Posted by
gbdru2
18 yrs ago
hi, anyone able to help with a salary equivalent question.
i've read an article that says a $60,000 HKD salary per month roughly equates to a £60,000 salary per year in the UK - in terms of lifestyle.. However it was written in 2004.
Anyone able to compare salaries in 2007.. ?
I've been offered $45k per month which seems to be the average for what I do but I have no idea whether thats a liveable wage considering I have a wife and small child
Care to comment?
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cd
18 yrs ago
Depends whether you get housing, medical and schooling allowances on top of that. If not it will be tough. I reckon for a family of 3 you'd be spending
$4-5k a month on kindy, $5-6k a month for primary school, plus school bus if neccessary.
$15-20k a month housing.
$4k a month food and stuff at the supermarket.
$1k at least a month electricity.
$3k amonth to run a small car.
$5k a month if you decide to hire a helper.
Plus going out, holidays, after school activities which aren't cheap in HK. Allow approx $1,500 to $2k per course per term.
There are ways to live cheaper in HK, i.e. buy local produce, eat in local restaurants. But there is no getting away from the fact that housing, schooling and utilites (apart from phones) are expensive.
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I live on a combined income of $50K with my wife and I and we manage to save around $5-8K a month.
We have a car and a nice place, no other benifits or bonuses other than medical and we live comfortably.
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cd
18 yrs ago
But do you have a school age child Not too sure, if you haven't then thats your $8k saving gone every month straight away. You would not believe the difference have a school age child here makes to your spending.
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No I don't have a child, otherwise I would have said so. I was just explaining my situation. However, my rent is cheap. I spend:
4K rent
3K petrol
7K tax certificates
4K a month on food (includine going out)
2K on credit cards
5K sent back to the UK for student loans.
...rest on other odds and ends, ie. bills
But if I wanted to reduce my spending, I could easily but it would impact on my socialising. If we were to have a child then yes, the amount we save a month would be nill.
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Thanks all for the replies, CD your numbers seem similar to my guesses. rent I had reckoned on $20K max. Other bits and bobs then no idea..
I havent had details of the package yet, its all a bit last minute. The wife's Japanese and we were/are going to Japan before this came up, sounds like I should keep to my original plans.
Our littl'un is 2, so no school fees as such but I dare say she'd go to kindergarten.
I guess if they want me enough they should be prepared to pay a bit more.. :) They can only say no :)
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Totty
18 yrs ago
Rent also depends on where you plan to live, the difference betwen living on the island and in the New Territories in terms of rental price and size is vast.
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Another consideration with your salary is to ask for part of it to be classified as housing allowance. On your $45K per month, your HK income tax is about HK$6.5K per month. If you get $10K classified as housing allowance, your income tax drops by about HK$1K per month. It drops by another HK$1K or so if you get 15K per month classified as housing (and you spend at least HK$15K per month on housing).
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Baru
18 yrs ago
don't forget the high exchange rate of the GBP as $45K per month isn't really much more than half of £60,000
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Well the good news is we're now looking more towards 60K per month, which sounds far more reasonable. Not too worried about the GBP/HKD exchange rate as we'll be moving to Japan after HK. We have no plans to go back to the UK for the forseeable. As long as the wage is ok for HK then I'm ok. Once we get to Japan then I'll re negotiate, at current rates its about 11 mil Yen which is ok..
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