The true cost of expat living in Australia

HappyMJ

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Melbourne is rubbish. All that ridiculous graffiti art, theme bars and every other man wearing a trilby. It's like hoxton, but with flies. MCG is the one good thing.

A trilby? I had to google that. I'm from the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne and I never knew anyone with a trilby.

Kennyboy66

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Melbourne is rubbish. All that ridiculous graffiti art, theme bars and every other man wearing a trilby. It's like hoxton, but with flies. MCG is the one good thing.

It's a fair while ago, but Melbourne was by far my favouite city in Australia.

Preferred the people there to Sydney as well.

Never seen a trilby.

chewmylegoff

Maybe I was in a trilby bar - I'm sure Melbourne has one? There were a lot of men in hats. There may have been a few ironic middle class flat caps on display as well.

lostinrates

bendix wrote: »

As a general point, having been open-minded enough to get out the rut of living in the UK and taking risks (I've lived and worked in New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and now Hong Kong for 16 of the last 20 years) has been my financial saving grace. I couldn't have been in the position I'm in now - ready to retire at 47 if I choose to - if I hadn't had that expat lifestyle.

And financial considerations aside, it's been a fantastic adventure full of wonderful experiences.

Bendix, I agre with this, and I also thank you for it. A well timed reminder for us personally.

jungle_jane

bendix wrote: »

My memory was that Sydney was a relatively cheap place to live. I was earning around A$180,000.

:eek: that's an ENORMOUS salary! no wonder you found it cheap! i had an extremely good job in for over 10 years and was earning significantly more than anyone else i knew...and my pay was less than half of that!

StevieJ

bendix wrote: »

(I've lived and worked in New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and now Hong Kong for 16 of the last 20 years) has been my financial saving grace. I couldn't have been in the position I'm in now - ready to retire at 47 if I choose to - if I hadn't had that expat lifestyle.

And financial considerations aside, it's been a fantastic adventure full of wonderful experiences.

It doesn't surprise me that you have to keep on the move

Generali

Kennyboy66 wrote: »

Preferred the people there to Sydney as well.

We clearly didn't meet while you were here in that case :-)))

sabretoothtigger

Cant Chilli be grown in Australia. If Aussie is in demand for its commodities by the worlds largest exporters, this should cause all sorts of secondary and internal markets to feed and satisfy the workers to that export global market.

Ive heard of major infrastructure building to support western australia for example

jungle_jane wrote: »

:eek: that's an ENORMOUS salary! no wonder you found it cheap! i had an extremely good job in for over 10 years and was earning significantly more than anyone else i knew...and my pay was less than half of that!

I should have saved the article but read of some super truck driver earning quarter of a million I think is was.

Generali

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Cant Chilli be grown in Australia. If Aussie is in demand for its commodities by the worlds largest exporters, this should cause all sorts of secondary and internal markets to feed and satisfy the workers to that export global market.

Ive heard of major infrastructure building to support western australia for example






I should have saved the article but read of some super truck driver earning quarter of a million I think is was.

Most of the Asian heritage people I know have a small chilli plant in the back yard or on the balcony. It grows really well here.

Apparently the mines are investing in driverless truck technology. The trouble is they have to pay top dollar to get people to work in the FIFO mines. You hear claims of cleaners making $100k a year and so no. I've no idea if it's true or not.

property.advert

I turned down Oz a couple of times. Firstly was on a train going into Sydney reading the Morning Herald and seeing a job advert for the head of an investment banking division on a salary not a lot more than I was on as a junior in the UK. The UK heads were on 8-10 times the Oz equivalent. The second time was when someone I knew and trusted requested a transfer to Oz and then requested a transfer back 6 months later because the pay was so crap (investment banking but she went on local pay because she requested the transfer).

Of course and with hindsight, I should have bought those condos in Darling Harbour which were chicken feed in 1997 and are now millions but in all seriousness, we didn't know how the locals could live on the terrible wages they got.

Bring on huge FX swings and the Oz figures look far more attractive. I guess the bottom end is the same as most countries where you spend everything you get to simply live but when you are on a decent salary, your expenditure doesn't rise as fast and you can save more, much more in some cases.

I guess given the chance again at that younger age, I would go for it, leaving behind a London property rented out. Do a few years, get the passport and a permanent second home option.