Family considering move to Hong Kong - Salary Expectations?

L

louloubell

Registered User
Hello - I'm looking for some friendly advice/guidance. My husband has been offered a placement in Hong Kong with a salary range of $65-$70K per month. We have an 11 month old son.

We'd like to know if the salary on offer will be enough to live comfortably on. I appreciate the answer is dependent on our lifestyle expectations....so this is generally how we'd like to live..

A three or four bedroom apartment with a patio or small outside area for our son. We're thinking $20-$25K accom. budget - in Causeway or Discovery Bays; Eating out/Socialsing with others at least twice a week; maybe a part-time maid/childcarer; the odd weekend away; weekly playgroup/outings with my son; and enough discretionary to put some savings aside and buy the odd nice piece of clothing or household item for myself and my two guys from time to time. Is the salary on offer enough to cover this type of lifestyle - or will it be a little tight?

After a few months I'd like to get a part-time job, two or three days a week. I have a marketing/product management background. Is there much part-time work available for english only speaking ex-pats? I expect it would be fairly hard to come by.

Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
 
Hi Louloubell,

1) "A three or four bedroom apartment with a patio or small outside area for our son."
- I doubt you will get that on HK island for less than 30K per month.
- You might be able to rent a 3-story village house with that sort space and outdoor area in Sai Kung or Clear Water bay for between 20K and 30K per month.

- some parts of DiscoBay fall within your stated budget, but some have balconies rather than yards.

Go to http://www.gohome.com.hk/english/ and search w/ your criteria.

2)"Eating out/Socialsing with others at least twice a week"
Where and what style? You can go eat at a Cha Chan Tang for about HK$ 30 per person, but I don't imagine that's what you have in mind. :)

I would say that you can get a nice meal and drinks for between HK$ 400 and HK$1000 per person if you're eating western food. If you want Chinese or Indian or Thai, you can get nice food in a good atmosphere for a bit less.

3) "maybe a part-time maid/childcarer;"
It's hard to get part-time help. You would probably want to get a foreign domestic helper - full-time, live-in, 6-days per week, ~ HK$ 3300 per month

4) "the odd weekend away"
Where? What level of style? If you want to go away for a weekend to Macau, it's fairly cheap. If you want to go to Thailand, it would be more pricey. China can be very cheap or very expensive, depending on your inclination.

5)"weekly playgroup/outings with my son"
Can be very inexpensive (go to the park or playground, meet w/ other mothers for coffee and hanging out) or quite expensive.

6)" discretionary to put some savings aside"
First, you need to subtract 15% of the salary to save for year-end HK taxes.

If you get a flat on the low end of your budget, you can save quite a bit every month (e.g. a flat for 20K per month instead of 25K would save you HK$ 60K per year, which is quite a nice chunk of change).

7)"the odd nice piece of clothing or household item for myself and my two guys from time to time"

Again, how "nice"? Are you talking about an Ann Klein blouse from a boutique for HK$ 2,000+ or are you talking about a nice blouse at HK$ 300?

IMHO, the salary you mention is more than enough to live very comfortably in Hong Kong, especially if you don't have to pay school fees.

However, it's very easy to fall into a "big spender" attitude or to feel "poor", when you might end up meeting people who live in gorgoeus flats that cost HK$ 60K per month and carry hand-bags that cost HK$ 5,000.

If you are frugal, you could save a lot of money and live comfortably (although not in as large a space as you are accustomed to). If you are less careful, you could spend it all and still feel poor.

Bear in mind that an average starting salary in Hong Kong for a fresh university graduate is about HK$ 10,000 per month.
 
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Regarding part-time work, as of yesterday the Gov't has reversed its policy on dependents working and you can work legally. However, finding work may be tricky. You'll need to network and send out loads of CVs.

Rani
 
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