Moving in on salary 43K HKD per month with family of 3 .. is it worth ?

[thegame181]

Depending on where you come from, 43K a month here is doable. Pros and Cons to everywhere you live.

Read up on the forums here and don't talk to the Debbie Downers on this forum.

[AmericaninKT]

Depending on where you come from, 43K a month here is doable. Pros and Cons to everywhere you live.

Read up on the forums here and don't talk to the Debbie Downers on this forum.

I think that 43K HKD per month is not bad...for a single person. For someone with kids? No, come on. It's a bit low but not obscenely so.

Think of this: one trip home for all of you will wipe out a month's pay or more and/or you charge it all and have to make the payments later.

[jmbf]

I think that 43K HKD per month is not bad...for a single person. For someone with kids? No, come on. It's a bit low but not obscenely so.

Think of this: one trip home for all of you will wipe out a month's pay or more and/or you charge it all and have to make the payments later.

43K is low to support a family in HK to a western standard but it is possible and people do so on even less (with some sacrifices of course).

Also, HK is a great place to increase your income and I'm assuming whoever chose to move out here on 43K wouldn't stay on that level for long.

[kimwy66]

I think that 43K HKD per month is not bad...for a single person. For someone with kids? No, come on. It's a bit low but not obscenely so.

Think of this: one trip home for all of you will wipe out a month's pay or more and/or you charge it all and have to make the payments later.

No person with a shred of financial common sense would use a credit card to pay for a trip home without the ability to pay it off in full before interest was charged on it. If you can't afford it, you do without until you have found a way to make it within your means.

[jmbf]

No person with a shred of financial common sense would use a credit card to pay for a trip home without the ability to pay it off in full before interest was charged on it. If you can't afford it, you do without until you have found a way to make it within your means.

There may be occasions where a person would have to make an emergency trip even if they could not strictly afford it. Family emergencies, medical emergencies etc etc

Never say never!

[kimwy66]

Personally I always have 6 months living costs kept in a short call tax-free account, and as an expat a separate amount to cover emergency trips back always seems prudent. It is doable even when starting out, as your living costs are much less. My little stash took 2 years to build way back when I didn't have much of anything, and over the years as income and expenses have grown I have added to it.

But the post I replied to wasn't talking specifically about emergency trips, and usual trips should always budgeted for. I know some people like to live a bit more on the edges of financial disaster, but there really is no need to. Live within your means, credit card debt is a fool's false paradise.

[jmbf]

Completely agree with you about financial prudence and saving.

Completely agree with you about managing your credit card spending.

Completely disagree with your blanket statement "No person with a shred of financial common sense would use a credit card to pay for a trip home without the ability to pay it off in full" which assumes nothing unexpected ever happens AND / OR emergencies don't happen to people. It also assumes ALL people can build up a reasonable sum of reserve cash which is also not true especially for low earners and those early on in their careers.

Take your own example, if an emergency had happened to you early on before you had 2 years to build up your own stash then this situation could have happened to you.

[Watercooler]

Completely agree with you about financial prudence and saving.

Completely agree with you about managing your credit card spending.

Completely disagree with your blanket statement "No person with a shred of financial common sense would use a credit card to pay for a trip home without the ability to pay it off in full" which assumes nothing unexpected ever happens AND / OR emergencies don't happen to people. It also assumes ALL people can build up a reasonable sum of reserve cash which is also not true especially for low earners and those early on in their careers.

Take your own example, if an emergency had happened to you early on before you had 2 years to build up your own stash then this situation could have happened to you.

True. No one obviously want to be in that situation, but if you are, then what choice do you have? So yes, unwise planning or just plain bad luck, but whatever the case, it is possible to have to fly back pronto and going into debt for it.

[kimwy66]

Take your own example, if an emergency had happened to you early on before you had 2 years to build up your own stash then this situation could have happened to you.

No, because I built up my stash before I left my home country. I ensured I had sufficient for an emergency trip before I applied for my visa. I ensured I had enough to survive in a foreign country without the need to run up debts. And even before I had my full 6 months I always had enough for 2 months, built up while I was at school and working part time. I went to university and I always worked part time and added to it.

And once away from my home country I lived within my available resources, which was not much, £12k fifteen years ago. But within 2 years I had doubled that and more. It was 2 years before I took a trip home.

All of these 'can I live on xxxx in Hong Kong assume one thing, that there is no debt. Once you are living on a fixed lower income with debt in one of the most expensive places in the world you're either going to have to make more money or get the hell out of Dodge City. I suppose it could be a great motivator, but then if you were a motivated person out to succeed in life chances are you won't have credit card debt anyway.

It is true that financial prudence is always easiest to start when young, but it is never too late.

[AmericaninKT]

No, because I built up my stash before I left my home country. I ensured I had sufficient for an emergency trip before I applied for my visa. I ensured I had enough to survive in a foreign country without the need to run up debts. And even before I had my full 6 months I always had enough for 2 months, built up while I was at school and working part time. I went to university and I always worked part time and added to it.

And once away from my home country I lived within my available resources, which was not much, £12k fifteen years ago. But within 2 years I had doubled that and more. It was 2 years before I took a trip home.

All of these 'can I live on xxxx in Hong Kong assume one thing, that there is no debt. Once you are living on a fixed lower income with debt in one of the most expensive places in the world you're either going to have to make more money or get the hell out of Dodge City. I suppose it could be a great motivator, but then if you were a motivated person out to succeed in life chances are you won't have credit card debt anyway.

It is true that financial prudence is always easiest to start when young, but it is never too late.

I'm glad things worked out so well for you and that your foresight and planning helped you get to where you are now but every situation is different. And that statement in bold is wildly offensive considering the millions of working poor in America and elsewhere. There are working families in the US and elsewhere struggling to get by without adequate healthcare who have done everything right and who were screwed by the system, or suffered health care costs 'cause their coverage was crap and prices are too high in the US. Or whatever.

Back to the OP: 43K HKD is fine for a single person with no debt. For a family, it's do-able with limits. But the OP needs to determine what he and his family are willing to endure. Is 43K HKD a month here their best option? If so, make it work. If not, look elsewhere.