[neil & bella]

hi guys been reading some threads on wages bills and school fees and i'm glad there honest and true, but now you guys have got me wondering if we would manage I understand the average wage for a carpenter is about $25 ph on average $52000 a year how would we fair in auckland me my wife and 2 daughters 8 & 3 we'd be bringing about £100,000 with us

[Hannah]

Out of interest we added up all of the costs associated with schooling in the UK (hidden costs assoc. with fundraising activities, purchase of stationery etc., trips, in school activities, after school sports clubs, music, shoes(!!!) etc.) and compared them with the more explicit costs of schooling in NZ (in our kids NZ school the trips, stationery etc. was included in annual fees) and we found that the costs were the same. indeed where some costs in NZ were the same as Uk (food, electric, phone) others were much cheaper (council tax, day trips out, petrol, water rates, insurance etc.) which offset the lower income.
I think, personally, if you use your £100k to buy outright or have a small mortgage then you will be fine. Of course it depends on your spending habits and what your standard of living is. We don't smoke, drink or go out much - we don't buy new furniture, rarely buy clothes, don't have sky tv, drive an old banger etc. etc. Nothing will change when we go to NZ. We live frugally but happily (working less hours as a result and spending more time with our kids). In NZ I want enough to survive without worrying and i think if you take some equity and don't have a shopping addiction then you are probably ok. I know some on this forum will disagree, others will agree. A lot depends on your financial circumstances when you arrive, the size of your mortgage, your standard of living etc. £100K can buy you a modest home outright in some areas (even a more than modest home in others) but may only be a small deposit in others (e.g. Auckland) so it's impossible to say that this will ensure a comfortable life.
I think you may get some interesting and illuminating replies to this thread! Again, i feel if you have a small/no mortgage then £52K a year is enough for a family of 2 to live on....

All the best! Hannah

[incredible hulse]

To be honest I know we couldn't get by on 52k NZD and we're finding the costs Hannah refers to as being much more in NZ than UK (in real terms). An example of our costs for a family of 4 (2 young kids) -
Phone in UK 10-20 p/m, NZ 38-48 p/m (hardly ever call people either and that is excluding internation calls which are via a phone card);
electric+gas 50-150 UK p/m, NZ 230-500 p/m;
food 300-450 UK p/m, NZ 800-950 p/m.
Schooling costs for us are 75 dollars per term for 1 Kindergarten place and then we probably get 2-3 fundraising events per term. In the UK we didn't pay anything for nursery.
Rates are cheaper here - 1800 in UK and 1500 in NZ (we have to pay an extra 160 for rubbish collection as this is not included)

Excluding mortgage we are going through about 3K NZD a month excluding any big months like Xmas, car servicing, dentist trips !, etc
Cheers
Steve

[jess]

Hi Neil & Bella.

Please check out this thread (http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9074) which has some info and links to lots of threads about getting by financially in NZ, including Auckland specific.

Best of luck to you! :)

[spudulike]

I agree with Steve. My husband earns similar to that and we are going home because we are struggling.

I appreciate what Hannah says and indeed you would be better off than many with 100,000 to bring over but I don't think you would find a nice house in a good area to buy outright for that money. I also think there has to be a happy medium between living without aything, buying second hand furniture etc (which I'm unwilling to do) and being addicted to shopping (which I am certainly not). I don't feel you need to move to NZ to necessarily have a far better lifestyle or visit the beach - a change of location in the UK would do that just as well.

It really is dependant on your lifestyle and whether you feel you can manage with less - I don't know of many who move to NZ that are better off than they were before, even those who bring money as wages in relation to living costs are very poor.

It's a hard decision to make - but you don't want to live your life having regrets either so if you are like most of us on this forum then you'll probably do it anyway and be glad you tried whatever the outcome :D

Louise :)

[willsken]

From the research I have carried out and please bear in mind I haven't lived there yet, I think living in Auckland on $52,000 isn't going to be easy at all. In some areas £100,000 will buy you a decent house and with no mortgage you will probably manage on that money. Even then I don't think it would be an extravagant living. I may be wrong but £100,000 won't buy you a house out right in Auckland.

Do you have to go to Auckland? Carpenters are a real shortage and you should get work anywhere. There are some lovely places to live in NZ where the property doesn’t cost anything like the price of houses in Auckland. Would your wife work as well?

I don’t want to sound pessimistic but you really need to do realistic sums before making the move. If the figures don’t add up before you go then it’s unlikely to change when you arrive. I’m not saying don’t come, I have spoken to teachers who earn around that amount and manage well but they didn’t live in Auckland. :)

[stu70]

I also think there has to be a happy medium between living without aything, buying second hand furniture etc (which I'm unwilling to do) and being addicted to shopping (which I am certainly not). I don't feel you need to move to NZ to necessarily have a far better lifestyle or visit the beach - a change of location in the UK would do that just as well.

It really is dependant on your lifestyle and whether you feel you can manage with less - I don't know of many who move to NZ that are better off than they were before, even those who bring money as wages in relation to living costs are very poor.



Louise :)
Agree with the assessment 100%. It is shocking NZ would not try to improve wages if the cost of living is atrocious. I doubt highly skilled immigrants would want to stick aroound for ever just for "beach and sunshine" wages

[westies]

Hi there
I agree you would definately struggle on $52.000, however my B.I.L is a chippie and earns $40 per hour, here in Auckland, he does have years of experience behind him, but that seems to be the going rate for a tradesperson!
Hope thats better news for you :)

[willowshouse]

It's still a bit new to me, but I'm not sure you're figures are so awful...

We live in Auckland in a nice 3 bed, 2 bath + rumpus in a nice area - our rent is $500 a week. We spend about $300 a week on food and we buy absolutely what we like for that. So that takes care of $3,000 a month - $36,000 a year net. The rest of it is harder to calculate because much of it is a lifestyle choice - I would think another $1,000 would take care of it if you lived a very basic life (feel free to disagree anyone!), anything else is at your discretion.

You say you are are bringing over £100,000. If you chose to rent instead of buy this money could earn you 7% interest .. just less than $20,000 to add to your salary (which although you calculate it at $52,000 could be as much as $80,000 if you are able to achieve the higher hourly rate quoted of $40 p hr). That makes a salary of $100,000 a year - although without a deposit for a house. I think if you asked people whether $100,000 was enough they'd probably say yes .. check your hourly rate again, was the figure quoted as an average for the whole of NZ because I reckon a carpenter will earn more in Auckalnd than the rest of the country.

Just a bit of food for thought!

[nippa&pippa]

maybe we are mad?!?
Early days as we only been here for two months, but my husband earn $20 ph and we rent house at $300 a week, we managed it well so far....with two young kids, no change to our lifestyle as we are doing the same budget plan as i was 'stay at home mother' in UK as well as NZ, so no second income apart from child benefits that we yet to receive it eventually (not sure when? two years time? or sooner?), however, because of low income, we get community service cards help us with doctor, chemist and leisure centre discounts.

[incredible hulse]

It's still a bit new to me, but I'm not sure you're figures are so awful...

We live in Auckland in a nice 3 bed, 2 bath + rumpus in a nice area - our rent is $500 a week. We spend about $300 a week on food and we buy absolutely what we like for that. So that takes care of $3,000 a month - $36,000 a year net. The rest of it is harder to calculate because much of it is a lifestyle choice - I would think another $1,000 would take care of it if you lived a very basic life (feel free to disagree anyone!), anything else is at your discretion.

You say you are are bringing over £100,000. If you chose to rent instead of buy this money could earn you 7% interest .. just less than $20,000 to add to your salary
Hi, Problem with this is 52K per year would go down to 40K net so that would leave only 4K for the year after rent and food. In addition to that the fact that the NZ taxman takes tax off (19% or so) all savers would take the interest p/a down to closer to 15K.

Agree 80-100K would be a liveable amount but still can't see 52K being enough

[willowshouse]

no second income apart from child benefits that we yet to receive it eventually (not sure when? two years time? or sooner?)

Not sure if there is a hint of sarcasm in that (?!) but I'm sure I've read you are entitled to child/family benefit from the moment you become a resident (maybe you are not a resident yet?) if you qualify income-wise. If it isn't sarcasm and you are a resident do a search .. it was mentioned here fairly recently, within the last month.


Ref my earlier post .. my point is, it's easy to say we've got a lump sum of X plus ?? income but it might benefit you to work out what your lump sum can earn for you given that the interest rate here is so big. It also can be a good idea not to rush in and buy a property until you have had time to observe the market and be sure of the area you want to live in. It is VERY tempting to buy something as soon as you get here .. but maybe it could be an idea to wait, and in the meantime you have added income to relieve the pressure.

[nippa&pippa]

[QUOTE=willowshouse]Not sure if there is a hint of sarcasm in that (?!) but I'm sure I've read you are entitled to child/family benefit from the moment you become a resident (maybe you are not a resident yet?) if you qualify income-wise. If it isn't sarcasm and you are a resident do a search .. it was mentioned here fairly recently, within the last month.


No sarcasm :uhoh . Been out of action for last two month on forum while waiting for our container, my husband have spoken to work and income about it, they said fill in the online form once you received full visa(?) after working for 3months (understand?) so we will try that in two months time (he have only been working for 1 month now) to see if we qualify it as i thought we suppose to not have any benefits for first two years as i read somewhere about this?

[Trigirl]

once you have a full residents visa you qualify for family assistance.

on the interest thing. you get taxed on interest at your marginal rate of tax so if you are earning $52k any additinal interest will be taxed at at least 33% and some of it at 39%. so the interest earned on $20k will only be $13k ish