Guest hoons Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 I've read this thread with interest ... there are some really honest and helpful points made! My wife and I are currently waiting on a 457 visa, and will hopefully be moving out to Perth in late April / early May. I am the main visa applicant. The company sponsoring me are paying for all relocation costs, 4 weeks accomodation and flights. My salary will be $85k + super, rising to $100k + super after 3 months. I honestly thought that my salary would be sufficient for me and my wife to live comfortably, but having read this post I'm starting to think a bit differently. My wife will work too, but we were hoping to start a family and therefore live just off my salary (after the first year). We've never had lots of money in the UK and are quite used to living frugally and within our means .. I hope this will prove useful in Perth. We're not going over expecting a 4 bed house with pool and beach view, we're more realistic than that, however for $85-100k per year, we were hoping for, say, a 3x2 in a nice area. Everyone is different though, and like others have said, Perth is likely to seem expensive if you go out expecting too much, which i'm sure a lot of people do. We're going for the experience. We don't really envisage staying out longer than 4, possibly 8 years .. but we just don't want to get too old and look back with any regrets, thinking "i wish i'd done that when I was younger". We don't want to become millionaires, but we want to be comfortable, and perhaps afford the occasional holiday to other parts of Australia. Just out of interest, does anyone know how Perth compares to other Aus cities with regards cost of living? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verystormy Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 I've read this thread with interest ... there are some really honest and helpful points made! My wife and I are currently waiting on a 457 visa, and will hopefully be moving out to Perth in late April / early May. I am the main visa applicant. The company sponsoring me are paying for all relocation costs, 4 weeks accomodation and flights. My salary will be $85k + super, rising to $100k + super after 3 months. I honestly thought that my salary would be sufficient for me and my wife to live comfortably, but having read this post I'm starting to think a bit differently. My wife will work too, but we were hoping to start a family and therefore live just off my salary (after the first year). We've never had lots of money in the UK and are quite used to living frugally and within our means .. I hope this will prove useful in Perth. We're not going over expecting a 4 bed house with pool and beach view, we're more realistic than that, however for $85-100k per year, we were hoping for, say, a 3x2 in a nice area. Everyone is different though, and like others have said, Perth is likely to seem expensive if you go out expecting too much, which i'm sure a lot of people do. We're going for the experience. We don't really envisage staying out longer than 4, possibly 8 years .. but we just don't want to get too old and look back with any regrets, thinking "i wish i'd done that when I was younger". We don't want to become millionaires, but we want to be comfortable, and perhaps afford the occasional holiday to other parts of Australia. Just out of interest, does anyone know how Perth compares to other Aus cities with regards cost of living? Perth was regarded as one of the cheaper cities, but is still regarded as expensive - this is an article from last year. http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/business-old/perth-the-13th-most-expensive-city-to-live-in-the-world/story-e6frg2qu-1226089976338 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest6235 Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 Lorna Do you think my wife and would be able to survive. My wife would be on around $70k as a teacher and I would have to find work once there so need to base it on one wage. We have worked out from other posts that without a car or inernet (to start with we would around $1300 left at the end of the month. I agree with what you say we don't want the high life we just want to be able to do the simple things for free like beach/park/strolls to a cafe etc Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest6235 Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 Some very interesting replies thanks so much! Must admit it's left me feeling a little confused though. Verystormy, you say I should apply the 3:1 rule re salary. Does the same apply with the Euro as I'm in Dublin not the UK? I would agree with the whole Wanted Down Under and people's expectations....I always feel they prefer the new builds and don't like the "federation" style houses at all. And I must admit I do like modern houses! But am of course prepared that that won't be a reality as we can only afford $400 rent a week as we'll be sending $80 a week home to supplement our Irish mortgage. We are hoping to survive on one wage so I can stay at home with our toddler and also I want to have another baby (preferably in Oz!) but I'm happy to work 3 days if needed too. But I haven't even looked at whether it would be worth it versus the cost of childcare etc. Thanks again, I'll re-read this thread again and discuss things with my OH tonight. Hi Piccolo Can I ask roughly what your husband would be on roughly for you to be able to stay at home with possibly two children. We are hoping to go with just my wife earning to start with on around $70k, after looking at various forums we believe we would have around $1300 left at the end of a month but we would be happy with just $500-700 left but we are unsure Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verystormy Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 Lorna Do you think my wife and would be able to survive. My wife would be on around $70k as a teacher and I would have to find work once there so need to base it on one wage. We have worked out from other posts that without a car or inernet (to start with we would around $1300 left at the end of the month. I agree with what you say we don't want the high life we just want to be able to do the simple things for free like beach/park/strolls to a cafe etc Thanks You will be able to get by for a while until you find a job, but you would not want to be on that household income for ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest6235 Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 Quite right Pics don't take the bait. Sorry side tracked a bit and so hopefully this will get the thread back on theme. Throwing some figures down may help you with your original question. You say that oh will probably earn $35 to $40 per hour and work 40 to 50 hours per week. Let's just er a bit on the low side and say $40 ph and 40 hours per week. (It is currently 38 degrees here today and so I would guess that a newbie would struggle to work flat out on arrival so hence the lower numbers.) You also confirmed $480 per week out of affordable rent and transfer back to Eire for the mortgage. So $1600 per week income roughly. There are three of us in our family, me my wife and a 20 year old at uni. We are eco warriors and try to reduce all utilities for that reason and not just on cost basis, we shop weekly (once at the supermarket and once at the markets for veggies), we only have one car, we use public transport and we try and save a little. The familiy profile is a little different than yours but your baby's needs probably equate in cost to what we shell out for our son so that may balance out. We have a smallish 4 x 2. Based on that then we might be roughly similar in what our outgoings are. Below is our costs plus what we know about you. Rent and Eire $480 Electric $50 per week Gas $30 per week Internet $15 per week Water Rates $20 per week Water Usage $5 per week (But we are very low users and every drop is a prisoner) Weekly Shop Total $200 Mobiles $25 per week on plan for two Train / Bus tickets $20 per week Spending to cover most other stuff like food when at work, clothes, meals, out for a couple of drinks, cinema etc. $300 Absolute basics and very concious on utility usage so you could be a lot higher. For example we do not use the air con that much and instead cool down the house and then run fans. If you cannot stand the heat then you may run a air con unit constantly. That would put your electric costs way, way up. Indeed you may double them easiliy. We have only Western Australia plants in the garden and so we only water once per week. Anyway above is at roughly $1140 per week already. Now have to consider and add things you do not mention in your posts. Some of these are assumptions obviuosly. A car. Add in $25 per week for insurance and road tax plus a repayment figure if you need to get a loan. Healthcare. Are you going to use the government scheme Medicare or do you want a private plan? Average Private Family Plan $40 per week or take risk and go with medicare. I do not have private health care as we cannot afford it. Dental Care. Government dental is onlf for people on low income and/or concessions but based on your target income you will not get it and so do you want private dental treatment? $10 per week for a family plan or literally $100's everytime you turn up for a check up and clean. We took out the plan as it was agood way of saving dollars. Savings. Even if it was $50 per week for a rainy day or the wee ones birthdays. Petrol. $70 per week depending on where you live. When renting does your costs include garden maintenance? If not say $10 per week. Ok that is another roughly $210 depending on what you decide to do. Rough total so far $1350 per week but with no car loan. Not a lot of wiggle room on $1600 per week especially if you get a car loan and your OH does not work flat out. As I said in a previous post if you want to do it then go for it and all you need to be is realistic. Honest opinion? I would give it a couple of years until the baby is just a wee bit older. But hey who am I. Hope it all adds something into the mix. we got this as a reply on british expats site, broken down without internet and car it comes to $2560 per month. I am not sure about the gas/electric though as she has put $80 per quarter which works out at $26/4 = $6.66 per week!! [TABLE=class: tborder, align: center] [TR] [TD=class: alt1]I would think you could survive on that but it will be tight. To give you an idea of costs, here's our situation: Rent: $430 per week. This gets us a 2 bed furnished unit with a garden in Subiaco/Shenton Park - right opposite Kings Park. We got this off Gumtree so didn't need to deal with any agents and the process was quite painless. Travel: $20 per week each - 1 Zone on the bus to work in the CBD. Water/Council Rates: $0 - included in the rent (I thought most did out here). Gas: Comes in quarterly, last bill was about $80. Electricity: Again quarterly, no air con usage $80, the bill we just got with air-con on most nights $160. Internet: $40 per month. We got a mobile wifi dongle thing when we arrived which we haven't upgraded yet as didn't want to until we buy something. We get 8GB data per month. Foxtel: $91 per month. Optional of course, but then you’d have to put up with the shocking TV and millions of adverts in everything. We lasted 3 weeks before caving and giving in to purchasing this. This gets us Sports, all the channels, HD and the facility to Record, FF, RW etc. Mobiles: $30 per month each, on Optus pay as you go, gives us $350 worth of 'credit'. Food: Hmmm this is tricky, we probably spend around $120-$180 per week on food for the both of us. Car: When we first arrived we bought a little Hyundai Excel for $1,500 – this seems to be the cheapest you can get a working car for over here. It was pretty good on petrol consumption, $40 used to fill it up and do 500kms. We’ve now upgraded to a Pajero 4x4 which was $6,500 in good nick for its age (1995) but pretty awful on the petrol consumption, $110 fills it up and it does about 600-700kms. You pay ‘rego’ on cars out here which covers you for basic insurance and road tax. We didn’t bother upgrading to proper car insurance on the Excel, but for the Pajero we did which cost $450 fully comp for the year. These things are what I’d consider your ‘basic’ costs, after that it’s all about entertainment – which can kill your budget in no time! We probably easily spend about $500 per week on this alone without being particularly extravagant. [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: alt2] [/TD] [TD=class: alt1, align: right][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest6235 Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 I think it's a great idea ... do you fancy having a go? I could make it into a sticky thread for you so it's always at the top of the sub forum it's in? would the figures be worked out gross or nett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jillie14 Posted March 15, 2012 Report Share Posted March 15, 2012 I totally agree with you Mr Portlauney. Our circumstances were pretty similar to yours but without the childrren. It cost us around 15-20k sterling to get here - and there were lots of hidden costs as you mention and we have a very beloved dog which cost us a bomb, but I would've left everything else instead of leaving the dog as he is my baby! My husband had a job offer with a salary increase of around 2.5 times what he was earning in the UK - I had nothing! In the UK I was the main income earner and even on the salary my husband is on here it was still only just what I earned in the UK! We rented out our house as it is a 5 bed detached and 3 bathroom so attractive to rent but more difficult - nigh on impossible! - to sell and quickly Our quality of life here is so much better - in that we have one! In the UK I was working 12-16 hour days and working away in London most of the week (we are from Yorkshire) and then exhausted at weekends and fit to do nothing, stress levels through the roof, high blood pressure etc, etc etc! UK cost of living going up all the time yet we were on a pay freeze at work for the last 3 years and risk of redundancy loomed ever present year on year for both of us. We have no children and that was mainly due to the fact that I though the UK was not a place I would want to bring them up for all the reasons listed by Mr Portlaunay above as well as many others, including the fact that my job was not condusive to having a family mainly due the excessive and ridiculous demands on my time. I too could go on......and on.......and on! I also went through a major period of cold feet in October where I panicked like mad about whether or not we were doing the right thing. No-one can make the decision for you but I can only tell you about the experience I have had since arrive here in December so here goes................ I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! WE BOTH DO!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes it is more expensive - the benefits far outweigh the negatives on this for us. The weather, the many free of charge things that you can do like attend concerts, festivals, beach events etc. You have to shop around for food shopping - it makes you more thrifty and less wasteful. Before I came here I didn't even look at the cost of individual items, now I do and I know where they are cheapest and I no longer throw away a carrier bag of food a week as it's gone past it's date or gone off! I now have a job - the working culture is more better here generally, more laid back and rewarded for your work. Yes I have taken a pay cut compared to what I earned in the UK, but not by that much and it is more than worth it for less stress and being able to come home to my husband and dog every night and for being able to switch off and chill at the weekend, instead of wasting every Sunday planning and preparing for the week ahead. I too am from a council estate in Yorkshire, left school at 16 and have worked ever since as is my husband so everything that we have gained in life we have worked hard for with no hand outs or helping hands along the way. I have fabulous parents, sister and friends and I miss them dearly every day but the pain lessens with Skype and they are coming over in April and are already happier knowing that I am happier over here with our new life. My only regret now is that we did not do it sooner..............and who knows we may even re-visit the children thing now that we are here so watch this space Good luck with whatever you decide, look deep within your heart and you will find the answer and once you have made your decision, ignore the negatives and just plough on with what is best for you and your family as only you know what that is....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portlaunay Posted March 15, 2012 Report Share Posted March 15, 2012 My only regret now is that we did not do it sooner..............and who knows we may even re-visit the children thing now that we are here so watch this space Kids are great. They keep me grounded, help me to understand the value in simple things, challenge me and nourish my heart as well as my head. They are a right, royal pain in the ass though especially a 5 year old princess who DOES actually know EVERYTHING and an 8 year old boy whose brain is mostly being dragged along the ground about five steps behind him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest6235 Posted March 15, 2012 Report Share Posted March 15, 2012 Jillie can I ask where you are living and if you are renting and roughly how much a week it is. Also if you are renting did you have any problem with the rental agents as seen some post on here that it can take weeks to get into a rental house. We are wondering if we can afford it on one income of around $70k (wife) until I can also get something by just paying for the basics etc. We think we may have around $1000 left at the end of the month. We have heard Perth is expensive and we cannot decide between Perth/Adelaide/Melbourne at the moment. We know Melbourne is not as sunny all year round as the others but looks more appealing at the moment. Any thoughts would be great. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jillie14 Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 Jillie can I ask where you are living and if you are renting and roughly how much a week it is. Also if you are renting did you have any problem with the rental agents as seen some post on here that it can take weeks to get into a rental house. We are wondering if we can afford it on one income of around $70k (wife) until I can also get something by just paying for the basics etc. We think we may have around $1000 left at the end of the month. We have heard Perth is expensive and we cannot decide between Perth/Adelaide/Melbourne at the moment. We know Melbourne is not as sunny all year round as the others but looks more appealing at the moment. Any thoughts would be great. Cheers Hi Keefo, Yes we are renting just now - a 4 bed 2 bath 2 storey house in Beeliar, Cockburn which is south of the river but convenient for my husbands job. We are 10 mins from the beach 15 mins from Freo and approx 30 mins from the city. We currently pay $510 per week for this house which is in the middle of our budget range which we had set at between 450 and 550 per week for a 4 bed 2 bath in a good area - no more than half an hour commute from my husbands work. Depends on what you are looking for as you can get a decent 3 bed in a good area cheaper so personal choice really. We did not have any issues with the rental agents at all but I can assure you that it IS hard work finding a long term rental, there is no getting away from that, but if you put in the effort and time then you will find one. I viewed 27 properties, applied for 7 and got the 3rd one, but I made it my full time job for the first few 5 weeks after we arrived until we found one. We rented a fully furnished short term rental for 7 weeks which we booked and paid for up front before leaving the UK - which was expensive as we arrived in December so right in the peak holiday period but that was our choice! My husbands salary is a bit more than your wives expected income but not that much and we managed on one income, and still are as I started work this week but don't get paid until next month! We are not overly extravagant but we do go out and do things and we bought a car in January and have just purchased a second one now that I am working too. Perth is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but then neither is the UK these days particularly now that VAT is 20%! Yes some things are cheaper than the Uk, some are more expensive and some are free, you do need to shop around for things like food/internet provider/cars/insurance much in the same way as you would in the UK and make the most of special offers/deals on things or go without. I have friends that live in Adelaide but I'm not sure about the cost of living there or Melbourne I am afraid as I haven't been. Perth is my first visit to Australia so far, although I look forward to exploring more in the future. If you need anything else just ask and good luck with your decision making Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest6235 Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 Hi Keefo, Yes we are renting just now - a 4 bed 2 bath 2 storey house in Beeliar, Cockburn which is south of the river but convenient for my husbands job. We are 10 mins from the beach 15 mins from Freo and approx 30 mins from the city. We currently pay $510 per week for this house which is in the middle of our budget range which we had set at between 450 and 550 per week for a 4 bed 2 bath in a good area - no more than half an hour commute from my husbands work. Depends on what you are looking for as you can get a decent 3 bed in a good area cheaper so personal choice really. We did not have any issues with the rental agents at all but I can assure you that it IS hard work finding a long term rental, there is no getting away from that, but if you put in the effort and time then you will find one. I viewed 27 properties, applied for 7 and got the 3rd one, but I made it my full time job for the first few 5 weeks after we arrived until we found one. We rented a fully furnished short term rental for 7 weeks which we booked and paid for up front before leaving the UK - which was expensive as we arrived in December so right in the peak holiday period but that was our choice! My husbands salary is a bit more than your wives expected income but not that much and we managed on one income, and still are as I started work this week but don't get paid until next month! We are not overly extravagant but we do go out and do things and we bought a car in January and have just purchased a second one now that I am working too. Perth is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but then neither is the UK these days particularly now that VAT is 20%! Yes some things are cheaper than the Uk, some are more expensive and some are free, you do need to shop around for things like food/internet provider/cars/insurance much in the same way as you would in the UK and make the most of special offers/deals on things or go without. I have friends that live in Adelaide but I'm not sure about the cost of living there or Melbourne I am afraid as I haven't been. Perth is my first visit to Australia so far, although I look forward to exploring more in the future. If you need anything else just ask and good luck with your decision making Jillie Thanks for the reply Yes I think we would only need a 3 bed house for the two of us so I guessing they range from $350-and upwards p/w. Who did you use to get your short term rental? I wonder why it's such a struggle getting 6 month or yearly rentals as you would think the landlords would want to let long term. Cheers Keefo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jillie14 Posted March 19, 2012 Report Share Posted March 19, 2012 Jillie Thanks for the reply Yes I think we would only need a 3 bed house for the two of us so I guessing they range from $350-and upwards p/w. Who did you use to get your short term rental? I wonder why it's such a struggle getting 6 month or yearly rentals as you would think the landlords would want to let long term. Cheers Keefo Hi Keefo, Yes you should be able to get a 3 bed house for around $350 ish in a nice area, you will pay a bit more if you want a 2 bathroomed one or if you require a larger garden or close to the near the city etc. If you go for around a 30 minute commute from the city you should be able to find them for around $350. I used the REIWA website and gumtree mainly. The process is that all houses go on REIWA, so if you see one you like then you fill in the form on the page for the house supplying the agent with your contact details such as e-mail and mobile no. Once a viewing is arranged for the property then the agent will text and e-mail you to let you know the date and time of the viewing. This is fixed and often at short notice so you can sometimes receive a text in the morning to say that the viewing is that evening at 4 pm. The viewings are at any time in the day, often early evening say 4 pm onwards or early morning say around 8.30/9 am but can be in the middle of the day too - there is no rhyme or reason to it. There are no viewings on Sundays and generally only Saturday mornings so the majority are Monday to Friday - which is why it is a full time job looking for houses as the lists are updated daily and there are plenty of properties coming on for rent - however there are plenty of tennants demanding them to! Our current long term rental is through Tully's on North Lake Road, at South Lake, but we viewed properties with many agents. You can try befriending an agent when you get here as I've heard some people say that that it has worked for them but I didn't do it myself. Our rental is for 1 year, but the majority are for 6-12 months. It isn't that the landlords don't want to let long term, it is just that rental properties are in high demand due to the high numbers of people relocating here from all over the world and other parts of Australia. You will turn up at viewings and I'm not kidding there are sometimes 10-15 people viewing the same house!! If only half of you apply then you can see the problem........the agent may weed out some of the applications and then only put 2 or 3 through the landlord for approval and they landlord can afford to be very choosy indeed! We got our short term rental through ozhouserental - Tracey was very helpful as she has been through the process herself 5 years ago. Don't be put off or daunted by this though, I promise you that if you put the work and effort in you will find a property, it just takes time and patience - and the odd glass of wine of an evening does help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piccolo Posted April 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2012 bump for shah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicolac34 Posted April 20, 2012 Report Share Posted April 20, 2012 Well, after reading this long thread I feel like OH and I must be the exception to the rule! If you compare our salaries now on the 2x rule people are using we are earning less that we did in the UK (We earnt a combined salary of £97k in the UK, and earn combined $168k here) By exception to the rule, even though we are earning less here, we have so much more disposable income that we ever did in the UK. We lived in Windsor, paying an extortionate amount in rent, ran two cars (one of which was the worst economical decision ever in terms of fuel consumption!) and both had to commute an hour each way to work. We had debt from our University days, and from having just got married. So after paying all our bills each month we'd be lucky to be left with £300 between us for any of lifes 'luxuries'. OH got made redundant for the second time in two years so we thought 'sod it', I quit my job, we sold everything we owned, handed in notice on the flat and 2 months later were on a plane bound for Perth. Our monthly outgoings are less here (food is more, but overall less) and we are in a position where we managed to save enough to pay off one loan a couple of months after being here, we bought our Pajero outright just after Christmas and we intend to pay off another loan in August and our Student Loans come November - taking us to being totally debt free for the first time in 10 years! We haven't once thought 'we can't afford it' since we've been here, which has been a refreshing change from back in England. We just about manage to save one whole salary a month and live on the other which means for the first time in our lives we have savings. I guess we've been lucky when you compare us to other people moving out to Perth, but from struggling in England to having a very comfortable life in Perth - one of the best decisions we ever made. And if anyone wants to know our monthly outgoings Keefo reposted what it is in an earlier post, and yes, we do only pay $80 per quarter for Electricity and Gas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Flying Englishman Posted April 20, 2012 Report Share Posted April 20, 2012 Money isn't everything. I've said it in other threads, we are 'poorer' here but so, so much richer. When I was a child on a council estate in Essex we were not rich but I had a great childhood with incredibly supportive and loving parents, I wouldn't swap that for any amount of money and I don't think my kids would either. Know exactly what you mean - Spot on mate. English Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HeatherHighlander Posted April 20, 2012 Report Share Posted April 20, 2012 Bottles of wine are not THAT expensive. I talk from experience ;-) - drinking out in a pub is expensive tho! Just make friends with your neighbours and get a few bottles in. That's the answer to an expensive social life! Yes food is expensive, but it's far away from everywhere so everything is imported. You don't really have big heating or electricity bills like in the UK because it's hot and you spend most of the time outside! Of course your mum saw that it was expensive - she was there on holiday. When you actually work there you see that it is manageable and you start to get over the fact that it's expensive. I applied for hundreds of jobs when I arrived and got virtually no replies - but did some office temping and bar work in the meantime, which is easy to get. If you keep chipping away at it and stay positive, you WILL get work. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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