Move to Dublin ? Costs ?

Ponster

So after spending the past 15 years living outside of Ireland (France/USA) it looks like I may be heading home. I have a choice of 2 job opportunities, both in the same field. From solely a financial point of view does anyone know if I would be better off living in Dublin earning €82K or living in the UK (Leicester) earning €66K? (married, no kids, single income)


I've checked some tax calculators and after tax and prsi and such I can expect around 52K yearly net pay in Ireland and 47K in the UK.

Can anyone give me an idea of other major taxes and such that I should consider in order to compare both figures properly (e.g. property taxes, healthcare, etc). Not having lived in Ireland in a while I don't know what are the typical charges that households have to pay.

ongarboy

You're probably doing this anway but as the difference between the salary between the two cities offering the jobs is only 5K, I would say you should focus at this point on more quality of life benefits each city can offer, which would appeal more to you for leisure, sporting, shopping, and social pursuits, proximity to friends and relatives and cost of flying to visit them, suitability for bringing up kids if they are on the radar in the future etc (At least that is what I'd do).

You haven't mentioned whether you are considering renting or buying a house. I don't know what Leicester house prices are like but I imagine they are less than Dublin. But as you asked about property prices, that is only the obligation of the home owner. Below gives you info on property tax rates which are based on value of homes.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/lpt/

Water charges will also be coming into effect from 2015 but prices haven't been set yet. Decent health insurance starts at about 700e per person but check if your job incorporates this - most well paid jobs in large companies offer this perk. Depending where you buy, you may have to pay management fees if it's part of an apartment/duplex complex although some housing developments that have not been handed over to the council for external area maintainance also incur management fees (anywhere from a couple of 100 to 1000+).

Also consider your necessity for a car or whether you'll be near good public transport links for work. Does your company offer taxsaver where you can offset your public transport commuting costs against your gross rather than net salary? You can make great savings this way. Cars are very expensive to run in both UK and Ireland (motor tax, insurance, petrol and the car itself) compared to the States.

jimmii

47k in Leicester will go a lot further than 52k in Dublin even after you have taken Council Tax into account. I would just go for whichever combition of job/location I thought I would enjoy the most that is going to be a lot more important in the long term than going for one over the other when the relative cost difference is a couple of grand.