Hi. This might sound like a stupid question but we are trying to work out whether we will be able to afford our move to Australia whilst maintaining our current standard of living, before we make any commitments.
My dh is hoping to move to Australia with his company. They have been very slow in getting details to us, so we have no idea of where or what his salary will be.
We are a family of four (two adults, a 2 year old and a 13 week old). We are lucky enough to own our own home without a mortgage, so we won't need to pay mortgage or rent (other than short-term at the beginning). We have 'normal' taste, no designer or expensive brands. We cook from scratch rather than buy convenience food, don't take expensive holidays, although we do go for lots of days out. We do like nice wine but only have a bottle or two a week at most. We both drive and would therefore need cars. We think we would be coming on a permanent visa as my hubby would have to make a financial commitment to his new business in Australia. I am lucky enough not to have to work at the moment and wasn't intending to return to work until the children are at school. We would probably have enough in the bank after buying a house to cover things like emergency air fare.
What kind of salary would we need to maintain our current lifestyle? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I thought that if we know what we need before we are told what he'll get, we will know whether moving to Auustralia is a viable financial option for us.
It probably depends on where you will be living (sorry if that is a cop out). If you want the North Shore of Sydney - then the chances of you going mortgage free are lower (unless you have a stonking big house in UK). If you fancy Ballarat (small Victorian country town) then you are going to get away with a lot less and also lower costs. Rent/mortgage definitely takes the lion's share of most people's incomes.
The average wage in Aus is almost $60K so that is what many people are living on. A top of the range level 1 classroom teacher is going to be about $80k if that gives you a bit of a clue. Of course, most of them would be servicing mortgages of $300 -$400K as well.
Have to agree with Quoll on that it depeds where you live in Perth too - nearer the ocean means more $ . There are a number of areas in WA where houses are almost or over a million $.
On the radio yesterday there was a report that here in WA the cost of building a new home is rising all the time too I'd agree with Quoll about the average wage, mine is slightly more, whilst hubby's is less
Ali
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If you are coming to Sydney and want a 3-bed place on North Shore, Inner West or Eastern Suburbs then you're looking at about $800k+ to $Several Million depending on where you want to buy. It gets cheaper as you move further out.
Off the top of my head I reckon you'd need a salary of about $80-100k if you aren't paying rent or a mortgage and based on what you've described. My wife and I sound pretty similar - like good food and wine (eat out 3-4 times a week here), interesting as opposed to flash holidays, non designer but nice clothes etc, but we don't have any kids and don't run a car. We do have a mortgage and rent though. If we didn't have a mortgage and rent then $100k a year would be a nice salary to maintain our lifestyle.
It's really one of those 'how long is a bit of string' questions though.
Word of warning about the wine - it's not that cheap (Oddbins and supermarkets in the UK have many Aussie labels for less than you pay for them here) and it's about 95% Aussie. It's great becasue you find loads of Aussie stuff we don't get at home, but it's also a curse because I'm sick to death of 'Big Aussie Shiraz!' and over oaked Chardonnay and crappy crappy Sauvignon. If you're big into your old world stuff then it'll hurt a bit at first, but you can find the good stuff, it just takes a bit of time.
