Cost of living - Mumbai Vs Hong kong

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    May 2009
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    Cost of living - Mumbai Vs Hong kong

    Hi,

    Am currently working in Mumbai,India earning Rs 35 lacs p.a.I have received a job offer to move to Hong Kong and been offered a salary of HKD 1 million p.a .Am not sure if this is on the higher side or not.What would be the equivalent of this salary as per Mumbai terms considering the cost of living etc,?? while i know the currency conversion rate as Rs 6/7 to 1 Hong kong dollar,but someone told me that earning Hong kong dollar 1 million in hong kong is equivalent to earning Rs 10 lacs in Mumbai ( considering the cost of living).If that is the case,then i would not be interested to give up my current job and relocate to Hong kong.My family consists of myself ,my wife and our daughter aged 2 yrs.
    Can someone pls help me with this.


  2. #2

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    I wouldnt be an expert in answering this question but I would assume Hong Kong is way way way more expenive than Mumbai. Hong Kong is one of the most expensive cities in the world, more so than some countries in Europe.


  3. #3

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    1 million HKD is approximately 85,000 hkd per month. you can have a good lifestyle for 40k-45k HKD a month...equivalent to whatever you have in mumbai or even better (btw, i don't know your lifestyle). And this is only half of your monthly salary. so you will end up saving more than you earn in mumbai (35 lakhs p.a)...two things which you need to consider while moving to HK...house rent and education. all other things are not that expensive.


  4. #4

    My husband and I just moved from Mumbai.. We spent 6 months there, and are going on month 3 in Hong Kong. My husband recently did some analysis to figure out our cost of living differences, and he figured out that our cost of living here is almost 50% higher here than it was in Mumbai. Our spending (outside of rent) went from ~19,000 HKD/month to ~30,000 HKD/month, and we've kept roughly the same lifestyle from Mumbai to Hong Kong (given the obvious differences between the two: no car&driver provision here, etc).

    Hope this helps as you start looking at numbers to make your decision.. Let me know if there's any other questions I may can answer.

    Last edited by bethany725; 27-06-2009 at 06:58 PM.

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by bethany725:
    Our spending (outside of rent) went from ~19,000 HKD/month to ~30,000 HKD/month
    What the heck are you spending 30 grand a month on (not incl rent). Holy crap 1k per day for just the 2 of you. You must have a very nice life style.

  6. #6

    You'd be a fool to refuse HK$1m p.a. offer if you compare it to living in Mumbai. In fact, there is no comparison at all; HK wins hands down - whether you look at it financially or comfortwise.

    The only '-ve' you might think is not having a car + driver and your parents around. But guess what, driving for hours through the maddening traffic of Mumbai is worse than travelling in buses and trains in HK (+ all the walking that comes with it keeps you fit; you'll get rid of the ponch that you'd have built up eating oily Indian food / sweets!!). As for parents, catch a 5.5 hour flight to Mumbai - as easy as that.

    $45k-$50k including taxes will be good enough income to live on. Here is the monthly breakdown -
    Rental - $15k - $18k
    Living - $12k - $15k
    Child's education - $5k - $8k
    Taxes - $10k

    Add up the higher side figures and you still end up at $51k per month. Of course, this is all subject to your personal standard of living etc. but this calculation gives you a rough idea.

    So you end up saving around $35k per month which is a MINIMUM of Rs. 26 lakhs savings p.a. along with all the materialistic comfort, a different perspective to living and working in India (dunno how much you value all that).

    Hope this helps.