Is a teacher's salary enough to live on?

[new horizon]

Hello,

WHen considering my move, one of the things that worries me is that my salary will not be enough for two people to live off of. I will be making about 47000 New Zealand dollars and am not sure that I will have money left over to do fun things or to travel. Could you please advise on what level of comfort such a salary might bring?

Thanks...

[benhila]

Hello,

WHen considering my move, one of the things that worries me is that my salary will not be enough for two people to live off of. I will be making about 47000 New Zealand dollars and am not sure that I will have money left over to do fun things or to travel. Could you please advise on what level of comfort such a salary might bring?

Thanks...

I suspect that you are not getting answers because people hate to come across as being negative. Assuming that 47K is the gross amount you'll be earning, that you are the sole earner and that you will be paying rent, you are unlikely to have money left over for 'luxuries' such as travelling.

[new horizon]

My partner will be making money as well, but as for the amount I am not sure yet. He is in construction. I don't believe construction workers make a lot of money so I'm trying to be realistic about what I can afford on only my salary. It doesn't look like that amount translates to having the quality of life that I have in America, though.

Thanks for the response. I'm still trying to weigh all of my options, here.

[benhila]

Actually you may find that your combined incomes (assuming that your partner does work in construction) could add up to quite a lot. One of the nice things about NZ (as compared to some other countries) is that there is a narrower gap between blue collar and white collar wages; your partner's pay in NZ may be considerably higher than that in the US.

[sks]

I second benhila's comment. "In construction" is an awfully broad description -- if you could give a bit more information about his experience and skills (and where you plan to live), you might get a useful approximation of the earnings he might expect, and of the lifestyle you might be able to afford.

There are an awful lot of young tradesmen on the projects that I'm assigned to that have an enviable collection of man-toys (boats, quads, motorcycles, and the like), and not too many seem to be still living with their parents, so they're not starving.