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Potential Move to Hong Kong

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  1. #21

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    Heading a division of how many and in what industry? As you can probably tell from some of the other comments, not everyone works in the finance or legal industries so salaries like that seem a bit excessive. But in the financial world $150k, while enough to get by, isn't necessarily the highest paid guy in the office, not by a long shot. Some of the folks we know get that in housing and school allowances, let alone their salary which comes on top of that.

    If you are asking if you can survive, of course. It's plenty. You can live in a modern place which will be of a decent enough size and age. You'll eat imported food from overpriced grocery stores and be able to dine out with a bit of flair. You may put some money away as well, and be able to travel.

    Will you be the highest paid in your industry at that rate? No, not at all. If keeping up with the Jones' is a big deal to you you might find yourself a tad upset when you see some of the wealth of others. It will be a good base though if bonuses are likely.


  2. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by SiuMaiTaiTai:
    How can someone be on 150k HKD pm and not have 'an idea' of whether it is a good salary to 'pay bills etc' ?
    Surprisingly easily in my experience. I work with people who consider 100k insufficient to live in HK and look at me like I'm talking some kind of craziness when I mention that actually I spend much less than that quite happily. They just live and work in a different sphere. One I can enter if I wish, but mostly choose not to because so many twits abide there.
    mpermata likes this.

  3. #23

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    Thanks to (mostly)everyone for your replies, they were helpful.
    And to those who came back with a more abusive comment, why did you not just ignore my post if it annoyed you that much, i meant the first time using a site like this, i have looked into this site but not found all the questions i needed answered. In regards to salaries, no i am not boasting, i simply dont know how much is needed or is considered good. For all i know many people could be on this, its like moving to central london, how much is enough!

    But those who were helpful, thank you


  4. #24

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    Feb 2012
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    Quote Originally Posted by bryant.english:
    You're clearly not real.
    Why am I not?

  5. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by easto:
    Why am I not?
    You are asking if HK$150k/month (US$232k / year) is enough to live on to pay bills etc. Can you name a single country in the world where this is not enough? If you ask a stupid question, you are going to get stupid answers and people who just think you are taking the piss.

    I really do want to be nice to newcomers, but you are making it very hard. I am fighting with myself to refrain from typing more sarcastic and what you would term 'abusive' comments. But really nobody is being abusive, we are just a bunch of lowly paid expats with nothing better to do that take the piss out of the new guy
    Satay Sue and dctoki like this.

  6. #26

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    I didn't think I was being abusive with my comment - I truly did not think you were real and thought you must be a troll. As bdw wrote, $232K US is a lot of money to live on to pay basic bills, etc. You never mentioned how big of a place you expect to rent or the type of lifestyle you plan to live. I know people who make less than $50K US a year and live very comfortably (teachers) and people that make over $1Million US a year (lawyers) and struggle to make ends meet. Why? They simply live way BEYOND their means.

    As some of the posters on here seem to think that $150K a month is average for an expat (and that may be the case) - I think it's pretty darn good for a single guy (yes, I know you are engaged). If you mentioned you were married and had three kids and intended to send them all to international schools and wanted to live in a 2000K sq ft. apartment in the mid-levels, I would then have to say that money would be tight.


  7. #27

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    I think also since there were a lot of threads recently where people were asking if anything from 20K to 60K (if I recall correctly) would be enough, someone to then come on and ask about that amount seemed a bit of a piss-take.


  8. #28

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    SS - that is EXACTLY it!!!!


  9. #29

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    Quote Originally Posted by Satay Sue:
    I think also since there were a lot of threads recently where people were asking if anything from 20K to 60K (if I recall correctly) would be enough, someone to then come on and ask about that amount seemed a bit of a piss-take.

    Tbh, if you thought it was a pisstake you can simply IGNORE it,no need for the type of abuse in this thread. It's this exact mentality why I see not many new members hanging around, if they get pass the abuse stage, then they have to find a way to buddy in to the 'in' crowd who happen to comment on most threads, be it one they have any genuine advice for, or just want to off topic chit chat.

    Note I didn't mention any ongoing arguments on here, as what should be done, I choose to ignore it.

    I know real people that don't have much of an idea what life is like outside of their bubble. There's this Arab I know, junior doctor, ask him how much anything is and he wouldn't have a clue, not even his own car. His father is an oil magnate.
    HowardCoombs, TheBrit, Mat and 3 others like this.

  10. #30

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    Feb 2012
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    Tbh, if you thought it was a pisstake you can simply IGNORE it,no need for the type of abuse in this thread. It's this exact mentality why I see not many new members hanging around

    Exactly, if i 'piss you off' ignore the comment, and to insult my intelligence!!, look im not sure where your from but for me this is a big move from London, where I have lived all my life and i know the prices of everything, In HK no idea, and i couldn't live in Manhattan like I do in london on that salary so your arguements are flawed.
    There are other posts sure, but being new here i wanted to ask a question about me and based on my position. Anyway how many unique questions can you have on this site?

    As some have said, $150k a month is not that high, so my question is valid no?

    Anyway I thank you all for the comments that were helpful!