[Familyofmonkeys]

Things are starting to fall into place....we've sold our house :raebanana
baby no 3 is due in 5 weeks time, and Hubby finally has a job offer in writing. We are now moving to Auckland, rather than Christchurch, due to job offer. What i'm wondering is a salary of $97 plus approx 15% bonus reasonable for a family of 5? We will be taking over approx $300, which we expect to help finance a house after a year or so. We also do not lead a very extravegant lifestyle...difficult to go on holiday etc when your oldest child is only 3!!

[pinkpiggy]

Hi there. Congratulations on the job offer. :cheers

After reading many of the posts on this forum, I would imagine that you a family of 5 can survive on $97K (plus approx. $10K bonus). Obviously it would depend on your lifestyle, but you have already said you're not extravagent. 3 children under 3... my you have been busy. ;)

[Marco]

Hi there,
It is difficult question again on which you will get very diverse anwers.
We -as a couple- have problems to make both ends meet with combined salary over $100K here in Wellington. We live in our own house and do not very extravagant things, but like to live a life.

Cheers,
Anita

[sarahw]

Congrats on the house sale!!

It is difficult to say - just to proove that point - we're on a single salary of same amount as Anita & Marco & I think we live quite a luxurious lifestyle here. Certainly don't go without anything - always able to go out if we want & have new things & do renovations on our house. Part of it depends on how much you bring out here with you too towards your mortgage & savings - if you come out with a big wad of money then you're going to be nice & comfortable - if you bring a small amount or come with nothing, things might be a struggle. I'm guessing the $300 you mention is $300K - in which case you'll have a great step up to the property ladder & shouldn't struggle too much. We brought quite a bit of money with us when we came & don't have any worries financially. We have friends in Auckers on a similar salary to ours & who brought over pretty much the same amount of money & they live a very similar lifestyle to us - just have a bigger mortgage & will retire later than us but they have a brand new house they built themselves & certainly don't go without.

Auckland's cost of living is higher than Wellington/Chch because property is a lot more expensive.

I personally think you'll be fine on that salary & the other thing is that is a starting salary - your OH may get a pay rise after a year & things will get easier from there...

[gil]

Hi familyofmonkeys,

what sarahw said! We live in Howick area (Eastern Beach) of Auckland and neither of us is working yet, living off proceeds of UK house sale (as planned) although hubby may well be in employment soon ;)

It's so subjective, this judgment of "how much is enough", but $97 plus 10% bonus is what a friend's husband earns and they have 3 kids too (aged 6-10 though). She is not working yet and they live around the corner from us, renting at the moment. They find it OK. It sounds like a decent salary and if you have UK£s behind you to, I personally can't see that being a problem.

When are you coming? Any ideas on where to live yet?

Gil

PS Congrats on the sale!

[dean1968]

yes you should be quite comfortable as a family of 5 living on that income and have the cashflow (buying power) with your additional assets to buy a nice home.

[Tia Maria]

First off, Good Luck with baby number 3!

Secondly, do you have a plan of where you want to live in Auckland?

This can greatly affect your experience of how much is enough.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with London but obviously there is a big financial difference between living in Knightsbridge or Croyden.

Cheers

Tia

[Familyofmonkeys]

We did the London thing for a couple of years after uni, but ended up commuting from outside due to silly house prices.
Have searched a few threads and Howick is looking appealing, but any suggestions that are affordable for families would be welcome. Basically do not want hubby to spend too long commuting to CBD. He currently spends about 1.25 hours each way, so anything less that 1 hour would be good. Also, I would need to be near playgroups etc for kids, but don't want to live anywhere very noisy or too near busy roads.

[Jeany]

Hi, Congrats on the job offer and sale of the house!

You'll be ok. 100k+ is considered good income for a family of 5 here. Your expense largely depends on how much you'll spend on your house. After income tax and ACC, you'll get about 75k takehome pay. If you buy a house for 600k with your 300k deposit, you end up paying 24k in insterest on the 300k mortgage with the current rate on mortgage around 8%. for 20-25 yr term, that's about 28k-30k to serve your mortage. $600k can buy you a 3brm basic family home in reasonably good areas in central Auckland. Might still means 30-40min commuting one-way, especially during peak hours. For the same money, you can buy much better houses in East / West /North auckland, like Howick. We used to live there, and got friends there, daily commute time can be 1hr or more one-way.

For the 45k left, you'd need to economise but still feel comfortable if you don't send any kids to daycare (that's expensive). You'll cover your daily bills and grocery easily, afford two cars, and things like dine out occassionally, local holidays, some inexpensive hobbies / sports clubs, etc. However, there won't be overseas travels, and not much left for upgrade home appliances or house rennovations.You might cut on your housing budget, but you won't be very impressed by houses under 450k in central Auckland ;) ;)

[stu70]

Thanks for the detailed analysis Jeany. I like your approach, very good for folks wanting to develop a good decent budgeting base. Kind regards