# How much money needed to start off ??



## jane35 (Jan 8, 2009)

Hi we are just in the process of thinking how much money is needed i have read all the posts on Emigrating.. we are just getting my partners job skills assessed we have a list of prices to Emigration skills test visas medicals removal costs etc.. but what i'm wondering is do you have to have so much money or capital to take over with you.. we don't own our home.. and would be renting when we get there.. so we would be taking over our saving which is not a lot ? i know we need to make sure we have enough money to live on. any info please


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## kaz101 (Nov 29, 2007)

Hi Jane, 

You won't be eligible for any benefits so you have to make sure that you have enough to cover yourselves for a while. 

In the sticky post "PLEASE READ: Helpful websites for your move to Australia" towards the top of the forum you'll find: 
Jobs websites so check roughly how much you'll be earning as a family
Property websites where you can see rentals for the area you'll be moving to

Check the 'Cost of living figures' sticky post towards the top of the forum since that may have general living costs for the area you are moving to. 

Anything medical may be extra. GPs with bulk billing don't seem to charge you at all for appointments since they send the bill to Medicare but if you don't have a GP with bulk billing you have to pay something (with Medicare paying the rest). Prescriptions have tp be paid for and I don't think Medicare covers dental work at all. You'll probably need private health insurance (that's in the 'PLEASE READ....' post stated above). 

Depending on what you are bringing with you furniture wise you may have to replace some things too. 

Maybe some other members can add anything I've missed.....

Regards,
Karen


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## scottishcelts (Aug 5, 2007)

Well we have only been here 3 months and already spent $20k (and the rest as we have now 2 cars!) - and we are not finished yet and have still to buy a house! 

So the answer to your question is come with about $30k in the bank to start off with and you'll be ok.


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## anj1976 (Apr 24, 2008)

scottishcelts said:


> Well we have only been here 3 months and already spent $20k (and the rest as we have now 2 cars!) - and we are not finished yet and have still to buy a house!
> 
> So the answer to your question is come with about $30k in the bank to start off with and you'll be ok.


20 freaking K.. where did u spend all tht money?


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## scottishcelts (Aug 5, 2007)

that's a good question anj - where do i start  ...furnishing the house - we brought none (including all the other little expenses like pots and pans, cutlery, cups, towels etc. Also coming here just before xmas was a BIG expense! The list will grow but i need to dig out all our receipts for everything (im curious now myself )


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## anj1976 (Apr 24, 2008)

Jesus.. and I was thinking we can manage in 10K for few months.. Now I am wondering what should be done..


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## anj1976 (Apr 24, 2008)

We dont plan to carry anything with us except for clothes and the basics.. rest, like pots n pans n towels n shoes n cups will be shipped.. and we will get it as and when.. so we might just skip it or I dunno.. But 20K is still huge.. its super huge an amount..


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## scottishcelts (Aug 5, 2007)

anj1976 said:


> We dont plan to carry anything with us except for clothes and the basics.. rest, like pots n pans n towels n shoes n cups will be shipped.. and we will get it as and when.. so we might just skip it or I dunno.. But 20K is still huge.. its super huge an amount..


It's not really Anj honestly, when you are here and starting your new life all you seem to do (and not from pleasure but mere necessity) is shop for all that you need to fill up the house. We have 3 kids so a lot of the expense went on them too and all they needed for their bedrooms. You don't have to deal with all that i suppose so you take off $10k from that and there you have your $10k that you had in mind.


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## anj1976 (Apr 24, 2008)

You are a life saving angel.. hehe.. thanks for waiving the 10k off.. but yeah i understand.. as an adult one can adjust and try to make changes in daily chores but one can not say no to a kid.. that too when u r dragging them to a new place.. one does want to see them excited and happy.. I so agree..
Me and my OH plan to lead a simple life for as long as we can manage. Infact since we decided the move, we have been keeping it low for us. no going overboard, no going on a spending spree..we are not buying anything for the house because we know we can not use it for long. We got married and did not buy the basics, because we know we will hv to leave it behind.
Life can be tough.. it will get worse once we move there..


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## scottishcelts (Aug 5, 2007)

anj1976 said:


> You are a life saving angel.. hehe.. thanks for waiving the 10k off.. but yeah i understand.. as an adult one can adjust and try to make changes in daily chores but one can not say no to a kid.. that too when u r dragging them to a new place.. one does want to see them excited and happy.. I so agree..
> Me and my OH plan to lead a simple life for as long as we can manage. Infact since we decided the move, we have been keeping it low for us. no going overboard, no going on a spending spree..we are not buying anything for the house because we know we can not use it for long. We got married and did not buy the basics, because we know we will hv to leave it behind.
> Life can be tough.. it will get worse once we move there..


I totally agree with you and we felt so guilty about the 'big move' as far as the kids are concerned and we probably did overspend on them.

You are in a wonderful situation with moving to Australia and no kids, you can start when you get here lol  

Of course life is tough when you migrate half way around the world but you soon sink into normality once the job comes along and you are earning and it takes the heat off all the money worries you have.

If you do decide to land yourself in Brisbane Anj, be sure to come knocking on our door - i'll have some of that miracle vanilla milk you invented 

Good luck


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## anj1976 (Apr 24, 2008)

hahahaha, thats extremely kind of you.. I sure will inform if we land there.. I have other wonderful recipes that I can share with you.. and ofcourse there are Indian Curries that people love.. Infact I can treat you with some wonderful lentil and cottage cheese in butter cream curry


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## scottishcelts (Aug 5, 2007)

anj1976 said:


> hahahaha, thats extremely kind of you.. I sure will inform if we land there.. I have other wonderful recipes that I can share with you.. and ofcourse there are Indian Curries that people love.. Infact I can treat you with some wonderful lentil and cottage cheese in butter cream curry


OMG sounds amazing - does that come in virtual form? (straight through my computer lol)


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## anj1976 (Apr 24, 2008)

whichever way you like it.. though the virtual one wont taste as good


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## sheilaB (Dec 3, 2008)

scottishcelts said:


> I totally agree with you and we felt so guilty about the 'big move' as far as the kids are concerned and we probably did overspend on them.
> 
> You are in a wonderful situation with moving to Australia and no kids, you can start when you get here lol
> 
> ...


Hi Scottishcelts

We are moving to Melbourne from the Uk in the next 6 months (if the visa ever appears!!!! but weare now on CSL so fingers crossed). We have ben unable to sell our house so are renting it and saving like mad to come over. We have 2 kids (to whom I have promised all sorts "when we get to Australia"). We will need 2 cars (if you don't mind, what age car did you get as we think we will only be able to afford some old bangers!), kids want new beds etc - we are not taking any furniture either. We think we will be able to save up GBP25000 - I won't be working initially so this will be required for bond on rented house, somewhere to stay for first few weeks plus all the bits we need to buy. From your experience will this be enough? Sounds like it but want to be sure as we have equity we can release before coming over and would rather be safe than sorry!

Thank you


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## scottishcelts (Aug 5, 2007)

Hiya, you are doing the right thing truly, you have obviously done heaps of research on your upcoming migration.

As i said you will need LOTS of money and by the sound of things you have enough. My only further advice would be, if you do not already have jobs to come to, is actively look for work asap. We did come over at a bad time (just before xmas) and my husband left it for a couple of weeks before even beginning to look for work but it wasn't a good idea as it was just before xmas and the job situation here at that time of year is very poor but then picks up again after the new year. Anyway it took us a long time to get a job and we had to dip into our 'stashed away savings' and we really didn't want to do that as that money is towards a mortgage once we finally get ourselves on the property market here. So we started panicking and were thinking the worst, it was a very worrying time. But then of course a job came up and all was well 

Sounds like you are doing the same as us and buying everything once you get here, it's the best idea i think but it's very hard work as for the first couple of weeks all you do is go shopping and it's exhausting when you have kids and of course you have to assemble the furniture as well so you need to buy tools and it takes ages to assemble the furniture. 

It's very hard work the first couple of weeks but you quickly settle in and when you sit back and think of the first few weeks upon arrival here it all becomes a blur and seems an eternity away. 

Good luck with your move and i wish you and your family the very best. Take care


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## scottishcelts (Aug 5, 2007)

Oh i meant to say about the cars, we have one 4 year old 4x4, which is our main car and the other is an older car (not a banger) but which does to take hubby to work.

Cars here are pure and utter extortion lol but they do run forever as they have no bad weather/salt to deal with but you will see what i mean when you come over, people want stupid money for their cars!


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## Bluecookie (Aug 28, 2008)

scottishcelts said:


> Well we have only been here 3 months and already spent $20k (and the rest as we have now 2 cars!) - and we are not finished yet and have still to buy a house!
> 
> So the answer to your question is come with about $30k in the bank to start off with and you'll be ok.


20k???? Frig!!

I can over here with my last pay check as i didnt sell my house.

I have spent in 5 weeks food etc £1000 thats it! ive been careful but had a good time. My furniture arrives next week so i have not got to pay for that sort of thing. It really depends on what you are bringing over. i say bring what you can as its not cheaper for furniture.

Oz is slighty cheaper than the uk for pertrol, bread, meat but thats it.

Hels


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## jane35 (Jan 8, 2009)

*Oh my god...*

We are hoping to bring over with us between £10 and £1500 we have 3 children but will be shipping some things over i hope we can make it ... we wont be coming over till OH gets a job... 


Bluecookie said:


> 20k???? Frig!!
> 
> I can over here with my last pay check as i didnt sell my house.
> 
> ...


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## scottishcelts (Aug 5, 2007)

jane35 said:


> We are hoping to bring over with us between £10 and £1500 we have 3 children but will be shipping some things over i hope we can make it ... we wont be coming over till OH gets a job...


It's a different scenario altogether if you are coming over TO a job! But i would still say to try to bring a bit more money than that, we have managed to spend that amount of money and ship over 15 t.chests as well! 

The whole full circle of migration is a HUGE amount of money and you need all you can.

Hels, i'm assuming you don't have any kids lol as you can easily survive on your own and spend little money but when there's kids involved, all hell breaks loose as far as cash is concerned  and we have 3.


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## sheilaB (Dec 3, 2008)

scottishcelts said:


> Hiya, you are doing the right thing truly, you have obviously done heaps of research on your upcoming migration.
> 
> As i said you will need LOTS of money and by the sound of things you have enough. My only further advice would be, if you do not already have jobs to come to, is actively look for work asap. We did come over at a bad time (just before xmas) and my husband left it for a couple of weeks before even beginning to look for work but it wasn't a good idea as it was just before xmas and the job situation here at that time of year is very poor but then picks up again after the new year. Anyway it took us a long time to get a job and we had to dip into our 'stashed away savings' and we really didn't want to do that as that money is towards a mortgage once we finally get ourselves on the property market here. So we started panicking and were thinking the worst, it was a very worrying time. But then of course a job came up and all was well
> 
> ...


Hi

Thanks for the info, my husband is a teacher and has a job almost lined up...need to finalise things when we arrive but I'm hoping as tecahers are now on CSL we should be OK. My job will be harder to manage as I want part time hours to take kids to school but and want a job local rather than in the city. I'm gonna start applying as soon as we get the visa - have my CV ready but I work in IT and most seem to be full time city jobs. As you have kids do you have any idea on the cost of childcare - my youngets is only 6 months and I'll need somewhere for him to go if I do get a job.

Thanks again on the car front - sounds better than we thought - we'll do something similar I think 1 x family car and a runabout for hubby.

Sheila


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## Dolly (Feb 17, 2008)

TBH in an ideal world, to have enough money for paying the rent for 3 months plus the deposit for the rental. Enough to cover food for that period of time plus essentials (until your stuff arrives) ie. cutlery/plates (picnic set from anywhere), table (we bought an outdoor table and chairs set from Bunnings), mattresses (you can get pump up mattresses from Kmart, Rays Outdoors etc), bedding (Manchester is the cheapest/target/Kmart etc) kettle, toaster etc (Goodguys/BigW/Kmart/Target).

What I did before we moved over was make a list through the day of stuff I used.

Also, you'll probably need to buy a car - you could of course rent one.

Dolly


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