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Cost of Living Query
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| Junior Member |
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| 1026 Posts |
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| Hong Kong |
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| posted by Natasha_e 236 days ago |
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Also, 1-2 years later yr kid will go to school. This is expensive (only school fee is $3000-$10,000 a month)!!! This is important to check if there is any sponsor from yr husband's company, which cover the education fee for the kids.
Yr husband will need at least few thousand to HK$10,000 for daily meals, transportation and eating out with the family.
quote:
Originally posted by Killer Tomato
1/2 of your income will go to rent? i think thats just plain wrong no matter where in the world you will live
add HK$ 3000 for kindie, add 4000 for maid (tax for helper incl) set aside each month HK$ 4k for tax payent purposes at years end, 2 k for gas water and electric, 6 k for household stuff, mobile phone, internet at home , broad band tv, any insurance you have running, oh add some pocket money, dont forget daily travel expenses....and i think you come up short already without even having gone out 1 time per month! nor having any savings.
i think it'd be more then enough to live on 50 though but youd need to cut your rental to about 12 to 15 K i think
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| Senior Member |
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| 11419 Posts |
| Tagalogged |
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| posted by The Cerne Abbas Giant 236 days ago |
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Tung Chung is good value innit? Transport costs would be much the same to Central as from DB.
Watchu talkin' about Willis?
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| Senior Member |
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| 11919 Posts |
| Pottering |
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| posted by Load Toad 236 days ago |
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Tung Chung; bigger - for less. As they say.
Average by Intention.
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| Regular Member |
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| posted by EmilyBronte 236 days ago |
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Yeah, with half your life spent on public transport.
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| Senior Member |
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| 11419 Posts |
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| posted by The Cerne Abbas Giant 236 days ago |
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Not really. It's nowhere near as bad as most commutes in major cities like London, and it's a great option if your budget is limited and you want a large new place.
What say the likes of Beer Boy?
Watchu talkin' about Willis?
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| Junior Member |
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| 1026 Posts |
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| Hong Kong |
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| posted by Natasha_e 236 days ago |
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Extra 20 mins in public transport may save them HK$10,000. Buget is tight and it could be a good way, at least they could have some pocket money to have a few family meals out and fun
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| Regular Member |
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| posted by geraldo 236 days ago (edited 236 days ago) |
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quote:
Originally posted by The Cerne Abbas Giant
Tung Chung is good value innit? Transport costs would be much the same to Central as from DB.
yes, and I'll take the ferry over the MTR every single day of the year.
- a nice seat
- my newspaper
- nice hot coffee
- WiFi all the way
I've got my emails done by the time I get to the office in the morning - not on a berry, on my machine!
price difference between the two (TC-> Central or DB->Central) is 3 stunning dollars, in the grand scheme of things: zap
There are 10 kinds of people. Those who can read binary and those who don't
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| posted by Mimild 236 days ago |
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Thanks for all your opinions. My husband does get a 13th month payment from his employer to cover the tax bill. We both have spent time in HK previously, myself 2 months my other half 8 months. The most important thing for us is quality of life for our kids. We do not intend to be out wining and dining every week let alone night and our salary should at least double in 9-12 months when I work. I was hoping that my salary would cover school fees.
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| posted by Mimild 235 days ago |
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I should have also mentioned something regarding our situation/expectations. We do not expect to make or even save money initially as we have only one salary for a while. We are treading water in the UK at the moment as the housing market is unstable and we don't want to invest what we already have in that direction. We figure that we might as well tread water in HK and give our kids the benefit of being exposed to another culture. We have family in Thailand so holidays there will be cheap for us as a family. Our air travel is also heavily discounted as we have immediate family who work in this industry so holidays will not be a problem financially.
I guess its about what you are used to really and our life in the UK is relatively expensive with nearly have our income going on rent. Nursery fees in the UK are also more tha I think that this is the norm for a lot of people here who don't earn 6 figure salaries.
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| Junior Member |
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| 950 Posts |
| waiting for summer |
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| Norway |
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| posted by jesswill 235 days ago (edited 235 days ago) |
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It's a very interesting discussion but I'm wondering if some of you have not forgotten the cost of living in the UK (or have just left before it became insane). We have not been able in the last 7 seven years to pay less that 40% of our income in rent in London except when we were sharing flats at university.
Going out is incredibly expensive, if you want any decent health service you have to pay to go private (not particularly because of quality, mainly because of waiting lists), if you don't want your kids to go to abysmal schools you often have to pay as well. On top of that you spend a ridiculous amount of time in non-functioning and expensive public transports...
Generally I found that in HK things such as food, clothes etc. are around 30% cheaper (except for luxury items and cars) and there are less taxes. All in all, in my limited experience, I have found that you are better off in HK than in London (I'm less certain about the rest of the UK but I would say it's similar as if the costs are lower outside London so are the salaries).
up to not much
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