Job Add: UK, permenant

It doesn't matter much where you live in this game though Mike. I've thought a few times of taking up these land giveaways. 5k for half an acre, all utilities, and guaranteed mortgage to build your own house. Just bring a family along. Quiet lifestyle (except for the monthly B&B's), almost totally crime free. I do like the beach though!

Al

snipped-for-privacy@larwe.com (Lewin A.R.W. Edwards) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Geez, not Boston thankfully. We can beat the top end (50K) at a 1.7 scalar.

"Mark A. Odell" wrote in news:Xns9423AD9E64F6FCopyrightMarkOdell@130.133.1.4:

I should qualify this by saying an okay house, not something you'd look at twice, would be above $500k USD.

If I have all my sums correct:

500 / 148 = 3.3

So an average house is 3.3 times salary which sounds pretty good compared to what the UK guys have been saying? ie. Indicates salaries are, proportionally, higher?

Mike Harding

Like you, I'm on the verge of heading bush. Just one little chook who doesn't seem to want to leave the nest, sometimes I wonder if he _ever_! will :)

I think that to live more than about two hours from the city you really need your own products(s) rather than purely contract and/or development work. I've found customers tend to forget about you if you're a distance out. To my surprise, city based Aussies seem to think two hours from the CBD is somewhere near Tannant Creek!

My ideal would be sea views from the back of the house and country views from the front - an achievable goal in Oz :) But I'll probably just end up deep bush somewhere in Vic or SA or NSW. We should get together for a drink sometime, when there's not 1000k between us :)

Mike Harding

Ah yes, I too dream of adventure down under, exploring some deep Australian bush.

All I need is a nice Aussie lass with a map of Tasmania.

If you know of such a lass, do tell them about me.

I'm not quite as spunky as I used to be but I still got some left.

Next time you feel like choking your chook, tell him he's not to old to be dingo tucker.

Yes Mike, it is achievable. I live in Williamstown (pop. 1,000) on 6 acres surrounded by wooded hills and vineyards. A long way from the sea, though, but then I never was much interested in salty water. The drive to work in Adelaide takes 45mins.

Tanya

I am not so sure about your sums. 50K pounds * 1.7 = 85K dollars.

150K/50K = 3.0

Seems our salary to house ratio is better thean yours?

Ian

Ian Bell wrote in news:3fa113aa snipped-for-privacy@mk-nntp-1.news.uk.worldonline.com:

Keep in mind he is talking about Boston, so don't use 500K USD as the average US house price. I don't know off hand what the average price of a house is in the US, but, around where I live, you can easily find a nice size house for 250K or so, which is right around the same 3x figure.

Also, he said that in Boston, the salary mentioned can be beat, which does not surprise me, as it can where I live as well.

The actual house cost to salary ratio will vary quite a bit, depending on where you want to live, and how far you are willing to commute.

Well, I currently live in NYC (so, I have the inestimable privilege of paying over $200 extra per month in city income taxes to live with horrific traffic, draconian local laws - though not as bad as Boston, unbelievably expensive auto insurance, bloodsucking tolls to get anywhere at all, crowded conditions, pollution, dirt, trash, and so on). Within 15 miles of where I live (i.e. still well within my target commute range - my current commute to work is just over 25 miles), a decent 2br can be anywhere from $148,000 to $500,000. In my street, it's $500,000 - so I rent (thank God, otherwise I'd be tied to this hole). Ten minutes' drive away, a nicer house is under $250.

This is why it's so darn hard to compare salaries meaningfully.

I believe I earn around the medium range for my skillset (no secret - USD75K

• benefits, FWIW). I'm sure there are jobs with fatter salaries, but finding them is another story. And /enjoying/ them is another story still.

--

-- Lewin A.R.W. Edwards

I have a 15 year old still at school, and a 22 year old+girlfriend who have taken up permanent residence, + my 20 year old daughter and baby about to move in, hence we need more space.

I'm heading that way. my accident put a stop to me contracting. I work in short burtss, with bed rest between, clients don't like that, or the fact that I can't readily travel to meet them. I've been working up a few of my own designs and expect to start seeing a return by the new Year. Actually have a LOT of interest from the US. My moving plans are longer term, I hope to buy early in the new year, but spend around a year having the place remodelled, I'm not in a rush.

Sounds like a plan. There are plenty of places within an hour of Adelaide that give you affordable bush/beach/land scenarios, but Adelaide is just a quiet country town compared to Sydney and mebourne.

Al

Remember that health care in the UK is free...How much do you Amercians pay??????

Free? Well, since you asked, my disposable income is a significantly higher percentage of my gross than it would be in the UK (or NZ for that matter) health insurance, sales and local taxes notwithstanding.

Beautiful place though, NZ. Great for decompressing on the way back from Antarctica, amoungst its many other charms.

Regards, Ken Asbury

Nothing worth having is free.

And I suspect you pay more for what you get than I do.

Regards,

-=Dave

"AVRFreak" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.iconz.co.nz:

Not a whole lot for me, company pays for most of the cost of insurance. Others are not so lucky I know.

How long do you have to wait for a noncritical medical procedure?

How much do you pay in taxes in the UK?

There are all sorts of tradeoffs.

It varies from place to place, and employer to employer, but you could say, very roughly, somewhere around 1% of salary. This is only the employee contribution, of course - the rest could be considered part of salary.

For independents, who have to buy their own, again, costs vary by location and other factors, but (again very roughly) you could say in the 300-600 USD/month range for a family. Starting this year, self-employed people can deduct 100% of health insurance costs from federal income taxes. This has increased from 50% over the last few years.

Alan Balmer wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

As a data point, I incorporated and had my company pay for BSBC family coverage. It was $889/mo. Delta Dental wasn't worth the premium.

I think this is what makes sensible comparisons so difficult becuase we all have to pay for the same things but the way we do this varies from country to country. An we haven't even touched on the intangibles like lifestyle, education etc etc.

Ian

They can say "Alright, carry on renting, I'm not reducing my price"

It just ain't going to happen.

We really need the government to make it a crime to lend money to people who are bad risks and are highly likely to end up paying exorbitant amounts of interest.

They can call it what they like, I know a damn loan shark when I see one.

If the mortgage lenders _do_ know exactly what is going on, then they have no scruples.

If they _don't_ know, then they have no brains.

Either way, they should not be lending out other people's money!

I'm also fed up of seeing adverts for loans to people in debt. Or "Thinking of dying soon? Get an over-fifties plan!".

Banks might be motivated to change their ways if people threatened to withdraw their money until they investigate these self-certified mortgages and withdraw them if found to be fraudulent.

Otherwise we are just lending money to banks to push up prices of the houses we are saving for!

Banking is NOT a respectable profession.