Converting Brisbane salary to Dublin salary

csm

If someone earns about 95k before tax in Brisbane (plus super), what is the equivalent salary in Dublin? Particularly if said person has a wife and two kids and has to pay childcare etc...

A simple forex exchange doesn't seem right

ah yeah

csm wrote: »

If someone earns about 95k before tax in Brisbane (plus super), what is the equivalent salary in Dublin? Particularly if said person has a wife and two kids and has to pay childcare etc...

A simple forex exchange doesn't seem right

I think what you really need to ask is how much do I need to earn for the same standard of living in Dublin that I have in Oz?

I would recommend looking up an Irish income tax calculator (I can't post links) to work out you're monthly after tax income, then research the cost of living. Childcare and rent is very expensive in Dublin

marmurr1916

AUD95k or the equivalent of EUR95k?

This will give you an idea of your after-tax salary if you know what your gross salary in Dublin is going to be:

http://services.deloitte.ie/tc/

The tax year runs from 1st January to 31st December. Make sure that the results you get are for the 2016 tax year, as some taxes and allowances will be changed from taxes in 2015

http://www.revenue.ie/en/index.html is the official taxation service website, a good source of official information about taxation in Ireland.

Draw up a list of all your living expenses in Australia and find out the cost of their equivalents in Ireland.

Draw up a list of all the vehicles, household items and other goods you'll need to leave behind and thus need to find replacements for in Ireland and find out their cost in Ireland.

Be as specific as you can in your questions - vague questions about how the cost of living in Dublin compares to the cost of living in Brisbane are likely to get vague and/or incorrect answers.

Some costs you'll want to check - rent/mortgage, health insurance (not obligatory but would be a good idea), home insurance, car prices, car insurance, car tax, NCT (National Car Test - a compulsory check to see if your car meets government standards), vehicle fuel, home heating costs (mostly gas in Dublin), electricity, phone/broadband, mobile phone charges, water charges, local property tax etc.

Unless you send your kids to an expensive fee-paying school, education costs will consist of school uniforms (including sports clothing), books, stationery, school trips, cost of food and transport to/from school and perhaps extra costs for projects or instruments/sports equipment if they play.

Check out medical and health care expenses - children under 12 qualify for free GP (family doctor) visits, but you'll have to pay out of pocket for yourself, your spouse and children older than 12. You'll also have to pay most of the cost of medication, including prescription medication, and if you're Australian citizens you may have to pay for some treatments even in publicly funded hospitals.

Apart from those costs, you've got all the normal costs of living - food, entertainment, furniture, domestic appliances etc, etc (I presume you're not going to the expense of having these shipped from Australia).

The cost of living is high in Ireland, especially in Dublin.

The only way to find out how it compares to the cost of living in Australia is to do as much research as possible and perhaps ask other Australians living in Dublin how they find it.

No doubt some things will be cheaper, some will be dearer and some will be more or less the same price.

Some websites to start you off:

Petrol/diesel prices - http://www.pumps.ie/

Car prices: http://www.autotrader.ie/ http://www.carzone.ie/

Check gumtree or donedeals for second hand prices.

Opel is the brand name General Motors uses in Ireland, roughly equivalent to Holden in Australia but models/specifications available may be very different.

You can import second-hand cars easily from the UK, including Northern Ireland, but check the Motors forum here for the formalities and tax expenses (mainly Vehicle Registration Tax) involved, plus maybe tips about what/where to buy.

Gas/Electricity prices: http://www.bonkers.ie/compare-gas-electricity-prices/

Car tax rates: https://www.motortax.ie/OMT/motortaxinfotype.do

Car insurance: https://www.chill.ie/car-insurance/

Home insurance: https://www.chill.ie/home-insurance/

General official information, including about education, public health care, visa requirements etc etc: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/

House prices/rents: http://www.daft.ie

The major supermarket chains are:

Tesco - tesco.ie

Dunnes Stores - http://www.dunnesstores.com/

SuperValu: https://supervalu.ie/

Lidl and Aldi are discount supermarket chains.

http://www.lidl.ie/en/index.htm

https://www.aldi.ie/en/

Dealz is a chain of stores that sell a variety of products cheaply: https://www.dealz.ie/

Cheap furniture/domestic appliances etc: www.argos.ie

You can save a lot of money if you're not snobbish about where you shop.

Check gumtree.ie or donedeals.ie for second hand goods and cheap services.

Use the Commuting & Transport forum here to find out about the cost of public transport (especially the Leap Card thread) and the best websites to check for public transport prices and availability.

Also use the various forums here - Motors for cars etc - to get an idea of prices and availability.

Remember that you can buy almost any goods apart from alcohol and tobacco online from another EU state and import them to Ireland without having to pay any import duties.

If you want to bring in alcohol and/or tobacco you have to buy them in person and there are upper limits on the amounts you can bring in at any one time for your personal use.

Check http://www.revenue.ie/en/index.html for more information.

It is often cheaper to buy goods from the UK and have them shipped to Ireland, even when delivery charges/exchange rates are taken into account.

If you speak another European language, or you're able to find someone who can help you out, you can look for cheaper prices in other EU countries.

There's nothing to stop you from importing goods from outside the EU either, although you'll be liable to pay import duties on the declared/assessed value of the goods.

Sometimes packages of imported goods get through without being noticed by customs, other packages will have the value of goods under-declared and customs might not check them, but don't count on either of these happening.

In summary:

make a list of all the living expenses, including discretionary spending, you incur in Brisbane and check out the costs of their equivalents in Dublin

make a list of the items you'll need to rent or buy when you move to Ireland and check out their costs

check what your gross salary in Dublin is going to be and use the 2016 tax calculator to find out your after-tax income

make your questions as specific as possible if you're looking for information about the cost of living in Dublin/Ireland or else you'll get vague or incorrect answers

It's going to be impossible for you to get 100% of the information you might want before moving to Ireland. Usually the best way to find out something is to experience it in the real world!

Tigger99

That's a very comprehensive post above but doesn't really give a comparison.

I think it's better to explain what your current salary gives you in term of lifestyle as I presume you'd expect similar to move over here.

So type of place you are living in
% savings (if any) per pay cheque
Social life - eating out, going to the pub, how often
Holidays
What does superannuation cover? Health insurance?

d.pop

csm wrote: »

If someone earns about 95k before tax in Brisbane (plus super), what is the equivalent salary in Dublin? Particularly if said person has a wife and two kids and has to pay childcare etc...

A simple forex exchange doesn't seem right

I would divide the Aussie salary by 2 - 2.5 to be conservative and equate/compare with an Irish salary so somewhere between 38 - 45k euro at home.
We just returned from Aus, wife and two kids.
95k is a nice salary but you'll need it all if living on one wage, it's not a cheap place to live, that's assuming you want to live a normal life and not scrimping and saving.

csm

Thanks guys, especially for that comprehensive post.

Yes my question should have been 'what salary do I need for an equivalent standard of living'. We basically live off my salary and save my wife's in Brisbane. We're comfortable but don't do a lot of discretionary spending. Mostly it goes on housing, food and bills. We only have the one car. Live about 10k out from the CBD in a 3 bed/1 bath. Any holidays are usually camping. We aim to not spend loads but if we needed to we could reduce costs more.

I had in my head about 50k so it seems I wasn't too far off. This gives me a basis for looking at potential jobs. If I get something concrete I can get into the details more.

Thanks!

marmurr1916

Tigger99 wrote: »

That's a very comprehensive post above but doesn't really give a comparison.

I think it's better to explain what your current salary gives you in term of lifestyle as I presume you'd expect similar to move over here.

So type of place you are living in
% savings (if any) per pay cheque
Social life - eating out, going to the pub, how often
Holidays
What does superannuation cover? Health insurance?

It's not intended to give a comparison. It's intended to get the OP thinking and searching.

csm

To update the thread, I spoke to a friend in Dublin who also has 2 young kids. He is on about 65k Euro and reckons that they need his wife's salary on top of that to cover living costs. Obviously everyone is different but that is a wide departure from the 45k quoted; in large part, I think, to the cost of childcare.

gothic_doll

csm wrote: »

To update the thread, I spoke to a friend in Dublin who also has 2 young kids. He is on about 65k Euro and reckons that they need his wife's salary on top of that to cover living costs. Obviously everyone is different but that is a wide departure from the 45k quoted; in large part, I think, to the cost of childcare.

I know that I couldn't cover living costs for myself, renting a small room on 20k. That was living fairly frugally too.
Each adult needs 30k pa in Dublin to cover normal living costs IMO so your base is 60k plus estimated childcare costs.

Is London an option for you? The rent is high here too, as are the transport costs, but cost of living (food, clothes, toiletries, bills, going out etc) are all reasonable and there are a lot more options to choose from on a consumer level, hence potential to save.

You can also save a lot of money in the UK ordering various things online, which is more difficult in Ireland as there are high 'overseas' postal charges added on to deliveries from the UK and deliveries take a few more days. (look at how many replies there are to that Parcel Motel or whatever thread to see how it is becoming an issue in Ireland!)

This would all be better on a cost saving/consumer level if there were more online businesses operating from ROI so people could buy direct from them. There are a few businesses in NI who I've used, (NI to UK) and as it isn't classed as overseas, deliveries are quick and reasonably priced in those cases.

I'm not aware of childcare costs but we didn't pay for schoolbooks in London, just borrowed them from the school, so some saving there as buying them can add up. Sorry for the tangent, which may or may not be useful in considering cost of living over here.

Mr Mister

Relative to wages, I think the cost of living is higher in Ireland. I actually think the current exchange rate is not a bad gauge of $ to € equivalent. So on your current 95k you'd be looking to be on at least €60k to have an equivalent quality of life, assuming your wife is still going to be working.

I came home from Melbourne this year where I was on 86k plus super to being on €54k and I had more disposable income when in Australia.

csm

Thanks

Melbourne has a higher cost of living than Brisbane, so on that basis I might need even more than E60k for an equivalent lifestyle. I think I might do up a simple cost of living spreadsheet as a comparison. This process has been a bit of an eye-opener for me

FernandoTorres

I'm also based in Melbourne. Was home for a few weeks at Christmas and overall found Dublin to be more expensive than Melbourne. All of my mates are paying more for rent in Dublin than I am in Melbourne. Also a lot cheaper to run a car in Oz and I do a lot of free stuff here. Restaurants are about the same while drink is marginally cheaper in Dublin, but you drink more of it! Outside of Dublin a different ball game but obviously harder to get work.