How much money do you earn? And how do you spend it?

ld13 said:
And what is your leftover? Of the limited expats I know, many are still struggling with cost of living abroad. They earn the big bucks, enough to do a vacation here and there, but not enough left over to own their own home.
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Yeah that's a thing. My mortgage sits at £2200pm so that hurts. I have enough to do some trips and mess around with more hobbies than I really have time for, but I'm not driving around in a 911. Got on the property market here too late for that. If I bought the house I own here before covid (and that wasn't possible on account of still living in SA at that time), I'd have paid almost half of what the property is worth now. Alas, I have a comfortable life but it's not lavish. Until I sell up and move to a cheap third world country once I've decided I'm done working, that is.
 
Messugga said:
Yeah that's a thing. My mortgage sits at £2200pm so that hurts. I have enough to do some trips and mess around with more hobbies than I really have time for, but I'm not driving around in a 911. Got on the property market here too late for that. If I bought the house I own here before covid (and that wasn't possible on account of still living in SA at that time), I'd have paid almost half of what the property is worth now. Alas, I have a comfortable life but it's not lavish. Until I sell up and move to a cheap third world country once I've decided I'm done working, that is.
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Do you live in Londistan or in an area with Native British?
 
ld13 said:
And what is your leftover? Of the limited expats I know, many are still struggling with cost of living abroad. They earn the big bucks, enough to do a vacation here and there, but not enough left over to own their own home.
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In my experience the CoL issues are an early on issue as your income aligns with your level over time. Most developers/professionals will leave SA for a big absolute pay bump, but still end up going from 96th percentile in SA to 70th percentile (or such - numbers are illustrative) overseas. Over time they will likely move up to say 85th percentile in a catchup/normalization phase. Then as their career progresses, eventually land up back in the 90s again. At the 85th percentile, they’ll be living a similar standard, but with 1st world benefits. In the 90s they will likely reach a standard of living very few in SA ever achieve.

My story is that my income tripled when I moved overseas. Much of it went to LTI, rent was high (Bay Area) and we still had a house in SA to pay off and family to support, so we actually struggled the first 2- 3 years. By year 4 things were comfortable, by year 10 my income was about multiples of my original arrival income. I had paid off the SA house and 2 US properties. Things just went up since then. I save the vast majority of my income.
 
ld13 said:
And what is your leftover? Of the limited expats I know, many are still struggling with cost of living abroad. They earn the big bucks, enough to do a vacation here and there, but not enough left over to own their own home.
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Well that really depends.

We are definitely not buying a home here in the NL, since the prices are ridiculous. I am not paying € 1bar for a 3 bedroom house with one bathroom.

So we will rent a few more years and then buy a chateau in rural France.

You get amazing value and beautiful places for € 200k which for us would be a cash buy.

With our combined income, we are saving €2000 per month and still living extremely comfortably.

We do regular trips and that's pricey. Planning a private guided tour to China in 2027 and currently the budget is €18k for 4 of us for 15 days.
 
Messugga said:
Well you need to know your enemy.
Liverpool is okay. The real **** hole is Blackpool.
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That's just racist...

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To have the same lifestyle in Johannesburg that £176,500 (R3.9m) buys you in London, you would need a salary of approximately R1.55 million to R1.65 million per year. Still wouldn’t be able to earn that in SA?
 
Juanado said:
To have the same lifestyle in Johannesburg that £176,500 (R3.9m) buys you in London, you would need a salary of approximately R1.55 million to R1.65 million per year. Still wouldn’t be able to earn that in SA?
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The multiplicative factor is a fudge though derived from making certain value assumptions. You wouldn’t really have the same lifestyle - there are reasons that things cost more.
 
Also if you are referring to @Messugga’s salary specifically, he’s not in London (small village near Manchester), but the general principle of things costing more because they are more in demand (or less in supply) still holds.
 
cguy said:
The multiplicative factor is a fudge though derived from making certain value assumptions. You wouldn’t really have the same lifestyle - there are reasons that things cost more.
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Ja, I reckon you’d have a better lifestyle in SA with R1.5m than you would in the UK with R3.9m.
 
Juanado said:
Ja, I reckon you’d have a better lifestyle in SA with R1.5m than you would in the UK with R3.9m.
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How? Would I suddenly be able to reach Edinburgh, Paris and Amsterdam in 2-4 hours by train? Would I be able to see the world class bands I enjoy? Would I be able to get transport via Uber Lux? Would I be able to enjoy walking about with a 1/35th chance of being murdered? Would I have the opportunity to grow my salary to R8m/y? Would the geographic arbitrage allow me to take luxury vacations in NY, Singapore, etc., and fly business class?

Yeah, perhaps the house will be smaller (and in London for that amount, you would get a small flat), but what I get is a lot more important to me. This is where the subjective value assessment comes in. The aggregate value assessment is exactly the price.
 
Juanado said:
Ja, I reckon you’d have a better lifestyle in SA with R1.5m than you would in the UK with R3.9m.
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Depends what you like to attribute to your lifestyle but I don't know hey...if we're talking about £176,00 per year here, that's £9k p.m. and it will get you further than R83k p.m. in SA. in my opinion 🤷‍♂️
 
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prod said:
Depends what you like to attribute to your lifestyle but I don't know hey...if we're talking about £176,00 per year here, that's £9k p.m. and it will get you further than R83k p.m. in SA. in my opinion 🤷‍♂️
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It’s actually £8,000. Rent/mortgage takes £3,000, private schooling £1,500. Dining and entertainment is 3x the cost here. Domestic help is a luxury. Diesel is £2 a litre.
 
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