leonthepro Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Good afternoon, My first post on here. Out of the blue I have been offered a job Canberra on $80,000 AUD a year and would be taking approximately £30,000 GBP for a deposit on a house and £12,000 for vehicles. We are a family of three (5 yr old) but my wife does not have job to go to but would be looking to work part time. Having researched Canberra it does seem very expensive. I know the question is going to be hard answer because of the huge amount of variables but do people think that we have enough money both in wages and house to deposit to have a nice life style? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 You will probably struggle to get a mortgage. You do have a bit of a deposit but you will require a hefty mortgage $400k ballpark. Your salary will be about average for Canberra and you will find that most households are two income with household averages around $120k. You may be able to economise with only one car but that really depends on where you live - the further out you are, the cheaper the accommodation but the more you need to run two cars. Check out the calculators on http://www.realestate.com.au to see if a mortgage is a possibility and how much it will cost you to service one. You shouldn't starve! But I have no idea what constitutes your nice lifestyle. We were a couple of oldies, no mortgage, paying everything off on a credit card each month and my average monthly spend was $5k (60kpa) - we did a bit of DIY, had nice meals out occasionally and apart from a penchant for nice wool and good tools we didn't really have too many expensive vices, we had a wood stove with scavenged wood for fuel for heating and solar hot water. We did run 2 cars and 2 mobile phones and paid for private health insurance. There are folk who do it on less of course but I don't know how comfortable they find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Ah yes, and the other whammy potential - if this is a 457 visa deal and your occupation is not on SOL then you will be up for $8-10k pa or your child's education Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skellysgirl Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Do you get help with school fees if you are on PR? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Do you get help with school fees if you are on PR? Not quite sure what you mean but you don't pay school fees, other than the "voluntary contributions" and sundry other costs which usually run to a couple of hundred a term once you figure in stationery, extra lessons, excursions, visiting teachers, performances etc in government schools. If you decide to go private then there is no help for fees which will be $3-15kpa depending on the school Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king khan Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Do you get help with school fees if you are on PR? Yes ,you do.With government schools its very less but in private schools they will take your skin off.its way too expensive in some schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skellysgirl Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 It's just the comment above, made it sound like you have to pay school fees on certain visas, I was just double checking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOTTY Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Canberra aint cheap ..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 It's just the comment above, made it sound like you have to pay school fees on certain visas, I was just double checking. Yes, sorry, should have been clearer, you do have to pay fees on temporary visas - the 457 in particular but there are loopholes so that they dont charge if your occupation is on SOL - which is just as well because international fees for temporary residents in ACT are extortionate - twice the cost of enrolment in NSW. You dont get any help with school fees as such though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ptp113 Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Just don't get the Canberra expensive comments as I can assure you Sydney and Melbourne are more expensive. Petrol is the only thing more expensive that comes to mind, and I've been in Oz for a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 (edited) We have more than that saved for a deposit & it isn't enough for Canberra. I think you'll struggle on $80000 unless your wife gets a part time job. Edited April 12, 2013 by Bazinga Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akiralx Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Just don't get the Canberra expensive comments as I can assure you Sydney and Melbourne are more expensive. Petrol is the only thing more expensive that comes to mind, and I've been in Oz for a long time. I would tend to agree, a household income of $80 - $100K would be OK in Canberra for a reasonable standard of living, especially if renting for a while. It certainly would be in Melbourne. The car(s) would have to be basic though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leonthepro Posted April 12, 2013 Author Share Posted April 12, 2013 Thank you all the comments. I am now really unsure what to do. I know the pay scale goes up to $95,000 and I might be able to negotiate an increase but still not sure if it would worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted April 13, 2013 Share Posted April 13, 2013 Depends on what you want. If you want a foot in the door for oz then take the job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted April 13, 2013 Share Posted April 13, 2013 Depends on what you want. If you want a foot in the door for oz then take the job If its better than what you have now, you want an adventure and can do it without burning bridges then, I agree, what do you have to lose? You don't have to sell your UK home, you might be able to take a career break and keep all your options open. Only if this is a temporary visa (457) and you have kids, would it be wise to think twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABL275 Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Just don't get the Canberra expensive comments as I can assure you Sydney and Melbourne are more expensive. Petrol is the only thing more expensive that comes to mind, and I've been in Oz for a long time. ....whenever we have colleagues flying in from Sydney or Melbourne the first thing they do is moan about how expensive everything is. Whenever I go to Sydney or Melbourne I'm pleasantly surprised that i can get a decent sandwich at lunchtime for around $6.50 rather than the $8.50 we'd need to pay in Canberra! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABL275 Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Good afternoon, My first post on here. Out of the blue I have been offered a job Canberra on $80,000 AUD a year and would be taking approximately £30,000 GBP for a deposit on a house and £12,000 for vehicles. We are a family of three (5 yr old) but my wife does not have job to go to but would be looking to work part time. Having researched Canberra it does seem very expensive. I know the question is going to be hard answer because of the huge amount of variables but do people think that we have enough money both in wages and house to deposit to have a nice life style? Hi Leon, I had a similar query when I came over about 21 months ago and was initially offered the dollar equivalent of my UK salary (i.e. $1.6 dollars for each pound in my UK salary at the time). Having done a fair bit of research (I'm an accountant...zzzZZZ) the most significant factor was that the exchange rate had been around $2.2/£1 or better for many years beforehand and although the value of the pound had fallen, local prices hadn't so I went back and asked for a dollar salary of 2.2 times my UK salary - and got it. I also asked for an addditional $10,000 for schooling as foreign nationals in the ACT are required to pay 100% of the nominal cost of educating their children unless this is waived under their visa terms (it was 30% in NSW and 0% everywhere else) - and got that too. With $80,000 you could live reasonably well. $80k isabout the salary of the most numerous grade of civil servant in Canberra, and civil servant is the most numerous occupation, so it's probably about median for the city, but a great many families in Canberra have double incomes which would mean you'd see a great many others around you living more comfortably. Nonetheless Canberra is a place where there are no real poor areas; pretty much every part of the city is pretty decent as salaries are on average the highest in Australia and the Federal capital is maintained as something of a show piece. Of course it all depends what you do with your time and money. Having been here long enough to have done all the museums and found out that there really aren't many places worth visiting in less than hour's drive we're discovering that most people just enjoy the fantastic countryside. The best days to be had are undoubtedly there for the price of three bikes, a bike rack and an 'Eski' (cold box) full of sausages and drinks - you don't even need a BBQ as free gas BBQ's are provided all over the place. Shout if you need more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaPesa Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 It may be the mortgage that you will find difficult. I l ive in Canberra (well, I have just moved out to NSW but am now spending more in rent!). There are two of us on one wage of $60,000 and we do fine including eating out when we want, lots of savings (FHSA accounts as we do want to buy eventually). We have had plenty of short weekend trips and we're going to NZ twice this year. Without particularly budgeting, we spend an average of $100 on food/drink at the supermarket a week, we rent a 4 bedroom house on a lifestyle block and have a good lifestyle. We are looking at another wage but only beacuse there's no point in one of us sitting at home (no kids). It all depends on what you're after but it's certainly doable quite easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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