Sydney Job Offer 80K plus 15K car allowance. Enough for family of 3?

HillFarmer

Hi All,
I've a wife and small baby and we've been looking at moving to Australia for a while now. We both work currently in ireland but would like a change for maybe 5 years.

I've just got a job offer of 80K plus 15K car allowance. Its a good reputable company and I'm based on the outskirts on Sydney.
There is as much overtime as you want available with the position and colleages can double there salary with on call O/T by all accounts.

My wife also will work part time and will bring in 45K a year.
With the high cost of living in Sydney do you think this is enough of a salary to live comfortably?

We are not big spenders, maybe go for meal once a month, odd takeaway and very odd movie. We will be going over on the 457 visa.

Budgeting rent as 650 per week. Looking at renting around Hills district.

Any advice welcome.

PirateShampoo

So you wana know if you can live on 125k a year with a free car?

mandrake04

If you were to aim for at least $5-6k of overtime p/m plus you wife's income you would between you be clearing at least $10K-11K p/m after tax, that's definitely doable for a comfortable life in the Hills. I don't have a baby but I know childcare is expensive for non-residents.

Is that $15000 car allowance with a fuel card tho?

Any questions about car allowances, cars or the Hills area just ask.

HillFarmer

PirateShampoo wrote: »

So you wana know if you can live on 125k a year with a free car?

Well yes. I've never been over there and from reading and doing some research it seems fairly costly. We will have childcare aswell, which will probably wipe out my wife's wages.

Don't get a free car, 15K taxable income. Presuming you think this is a very do-able from your response which is great!

HillFarmer

mandrake04 wrote: »

If you were to aim for at least $5-6k of overtime p/m plus you wife's income you would between you be clearing at least $10K-11K p/m after tax, that's definitely doable for a comfortable life in the Hills. I don't have a baby but I know childcare is expensive for non-residents.

Is that $15000 car allowance with a fuel card tho?

Any questions about car allowances, cars or the Hills area just ask.

Ok, ya, looked in to childcare, fairly expensive. Also on the 457 visa you have to pay 5K to 8K per year for school.

As far as I know its just 15K, dont think there is a fuel card. Tolls and that are expensible all right. Do you think it would be worthwhile to bring car over? I see tey are very expensive in Auz.

On the Hills area, where is a nice family area to live in, ie parks, close to shopping, kids in same area etc. I'll be commuting to Macquarie park so hopefully thats do able.

Thanks for all your advice, much appreciated. I'll buy you a fosters when i get out !

Lome

what industry?

GalwayKiefer

HillFarmer wrote: »

I'll buy you a fosters when i get out !

Nobody drinks that cat p1ss here, I'm not even sure if you can buy it anywhere - I've never seen it.

Cars, especially second hand cars, are very expensive here but the cost and hassle of shipping one over plus the import duties would hardly be worth it in my opinion.

I can't comment on the living costs in Sydney sorry but I have done training at a centre in Macquarie Park, nice area and easy to get to.

HillFarmer

Lome wrote: »

what industry?

Unix admin IT contracting

HillFarmer

GalwayKiefer wrote: »

Nobody drinks that cat p1ss here, I'm not even sure if you can buy it anywhere - I've never seen it.

Cars, especially second hand cars, are very expensive here but the cost and hassle of shipping one over plus the import duties would hardly be worth it in my opinion.

I can't comment on the living costs in Sydney sorry but I have done training at a centre in Macquarie Park, nice area and easy to get to.

I got a quote to ship one over, sort out all the imports taxes etc, and there is alot of them.
Quote below
--Shipping Costs--

$1,450 Ocean Freight
$123 Freight insurance
$1,500 Customs and dock charges
$1,0 Import Duty
$2,341 GST (similar to VAT)
$0 Luxury Car Tax (LCT)

--Registration Costs--

$750 ADR modifications
$150 Roadworthy requirements
$600 Registration charges
$624 Stamp duty

--Other Costs--

$50 Import approval application
$990 Agent import fee

GalwayKiefer

:eek: That's far more than I thought.

Lome

HillFarmer wrote: »

Unix admin IT contracting

sounds good and would presume alot of work

mandrake04

HillFarmer wrote: »

Well yes. I've never been over there and from reading and doing some research it seems fairly costly. We will have childcare aswell, which will probably wipe out my wife's wages.

Its seems costly compared to Ireland because the € is toilet paper, if you are like you say pulling in $160K between you just forget about the euro as its not relevant.

HillFarmer wrote: »

Don't get a free car, 15K taxable income. !

HillFarmer wrote: »

As far as I know its just 15K, dont think there is a fuel card. Tolls and that are expensible all right. Do you think it would be worthwhile to bring car over? I see tey are very expensive in Auz.

Technically if you get a car allowance it can actually be nearly free if you are smart. I will give you a good example.

I got a choice of a car allowance of $15,000 + fuel card or $19,400 without. This is a pretty standard car allowance in most companies

I chose the $15K + fuel card and did a 3 month log book, once you do the log book its good for 5 years but the point about it is it determines how much business and personal usage. This is where you have to be smart in determining whats business and personal, mine was 85% business & 15% personal.

What you can do is fill out a PAYG withholding variation form and send it off to the Australian Tax office, once you do that the ATO contact your Payroll and you get taxed differently.

This splits my monthly car allowance ($1250) into two parts

$187.50 which is taxed (lose about $70)
$1062.5 not taxed

Total monthly car allowance is $1180.60 in my hand.

Basically my employer pays my car payments, rego, insurance and fuel but I keep the car. Stuff like servicing and tyres I pay it out of own pocket and claim it back in my tax.

At the end of the 4 years when the car loan is paid off I have a car worth about $14K that I can sell privately, the beauty about it is that I only paid about $4000 in tax so I actually made $10k from having it in the first place.

The trick is to do your log book when you are at your busiest ie. not when training or on holidays. When I did mine I drove everywhere for 3 months and now I just drive to the Airport and fly in & out.

The other trick is filling the allowance up as much as you can, ie if you get $15000 allowance @ 85% business make sure you can show $12750 worth of receipts/payments in case you get audited. There are other ways to do car allowance its all on the ATO website

As for the tolls you company usually should reimburse you if you used them for business, if not you can claim them in your tax. I have a Tag and what I do is highlight the business use on the statement and then claim them back from my employer in my expenses, the personal ones are few and far in between because I avoid toll roads unless I'm working.

HillFarmer wrote: »

On the Hills area, where is a nice family area to live in, ie parks, close to shopping, kids in same area etc. I'll be commuting to Macquarie park so hopefully thats do able.

Castle Hill is the main area, it got a massive shopping centre and plenty of restaurants, reserves near by etc. I been living here about 2 years and work in Bella Vista, but before that I lived in Baulkham Hills which is only 15km up the M2 from Macquarie park where I used to work. Although its only about 15km the M2 is a shocker used to be 45 mins but its just nearing completion of a 2 year widening upgrade which will make it better. Its still $5 a trip but I only use it when working otherwise I use Epping road or go through Olympic park.

ballooba

It sounds like the OP may not have been to Australia before? Are you doing any recce trips? It's a big move!

HillFarmer

GalwayKiefer wrote: »

:eek: That's far more than I thought.

me too! This is the lowest quote I've had so far

HillFarmer

mandrake04 wrote: »

Its seems costly compared to Ireland because the € is toilet paper, if you are like you say pulling in $160K between you just forget about the euro as its not relevant.





Technically if you get a car allowance it can actually be nearly free if you are smart. I will give you a good example.

I got a choice of a car allowance of $15,000 + fuel card or $19,400 without. This is a pretty standard car allowance in most companies

I chose the $15K + fuel card and did a 3 month log book, once you do the log book its good for 5 years but the point about it is it determines how much business and personal usage. This is where you have to be smart in determining whats business and personal, mine was 85% business & 15% personal.

What you can do is fill out a PAYG withholding variation form and send it off to the Australian Tax office, once you do that the ATO contact your Payroll and you get taxed differently.

This splits my monthly car allowance ($1250) into two parts

$187.50 which is taxed (lose about $70)
$1062.5 not taxed

Total monthly car allowance is $1180.60 in my hand.

Basically my employer pays my car payments, rego, insurance and fuel but I keep the car. Stuff like servicing and tyres I pay it out of own pocket and claim it back in my tax.

At the end of the 4 years when the car loan is paid off I have a car worth about $14K that I can sell privately, the beauty about it is that I only paid about $4000 in tax so I actually made $10k from having it in the first place.

The trick is to do your log book when you are at your busiest ie. not when training or on holidays. When I did mine I drove everywhere for 3 months and now I just drive to the Airport and fly in & out.

The other trick is filling the allowance up as much as you can, ie if you get $15000 allowance @ 85% business make sure you can show $12750 worth of receipts/payments in case you get audited. There are other ways to do car allowance its all on the ATO website

As for the tolls you company usually should reimburse you if you used them for business, if not you can claim them in your tax. I have a Tag and what I do is highlight the business use on the statement and then claim them back from my employer in my expenses, the personal ones are few and far in between because I avoid toll roads unless I'm working.




Castle Hill is the main area, it got a massive shopping centre and plenty of restaurants, reserves near by etc. I been living here about 2 years and work in Bella Vista, but before that I lived in Baulkham Hills which is only 15km up the M2 from Macquarie park where I used to work. Although its only about 15km the M2 is a shocker used to be 45 mins but its just nearing completion of a 2 year widening upgrade which will make it better. Its still $5 a trip but I only use it when working otherwise I use Epping road or go through Olympic park.

Cheers Mandrake, appreciate the time. Will check out places in Castle Hill.
Re the car allowance, thanks for that, would have taken me a long time to find out that info. so what is Macquarie Park like? good area to work in.

HillFarmer

ballooba wrote: »

It sounds like the OP may not have been to Australia before? Are you doing any recce trips? It's a big move!

Do you think I'm mad? never been alright, but I not too bothered as long as I'm able to live reasonably comfortably
Mrs has lived over there previously, so she can't wait to get back.

One last question, is it possible to save money in Sydney, say after 4 or 5 years coming home with a few bob?
Are you guys managing too save money over there or is it just for the lifestyle your in Sydney

mandrake04

HillFarmer wrote: »

Cheers Mandrake, appreciate the time. Will check out places in Castle Hill.
Re the car allowance, thanks for that, would have taken me a long time to find out that info. so what is Macquarie Park like? good area to work in.

Macquarie Park is just a huge business park similar to Sandyford/Stillorgan Industrial park in south Dublin. It right on the M2 motorway and also has a university and huge shopping centre. You can get a train from there to the city and they are extending the train line to Castle Hill and Rouse Hill over the next 5 years.

As for saving money it definitely possible, I am saving about 3 or 4 large per month and tipping in at least a grand per month to my homeloan regardless although the wife and I are past the big drinking nights we do eat out at least once or twice a week and go on holidays. Those sort of figures would be achievable if your wife was working and you did about $35K of oncall/OT which in most professional service type jobs is definitely possible.

Although you Mrs has lived over here before it will seem as if it has changed a lot due to the exchange rate but its not quite as expensive as people make out, like I said before its all relevant what one person circumstances is different from someones else so you can only take account what your own circumstances and base it on that.

ballooba

HillFarmer wrote: »

Do you think I'm mad? never been alright, but I not too bothered as long as I'm able to live reasonably comfortably
Mrs has lived over there previously, so she can't wait to get back.

If you have a job offer then it seems like time is of the essence. Recce trips probably aren't that much of an option and might be of limited benefit when the move is imminent. I wouldn't 'go all in' if I were you, make some contingencies for a retreat. It's not for everyone down there, and some outright hate it. I'd happily live in either country personally, but that's my situation. I think I was a fair bit better off financially in Australia too, but that depends on your market and market offering, so to speak.

karl bracken

Do not depend on your wife working parttime, we have been on 12 waiting lists for 11 months and have had 2 offers, one for tue,thur & fri because of where i work it was bumped up and another for a tue & thur for 2013.
All the others have nothing and have told us were like the 20th family down the list or theres an 18 month waiting list.

I cant stress how hard it is to get it over here so dont think you'l land and get childcare in a few weeks, the class change over is in January and this is when we got offered the place after being on lists from January 2011

This was in sydney around CBD, Alexandria, newtwon, erskinville prices ranging from 90 to 136 and the 136 per day is the one we got!

Check into your visa because if you get perminent residency you only pay half plus you have job freedom and medicare (like medical card)

Its really a great lifestyle over here especially for kids and you would not regret it just be aware childcare is nearly inpossible to get unless your on waiting lists for a good while and here at the time the years change.

HillFarmer

mandrake04 wrote: »

Macquarie Park is just a huge business park similar to Sandyford/Stillorgan Industrial park in south Dublin. It right on the M2 motorway and also has a university and huge shopping centre. You can get a train from there to the city and they are extending the train line to Castle Hill and Rouse Hill over the next 5 years.

As for saving money it definitely possible, I am saving about 3 or 4 large per month and tipping in at least a grand per month to my homeloan regardless although the wife and I are past the big drinking nights we do eat out at least once or twice a week and go on holidays. Those sort of figures would be achievable if your wife was working and you did about $35K of oncall/OT which in most professional service type jobs is definitely possible.

Although you Mrs has lived over here before it will seem as if it has changed a lot due to the exchange rate but its not quite as expensive as people make out, like I said before its all relevant what one person circumstances is different from someones else so you can only take account what your own circumstances and base it on that.

Cheers mandrake, Great information.If I can save your sort of figures I'll be happy. Looking forward to having option of overti me and on call again, cant wait. One final thing, the train line from Macquarie park, is that direct to the CBD or do you have to change trains.? Looked at the Mpa and it looks direct, then some other people on other forums suggest you have to change. Cheers for all the info

HillFarmer

ballooba wrote: »

If you have a job offer then it seems like time is of the essence. Recce trips probably aren't that much of an option and might be of limited benefit when the move is imminent. I wouldn't 'go all in' if I were you, make some contingencies for a retreat. It's not for everyone down there, and some outright hate it. I'd happily live in either country personally, but that's my situation. I think I was a fair bit better off financially in Australia too, but that depends on your market and market offering, so to speak.

Cheers, ya, have the job offer, but there not in a rush so it will probably be March timef frame which suits.To be honest , I'd live anywhere, main thing is herself and the kids will be happy which I think they will so I'm going to take a chance. Regards contingencies for a retreat, we don't realy have one, once we leave our jobs here thats it. If we came back probably get work again but its a probably!

Cheers for the advice, I hope I'll be better off financially aswell in Australia, I think job wise its a good move for me.

HillFarmer

karl bracken wrote: »

Do not depend on your wife working parttime, we have been on 12 waiting lists for 11 months and have had 2 offers, one for tue,thur & fri because of where i work it was bumped up and another for a tue & thur for 2013.
All the others have nothing and have told us were like the 20th family down the list or theres an 18 month waiting list.

I cant stress how hard it is to get it over here so dont think you'l land and get childcare in a few weeks, the class change over is in January and this is when we got offered the place after being on lists from January 2011

This was in sydney around CBD, Alexandria, newtwon, erskinville prices ranging from 90 to 136 and the 136 per day is the one we got!

Check into your visa because if you get perminent residency you only pay half plus you have job freedom and medicare (like medical card)

Its really a great lifestyle over here especially for kids and you would not regret it just be aware childcare is nearly inpossible to get unless your on waiting lists for a good while and here at the time the years change.

Thanks Karl, thats fairly frightening! Need to start looking at it straight away to be honest. We will proabbly live a bit further out, so I am hoping childcare might not be as difficult to get, fingers crossed. Hills district probably. Will let you know if I can find any vacancies. Re the visa, ya its a bit of a pain re 457 visa, no childcare rebate. Company said they'll sponsor after 2 years.

ballooba

The IT job market is good, more so in Sydney I think than Brisbane where I was. It's definitely worth a shot, There are a number of factors that make for a better quality of life down there, the only downside for me was not seeing family.

mandrake04

HillFarmer wrote: »

Cheers mandrake, Great information.If I can save your sort of figures I'll be happy. Looking forward to having option of overti me and on call again, cant wait. One final thing, the train line from Macquarie park, is that direct to the CBD or do you have to change trains.? Looked at the Mpa and it looks direct, then some other people on other forums suggest you have to change. Cheers for all the info

The Northern Line (Red) Hornsby to city direction uses the Epping-Chatswood Tunnel with stops at Mac Uni, Mac Park and Delhi Road.

The confusion lies in out of date information, when the Tunnel opened in 2009 it initially ran a shuttle (Black line) between Epping and Chatswood to test the system for about 9 months before integrating it into the northern line.