So do I start to panic?!

[rachall]

Hi All

From reading all of the threads I realise that most people have fears over whether their salary will be enough, child care etc..... but I really am starting to wonder if I'm doinfg the right thing. Have a job offer in SW Sydney with a take home salary of $3600 per mth, car with full personal use included. Need a 3+ bed house, good schools. OH will eventually find work after kids are settled but and it's a big BUT are we going to struggle??

The youngest may have to go into before/after school care etc for us both to work, as I will have to work full time as a condition of the visa and OH unlikely to get P/T work in his field, are we going to lose the quality of life we are looking for just to be in Oz. We are quite prepared to work hard initially to make things work but I am wondering if the emotional costs are going to be worth it.


Any suggestions, or reassurances would be gratefully received.

Rachel

[Quoll]

Your DH will have to get a job pretty quick smart. You are likely to find that more than half of that salary is going to go in rent alone. Sure, a car is going to be helpful but it will be a struggle IMHO. Is this a permanent visa by the way? If not, then you are also going to be up for school fees at $4.5k pa per child in a government school.

[pintpot]

In all honesty? I think that's a struggle

You're not going to find anywhere you'd want to live in Sydney with 3 beds for less than $2000 a month in rent I don't think. Basic groceries for a family of four, you'll struggle to pay less than $1000 a month. Utilities are going to be another $100-$300 on top of that.

Doesn't leave a lot, does it? Clothes, Petrol, stuff going pop, educational expenses (It sounds like a 457 visa, which means the NSW government will stick you for $4500 per child pa for school fees, plus about $500 pa for uniform and other school levy costs). They occasionally let people off this, but don't count on it

I'd have to be pretty desperate to get out of the UK to go for that. IF you get let off the school fees, AND have decent prospects to increase your earnings, AND the OH has good prospects of getting work (though this can be tough on a spouse 457 as employers know the residency is dependent on something over which they have no control) then that's more positive

You might try a PM to LKC (aho I know moved to Sydney on a limited income) and Melanie Charlton (who I know got let off the school fees) as they're both probably in a better place to advise

[Steve n Mel]

Hi rachall not sure if it's still up and running but have you looked atLAFHA allowance? Also where is your job offer you may need to live west syd to reduce your costs but west isnt a bad place, we've lived all over syd you just have to give things a shot.

[LKC]

Hi Rachel,

As Pintpot said, we are living in Sydney on a limited income. Hubby brings home a little bit under $4000 per month ($3900 or thereabouts), which is fixed for the first five years, although he should start getting some bonuses later this year. I work for myself and look after our children, I just set up a business last year, and until this month haven't been taking any sort of salary. Now I just take enough to cover part of the nursery fees for our youngest daughter. For us it has been okay, but we are in a different situation to most in that we bought a fair amount with us from the house we sold in the UK (no mortgage) and also hubbys business in the UK. That meant that we could afford to put a large deposit down to buy a house (although we still have a small mortgage), we could buy cars outright and we had saved enough to pay school fees and things. We also had some savings left to tide us over if things got tough. It has been hard work at times, but I wouldn't say that we have had to cut back massively, and at the end of the day we have cut our cloth to fit. Had things been much harder, I would have had to go and find a job outside the home, I would have done cleaning or stacking shelves or anything really had I needed to. As it is, I have managed to set up my business on a shoestring and it is now just starting to reward me, just as things are getting harder and the price of things is going up, although as I said Matt should start to see some bonuses and things soon which will help.

I would like to say, that had we still been in the UK now, we would have had to think very carefully about coming over. Matt took a huge cut in his salary (50%), but it was a calculated risk based on the future projections of his new business (in a busy part of Sydney as compared to a small rural town in Suffolk), plus we were getting $2.18 to the GBP at the time we came, which wasn't bad. I would certainly recommend making up a spreadsheet and working out best and worst case scenarios, and I would think that it would depend to some extent on what capital you had to bring and whether your husband could get a job here.

Best of luck to you, if you would like any more specific info regarding living costs, childcare, cost of groceries etc, give me a shout.

[haunted1234]

Hi rachall not sure if it's still up and running but have you looked atLAFHA allowance? Also where is your job offer you may need to live west syd to reduce your costs but west isnt a bad place, we've lived all over syd you just have to give things a shot.

LAFHA is possibly being done away with in July..... my Hubby gets it and we'll be $800 a month worse off if it goes!

[rachall]

Hi All

Many thanks for all the replies realistic, supportive and negative.

To LKC , I am not deperate as some suggest to leave the UK, however there are personal reason reasons why I wish to do it sooner rather than later, hence the 457 visa. My salary prospects will improve in 2 yrs when my sponsor has recouped their investment in me and I also hope at that point to apply for PR if I can't apply for it sooner (I'm not sure how soon I can apply when I get there), as I'm a nurse my employment opportunities are very good. I am fortunate that like you I will have a substantial pot to take with me, although I do not wish to live on this as it will be the deposit for my permanent home if I suceed in a PR visa. The OH is an Estimator so good job prospects are avaliable however I am concerned that as mentioned earlier he may have trouble in securing work on my temporary visa.

We are hoping to relocate to Camden in SW Sydney, a 30 minute commute to my place of work. I have researched housing costs in this area, which I feel are affordable and I am aware of the cost of education, however if you could give me a rough idea on the cost of living, ie food, child care (mainly before/after school clubs) groceries I would be very grateful and it would help put my mind at rest that I am doing the right thing.

Thanks again for the reply, it has been vey helpful

Rachel

[LKC]

As a nurse, your employment prospects are good. Our situation was that hubby was offered the same job that he did in the uk, but because he was taking a step back, his salary decreased. His old job was in a small town in Suffolk, part of his salary was in performance/sales related bonuses, so to move from a small town in Suffolk to doing the same thing in a very busy suburb in Sydney was a bit of a no-brainer! Although for the first five years his salary is fixed, he should start to get his bonuses soon, which will be far larger and therefore in the long run we will be in a far better position. We did bring quite a substantial amount with us, and decided from the off to use some of it to pay for things like cars and insurances, so that on a monthly basis we weren't digging into our limited income from salary. I think that you would have to be prepared to do that for things like school fees and so on.

With respect to cost of living, on top of rent (which you can check the prices of on www.domain.com.au and www.realestate.com.au), electricity is about $500per quarter (we have just had solar fitted which should reduce that), but I know others who pay far more, we don't have gas, phone/Internet is about $150 per month, we don't have pay tv. Petrol costs about $100per tank for my car which is a Ford Territory so not a tiny car, car tax (rego) is about $350 from memory and ctp (compulsory) insurance about $450. Comp car insurance was $960, house and contents insurance was $2000, those figures are all per year. Groceries cost me anything between $200 and $400 per week, a bit less now we aren't buying nappies. It is cheaper if I have time to go to the butcher and green grocer etc separately and plan my meals well, and costs a bit more if I don't have time and just use Woolworths. Before and after school care I don't know about because I work for myself so I can be there at school drop off and pick up times, but for nursery I pay $83per day for our youngest daughter. We have two cats, so there are vets bills once a year for jabs etc, and give them fresh roo meat from the pet shop which is cheaper than the tinned stuff from the supermarket. You may have to sort out health insurance. When we came over it wasn't compulsory to have private med insurance on a 457, but I think that you do now.

It has definitely been a good move for us, despite the sacrifices that we have had to make. I don't really feel like we are missing out in having a small salary, just working towards a better future. We did have it written into hubby's contract that his company would sponsor us for pr after two years, which we are doing now. That gave us some security and might be worth asking your employer to do also.

Any other info you need, give me a shout.

[MARYROSE02]

$3,600 take home a month with a free car thrown in? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. See what it would cost you to buy a late model car? Where are you going to work exactly? Take a look on www.domain.com.au and do a search for homes.

Once your husband gets a job, you'll be more than right.

Or be negative, listen to the 'doom and gloom' merchants who would love you to fail, cancel your move to OZ and just stay in the UK, and wonder what might have been.

[Mad Cow]

$3,600 take home a month with a free car thrown in? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. See what it would cost you to buy a late model car? Where are you going to work exactly? Take a look on www.domain.com.au and do a search for homes.

Once your husband gets a job, you'll be more than right.

Or be negative, listen to the 'doom and gloom' merchants who would love you to fail, cancel your move to OZ and just stay in the UK, and wonder what might have been.

I don't think the replies have been 'doom and gloom'. I think they are just being realistic tbh! Two incomes would cover it eventually, but they may struggle initially! As long as they are prepared for that then they can budget accordingly. They have some money to fall back on which is good! To op good luck!