$70,000 - Auckland

[lollypop]

My OH has been offered a job at $70,000 in Auckland. Anyone living there think we are likely to manage on this? I've seen the cost of living calculator, but would prefer to hear from a person who's actually managing out there. We have 2 school age children. We don't exactly live the high life here but like a drink. We were thinking of the North Shore which I understand is one of the most expensive areas but schools are very good.

[leslie]

hub was estimating $80+ to be okay. think he was factoring in the occasional cuban though. not sure he considered taxation - whether you are left with more at 60 or 80.

[Wannaway]

If you go on to the IRD website you can find out what your after tax income is likely to be (I think it is called the PAYE calculator or something). You should type in code M (equivalent to PAYE coding in UK). On $70k I would say take home would be approx. $4,200 per month. The North Shore is expensive, although depends on where on the Nth Shore. West of the Nthrn Motorway is cheaper than east (east is nicer and close to a lot of good beaches etc and has a nice seasidey feel). We personally have disounted west of the motorway, with young kids with think they would prefer the "beachy" feel east of the motorway. Also depends what you are looking for of course in terms of rooms and size (don't expect much of a backyard though). A decent three bed house to buy could be anything from $400k (Glenfield) to $800k (Devonport), to rent probably looking at somewhere between $400pm to $750pm. We are basically looking at anything from Devonport (nice but v expensive) up to Browns Bay (not as nice but not as expensive! Still pretty OK area though).

I would say that $70k is a bit tight for a family of four, it is manageable but you will have to budget. We have had to cut our cloth since coming here three months ago and it has been a bit of shock for us. On the one hand you realise what wasteful rampant consumers we must have been in the UK but equally it comes as a bit of a culture shock when you take a few hundred bucks out at the beginning of the week and realise that is it for the week, food shopping and entertainment - it don't go far. As for saving, forget it just not possible.

I am sorry if this is going to be a downer for people on this forum but it has been said in a number of different ways by a number of different people, Auckland is expensive, particularly in relation to cost of living and salaries offered. However, there are plenty of cheap things to do with kids so you don't have to always splash cash. Last weekend there was a teddy bear's picnic in Auckland Domain, we took a picnics, most things were free (bouncy castles, inflatables, stage shows etc) and it was excellent. The kids had a great time and the whole thing cost us just a few bucks in petrol and some ice creams. It can be done witha bit of planning.

[Moorf]

to rent probably looking at somewhere between $400pm to $750pm.

Surely that's per week?

[Wannaway]

Doh! Yes the rentals are weekly, not per month. Sorry for misleading anyone! ops:

[Wannaway]

That posting correcting my divvy mistake took me over 100 posts and added another plane! Hey, there are some benefits to being a bit of a moron then.

[Terry&Sophie]

It sounds you are looking at a quite expensive (but of course, very nice) area. If those rent prices are accurate maybe you'd be better off coming over to the East of Auckland. We're in Bucklands Beach paying $360 a week for a 3 bed house 10 mins walk from the beach. We don't have kids but from what I've heard the schools are pretty good over here too - maybe someone else could comment from experience?

Also, I second Wannaway's comment on cheap entertainment. There are lots of free events, free parking almost everywhere and lots of places to go. We went to Goat Island in Northland today and other than splashing out on a snorkel we paid nothing other than petrol and lunch (in a restaurant but could easily have been a packed lunch if we weren't so lazy!) for a great day out :cool

[Sarah Jane]

My husbands salary is 71k. His take home from this is $985 per week and as a typical family with 2 teenage school kids we are finding it hard living on this salary. We were going to live north shore but found house prices a bit high there so we moved further north to Orewa. Here we are paying $400 per week rent for a 3 bed house.
Our food bills are on average $160 per week and that is by buying mostly budget ranges and includes a couple of bottles of wine. I've also taken to doing most of my own baking including bread etc as this is cheaper than buying from supermarket. The cheapest tins of beans here are 99c (around 40p). Electricity is $25pw but remember it's summer here so theres no heating in that, I don't yet know what they'll be in the winter. We pay around $45pw petrol just with my husband getting to work and probably about 50 miles of leisure time driving. We now know with the costs of the school fees, books and uniforms that we've just paid out for that we need to budget around $40 per week for this for 2 children. Our telephone costs are around $15 pw (just line rental and the occasional call to UK using a calling card). We also pay for basic SKY TV package plus rialto channel to keep kids happy which is around $13pw.

On top of that there are insurances, kids pocket money, internet connection (we're on basic dial-up as broadband is expensive), and clothing for fast growing children. Then there's birthdays & Christmas to think about too. As for holidays I'm not sure if we'll be able to afford one.

The only way you will find $70k comfortable to live on is if you will be able to afford to buy a property virtually outright. We have just agreed to buy a 3 bed house here and are putting $260k into it but still have to get a mortgage of $210k and we have bought something at the lowest end of the market here. Also don't expect to get much of a garden as all the land plots have been divided up and once where there was 1 house on a plot of land with a large garden there are now 2 or 3 houses sitting on the same plot. The house we are buying is on a plot of land of 900m2 but we are sharing this with another house. Our sections is around 450m2 so there is not much garden. We looked into buying a section and having a house built on it but the land sections of around 550m2 cost $250k and then you have to have your house built, (and they are mostly bungalows here).
The cost of a mortgage of $210k at 8.5% is expensive too. We have gone for a 1 year fixed rate at 7.5% and had to spread the length over 25 years even though my husband is 48. We just can't afford it over a shorter term. Just hoping my hubs pensions from England will pay some off in the future.
And final thing to take into consideration is medical bills. $50 per trip to docs and $33 for children. Even pensioners have to pay for visiting which is a worry as I know how many times my mum and my mother-in-law have been over the past year, so I'm a bit worried about that one for the future.
So unless you never visit docs normally then you need to add this to your budget. Add up how many times you visited docs over past year in England and work out costs. I'm just glad we're all pretty healthy.

[lollypop]

Thanks for the info everyone. Think I'll probably have to get a job too, but sort of planned on that anyway.

Sarah Jane : We have also looked at Orewa but thought it may be a little too far to travel to CBD, how long does take your husband to travel in?

[Sarah Jane]

Sarah Jane : We have also looked at Orewa but thought it may be a little too far to travel to CBD, how long does take your husband to travel in?

Hi Lollypop

It depends really on whether your husband will be working during normal hours. My hub starts at 3.30pm so he avoids the rush hour. It takes him about 25 mins to get to city, but on occasion when he has had to start at 9am he needs to leave home at 7.30am. Most of the build up occurs with traffic from the East Coast bays and onwards. The first part from Orewa is a doddle at all times. The actual distance from Orewa to CBD is 36k.

Sarah