BobK

Hi,

Yesterday I was offered a job in Christchurch that pays $70,000.
by doing the conversion and taking into account that I won't have
a mortgage in NZ I appear to be no better off financially than where
I live in the UK with the mother of all mortgages. The direct exchange
is about equal to what I have left in the UK after I pay my mortgage
roughly £27K versus $70K

So my question is...

what kind of standard of living can be had in Christchurch, mortgage
free on $70K. We are a family of four, two young kiddies, one of whom
will be starting school in January.

many thanks

Bob

Sega Mad

Many calculations need to be made as you can't compare pounds to dollars. I would say though that if you are on $70k and have no mortgage you should be very comfortable. It does, however, depend on what your standards are and what you want. If I was offered a $70k job in NZ I'd be off like a shot!!
even if I had to get a mortgage(and I do). You need to trawl through some of the threads on this site about cost of living etc. You will find so many different ideas about it, but it can serve to inform you enough to find the answers you need.

You could start with the 'really useful thread'. Try a bit of virtual shopping by following the links to supermarkets etc. Communicate with people who are living there. (there are loads on this site). You mustn't think in quids you must think in dollars. Direct comparisons don't really work.

Good Luck and have some Gravy Granules (see what is karma?)

Kind Regards

the turner family

Hi Bob,

$70K is a bloody good wage, I bring in about $60 with loads of overtime and we have a mortgage. This is in Auckland. We have two kids with one more on the way and money is very tight. With $70K and no mortgage you should be fine but please do your homework with regard to house prices and try to evaluate what standard of life you are looking for. If you buy a big flash house, a European car, drink lots of wine, go out a lot and expect to fly back to the UKonce a year you will very quickly run out of cash!

Don't be put off, we LOVE it here.

Hope that helps, any Q's PM us.

Matt and Andrea

auldduck

After tax you'll have less than $1000 a week, that is pushing the povo line though without any mortgage to pay you should be able to afford to run 2 cars and have some holidays.

Certainly NOT a comfortable salary but not bad, either and better than most NZ'ers have to live on if we incl the mortgage free element.

cheers - Quackers

Debs70

Give me that lifestyle any day of the week matey! stop worrying and start grooving.

lapsed kiwi

You must be on drugs - and expensive ones at that! By my reckoning, $70k pa is $4285 pm after tax - please explain how, with no mortgage payments to make, this can be described as anything near the poverty line, ffs.

IMO, $70k in ChCh is an OK salary with a mortgage, and a nice lifestyle without.

Jeeper

Agreed....70k is nowhere near the poverty line with or without a mortgage.
Of course - it depends on the size of the mortgage.

livewire

Hold on!!!

Before you make a decision about the salary you need to be sure if you WILL be mortgage free.

What sort of house are you thinking about buying? post up some examples from realenz (or similar)

Most of us came over here thinking we would be "mortgage free" and yes we could've been. BUT the sort of houses we could have bought for cash were little more than sheds with a path for a garden. Not exactly what we came to NZ for.

If you want anything decent you may be looking at $??? for Christchurch. I don't know really - up here on the shore around the $500K mark and above. Having said that we've yet to see a house on a decent sized section that we would want to buy, and we've been here almost 18 months.

Tread warily on the Mortgage Free dream.

Joshlin

Hi there
we're in chch - depends on where you want to be - in the city or out, and what kind of thing you like - we're renting up on the hill which is pricey end of town and to buy, you're looking at $500k - $750k for very nice thankyou. we've also seen nice on the flat for about $350k - $450k. If you wanna do a bit of work there's plenty out there for a lot less. Try Harcourts.co.nz or realenz.co.nz for a feel
Vicki

uk+kiwi

Hi Bob - Good question. I don't mean to sound rude, but I am very intrigued as to what you expected? Most people moving to NZ expect to be, or more likely realise that they will be, worse off financially.

So I have to agree with most of the replies so far and say this looks like a good deal, especially with no mortgage. I would also imagine you will be better off in reality, in terms of lifestyle as the cost of living overall is slightly lower than in the UK. Also, there may be some element of feel good factor without the financial pressure of a mortgage and living more truly within your means. For those in a net debt position (yourselves, us & many others in the UK for example), it must be a great feeling to know that interest rate changes won't have any impact on monthly expenditure. Carmen.

BEVS

$70K for a single salary is good.
How much do you have to put towards a house then? It would be interesting to know.

auldduck

We're a family of 5 (ie 3 young kids) and would struggle to live on less than $1000 a week even mortgage free. And that's running just 1 car. Kids NEED things!!! Plus of course we could scrimp & save a manage on far less but we happen to feel it's important to give the kids a good start (eg kindergarten costs $160 a week for 2 for starters, just 4 hours a day,) and do fun & interesting things/ jaunts as a family.

cheers - Q

the turner family

Or you could use a public Kindy like we do which costs $11 a week for 3 afternoons and that is a voluntary contribution you don't HAVE to pay.

We agree that kids do need things tho' School uniform prices are crippling.... :scared:

My take home just covers our basics and we have to watch every dollar, it's not nice but we knew what we were getting into.

Bye for now,

Matt and Andrea

wilkesyl

hi,

was surprised to see that you had lived in Germany!! we are from uk living here in Germany (stuttgar) with the language (awful) and worse the unfriendly germans... hubbie is off to Auckland this week for 3 interviews.

We have two teenagers and very exited about coming to NZ.

where do you live in NZ ? any regrets, kids happy?? better life for family??

BobK

Dear all,

many many thanks for all the replies to my original question. We certainly don't live an extravagant lifestyle in the UK, despite earning a reasonable wage in IT. We only run 1 car, I cycle to work daily, rain or shine and our luxuries in life would probably be seen as modest. What we are hoping to achieve is freedom from the burden of a very large mortgage and consequently not *having* to earn a high wage to pay it. Most of our fun family time is largely free anyway, walking, cycling etc. From our visits, this will definitely improve in Chch from where we are in the urban jungle of commuter land UK.

When we were last in Chch back in march we visited schools, real estate agents, basically everything we thought we would need to know to form an honest opinion of whether to emigrate or not. Whilst NZ has negatives, we genuinely felt that we could have a better life for our family than in the place that the UK has recently become.

Someone asked how much we would be bringing to buy a house and what our expectations were. Based upon the recent sale price (but not yet exchanged) of our house we would have approx $500K to spend on a house, however we don't necessarily want to spend all of it. We expect to be able to buy a half decent 3/4 bedroom house on a reasonable siction either on the outskirts of Chch or in one of the satellite towns. I think that this is reasonable but please advise if you know differently.

again many thanks for the advice

cheers

Bob