Calculating Your Comfortable Family Income in Australia
How much do you need?
I do get asked some quite strange questions at times, but they are usually one-offs. But this one pops up quite regularly and every time it does, there is never enough information given to me to answer it.
Even with lots of information, it would still be an impossible question to answer, but when the question is something like
“I’m moving to Australia next month with my wife and two teenage children, what would be a good salary to ensure a comfortable lifestyle for me and my family?”
What chance do I have?
Here’s what I think you need to take into consideration when calculating a comfortable family income for you and your family. You might be able to think of many more.
- Cost of mortgage or rent.
- Cost of running a car or cars.
- Cost of food for your family.
- Cost of utilities; electricity, gas, water and rates.
- Cost of additional shopping items; clothes, gadgets, health and beauty, jewellery, computers and toys.
- Cost of insurances, for the home and for private medical insurance.
- Cost of telephones, both home and mobile.
- Cost of entertainment items, like holidays, alcohol, digital TV, going out.
- Cost of unexpected maintenance bills, for your home, for your car and other things that break.
So to answer these sort of questions, you’d have to offer me a lot of information or I’d have to ask you a lot of further questions.
As you can see, it really is an impossible question for me to answer, but you can answer it for yourself.
Check out my page about The Costs of Stuff.
A simple solution.
If you are coming here from the UK though, this works quite well. However much you spend per month over there in pounds, you’ll probably need twice the amount here in Australian dollars. So if you need £4,000 a month in the UK, budget $8,000 a month here.
Sounds stupid doesn’t it? But I bet it wont be far out.
More useful links:
My report about The Cost of Living “Comfortably” in Australia
My entire category on the Cost of Living in Australia.
My post comparing UK and Australian salaries.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi there
We are planning to go to Perth in Sept as husband been offered a job of $120,000 – feeling slighly worried now as we thought this was a good salary as equivalent to £80,ooo here – however on one expat site they were saying $120,000 is not a comfortable salary to survive on in Perth ? I have used your simple solution to try and work it out and we feel it is ok. Can you jsut confirm this please.
Hi Heidi
I’ve just added another useful link under the heading above. Please visit the page with my report on The Cost of Living “Comfortably” in Australia. I think you’ll find the information there more than useful.
Cheers
Bob
Hi bob,
I’m thinking of moving to Australia in the next couple of years, on my own, don’t earn much an hour in my current job and currently still living with my parents in England.
How much do you recommend saving to take to oz, to rent a flat/apartment, and to live over there until I start earning? My job is on the wanted list, and money is the only thing holding me back.
Thanks
Zoe
The short answer is as much as you can. I don’t know how long it would take you to start earning, so I can’t really answer, but see my pages Cost of Buying or Renting a House in Australia
and
The Cost of Living in Australia of Everything to get a better idea.
The deposit you have to pay to rent a flat will vary depending upon which state you move to. Typically it is 2 to 4 weeks rent in advance plus a bond equivalent to about four or six week rent.
Hope that helps.
Hey! im 22 years old and ive been doing sheet metal work for around 6 years and i really want to move to Australia, i have family over in western who said they wouldn’t mind sponsoring me, i done an online assessment test and im eligible to apply for a working holiday visa. im currently in process of getting my passport renewed! where do i go from here? i was thinking of going with visa-first and im doing overtime at the moment to be able to have enough money to help me fund myself for a few months. the careers adviser told me that i need roughly £2,500 to help get me started, just need help on what i should do next. thanks
Hi Vinny
When you say what should you do next, do you mean how do you secure your working holiday visa? I think they are reasonably easy to organise, and I think it can all be done online. But I don’t know the exact process. Would you like me to ask my MARA agent if he can give you any advice?
Hi
Am looking for some information about moving to Australia.
Me and my wife and 2 kids have been looking to move for some time now and dont know where to start
Thanks
TOmmy
Best place to start is by finding out if you would get enough points to qualify to apply for a visa, you can find out how to do that on my page called Visas.
You may also want to read the story of how me and my family got here, the link is at the top in the navigation menu, it’s called How to Move to Australia.
Hi Bob,
I love your blog, there are so much advices. Thank you very much, it’s a big help. We are living in Germany and here we say that you should give max. 1/3 of your salary in your rent. Is it the same in Australia ? The rentals prices are so high in Australia compare to Germany that it seems impossible…
Thank you for your answer.
Kind regards.
Sabine
Hi Sabine
Last time I looked, the average salary in Australia was around $62,000. That’s about $1200 a week. There are plenty of places up for rent that cost $400 a week, so we are not far away from that one third rule.
Rents might be high here, but so are salaries.
Cheers
Bob
For anyone intending to come live in Perth, I have lived here my whole life and I have never seen it become so expensive as it is today. Some prices below in Australian dollars as of 01/05/2012.
Rent – $550 per week upwards, for a 3 bedroom unit or house in a middle class area, the average would be around $700 per week.
Food – $150 per person per week if buying groceries from a supermarket and cooking at home.
Transport – $ 50 per week if using public transport within 10 km from your residents.
Medical Insurance – $ 90 per month per adult
Electricity – $ 200 per month for a 3 bedroom home (not including cooling or heating)
Telephone – $ 80 per month for a landline
Internet – $ 70 per month unlimited usage
Ladies hair cut/colour/style – $200 – $300
Mens haircut – $20-$30
Restaurant Dinner – 3 course meal plus half bottle house wine – $100 per person
DVD rental – new release overnight – $5
Coffee – takeaway, Cafe Late = $5
Water – 300ml from lunch bar or deli – $3.50
Sandwich – $10 – takeway
Movie ticket – $20 per person
Packet of 25 cigarrettes – $18 per packet
Beer – 6 bottle of 330ml = $ 16
Chinese meal – home delivered serving 3 adults = $55
Beer or Wine in a Bar or Club = $ 12+
Taxi ride – 10 minutes = $20
The average wage per week is $600 – $1000 clear of tax.
Perth is very icolated from the world, people tend to keep to themselves and mix only with people they know. Perth becomes a very small place very quickly once you have seen the sights and done the rounds. Perth is best suited to people who like anything to do with nature and outdoors on your own or within your family group. Shopping and Fashion does not live in Perth as Perth people tend to be extremely casual. Bare foot is the norm, from bed to shopping centre is ok too.
If you have any questions before coming to Perth please do contact me, it would be my pleasure to help.
$12 for a beer in a club! I was going to go there for a holiday, now I’m not so sure.
Seriously though, you must be able to buy a beer cheaper than that, it’s not overly cheap here in Brisbane, but we are only paying about $7 or $8. And never buy your takeaway beer in a sixpack, get a carton, much cheaper!
Right, now we’ve got the important stuff out of the way, the rest of it. Yes, it does look expensive, but then I really don’t buy your average wage figures of $600 – $1000 after tax. I would have said wages are much higher than that, average take-home pay over there should be about $1100 a week. The national average annual salary before tax is around $62,000, but over WA, it’s apparently closer to $72,000.
Obviously no one could take-home $600 and then pay $550 a week for rent, could they?
I’m sure Perth is expensive, but I’m also pretty certain salaries are higher than you suggest. Thanks for all the figures though, always useful.
Hi Bob
I guess the best way to back up my figures would be to check out two websites,
1) for rentals – http://www.realestate.com.au
2) for salaries, http://www.seek.com.au
I have friends working in banks, travel agencies, hospitality and sales persons in shops who clear $600 per week and a more senior person position would clear about $1000+ per week.
I just did a search myself on http://www.seek.com searching for positions for call centre/customer service staff and the annual pay range was between $43000 to $70000 making the average salary $56000 gross before tax.
You will find that the only way a person can afford the rentals in Perth is if both husband/wife or partners both work otherwise it is just not possible.
It has been said that the mining boom is responsible for this new hefty cost of living.
Wishing you all the best.
Hi Carl
Yes, I’m aware of both of those websites, I have them on my pages about Getting a Job or a Sponsorship and Cost of Buying or Renting a House in Australia. Sounds to me as though the mining boom is sending prices upwards, but only the miners can afford those prices.
Well, it’s not just the miners I suppose, I know there are other trades that are doing really well there, over this side of the country we keep hearing about just how much work there is at the moment in Perth.
But the downside, as you have kindly pointed out, is if you are not one of those trades people, and you don’t get one of those salaries to match, you might just find Perth a little bit too expensive.
Thanks for your contribution.
heb bob,
i am an indian boy ,17 years old…..i want to come australia for graduation….so can u tell me about my visa…and part time job there for me…….
Sorry, no, I have no idea how that works. But take a look at my page about
Visas and follow the instructions and the advice given on the video. That should help you get started. Good luck!