Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have an offer to move my family of four to Melbourne next year and am wondering what is considered an affluent salary. I currently make $200,000 USD/year but pay very little tax. I will be taking a huge hit in taxes if I move to Australia and am wondering how that will affect my family. I am not sure but think that after taxes we will have about $100,000 to live on. Would this provide a decent living for a family? I haven't been to Australia and am making this decision without time to come and visit prior to the move.
You would be considered in the top 1% of income earners in Australia. Melbourne is a very beautiful city. Do you plan to rent or own a house? My pick would be the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne from Brighton (inner bayside not outer bayside) through to Templestowe and up to Vermont area. In this area you are looking at middle middle class to wealthy areas. There are great private schools in these areas too. In relation to public transport my suggestion is to be on a tram/bus route. The trains have a lot of problems with overcrowding and safety. If you want a newspaper to read online you have the.age.com.au and heraldsun.com.au Also our biggest sport in Melbourne is AFL. Unsure what else you want to know but feel free to ask. Im actually thinking of moving to America (hopefully Atlanta). Dont get me wrong I love Melbourne but have always wanted to move to America
Thanks for the suggestions on neighborhoods. The reason I ask if the salary is decent is because there are so many homes that are unaffordable for us. I keep coming across homes in neighborhoods that have been recommended and so many are over $1000/week. I find that to be very expensive and was wondering who can afford to pay that kind of rent. I am not prepared to spend half of my net income on rent.
I do like caviar and I wish it was a part of my daily diet!
200k is a very nice income in Oz - it is considered a "very well paid job".
You will find yourself paying a heap of tax and looking for ways to minimise it pretty quickly. The most popular thing to do is to lease a brand new car on a "novated lease". You pay for the whole thing out of pre-tax income and it works out really good value if you can drive 25,000km per year. Perfect if you wish to explore on weekends and on your holidays etc.
Also you'd want to try to run your mobile phone, internet, laptop purchases and any other associated expenses through salary sacrificing against your income too if possible. You can overall reduce your tax by quite a lot if you do several of these things together.
Another popular route is to buy negatively geared investment property which deliberately makes a loss, which you then claim against your income at tax time and get that all partially refunded with the net effect of reducing your tax paid while you are owning an investment at the same time.
I do like caviar and I wish it was a part of my daily diet!
Caviar is an unusual, sometimes strong flavour, frequently salty and probably nutritious, which reminds me...
Perhaps you might enjoy Vegemite. I do.
Also salty, somewhat strong flavoured and full of vitamins and has some protein.
Unlike caviar, Vegemite should be one of the most affordable grocery items in Oz.
I personally would advise against it*. When contrasting Australia and the US, Australia is a better place to live for people on lower wages but America is a far better place to live for people on higher wages.
hence why I want to move to the USA. Australia is a beautiful country dont get me wrong but there is a thing called "tall poppy syndrome" If your successful then some people enjoy knocking you down!! In Australia you are paying more for property, furniture (not as nice as in USA), private school fees are more expensive, food is more expensive (and you dont get the best quality of meat as it goes overseas). They are some of the reasons why I want to move to the USA. Even on a single income and earning a six figue salary I still cant afford my own house!!
hence why I want to move to the USA. Australia is a beautiful country dont get me wrong but there is a thing called "tall poppy syndrome" If your successful then some people enjoy knocking you down!! In Australia you are paying more for property, furniture (not as nice as in USA), private school fees are more expensive, food is more expensive (and you dont get the best quality of meat as it goes overseas). They are some of the reasons why I want to move to the USA. Even on a single income and earning a six figue salary I still cant afford my own house!!
lol. Do you also have a wife anchoring you down to Oz, or is it just me?
Probably more a case of not being able to migrate to the US as they don't have a Skilled Migrant Permanent Resident visa like Oz and Canada do. Other than winning the DV or having a million lying around to buy a business, you're stuck with temporary working visas. Never been enamoured with the insecurity of that. And these days, with the US economy not being too healthy, I wonder if there are many employers able to bring in overseas workers when there's masses of their own looking for work?
As far as the OP's question, netting $100k/yr is very decent money to live on. Surely there must be something decent to rent in Melbourne for around the $600/wk range? I wouldn't pay $1000/wk. Sounds like highway robbery to me. If you're here to stay permanently, rent cheaper and build up a deposit to buy a place.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
