Cost of living reasonably well in Wellington

[dede]

When (hopefully not if) we move, we will likely be able to buy a house with cash. I know there are cost of living calculators here but there are always sundry stuff that comes up and I'd be grateful to hear anyone's view of all-in-cost for e.g. a family of 5 ex-housing expense but including property taxes on a nice but not magnificent house in Wellington.

[Manks]

It totally depends on where you want to live.

For example, an (ex-forumite) friend was incredulous at the high cost of a house in Island Bay. She lives in the Porirua area. I, however, was not surprised at the cost, so my expectations differed.

You will get more for your money the further out of town you are (naturally) but where you work and how far you're willing to commute will have a bearing on this.

I would say look at www.trademe.co.nz/property or www.open2view.co.nz but you really won't get a feel for different areas until you are here and can spend time doing physical research.

[Manks]

Just realised I haven't exactly answered your question at all as you weren't looking at housing costs! But where you choose to live may have a bearing on whether you will be mortgage-free (perhaps?).

[dede]

We won't we living in Island Bay but somewhere near, not necessarily with sea views. ie. not the glam UK/US selling up and moving in style to Island Bay or Eastern Auckland etc. But not to0 far from town either as the idea is to spend more time with our kids and be near my sister who does live near Island Bay (which I have to say is heavenly). Chances are I'll have to retrain as well. Given that, trying to work out how much I'll need while we get on our two feet. Wellington is definitely not cheap to live in but then we aren't that extravagant with clothes and stuff.

[Manks]

Wellington is definitely not cheap to live in but then we aren't that extravagant with clothes and stuff.

But Auckland is more expensive

We live very comfortably. We have two wages, rent is less than $500 a week for a 3-bed detached house in Island Bay (sadly no sea views was one of our compromises!). We don't budget so we buy what we want, when we want it, and we're still saving. We don't buy many clothes either. Our biggest extravagance is probably food and we eat out a fair bit.

We shop at Pak 'n' Save (we're not proud - wherever is cheapest!), we don't drink much at all, we commute on a combination of motorbike, car and bus. I find living here very affordable and we're both earning roughly the same as we did in the UK. But it's just the two of us and the pooch.

[dede]

Thanks. I'd love the sea views but would defo compromise with just down the road. Island Bay in our experience was pretty easy to park in. The calculator is coming up with need to earning $80k/year and that's without the cost of housing and without saving for retirement and a decent but not extravagant food budget. Don't want to skip out on after-school stuff like sport and enrichment things for the kids. That $80k does include an accrual for the trip back once every two years for a family of 5 and one local holiday a year camping, tramping, chilling at the beach. Thank goodness we aren't into big ticket items, though the thought of a second-hand dinghy is appealing. Still this is clearly a 2 working parent town if you can't afford a house and need to save for retirement.