Realistic income requirements

[gorstsmit]

Hello All,

So, I've posted a few things on here asking various questions about jobs etc, including one regarding salary expectations for jobs I might be able to get.

All of which have been answered as helpfully as usual.

So, what I guess I also need to know is what sort of income do we realistically need to be able to live comfortably, but not necessarily extravangantly?

As you may know by now, we're a family of four, my OH, me, 4yr old, and 11 mnth old. Looking to move to Auckland (more than likely).

I work in Financial Services specialising in mortgage compliance/risk, but also could go back to advising - been told to expect somewhere in the region of 70-80k including bonuses/commissions. OH is a primary teacher, 18 yrs experience and so (depending if NZ will take her experience into account or not) should go in at anywhere between roughly 45k - 75k?

I know it's very subjective, and each person has an idea of what lifestyle they want to maintain -we're not looking to live like kings - we don't now.

We would like to be able to pay the rent, eat healthily, enjoy the activities NZ has to offer, probably run a car (at least one), pay for school related costs and Kindy(?), use Sky, have internet access, eat out once in a while, and generally not feel like we don't know where the next meal is coming from!

So - I guess top end (without me landing some incredible job and without OH gathering MU's instantly) we're looking at $140k jointly? And bottom end, if I have to take what I can to get some money in - about 80k? Would we be likley to be able to live between that range? - obviously there'd be differences in what was achievable, but does anyone have any guidance on what we really need as a minimum?

I'm not asking anyone to give real examples of earnings, nothing so intrusive, but a general guide would be useful. I know there's similar older posts, but they do seem to be a couple of years old, and I'm concious that cost of living may have changed in that time-frame.

Phew! Must learn to be more succinct!
Cheers.
Chris

[mptopham]

As I don't (yet) live there I can't help you directly but the following should give you an idea depending on how much reserach you want to do:

http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/cs-cost-of-living Auckland university info on the cost of living
http://monitorauckland.arc.govt.nz/o...employment.cfm - this shows median weekly earnings for Auckland - by looking at what your expected weekly earnings would be you can see where you would sit in comparison to others

[london jack]

Hi Chris,

We've based our cost assumptions on the following calculator
http://www.enz.org/cost-of-living-in-new-zealand.HTML

We're moving in a couple of months so I hope it's a reasonable estimate!

Cheers
Dai

[ellie33]

I'd have recommended the same cost of living calculator as london jack. I think it's comprehensive and very helpful.

[Manks]

Before we moved, I asked my friend in Auckland what the cost of living was like and how much would be required salary-wise. She suggested that on a joint income of $150k, a couple could live very well. She said they were not earning that much between them but they were still very comfortable. Based on that I think at the top end you'd be absolutely fine, but you may struggle a little at the bottom end.

But all of this is subjective based on your lifestyle. If you're frivolous, your money won't go far in NZ. If you live modestly, you need less. We're used to living well, and we're lucky enough that we can carry on doing so in NZ (although we're in Welly).

[gypsy]

Not sure how realistic it is, because I have been away from Auckland for 18 months now. However taking a look at house rents- our 3 bedroom house in Mission Bay (Central Auckland) is rented out at $550 a week & that corresponds with their figure.
Recently I have been comparing the cost of my weekly shop (for a couple in) Tenerife with Woolworths NZ online shopping trying to match items as close as possible. I usually find little difference in my total food shop. This month we spent €408 on supermarket shopping, however I would spend more in Auckland simply because I would buy items I don't buy here like Beef or Venison products (either because I don't like what I see or not available here) We eat more Pork, Chicken, Fish & Salads here and I do not buy conveniance food or take aways but being retired have time to cook but what I am trying to say buying like for like hardly any difference.
My husband's heart medication here costs €80 month in NZ with health card $4.
I think it all depends on your habits & some people are better at budgeting than others. In Auckland I used to always try to buy what I wanted on seasonal sales or specials or Trademe, I found an outlet shop for shoes that were heavily reduced. I think if you excercise control you can make money go further, it does take time to find your way around for best value. I found things cost more if I used my local supermarket New World at Eastridge but by going to Pak n Save ar Glen Innes just few more minutes by car I could save a lot, often my favourite brand of coffee was $2-$3 cheaper & so on, the saving on a yearly food bill was significant. By going to your local fruit shop (often Chinese owned) fruit & veg bill much lower than supermarket.
Best to ask locals what they do to stretch their $'s.
Keep in mind also that retired couples receive a total of $511 a week, ok if they own their home outright, but some do not yet they manage to cope, not that you want to be hard up & it always costs more when you have children.

[James 1077]

I guess some of it depends on how much money you are bringing over as that will cut down on your mortgage payments!

For us when we moved we had my single income of $105k plus a few benefits which brought it up to around $110k. We brought over around $30k to get us on our feet (i.e. buy car, furniture etc). My wife is a stay-at-home mum bringing up our twins (who were 4 months when we moved) but will go back to teaching once the twins are at school.

$110k enabled us to buy a reasonably decent car, get a rental in Devonport and live reasonably comfortably - not going out too much but not having to budget too hard. We were also able to put money into savings with that salary (and remember that take home on a single $110k is less than two people jointly earning the same as I have to pay more tax).

After about 18 months we were able to buy a $600k 3-bed cottage in Devonport with the money we had saved and the remainder over from the UK giving us just a 20% deposit.

I then moved jobs and earn a little bit more plus a bonus of up to 8%. This means that we are a little less tight with our money (but still not blowing it all on eating out or only shopping in New World!) and can still use some of it to pay off the mortgage a little quicker.

When OH goes to work I'm expecting her salary to be around $50k (not too sure as I haven't spent time looking at the scales as she hasn't been graded). This will mean that we can start doing the annual holiday thing and pay off the mortgage even faster so that we can borrow back against it to send the kids to private school.

Hope this "real life" example helps!

[gorstsmit]

Everyone - as usual, I'm bowled over by the quality of reply.

They're all extremely helpful - and realy do give me some comfort that as long as we both find work in the fields we know, we should be fine and relatively comfortable, which when there are kids involved is very important as you'll appreciate.

Thanks, thanks, and thanks again guys!

[Kanga]

I think a general rule of thumb for a family of four is that life will be a bit of a struggle with a family salary under $100K, especially in Auckland, especially if you haven't struggled in the UK. In other cities you can have a pretty decent lifestyle for a family salary of over $80K but without a wodge of equity you'll struggle to buy anywhere.

[gorstsmit]

I'd hope to be holding about $140-180k in equity to use as a deposit when we decide to buy at current exchange rates - so more if things improve (fingers crossed!).