Another salary question: Is 40K enough for two?

[anothernewbie]

Hi,

This site is obviously full of well paid expats. 40k a month should allow you to live well - there will be prudence but no skrimping and no scrounging. The only Cartier watches you will be buying is at Tsim Sha Shui.

I read somewhere - I think on Batgung that the easiest conversion for someone coming from the UK (not sure if you qualify) is that your monthly HK salary is the same numerically as a yearly UK salary.

i.e On 40,000 HK a month you can maintain the same standard of living on in HK as you could in the UK with GBP40,000 a year.

Hope this helps. BTW I am on a similar wage and can - with some prudence - save about $10,000 a month - and I have two kids.

[Mat]

40 K with the lifestyle you describe is totally ok..as mentioned by anothernewbie you will even be able to save every month. You will also be able to go back to europe once a year (btw some airlines have very cheap deal if you do not mind to travel long time. For example Gulf Air will cost you less than 5.000 HKD per person, taxes included for a HK/BKK/BAHRAIN/Paris) and to travel at least twice or more in SEA on a budget....no worry

[carang]

my hubby and i make around 30-35,ooo/month combined... with this we have a baby, two dogs and a full-time helper.

we live in an 865' flat in Discovery Bay. we don't go out a lot, but we do order food in once in a while.

we don't do as much travelling as i'd like, but i do get home once per year.

we have a comfortable life. would i like it if we had more $$$. of course, one can never have enough. the more you make, the more you spend!

[normad]

Thanks again everyone for your additional input. You are very helpful! Now I feel less worried about the prospect of having only one income. The 40K figure is a goal--at the higher end of the salary range for my profession. But who knows if my prospective employers are going to push it down. One time I got a "suggestion" for 20K. Sounds too low for someone with more than 10 years' international experience. I would really like to learn more about salary negotiations. If any of you have any great tips please share them. Thanks!!!!

[hughb2000]

talk to your employers sternly, like you have other options to! A suggestion might be to ask them to give you a certain amout of your salary as 'housing allowance' as this is tax exempt! You havent said what your profession is but with 10 years experience in what ever it may be then $20k sounds rather low indeed! If you think $40k is fair then approach them with the big 50 and take it from there.. all i can say is dont settle if you think you are worth more (and be honest with yourself here..) if you arent going to be happy with it, or you will spend the whole (1-2 year?) contract regretting not asking for a bit more.. no harm in trying eh!

Good luck with the negotiations.

And lastly you should really really not be worrying about having a nice (enough) lifestyle for 2 people on hong kong with a salary of 40k.

[hughb2000]

oh.. just to add.. im living on 11k a month and am OK. of course i lack alot of luxuries but i am still young and have my whole career ahead of me.. im only on a graduate trainee program at the moment! I live in a nice(ish) flat.. i eat nice food, i go out 5 out of 7 evenings a week.. i dont on the other hand save any money or pay for any flights anywhere.. but that will change in time as my salary increases

[Expatriate]

6k for foodstuff per month for two should be enough for western style living if you cook at home twice a day.

7-8k for the rent - 700sqft, 3 bedrooms.

5 k for others like electricity, phone, gas, water

which brings you to about 20k.

So you have 20K left to save for your kids' education.

[hughb2000]

5k seems a bit much for bills i would say 1k per person per month.. but bleh just being picky

[normad]

Thanks again for your replies, hughb2000 and Expatriate.

What about transportation? If I were to travel from somewhere in Kowloon or NT by MTR every day to work plus going out in the weekends, how much would it cost?

Expatriate, 6k for food seems very high to me considering this does not include eating out and take-out food. Is it really that expensive? Right now we spend 2500k per month on food, for two people.

5k does sound a bit much for bills, but I guess if it is lower in reality, then the remainder can be spent on entertainment and other expenses, like movies, books, cafés, etc.

[jimbo]

depending on where you're living and working I'd budget approximately $300 a week in travel expenses.

6k for food is indeed high, Apart from eating out socially we spend about $300 a week on buying in groceries for two of us. We eat out a lot and if you go somewhere cheap such as cafe de coral/maxims etc then you can eat well for only $35 a head and thats for a rice dish,soup and a drink.

Utility bills are more likely to be in the $1200 a month bracket depending on whether you wish to subscribe to cable t.v etc, bills will be more expensive in the summer if you use air con a lot.