can anyone help and advise me please, we are due to come over to Brisbane in May and were going to the sunshine coast which is her my brother lives, but hubbies job is south brissie so we are now looking at the Gold Coast as an option BUT what i need to know is if he were on the min wage $42000 would we be able to afford to have a decent life we have 2 children and i will be getting part time work of some kind.
Its just i am getting so many different storys i just ned to know what to expect before we sell lock stock and barrell move the family to the other side of the world we dont want to not be able to afford to have a good quality of life, in other words if e are going to struggle we may as well stay here and do it.pleas will someon give me some straight and honest answers.........
__________________ Helaine xx
Trev, Amy & Joe
police checks back 17th april
meds and xrays done and sent 18th april
we have a case officer 23rd april
kids meds finalised 1st May
our xrays finalised 8th May
Just waiting now
can anyone help and advise me please, we are due to come over to Brisbane in May and were going to the sunshine coast which is her my brother lives, but hubbies job is south brissie so we are now looking at the Gold Coast as an option BUT what i need to know is if he were on the min wage $42000 would we be able to afford to have a decent life we have 2 children and i will be getting part time work of some kind.
Its just i am getting so many different storys i just ned to know what to expect before we sell lock stock and barrell move the family to the other side of the world we dont want to not be able to afford to have a good quality of life, in other words if e are going to struggle we may as well stay here and do it.pleas will someon give me some straight and honest answers.........
hi helaine
would be interested to know what responses you get to this - we are hoping to be looking at wage of $60k, but i know the minimum wage is $42k; to be honest i would be insulted if OH was offered that!! its only £19k and then with tax off, we'd be on poverty line!! we have 3 kids, a pretty good wage here, so we have to be sure of a decent standard of living over there before we commit. we are looking at perth on a sponsered visa, so just waiting to hear from employer re wage - hope im not going to be disappointed!!
let me know how you get on
Hi. how do you know that the minimum wage is 42K? I have been looking at jobs on seek.com.au and lots of jobs are advertising lower wages than that. Is it you OH's specific kind of job that has a minimum wage of 42K?
I hope more people respond to this thread because I think we are all asking the same question!!!!
Perhaps the $42k referred to is an average wage? I know that you can look at various council stats and find the average wage for the area. Or you could anyway.
I don't think there is any point converting an Aussie salary into pounds as it really has no relevance. IMHO.
I know a few people who have been very disappointed at the wages here - some to the point that their lifestyle has been affected and are considering returning to the UK. I certainly need to work, although my OH's wage is above average ( not heaps above!), but then I did in the UK where his salary would have been considered good. I play around with the money and although I think from fortnight to fortnight (pay dates) we just about manage (touch wood!) and greatly enjoy our life here.
I think your concerns are very valid. I don't think (unless you have a lot of money to bring over) the days of being penny-poor but dollar-rich are here anymore, but I think the lifestyle is still all you'd imagine. With a dollop of real life factored in of course! LC
It really depends on whether you will have to pay mortgage/rent out of that. If you have a mortgage then I would say it will be near impossible to live on $42K with any degree of security or comfort. You could do it of course but there wouldnt be much left over for the fun things of life. If you were mortgage free then you would have a bit more wiggle room but it wont be easy with children in the family. You would get some centrelink benefits being on that low an income which would help a bit but not a lot. Once you start to need a car to get around, incidentals for the kids, power and council type taxes, medical expenses etc in addition to the food, clothes etc you will be struggling IMHO.
I know we are very fortunate to be retired with no mortgage and a combined income over $10k more than you mentioned but we dont have that much to splash around and there are only two of us now!
I have been on the gold coast for 6 weeks with my husband and two kids and so far we have found the living costs to be a little less than in the UK for example you seem to get a few more teas for your shopping as in more meat and fish for less than the UK. We are renting a lovely house and its $450 dollars a week more than we we originally wanted to pay but it is only two years old so everything is brand new a lovely fitted kitchen bathrooms all high quality a communal pool which is fab because the kids have made loads of friends, but you dont have to pay council tax, no gas havent had an electric bill as yet but everyone tells me its not much, no water bill so those things make a difference. Car insurance is cheap it only cost us for a brand new car for the two of us fully comp $200per year. The biggest difference which is what we all come here for is you have got fab beaches on your doorstep brill for shopping and loads of gorgous restaurants, obviously you need money for those but it doesnt cost you anything to fill up your esky (cooler box) picnic blanket and spend the day on the beach or parks which for us when in the UK we would get to do for two weeks of the year when we went abroad.
no it isnt dead cheap here but I think its the same all over Australia the sunshine coast apparently is the same, you are not going to come and live like a millionaire, but you will still have a better quality life than in the UK I know it sounds like a bit of a cliche but it is true having the sunshine and the beaches nearby really do make you feel better. Oh and I am loving in Runaway Bay which is only 5 mins from the Broadwater and 10 mins to Main and surfers beach, so if you are prepared to move more inland away from the coast then your money will probably go further.
So far we are loving it if you are getting a similar wage as in the UK I reckon you will be OK.
$42K isn't good money but lots of people survive on less ($35K/yr). If your asking someone from 'the good suburbs' they wouldn't know how you could possibly survive on that money ($35K).
Fact is, many do. Its not easy but its quite common. View it as a starting point.
Hi
That is a real worry and one we are facing too as it is so difficult to know what it will be like until you go.Also asking random people can make it more confusing as everyones lifestyle is differrent and everyones expectations on a 'good'salary are different.
we looked at a 'cost of living'website where you put in your english salary and the city you want to live in.It compares 200 things such as houses,cars,food shop etc and tells you what the equivalent earning should be,for example we looked at Perth which is the 93rd cheapest city to live and dollars are equal to pounds eg salary of 40k is $40,000 inPerth.
Have a look it may help??
Our consideration also is that we are hopefully going on a 457 visa and what an opportunity to live in a wonderfully different place for 4 years,I would actually follow my husband anywhere,but this is a dream come true.If we have to return,we are nearly 40 now but with plenty of working years,depressing I know,to catch up if we have to start again!
Good luck!!!Hope you get there.
Regards pottsy
Hi
That is a real worry and one we are facing too as it is so difficult to know what it will be like until you go.Also asking random people can make it more confusing as everyones lifestyle is differrent and everyones expectations on a 'good'salary are different.
we looked at a 'cost of living'website where you put in your english salary and the city you want to live in.It compares 200 things such as houses,cars,food shop etc and tells you what the equivalent earning should be,for example we looked at Perth which is the 93rd cheapest city to live and dollars are equal to pounds eg salary of 40k is $40,000 inPerth.
Have a look it may help??
Our consideration also is that we are hopefully going on a 457 visa and what an opportunity to live in a wonderfully different place for 4 years,I would actually follow my husband anywhere,but this is a dream come true.If we have to return,we are nearly 40 now but with plenty of working years,depressing I know,to catch up if we have to start again!
Good luck!!!Hope you get there.
Regards pottsy
Hi pottsy,
which website was it you went on, coz think that sounds a good idea. im also on the wrong side of 35 (OH is 5 yrs younger) so i kinds have a "now or never" feeling too - we gonna keep our house on in the UK so we can crawl back here with our tails between our legs if it dont work out - god, i hope that NEVER happens!
good luck to you too. where you hoping to settle?
$42K isn't good money but lots of people survive on less ($35K/yr). If your asking someone from 'the good suburbs' they wouldn't know how you could possibly survive on that money ($35K).
Fact is, many do. Its not easy but its quite common. View it as a starting point.
Couple of points there which I think are quite pertinent - surviving vs having a reasonable lifestyle. I think survival is probably more the outcome for that sort of income. A number of my friends are self funded retirees on that amount (or less) but pretty much all are mortgage free which is a huge difference but they still count their pennies.
"good suburbs" - the alternative, which may be more affordable, may not necessarily be the sort of suburb that you would want to bring your kids up in unfortunately. You would get more out of an income in a smaller town further out from the bigger places where rents are, quite frankly, extortionate however whether the employment opportunities are there is another issue.
There would be some government benefits which could assist at those levels though - not terribly much but could be helpful. Ball park would be an income of around $3000 a month on that salary (tax take out close to $8k). Take out 400pw for rent that leaves you with 1400 a month, petrol could be 200 a month, food probably 4-600 a month, power another 50, phone 50, computer access 50, insurance? health insurance? (ours is 230 pm), car insurance? kids clothes? school activities? . I dunno - it mounts up.
You may well find that the salary turns out to be higher than that though, especially if it is in a trade or other professionally qualified position.
LC
cost of living
