Your wife is asthmatic and falls sick when she visits HK but you are considering to move here? Crazy. Don't do it. Health is more important than wealth, and you are going to take a net income it anyway! Don't move.
OP what kind of industry are you in? Tech?
Won't help the asthma though! Although I guess it depends how bad the wife's asthma is. There are ways to manage it but HK's pollution certainly doesn't help! (I write that as an asthmatic who lived in DB for my 3rd year in HK).
Funnily enough, I met up with some friends at the weekend who used to live in DB but have now moved to Toronto (hubby and I both used to make the commute to/from Taikoo from DB). We had a good laugh about how lovely and clean the Ontario air is and how much the family were enjoying not having sore throats every day!!
Edit: just to add, plenty of crowds in DB at weekends/holidays when the weather's good. Not Causeway Bay standards admittedly but enough to be annoying when you're a resident and the visitors aren't!
Last edited by bibbju; 23-06-2015 at 03:03 PM.
Well sure but we are not comparing to Ontatori here but to Singapore
I have no doubt that Ontario is a lot better in terms of air quality...I was merely suggesting the OP to take a look at DB knowing that YOU lived there and I recalled YOU had asthma...and YOU seemed to enjoy it (at least the few posts you sent before you left HK) and the crowds are a lot less than on most of HK Island / Kowloon.
I liked it so much that I left ;-). And haven't been back. And don't intend to. There's a message there :-)
On a serious note, although I managed my asthma in HK by using stronger steroids (not something I particularly liked doing but needs must), healthwise I felt below par my entire time in HK yet felt much better within a few days of going anywhere else...including Singapore. My asthma is actually quite mild (or at least it was until I got to HK. I only needed steroids once in 20 years until I moved to HK when I ended up having to take them daily). I remember getting off a flight back to London and thinking "hmm, clean air!" That's when you know there's a problem with HK air pollution!!! I was a lot less healthy when I left HK compared to when I arrived.
I would be seriously concerned given the OP's wife already has a history of sickness when visiting HK.
Last edited by bibbju; 23-06-2015 at 03:42 PM.
Thanks for the sharing. And actually we never understood why my wife was always under the weather a few days after we arrive in HK even though she has mild asthma(steroid sprays once every 6 months or a year) and same thing, once we are back in SG, she is fully recovered.
My other concern is also whether my boys end up the same if we expose them so young to the environment.![]()
From a cost perspective, does this seem reasonable? It doesn't really look like there will be much left.
Gathered this from other posts and made some modifications:
30K Rent (3bdr around Taikoo)
15K Education (2 preschoolers)
5K Groceries
3K Transport
5K Health/Clothes/Entertainment
4K Weekend Trips (1-2 times whole family)
1K Internet / Phone / TV
2K Utilities
5k Helper
2k MPF
10k tax
3k contingency/savings
Total 85k
You could easily end up spending more on Groceries than 5K (depending on your eating habits).
You won't need 10K for tax, with allowances for dependents and (potentially) rent, you could save a bit there.
Education costs are very variable, you could end up spending more than 15K if you are not careful.