i have got a job in alberta and have been looking at property south of(calgary), ive been over 3 times (toronto,edmonton and calgary in the last 2 years on job interviews and holidays) i will be being paid $25 hour 60 hours a week in consruction $1500 a week. the trouble is the house we have been looking at is $280,000. i would look for a cheeper house if i could but its pretty expensive around calgary.I have to put 20% which is i think $56,000, on top of that i have property tax about $1600- 2000 a year as you know. my mortgage will be about $1600 a month nearly $20,000 a year. also am i right tax deductions will be 30 % ish. that leaves me about $34,800 for the year give and take. thats $2900 a month $725 a week. here is the problem. I have got 4 kids... 3 wk, 18 month,4 years old and 13 year old. BEFORE ANYBODY SAYS ANYTHING THEY ARE ALL MINE LOL. My wife will not be be able to work because she will be looking after the kids but with the shopping,car. fuel for the car, insurance, electricity,water anything else you can think of? do you think we could manage on this or are we just going to strugle because its one wage. its just making me think twice about moving.

Could you afford all of those things in the UK on £350 a week - that is the comparison.

Also, how long can you maintain a 60 hour week, and would you really want to?

thanks for replying, you have got me thinking, basically i have a good job now and my wife works part time evenings and i work nights. i dont think we could live off £350 a week.

Hi Jon. It's a sad fact that with the "boom" in Alberta, the cost of living is on the rise too. Real estate is no different, in fact it seems to be the worst!!
I live in a small town north of Calgary, and 2 years ago, an average 3 bedroom family home was affordable here in the mid $100,000s. Now you'd be lucky to get the same place for 250-300!! Crazy! But people do it. I think if a person/family are really determined, with a few sacrifices at first, it can be done. Even if you have to rent for a while to get established.

Check out the forums here (not just the Canada one) as a lot of people have/had the same concerns about emigrating, and there are a lot of knowledgable people here that are willing to share their experiences.

Good luck, Jon.

Mark

Hi Jon,
I think the fact that you are carefully thinking through your income and expenditure in this way, of itself, increases the chances that you will make a sensible decision. This is probably not a whole bunch of help but offered just in case it does...
I am in a 2400 square feet home in Okotoks (south of Calgary) and it's just me and my girlfriend so maybe we have more modest demands on utilities than having 4 children???, although, perhaps a larger property than you are considering???, so swings and roundabouts with what follows: We are paying monthly:
$346 on Property Tax
c$165 with Shaw for Phone, Broadband & reasonable package of TV, including Setanta Sports
$85 on Electricity (equal payments per month...looking like a sensible payment given first few months of usage)
$140 on Gas (also looking like a sensible payment...ie: account balance is a bit behind at the moment but should catch up now we are using less gas as the nicer weather comes along)
c$70 per month (c$140 paid every 2nd month - not sure if it is same arrangement in Calgary) for Water/Sewer/Garbage removal
$88 per month on Alberta Health Care (not sure of rate for a family of 6).
Obviously we have food, drink and gas (and any other personal spends) on top of that but wont go into that as everyone is different on these items. For instance, we have something of a gas guzzling car - you may or may not do likewise but petrol (gas) is going for c$1.24 per litre at present (can often save a few cents off that with discount cards, eg: Co-Op, Safeway) and we drive more here than in the UK.
Bear in mind any one off spends like legal/conveyancing costs in buying your home, maybe buying a car and insurance/other costs for getting that car on the road. Talking of insurance, we paid c$750 for car inurance for aforementioned gas guzzler for the year (brought evidence of 4+ years of no claims with me) and c$570 for home/contents insurance for the year. Also allow a sensible budget for items you are disposing of in the UK that you will buy again here (maybe make a list of those...in our case, just simple things like a kettle, hair dryer and so on).

I can't help you make your decision but I hope something of this helps to enrich your decision making process.

Kind regards

Eamonn & Janet.

eamonn thanks mate, ill send you a email when i get chance.. john

We have just done our tax returns with the help of an accountant and here is what I found out here in Nova Scotia:

For every child under 19 you get a tax credit of just under $2000 per child every year.

If your wife does not work or does not use all her annual tax allowance then you can transfer any/all of her allowance to your tax allowance, or vice versa (my personal tax allowance was $9000. I worked p/t for 6 months so I transferred the remainder of my allowance to Mr Y-C-D).

We also got up to $500 tax credit for children's sport fees (per year).

There is also Child benefit to consider. You get $100 child tax benefit paid monthly for each child under the age of 6. There is another benefit paid out depending on family income.

Perhaps another BE member in Alberta can let you know if the same benefits (and/or more) would apply to your family.

Hi John

We moved in 2006 with our 2 children and absolutely love it here. We used a fantastic mortgage advisor who is really good at looking at the whole picture. If you would like her details please pm me.

For us it was the right move to make and I wouldn't change it. Our kids have so many opportunities and we can afford for them to participate in lots of activities (although sometimes you have to keep a lid on it else you would be running around constantly)

Take care

Julie

My understanding is that children under nine in Alberta can also offset payments on their F150's and 12-gauge shells.

OOOOH, Souvenir, was that a dig at us "westerners"??

You know that can only be done if they are married!!

Mark

thanks every1 for the advice, i am listening and ill get back in touch with you all. john

Given an annual income of $78,000 CCTB will be about $290 per month.

Why don't you come to Lehtbridge - good money and cheap living lol!

In all seriousness though I would say an annual salary of no less than 70K to make it work here with kids, and that's owning cars already and not a big mortgage.

Good luck whatever - I know well how overwhelming it all is!

Mrs M xx

Then there's us; Mum, step-dad and two teens. No car. House with no mortgage, doing 'not bad' on $22k.

But we do own a second property (providing part of that income) so there's something to fall back on if needed.

good stuff - but most of us have a mortgage and four kids aren't cheap eh?

Me and mini had this very conversation last year, and i think the 70k is a comfortableish amount for the average family with kids......but hey, we all live differently!!!

Mrs M XX