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solar1
14th September 2005, 07:55 AM
Ok here goes

Im like 9 days from going to NZ and need a little reassurence, i will be living in Lower Hutt and will have a basic wage of 46k that with antisocial hours goes upto 50-55K im a single male nurse

looking to rent alone, and looking at redcoats the cheaper places that are close to the hospital and look ok cost 190-300, my question is will i be able to afford this.

This is well helpful info below but what do you all think

solar

Below is what a mate of mine i met on the net said but is it enough to live on, will i be ok, wouldnt the world be better without money?
As for can you afford $200-$300 a week on $46K, hard question; depends.

Do you want to live by yourself or flat with people?

If it's by yourself, then the rent you'll pay is $200-$300 a week, depending on how big the house/apartment is (ie how many bedrooms) and where (eg you'll pay more for waterfront Petone than Epuni for example).

If it's renting with other people - I would've thought that around $100 a week for the room plus electricity/phone etc on top would be about the norm.

Say $300 a week... $46K after tax equals about $1090 net per fornight.

$600 rent = $490 a fortnight to spend.

You'll spend about $50 on electricty, $25 on phone (assuming no toll calls), bus say $40 (that's 20 trips at $2 a trip), food (groceries maybe $140 but that's not extravagent at all), $50 for incidentals - all a fornight. That's $315.

Leaving $175 a fornight to spend on "going out stuff".

You can do it - but it'd be tight at times though - "extra expenses" always come up.

You can easily spend $100 a night out if you want - no worries.

A bus fare from Wgtn to the Hutt is about $5 each way. They have really good late night buses (ie until 4am) on a Friday/Saturday night and a really good train service.

A meal out can rang from $15 for some good asian up to hundreds for the best eats! (NB asian in NZ means chinese or thai or malaysian; I think you're "asian" is our "indian" - and an indian meal out is usually more around the $25 mark.

Beer - that's about $5-$6 for say a 330ml heinekin.
Wine - anywhere from $7 a glass up (cheaper by the bottle).
Movies - $13-$15 a ticket.
Theatre - $30 a ticket.
Petrol - $1.50 a litre.
Airfares - AK return about $160.
Australia - about $600 return including taxes.

So, can you do it - yep. Will you have super amounts of expensive fun - no. Will you have a life - yes. Will you be better of paying only $200 a week, rather than $300 - yep.

ENZ
14th September 2005, 08:14 AM
The (after tax) cash you take home fortnightly on a wage of $46,000 will be a bit better than indicated above. It will be around $1,380.

Tax rates are:
$0 - $38,000: 19.5%
$38,001 - $60,000: 33%
$60,001 upwards: 39%

There is no national insurance to pay in NZ but a small ACC levy will take a few dollars per week from your wage.

Depending on the outcome of Saturday's election, these tax rates may fall.

ruthyroo
14th September 2005, 08:55 AM
FWIW I think the info you have been given is pretty much spot on. That kind of salary enables you to live like many others here, fairly comfortably by NZ terms, nothing flash. It would be hard to save anything substantial, though you could do it by sharing a rental and budgeting hard, and you would have to budget for trips abroad - or work some overtime.

HTH

solar1
14th September 2005, 09:11 AM
hey thanks, so hopefully i will be better off in NZ than i am in the UK then, on a nurses wage here its hard to pay the rent let alone get a mortgage, i think in my area of the south of england the average cost of a house is 180,000 with many flats close to work well over the 70k mortgage i could get,

so with agency work to suppliment my pay i should be ok, all i want to do is live comfortably and not struggle like i would in the UK if i didnt live in a nurses home,

thanks again,

ps i guess those with families must really struggle cos what im getting is just over the average NZ wage much respect

Singel
14th September 2005, 10:11 AM
As a rule of the thumb, if your rental or mortgage do not exceed 40% of your net income (take home pay), you should be living comfortably.
:cheers

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