# I'm a carpenter moving to new Zealand with a family of 5



## dandiamond11

Hi me and my partner are moving to Christchurch around June this year with or 3 kids. We are from Northern Ireland and have been lured by the opportunity of a better life. My partner is a hair dresser but we don't know if it will be feasible for her to get a part time job as we will require a child minder for her to work as are youngest are 1 and 2. I am a carpenter by trade and have been offered a job at 28 dph and would like to know if a family with 3 kids could live comfortable on this wage. Any information will be much appreciated thanks


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## escapedtonz

$28 per hour and assuming a 40hr week you'll earn $58 240 pa. That assumes you will be paying the minimum 3% in to Kiwisaver and it includes income tax and ACC contributions, neither of which you can get out of paying as they are mandatory. Opting out of Kiwisaver would gain you an extra $1750 pa.
At today's exchange rate that works out around £26 615 pa as a rough guide. 
Could your family survive on that salary in NI ? If you'd struggle in NI, you'll find it even harder here as the cost of living is at least 10-15% higher overall. Majority of things are more expensive than you'd be used to.
In my opinion you'll find life here very difficult, but it is possible. A UK gas fitter mate of mine came over mid 2015 and lives Pukekohe, South Auckland earning the same, 2 adults and 3 kids, living in a rental $450 a week. They've survived, but they've used UK savings to do it and had to transfer over a couple of $10 000 lump sums already and they've only been here 6 months.

The salary works out at a take home pay of $902 per week without Kiwisaver or $868 per week with Kiwisaver. 
You'll be paying $400-500 a week for a decent rental house then all the other costs on top like electricity, water, gas, refuse collection, sky tv, internet and a landline, transport, groceries as well as putting money aside for the GP visits and the dentist all of which have to be paid for.
Yes your partner could well be able to get a part time job but what she would be paid will be handed over to the childminder to pay for looking after the two youngest. You'll be looking at $50-$60 per full day in a kindergarden per child and maybe $20-$30 with a registered Porse childminder as unfortunately you wouldn't be able to use the free 20hrs per week from the government as that only starts at age 3 and depends on your visa type/duration.

I've said it many a time, a family of 2 adults and 2 children need an income of at least $80k to be able to live comfortably in NZ and rising to at least $100k if Auckland is a consideration. Yes many families get by on a lot less, but it would be a stressful existence checking incomings and outgoings all the time and watching every cent spent. That isn't living comfortably.
Carpenters do a lot more here that what you'd be used to as majority of houses are timber frame so if you got into that game you are essentially a builder and after some NZ experience may be able to earn more ?


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## dandiamond11

Thank you for the information it's so strange how websites attract you to this come to Christchurch as a tradesman to rebuild and have a better life malarkey. We got really drawn to the better life style and wages etc but after doing abit more research I have heard like you have rightly said alot of people struggle because of the house prices and grocery bills etc. I'm very glad I have found this out as I was just about to shell out £1000 for medical certificates for our visa application


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## escapedtonz

dandiamond11 said:


> Thank you for the information it's so strange how websites attract you to this come to Christchurch as a tradesman to rebuild and have a better life malarkey. We got really drawn to the better life style and wages etc but after doing abit more research I have heard like you have rightly said alot of people struggle because of the house prices and grocery bills etc. I'm very glad I have found this out as I was just about to shell out £1000 for medical certificates for our visa application


Yes. Lots of people are caught off guard in this way. The websites etc aren't lying with the promise of a better lifestyle. It can be a much better, cleaner and greener lifestyle. Less people, less traffic, less crime etc etc, however it all comes at a price. It is far more expensive to live here than in the UK and it takes some getting used to but after a couple of years you adapt. If you have savings that you can afford to spend in the first 12-18 months to set yourself up then that will go a heck of a long way to ease the pressures and probably the only way you'll be able to manage on a mediocre wage until you get the all important NZ experience behind you and you can earn more money. In all honesty I'd guess a carpenter at the top of the game will only earn max $35 an hour ?
We brought along GBP 40k / NZ$ 80k at the time and sort of spent the majority of that in the first 2 years setting ourselves up in a long term rental in Wellington, a couple of cars and a motorbike, some furniture and white goods for the house etc. That took the pressure off me just being the only wage earner at the time but we couldn't have carried it on for any longer. We had to get out of the rental after 18 months as we just couldn't carry on frittering away the cash, so moved to a smaller and older property further out of Wellington at virtually half the cost per week which was a massive saving.

Salaries are usually paid fortnightly here in NZ and as such you can also pay mortgages, other finances and household bills in the same way instead of the usual calendar monthly. Way easier to budget. If you ever want to know how much you are likely to be paying for essential costs for the home, utilities etc just post a thread or search the older ones as it's all been mentioned before.


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## dandiamond11

I am really glad I found this page I had a Skype interview and got a job offer with a company how said 28 dph was a great wage and we would be going to a better life etc etc but I'm not moving my family half way across the world to find a harder existence I really don't fancy paying 450 dollars a week for a house that has single glazing and poor heating Im starting to think il be better off at home


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## dandiamond11

And 40,000 man that's crazy we were going to remortgage and take over £20000 and rent out our home here to pay it back that's why I'm starting to become reluctant to go because I don't fancy having to go back home in alot more dept than I started with


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## escapedtonz

dandiamond11 said:


> And 40,000 man that's crazy we were going to remortgage and take over £20000 and rent out our home here to pay it back that's why I'm starting to become reluctant to go because I don't fancy having to go back home in alot more dept than I started with


We were lucky in the fact we had no debt other than the UK mortgage. We remortgaged a couple of months before we migrated going from a capital & repayment product to an interest only product and paying over £1200 a month to just over £500 a month and that included borrowing back the £40k we'd paid on the mortgage in the 5yrs we'd owned it.
We rented it out for nearly 4 years and luckily made over £200 a month before selling up last year.

It's amazing how much money you can go through here in a heartbeat to set yourself up.
When you sign up for a rental you'll be paying 6 x the weekly fee just on signing the contract then paying as soon as you move in to keep yourself in advance. For a $500 a week rental that's $3k.
At the time we wanted a long term rental we struggled to find anything so got desperate and were paying $895 a week initially. That cost us $5.5k just signing the contract before we even moved in!!!
We then bought 2 cars to last us so another $40k gone in a moment. Paid upfront for bins emptied for a year another $500. Paid upfront for a year car insurance $600 per car. Needed a new FF for the kitchen in the rental another $2500 ......it soon mounts up.


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