[determinant]

Hi folks, I wonder if there`s anyone out there who can help this new member?
Essentially, I`m to become a secondary school maths teacher in a year and a bit and (some may say!) in the fourtunate position at age 33 to have no ties or any real commitments (ie, wife, kids, mortgage etc), and like many of you out there, i am a bit (lot) fed up here in the UK (cardiff), and plan to apply for permant residancy (excuse my dodgy spelling) after completing my induction year in a school, reasoning that it will take about 6-12 months to see if my application`s successful. Hence, by the time that I leave the uk, I should have about $20,000+ NZ dollers to take with me.
My main question that I`d love any of you to shed any light on, is is it possibe to actual get a house (mortgage) on a teachers salary over there? I`ve seen that NZ gives there teachers about $40,000 per year. I`ve managed to track down on the web an easy-to- use NZ estate agents called first national, that shows the price of countless properties.
Now, if I`m on, say, $40,000 and reason that in NZ they allow you about 4 times ones income in there mortgages (like they do in the UK), that would total $160,000, discounting any smallish deposit that I would put down, coupled with the fact that I believe that NZ gives first time buyers $7,000 too towards a property. Thus, although I`m aware that maths teachers in secondary schools are at a big shortage in NZ, would i actually be able to survive! Just off the top of my head, I`ve seen on the first national page that areas such as Otago and southland seem to be the cheapest, but what`s your advice? Any info would be much appreciated.

[willsken]

Hi determinant. Can't really answer your question about living on $40,000 but you should be able to get a property for that price depending on the area you choose to live. We live near you... where abouts in Cardiff are you?

[determinant]

Hi determinant. Can't really answer your question about living on $40,000 but you should be able to get a property for that price depending on the area you choose to live. We live near you... where abouts in Cardiff are you?
Hi, thank`s for the reply. Not the best area. Not sure if you`ve heard of fairwater. Actually, i guess that there are worse places.

[willsken]

Yes, I know Fairwater. You're right there are worst places. OH is a firefighter in Cardiff and some of the stories..... :uhoh

You say that you will become a secondary maths teacher in a year. What course are you doing? I did a maths/ict B Ed at UWCN.

[determinant]

Yes, I know Fairwater. You're right there are worst places. OH is a firefighter in Cardiff and some of the stories..... :uhoh

You say that you will become a secondary maths teacher in a year. What course are you doing? I did a maths/ict B Ed at UWCN.

Funny enough, I`m in the final year of a maths degree at cardiff Uni.
I`ve recently applied for the PGCE. I was going to do that in Liverpool, as I visited there in sept and found the people about 10 times more friendly that this lot in cardiff. However, although where i live is pokey, it still has fridges, sofas etc, and i didn`t want to give it all up for a training course, due to the fact that as we all well know, life doesn`t always run smoothly, and if anything should have gone wrong, I`d have lost where i live! That won`t be too bad when I`m actually qualified as an teacher, as if things don`t work out in a particular place, as I`ll then actuallt be a teacher, i`ll just go elsewhere.

[Trigirl]

as far as i know there is no current first time buyer subsidy in nz. kiwisaver will introduce a subsidy of up to $5k but its limited to $1k peryear that you've been in the kiwisaver scheme and you have to have been saving in the scheme for 3 years before you can get anything - so the first ones will not be available till 2010.

$40k means paying about $8k in tax. so you'll bring home about $2,700 a month. interest rates are relatively high in nz so a $160k mortgage will mean monthly payments of abut $1,200 leaving you $1,500 a month for everything else.

i've got no idea if you can survive on that or not - i just thought the actual figures might help you decide.

[determinant]

as far as i know there is no current first time buyer subsidy in nz. kiwisaver will introduce a subsidy of up to $5k but its limited to $1k peryear that you've been in the kiwisaver scheme and you have to have been saving in the scheme for 3 years before you can get anything - so the first ones will not be available till 2010.

$40k means paying about $8k in tax. so you'll bring home about $2,700 a month. interest rates are relatively high in nz so a $160k mortgage will mean monthly payments of abut $1,200 leaving you $1,500 a month for everything else.

i've got no idea if you can survive on that or not - i just thought the actual figures might help you decide.

Thank`s for the info trigirl. Have you any real idea what i could realistically get for $160000? i imagine that although that it would be a little low- key, i guess that it`d still be a bit more that I`d get hear in the uk. I mean, hear in cardiff, £100,000 would get you a small terraced in the worst possible area.
i guess that your estimate of $1,500 per month would equate to about £125 per week for everything else, but on a teachers salary i`d be struggling anywhere!

[Trigirl]

i really don't know what you could get i'm afraid. but i'd suggest looking on www.trademe.co.nz in the real estate section. you can filter by price range and area so that should give you some idea.

[determinant]

Thank`s for the info trigirl. Have you any real idea what i could realistically get for $160000? i imagine that although that it would be a little low- key, i guess that it`d still be a bit more that I`d get hear in the uk. I mean, hear in cardiff, £100,000 would get you a small terraced in the worst possible area.
i guess that your estimate of $1,500 per month would equate to about £125 per week for everything else, but on a teachers salary i`d be struggling anywhere!

Funnily enough, trigirl, i had alook at your blog and see that you`ve recently took a nice pure maths exam. Looking at the course, i can`t say much about groups as i never took that option in my 2nd year (and never liked the look of it- cosets and all that!), but analysis is alright. If you ever get the chance ( if you haven`t already) of sampling complex analysis, you`ll find that that`s good for the sole! Nothing better than a good epsilon and delta i say! linear algebra`s ok. The more "method- like" stuff`s cool like eigenvalues/vectors etc, but the more theoretical stuff like basis and spans are a bit horrible. Good luck anyway.

[Trigirl]

yes - waiting back now for results (mid december)

it was a good course and i really enjoyed it. groups was probably the bit i liked least, until the end where we did group actions, orbits and stabilisers. we touched on complex analysis although mostly it wasn't examined. i enjoyed the eigenvalues/vectors/spaces stuff and basis and spans were - as you say - pretty horrid.

enough maths for me for a while though - too much settling in to nz to do next year - plus i have to sit law and tax exams to tranfer my accountancy qualification over.

[determinant]

yes - waiting back now for results (mid december)

it was a good course and i really enjoyed it. groups was probably the bit i liked least, until the end where we did group actions, orbits and stabilisers. we touched on complex analysis although mostly it wasn't examined. i enjoyed the eigenvalues/vectors/spaces stuff and basis and spans were - as you say - pretty horrid.

enough maths for me for a while though - too much settling in to nz to do next year - plus i have to sit law and tax exams to tranfer my accountancy qualification over.
Yeah all the best with that. I must admit i was a bit jealous reading about your application history and how that your almost there! that wed that you forwarded me seems cool, and i`m a bit shocked at the low prices that they charge to rent a place. $170 ish, per week for a 3 bed! that`s about £60 over here. can you imagine being able to rent a 3 bed for that! That was actually a bit reasuring ,as my plan is to do a load of research about where there is the best place of landing a maths job in a school., packing my bags and off i go (provided i get the residancy, of course, but I did a "dummy" one on the net the other day and i passed. not that that`s any true indication, I know.). So the low rent prices would be cool whilst i find my feet. As i`m sure that you know, a lot of this game is patience. I`ve had this idea for a good few years now, and although it still a little way off, time never stops ticking along!

[willsken]

http://www.realestate.co.nz/

Try the above link to get a feel for prices in different areas. I am going to add a word of caution. Be careful about converting back into pounds. Things seem cheap when you do this but remember you will be earning the dollar. I only say this because it's something I have taken on board after being told this by several people on here. :)

[determinant]

http://www.realestate.co.nz/

Try the above link to get a feel for prices in different areas. I am going to add a word of caution. Be careful about converting back into pounds. Things seem cheap when you do this but remember you will be earning the dollar. I only say this because it's something I have taken on board after being told this by several people on here. :)

Thank`s for the web and advice. Mind you, though, trigirl mentioned that a $160,000 mortgage looks like about $1200 per month. So, a rental place of , say, $160 per week (say $500 a month) doesn`t seem too bad (area not withstanding of course). Rental isn`t nothing new to me as i`ve been doing that for the last 8 years! I guess that it`s all figures, but at least the rental side doesn`t seem too bad while i`ll be finding my feet! Thank`s again.

[determinant]

Actually, that web does look very good! One other question, to yourself or to anyone, as a guess, are my chances actually pretty good(or not!) of gaining the residancy? I know from reading articles on the wed that secondary maths teachers are in need (as for everywhere), and i guess that i could muck in a bit on physics too if needed. I`ll then be in the 35-40 age group.Any predictions!!

[willsken]

As a teacher I don't think you will have too many problems. Have a go at the points calculator.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/

It's a link on the left hand side of the above page. :)

I had a quick go and it seems you may need to get a bit of work experience to get the points. That being said if you don't want to do that then you could alway apply for jobs and go down that route. Maths positions are plentiful.

[determinant]

As a teacher I don't think you will have too many problems. Have a go at the points calculator.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/

It's a link on the left hand side of the above page. :)

I had a quick go and it seems you may need to get a bit of work experience to get the points. That being said if you don't want to do that then you could alway apply for jobs and go down that route. Maths positions are plentiful.

Cheers.

[determinant]

Thank`s for the web and advice. Mind you, though, trigirl mentioned that a $160,000 mortgage looks like about $1200 per month. So, a rental place of , say, $160 per week (say $500 a month) doesn`t seem too bad (area not withstanding of course). Rental isn`t nothing new to me as i`ve been doing that for the last 8 years! I guess that it`s all figures, but at least the rental side doesn`t seem too bad while i`ll be finding my feet! Thank`s again.

I can`t believe my own maths there! $160 per week will obviously equate to (approxiamately) $650(give or take) per month. Not $500 a month as a mentioned. Embarrassing!