Any websites to compare my expected salary in a city to the cost of living?

bp5678

I'm a 24 year old guy looking to move out to somewhere new and exciting. I'm currently living with family in a quiet village in Hampshire. I'll rent for 6 months to get a feel for the place and then look to buy assuming I like it in this new city.

I've been doing some research but what I'd find really interesting is a comparison of:

How much it costs to live in a particular city (ideally tailored to me, i.e based on my living requirements/habits/where I tend to spend my money)

Average salary in the particular city. Again, ideally tailored to my job, experience, skills, qualifications etc.

Just for your info, I'm a Marketing Executive. Graduated uni close to 3 years ago so about 2 and a half years experience (3 years experience by the time I move out). Currently earning £25,700 (£27k if i hit my bonus).

In terms of living costs/habits. I rarely eat out however I eat healthily and eat a lot which means my weekly supermarket shop will be very expensive. My money would be going on a nice city centre property, lots of food, a cheap gym membership (somewhere like Pure gym or The Gym), regular haircuts etc.

Obviously in the south it is generally more expensive and generally better salaries, so say I'm making £1700 a month but spending £1500, I'm making £200. While in the north I may make £1300 but spend £1000 and therefore I've actually saved more money in £300 as an example. Does any websites/tools like this excist to compare and gauge this ratio of costs to salary to work out where I can make the most money?

Comms69

Not that I know of.


BUT I would expect you to make more than £1300, even in the 'poor' north. Your salary is distinctly average, I wouldn't expect it to drop much by moving north (if at all); conversely it would be higher in London for example; but you wont be buying there anytime soon.

Bossypants

Not really, and besides, there are too many variables for such a site to really be useful. What you'd need to do is figure out what you could expect to earn in the area which interests you, then start looking at what your life might look like: housing you would be satisfied with, where you would go out and how you would get there, transport in general, and anything else which is important to you. Cost it up, compare it with your anticipated salary, then see how that ratio measures up against your current situation.

datlex

1st step go to Reed or similar

2nd step go to Rightmove or similar

bp5678

Bossypants wrote: »

Not really, and besides, there are too many variables for such a site to really be useful. What you'd need to do is figure out what you could expect to earn in the area which interests you, then start looking at what your life might look like: housing you would be satisfied with, where you would go out and how you would get there, transport in general, and anything else which is important to you. Cost it up, compare it with your anticipated salary, then see how that ratio measures up against your current situation.

Thanks for the reply. I thought there may be websites that do exactly that, i.e you say how often you get public transport or fill up your car with fuel, how often you buy alcohol, what sort of property you'll be looking at etc etc and then it gives you a rough ballpark figure (which should be taken with a pinch of salt). Doesn't sound like this exists though?

bp5678

datlex wrote: »

1st step go to Reed or similar

2nd step go to Rightmove or similar

I've done this already, but:

- The majority of salaries on Reed say "competitive" without giving a figure or ad has been posted by a recruiter and the salary is so vague eg £20,000-40,000 (that's quite a big gap!). Occasionally there are a few specific salaries but I'm comparing the salaries of a couple of jobs in each area (small sample size = larger risk of anomalies/extremities in the data). It would be better to get salary averages over a historic period of time for my exact job title. I've sort of found this but then it's comparing it to the cost of living (which i'll cover in a separate point below).

- Rightmove has property pricing. I have an idea of this already but it doesn't give me a breakdown of monthly living costs which I'm wanting.

What I'd love to be able to do is use the simple equation:
I'm likely to make around £1600 per month.
I'm likely to spend around £1000 per month.
I'll therefore save £600.

spadoosh

bp5678 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. I thought there may be websites that do exactly that, i.e you say how often you get public transport or fill up your car with fuel, how often you buy alcohol, what sort of property you'll be looking at etc etc and then it gives you a rough ballpark figure (which should be taken with a pinch of salt). Doesn't sound like this exists though?

If it can only be taken with a pinch of salt, you need to ask how relevant its going to be. The answer is, its not. The reason is because theres too many variables, too much data to collect and too time consuming collating it all to publish something thats out of date.


Some newspapers do an annual 'best place to live for young people' award. Id start by looking at places in those and researching further. They look at things like job prospects, pay, property affordability, trends etc.

bp5678

spadoosh wrote: »

If it can only be taken with a pinch of salt, you need to ask how relevant its going to be. The answer is, its not. The reason is because theres too many variables, too much data to collect and too time consuming collating it all to publish something thats out of date.


Some newspapers do an annual 'best place to live for young people' award. Id start by looking at places in those and researching further. They look at things like job prospects, pay, property affordability, trends etc.

Thanks. I've already read these newspapers. I guess you could say I'm a serial-researcher and just enjoy comparing data and stats myself. I'm edging towards Newcastle in particular but as I say I'd love to conduct my own research.

gazebo

You can work out council tax costs of you look at the local council website and find out the post code of areas you're interested in?

bp5678

gazebo wrote: »

You can work out council tax costs of you look at the local council website and find out the post code of areas you're interested in?

Just PM'd you. Thanks.

[Deleted User]

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/comparison.jsp