Re: Wage Differences
 

Re: Wage Differences
 

Jam, you might not care what Victoria Beckham is wearing and neither do I. But, it seems every Kiwi I've met so far does :eek: My sister in law buys 2 of those magazines every week and every celebrity magazine available in NZ is brought every week into our canteen. I've never known anything like it.

I'm love to be certain that this is a big city thing but I have a feeling that most of the women in this country are interested in celebrities.

And, on reflection, it's a bit patronising to think that they wouldn't be. It's a national pasttime in other Western countries - why wouldn't it be here?

Re: Wage Differences
 

Fair point, Batty, and I will of course eternally regret embarking upon the subject. But surely VB's pneumatic bosom isn't really of huge concern to those who would move 13000 miles to live in this beautifully fabulous country? Beside, her hubby is far more gorgeous, if almost as intellectually chanllenged!!!

Yours humbly

Jam
XXX

Re: Wage Differences
 

Incidentally...

isn't it high time you were in bed, young Madam / Sir... ... ...

Sleep well!

Jam
XXX

Rock-a-bye-baby-on the-mamaku-(=black trunked tree fern)-top... ... ...

Re: Wage Differences
 

Jam & Pizza - (do they work well together, I'm assuming you've tried, or are they just your favourite food?)

I agree wholeheartedly with your post. :)

So whilst we're cutting to the chase, I would like to point the following out to anyone that is perhaps baffled by the concerns re: money in NZ -

In reference to the line above, I think this is a major concern to those people who are struggling in the UK and considering (a very brave) move to NZ. Not those people in the main who are well off in the UK and worried about a slight decline in lifestyle in NZ. IMHO only ;) .

In this case, they have a fear of being even worse off AND with the challenges that a different country brings. There is no 'so what' in this situation because there is no disposable income after the basics have been paid for - and I do not mean alcohol, cigarettes, sky tv, designer clothes, 2 cars or any sort of holiday.

For way of explanation, I can completely understand how those in NZ on a siz figure salary do not care that they are say 20k worse off than living in the UK because they have a great life. (or would probably benefit bigtime from some good financial/budgetting advice :D )

So I just thought I would share this with everyone, purely from a devil's advocate point of view, by way of possibly explaining where all the recent cost of living/financial chat/lifestyle concerns etc come from. :)

Re: Wage Differences
 

Would just like to say thanks to Jam and Pizza and others who have been positive. I'm feeling a lot more confident now. Haven't slept for the last couple of nights.

Thanks, Wanda

Re: Wage Differences
 

Oh Wanda,

You will be fine :) . I'm really sorry that you haven't been sleeping well, presumably due to anxiety over it all. I have just read your original post,and realised that this is a job offer for you and that you are going with your hubbie and children. Not sure what your OH's situation is, but can he work too? If so, then that will obviously be a big weight off your mind and add to your finances in a positive way, although from your post I am not sure this is the case. Either way, I wish you all the best with it all and keep us posted as to what you decide. ;)

Re: Wage Differences
 

Hi Wanda - thanks for starting this thread - it has brought some positives out to cheer us up a bit. As we have said before, we need to hear the negatives as well, but ALOT of points are conflicting with each other at the minute. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I'd just like to say that (and this is before people start getting onto my back) that more people seem to agree with what Jam and Pizza are saying :) .

Cheers :beer:

Dave

Re: Wage Differences
 

Hi uk+kiwi, Yes its a big decisision. We don't have the worry of leaving family behind like some people as we moved away from our families a few years ago. We have three children, the youngest is only 7 months, so my husband could only take part-time evening work. We would like a place with a bit of land so that we could grow our own veg and mabe have some chickens. This is my first job offer and we liked the look of the area but Rotuora looks nice too. We are now waiting to see if the agency can get us an improved offer from Hawkes Bay.

Re: Wage Differences
 

I'd agree with a lot of what Jam and Pizza said and it's good to hear another success story.

Regardless of the money and salary considerations surely the most fundamental requirement is that you do a job that you enjoy, whether it be in UK or NZ.

I know that in our eagerness to get here, in the frenzy of permit applications, police checks and meds we ignored the satisfying job bit and almost came a cropper. Get the job right folks.

Re: Wage Differences
 

Thanks for that livewire. Hubbie and I were debating earlier today about whether we think we'll make the move next year or not, and essentially for us it comes down to the fact that we think it's our best shot at being able to do what we want workwise and have the family life that we would like.

However if this doesn't work out as we hope (& we've got a bit more research to do first) it could just turn out to be a waste of time and money, and a return to the UK in a worse off position - worse case scenario and of course it may be a fantastic adventure and experience. Who knows, we're very excited to see what we think & feel when down in December! :)

Re: Wage Differences
 

Grrrrrrrrr, I hate it when people say that. You're wrong. It isn't cheaper. It's cheaper if you are spending pounds but not if you are earning dollars. let me lay it out for you. Taking your examples above, earning dollars and paying dollars is the rough EQUIVALENT of you earning pounds in the UK and paying the following:

Petrol: GBP1.40 per litre
Cigarettes: GBP10.00 or so per pack (not sure exactly as I don't smoke but I think that's roughly the price)
Wine: GBP6.00 a bottle (that's basically the cheapest bottle you can buy here)
Car insurance: GBP110 for third party only. No fire, no theft. Fancy paying that for third party only in the UK? No?

And some others:

CD: GBP30.00
DVD: GBP30.00
Books: GBP25.00 for a paperback, GBP40.00 or more for a hardback.
Line rental alone for a telephone: GBP42 a month
Internet: DIAL-UP = GBP10 per month, Broadband: GBP30.00 for 128k (which is not broadband but they call it broadband). Actual broadband (1MBit/s): GBP70 per month or more (and it's capped).

Basically, due to the nanny state:

Anything considered good for you (like fruit and veg) or a staple food (like pie): dirt cheap.
Anything considered a luxury: Fekking expensive.

Oh, and as you can see from the broadband example, be prepared to go back to the frigging stone age...

Actually, i've just reread this and realised i've made a bit of a booboo, divide all the above by 2 to get the real equivalent (considering that i earned GBP35k in the UK and earn $70k here). Still, the fact remains that not everything is cheaper here.

BUT, like many others have said, having the pros pretty much outweigh the cons.

Re: Wage Differences
 

NZ Climber - I agree with you completely that NZ is not cheaper in real terms. Those that find it cheaper I suspect are on a better comparative salary in NZ so can afford more - eg maybe coming from small Northern village with 'low' wage to Auckland wages or something. Although admittedly this would not be many. In fact, in many ways NZ is more expensive - certainly for clothes (esp. children's) and some food items (not red meat sadly which we don't eat). There is no equivalent of Asda, Tesco's, Argos or Amazon for instance. We have just had some friends visiting from NZ, hubbie's friend from starting school at 5, and they have confirmed for us everything we thought to be true and when I get round to it, I'll post some comments - they buy books from Amazon.com in the US for example as even with shipping it works out cheaper. I find this crazy since whilst I was an economics student so fully understand the concept of economies of scale and supply/demand - all these 'cheap' things are made in China & HK which are so much closer to NZ that I'm surprised someone isn't making a mint from importing :) .

But what are the above comparisons based on, or is it simply your £35k salary vs $70k salary and then applying the exchange rate? I was a bit confused.

Re: Wage Differences
 

It's basically an equivalency thing - i.e: how much it feels like you're paying. I just changed the dollar signs for GBP for what it costs here and then should have divided by two to reflect the fact that as i earned GBP35k in the Uk and earn $70k here, it's what they would feel like as a direct comparison. As it was I forgot to do the divide by two but remembered it right at the end of the post.

So, if i'm earning $70k and a paperback book costs $50 here, it would be the (rough) equigvalent of earning GBP35k in the UK but paying GBP25 for a paperback book.

Does that make sense?

Re: Wage Differences
 

They ARE being imported and the importers ARE making a mint, especially with the strong NZ$. It's just that the savings from the strong currency are not passed on to Joe Public (I work for an importer).

From my experience internet shopping is underutilised over here because most people consider it unsafe. Whereas we know that it is ok as long as you take care. An example is that I recently bought some new exhaust pipes for my Harley. The NZ importer wanted NZ$1000. I ordered them from a supplier in the USA and they cost me NZ$280 inc delivery. Now I expect an importer to cover costs and make a profit but this is ridiculous and not an isolated incident. When I have questioned the importers the response is normally along the lines of "as long as people pay we will continue to do it".

Doesn't really bother me as I am quite happy buying over the internet :D

I earn less than half of what I did in the UK (different job) and so does my missus but we are not going to starve. The difference is that we are now happy and can enjoy our spare time in this beautiful country :)

Cheers,
John