left us cash strapped. I am not that intrepid or brave and one of the things that pissed me off in the Uk was giving one third of my very reasonable wage to the mortgage co. each month.

Being mortgage free and having to work less is one of the great things about being here. Life is a real change to the grind we went thru' in the UK. We rarely had ought left at the end of each month and spent less quality time together.

So do your sums well. We hear quite a bit about there's nothing worse than doing this and finding that you are permanently broke.

CarolineSwan

Sorry i phrased that wrong, They are not all crap just more underpaid than maybe most earned in the uk. But yea i agree i think most things here including food is far cheaper so it all weighs itself out. We may have less of a wage and pay more tax( hubby had a limited company in britain so paid really low tax) but we see more of him, b4 he worked it seemed 24/7 here he works mon to friday and we get to have dinner at the same time each night. We still get to buy what we want , even if we have to put away some money for a few weeks to do so.

in general we are much better off that we were in the uk , and over there hubby made fantastic wages( he is a dj so got good money for that too)

you just have to work out what you as a family can live on

nero

Totally agree with Genesis - it really is about coming to NZ with eyes open and being realistic about costs (Moving and future). It is easy to think that things will be better just because you are in a different country. But they can just as well be worse if the calculations are wrong.

We are better are off here in NZ, we work less as well. But our life is very different and we are loving it

TeamEmbo

This isn't how I live, BTW! This is how we were told the locals managed all the toys when we asked the same question.

zoglet

Thats what I was thinking had to be the case TE.

As for doing the sums before comming over here- well, you would be a fool not to.

But even having done so, I still feel there is a disconnect between the saleries (we are both proffessionals and whilst I have yet to secure employment, my partner has a good wage by NZ standards) and the affluence that is visible around us.

Does anyone know what the current average wage is in NZ? From what I remember reading, it was not going to support a boat/jet ski/ house etc for very long!

I guess it must be HP!

Genesis

Well in Masterton its $21000!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently the national median salary is in the region of $40k.

mickey_d

According to a radio report yesterday, around 3/4 of the working population only have enough savings to last 3 to 4 weeks if they lost their jobs.
With over 1000 losing their jobs every week now there will be quite a lot finding themselves in trouble, no doubt.

zoglet

Which is why I wonder how people afford to run boats/jet skies/ windsurfers / blow carts etc-not to mention all the play things mored in every small and large harbour across the land! How is it financed?

mickey_d

Most of them bought their houses for 10k pre Lord Of The Rings & are now reaping the benefits

lapsed kiwi

For a start, the average national full time salary is around $45k, and there are a lot of dual-income families - so a lot of households with $100k+ income and the tax benefits of two incomes. The average household income of the sort of people you sea on the beach in Auckland with toys is probably closer to $120k and upwards.
Add the fact that a lot of 35+ aged people are mortgage-free having bought cheap; 15 years ago a mortgage for longer than 15-20 years was generally unnecessary and unusual.
Then do some prioritising. Kiwis tend to run cars into the ground; the average car here is 12 years old, compared to 6 in the UK. That is a lot less depreciation money being thrown at car dealers, especially when a good deal of those cars were 3-7 year old Jap imports in the first place. Your average kiwi would also rather spend money on a boat than on central heating or replacement windows. For holidays, he will also probably spend a couple of weeks camping in NZ and fishing from said boat instead of spending thousands going to a grotty part of the USA to see people dressed as giant mice
Then add in the fact that a lot of stuff here is free - parking, boat launching, trip to a regional park instead of to a theme park, BBQ with friends rather than 3-4 hours and 20-30 quid in the pub a few times per week. You can manage with a lot less discretionary spending here.
Does this go some way to explaining it?

Genesis

Perfectly!! What an observation. Excellent post. You should be a psychologist..if you are not one already.

scrubbedexpat094

I agree