Hi,

Just wondering how people have faired generally and whether anybody has found themselves far worse off in Oz than they were in the UK?

My husband and I are both teachers, currently at the top of the payscale and so we will be giving up nice salaries, as well as the security of of our own home. We will probably be coming over with somewhere between £40-£45K, so won't have a great deal of capital. We're expecting to be skint for the first couple of years - we have two pre-school kids so I will probably have to sta at home rather than work initially - but will things get better for us eventually??

Cheers,
Jemma

Hi again Jemma

You'd expect to be earning less as living costs are less. You may also have to take a few steps back before you move forward. Teachers salaries are comparable with UK so you won’t be on the breadline.
No one can really answer this for you as what Australia has to offer some people does not have a monetary value! So some people will feel they have a far far better life even though they could be earning less!
Remember £45,000 turns into $100,000 so a nice deposit on a house and quite a bit to tide you over until one or both of you are working.
Finally you answered your own question “but will things get better for us eventually” yes they will.
Are you settled on the going to South Australia idea or are you still thinking about Perth? :blink:

Hi Bradley,

We are probably going to try Perth first. It's all down to whether my husband's uncle will sponsor us (otherwise we will be looking at an SIR - which we don't really want to do).

Adelaide will be our next choice though, and I believe that there are possibly more teaching jobs available in the Adelaide area than in Perth.

Was going to leave you a message actually...spoke to another agent today and primary teaching IS still on hte SOL. Thank goodness. Just wondering, where are you doing your training and how much longer have you got to go?

Jemma

PGCE starting Sept - @ York St John

We don't want to do SIR either :( but if nothing else on offer we'll have to. Similar situation will depend on partners uncle sponsoring us, not sure if his wife will let him as he's a wee bit under the thumb :D
Glad to hear Primary teaching is still on SOL you had me worried :P

Hi Jemma
You're in a similar situation to me. Top of the scale as a teacher, same amount of funds etc. Our kids will both be a t school though and I'll have to work full-time - going SIR.
I'll let you know how we get on as we're going on Wednesday!
:bouncy:
Mandyxx

Hi Jemma
In my opinion, how well off you are here will depend to a large extent on how much capital you can bring over.

Our experience, not bringing capital over, is of being substantially worse off (main income from Chartered accountant). However if we do sell up in England we could buy with no mortgage here and then we'd be quite a lot better off.

In FAQ, in the brand new Money section, you'll find lots of details of people's household expenses to help you work out a budget on your likely income and see what you might expect.

Hi, I think you will be worse off financially but richer in other ways :chuckle:

I would be interested to hear from the teachers coming over (seems to be a few recently posting ) have you already got teaching posts here ? have you looked into the job situation ?
I do not proclaim to know much about this ...simply that I work with a couple of NQTs (aussie) and socialize with another they all say that teaching jobs in Adelaide are like hens teeth , and that you practically have to wait for someone to die to get a post!
Just wondering if this is true ? or that there are posts out there.

JulieWx

We are actually a lot better off here in Aus financially and also in other ways. Kids are having a lot better lifestyle, as I no longer need to work to help pay the bills, so can spend all my time (it seems) being a taxi service for the kids running them from one activity to another. Couldn't do this in the UK as I had to work in the evenings and we could only afford 1 car in the UK. Got my own car now which is great.

(And before you say anything Dionne, it is NOT a boy racer car!!!!!!)

There are also a lot of things you can do here which are free such as visits to the beach etc, as you can actually pretty much guarantee the sunshine here in the summer. :chuckle:

Hi CHardy
If you don't mind me asking - were you able to bring enough capital with you to pay a substantial percentage of the cost of your house? Just interested to see whether my view holds true for others on here :chuckle:

And yes, I do agree that there's plenty to do here for free and the weather is more reliable - though I find the heat in summer almost as bad as the cold in winter in England. Did someone say you can't please all of the people all of the time.... :rolleyes: Still there's less of the really hot days here than cold days in the UK, and they are well interspersed with less hot days. I'm sure I was better adapted this last summer than the one before, when we arrived just as the 40 degree weather hit Adelaide and it was a bit of a culture shock :loopy:

We have a $100k mortgage(4 bed house on 1000m block-pool ,games room formal areas big garden,pergola etc..)....its only me that has to work full time...once the little boy is at school ft then the plan is to both work part time and i think we will be able to do it financially......we would not have been able to do this in uk ..only had a £75k mortgage..so as elaine said if you have capital with you you should be abler to CHOOSE rather than have if you know what i mean..

All these comments have bouyed me up no end as we will have no mortgage to pay and were hoping to be able to literally earn enough between us to put food on the table, pay the bills and have a holiday once a year - reading the above it seems like this may be a reality rather than just wishful thinking :sign03: :sign03:

Hugs
Karen & Co xx

Be careful not to go laughing to the bank - they will charge you for it!! :P

I have every faith life will be beautiful for you.

Desiree
:D :D

Hi Elaine

In answer to your question, yes we did bring enough money to pay a large deposit on a house but we still have a mortgage. We are a lot better off because Steve has ended up getting paid a lot more money here than in the UK, as his old boss was a real tight wad. His career has also moved upwards since being here too. He does a lot of hours, but at least he now gets paid for it! His official job title that ASCO gave him is a Mechanical Engineering Technologist :huh: , and engineers are quite in short supply here so that also helps push the money up as well. More for me to spend :D :D :D

Having said all that though, I would still say that many things here are about the same as you would pay back in the UK and some are more expensive, ie electricity.

Thanks Chardy, glad to hear everything's worked out good for you!

Excellent - that's confirmed what a few job agencies told me last year.
:dance: :dance:

We were hoping to end up without a mortgage - but the house we're getting built will end up costing a bit more than we were hoping for unless the exchange rate suddenly takes off. Still - it'll all be worth it in the end.

I'm a Civil Engineer and I do earn slightly more than in the UK but the work is harder and the hours longer this is generally because the projects are smaller and the budgets tighter.

Cheers