[Brabus E V12]

Originally Posted by sindabad.sailor

Digging out quite an old thread.

I am evaluating an offer to relocate to the UK for a period of 2 years.

1. What are the maximum monthly expenses for such a family.
2. What percentage is income tax calculated at.
3. Apartment rents - latest in London's neighbouring area.
4. Used Car cost and insurance for cars like Ford Focus or similar.
5. Schooling expenses. I know council schools are free but are they worth? How about Private schools.
6. Any other expenses that I am not counting on?

How is work environment? Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't seem to be true European but more American. (Not as employee centred as scandanavians but more employer centred like American organisations)

Need first hand experienced advices. I need to evaluate the offer.

Rgds.

Hi Sindabad,

A lot of answers here are London specific and the rents being quoted are central london ones (£1-2k per week). You can very easily get 2 bed flats in outer London with excellent train connections into London for £1k per month.

However as you will be working in Southampton, here are answers from my experience:
1. What are the maximum monthly expenses for such a family.
This is very difficult to say. Four people cooking primarily at home with eating out once a week and ordering pizza once a week will be £100. This is eating at a normal chain restaurant and ordering from Dominos or a local pizza shop. If you go for a lot of movies, there is a cinema chain called Cineworld wherein you can get an unlimited movie card for £16 a month. I single ticket costs £8-£10 so you can do the maths. Factor in rent which will not be more than £700-£1000 for a 3 bed flat in Southampton depending on the location. Add in Council tax + utility bills (electricity/gas, water, tel, internet, mobile, tv) and you are looking at atleast another £300.

2. What percentage is income tax calculated at.
Visit this website (http://www.listentotaxman.com/)

3. Apartment rents - latest in London's neighbouring area.
Southampton - You need to visit some local websites. Visit www.rightmove.co.uk or www.zoopla.co.uk. My suggestion - Find the postcode of your headoffice and type that into the the above websites. This will give you an indication of the rent near your office. You can choose how far away you want to live from your office. Once you like a few properties, google good schools in those areas.

4. Used Car cost and insurance for cars like Ford Focus or similar.
If your coming for a short period, not worth it as you will be paying a hefty insurance premium. There are lots of mouth watering deals on used cars however the insurance is usually as much! A quick search on www.autotrader.co.uk or www.ebay.co.uk will give you an indication.

5. Schooling expenses. I know council schools are free but are they worth? How about Private schools.
Only 7.4% of UK children going to school are in private education, the rest are all in normal state (aka council) schools. Average cost of going to a private school is atleast £10-12k per year. Not all council schools are bad and if your child is intelligent enough they can apply to a Grammar school (a state funded school for intelligent children with very high standards). However you need to be living in the catchment area (within a certain distance of the school). Private schools are very good for making "connections" if you can afford them.

6. Any other expenses that I am not counting on?
These depend on your lifestyle. Holidays, traveling to India, house furniture etc if you take a non furnished flat, phone contracts, groceries etc etc.

Southampton has a big Indian population with many Gurudwaras as well. There are some good Indian restaurants and shops to buy Indian staff.

At the end of the day you need to weigh your decision a lot on how much you will be paid as that will decide what kind of a lifestyle you could have.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need any more info.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

IBy the way... 1977? Wow, you've held a full UK licence far longer than I have!

Oops. I took my license in 1974 and not 1977. I left in Nov. 1976. Age does dull the memory.

[callmeneo]

Reviving this thread after a long time.

A colleague has got a job offer in Coventry, UK with a package of 45000 Pounds.

He has no idea if that would be enough for a family of 2 now.

Any pointers if this is a good enough salary to live a comfortable life?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by callmeneo

Reviving this thread after a long time.

A colleague has got a job offer in Coventry, UK with a package of 45000 Pounds.

He has no idea if that would be enough for a family of 2 now.

Any pointers if this is a good enough salary to live a comfortable life?

Somewhat tight I'd say but one can just about manage. The rent for the accommodation will be the main criterion and single biggest cost. In Southern England, outside London, a 1BHK apartment would rent at around GBP 2000 a month. When I owned a business in the UK in the previous decade this was the wage paid to the skilled shop floor worker. In the Indian comparable context think of this as someone earning a salary of Rs 1.25 lakhs a month or thereabouts. Hope this helps.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Somewhat tight I'd say but one can just about manage.

Agree, it is tight but doable without the fripperies. It is close to the baseline 'skilled worker' wages that GoUK is putting into practice in a staged manner. Coventry is per se not a 'cheap' place but there are always exceptions as always.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world...248935732.html

[mathewspaul]

My friend got an offer for 75000 pound annual in Cambridge. He is currently having inr 27 lakhs in bangalore. He is married with a kid. How does these 2 compare and what kind of life he can have in UK?

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by callmeneo

A colleague has got a job offer in Coventry, UK with a package of 45000 Pounds...
Any pointers if this is a good enough salary to live a comfortable life?

Speaking from vicarious experience of family members living there from the past two years, I can clearly say that 45k is far too less to warrant a shift to the UK. Only if the spouse too manages to land a job can they hope to have a decent life.

Originally Posted by mathewspaul

My friend got an offer for 75000 pound annual in Cambridge. He is currently having inr 27 lakhs in bangalore. He is married with a kid. How does these 2 compare and what kind of life he can have in UK?

Depending on where he decides to stay, this could work out. While Cambridge itself is costly, there are a lot of self sustained suburban and rural pockets that offer decent and affordable accommodation and other facilities.

Public schooling is free till a certain point and reasonably good. Health service is a bit of a hassle, but free too. Taxes take away a fair share of income. So, an additional income from the spouse would make settling down easier.

An important point to note is that the Indian diaspora is found everywhere, and is usually close knit. Settling down wouldn't be too difficult.

Hope this helps.

[Theyota]

For those researching cost of living, https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ is a fairly accurate source. You can also switch to estimator, select the city or a nearby city, input your family size and living standard requirements and you will get good results. The data is crowd sourced.

[callmeneo]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Somewhat tight I'd say but one can just about manage. The rent for the accommodation will be the main criterion and single biggest cost. In Southern England, outside London, a 1BHK apartment would rent at around GBP 2000 a month. When I owned a business in the UK in the previous decade this was the wage paid to the skilled shop floor worker. In the Indian comparable context think of this as someone earning a salary of Rs 1.25 lakhs a month or thereabouts. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply.

So looking at a rent of GBP 2000 , the person would end up with next to nothing by the end of the month with the present offer.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by callmeneo

Reviving this thread after a long time.

A colleague has got a job offer in Coventry, UK with a package of 45000 Pounds.

He has no idea if that would be enough for a family of 2 now.

Any pointers if this is a good enough salary to live a comfortable life?

For info:
House Rental - at least 25000 GBP per year for something decent. And this will be beyond Zone 4 of Public Transport if one is talking London and the commute itself will be very time consuming as well as expensive. Then come the utilities like electricity and heating and internet and mobile phone and all.

As an illustration a loaf of bread costs ~1.4-1.5 GBP and a kg of Chicken costs ~ 4 GBP.

By contrast in India a loaf of bread costs 50 Rs and a kg of chicken costs 90 Rs.

Think carefully before leaping.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

By contrast in India a loaf of bread costs 50 Rs and a kg of chicken costs 90 Rs.

Agree with the rest of your assessment, but wondering where in B'lore or Karnataka is chicken sold at ₹90/kg!!!

(Sorry for going OT)

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Agree with the rest of your assessment, but wondering where in B'lore or Karnataka is chicken sold at ₹90/kg!!!

(Sorry for going OT)

I do apologise, I meant 250grams not 1 kg.

[Gaur]

Originally Posted by callmeneo

Reviving this thread after a long time.

A colleague has got a job offer in Coventry, UK with a package of 45000 Pounds.

He has no idea if that would be enough for a family of 2 now.

Any pointers if this is a good enough salary to live a comfortable life?

45k Pounds is a very basic package in Coventry considering the current cost of living there, with only 2 members (only 1 working) it would be comfortable but definitely not enough to have much savings or lead a luxurious life.

Add a kid to the future equation and it will be quite tight to manage.

Have a friend who moved there a year ago (moved from Spain to UK) has the same package as your friend has been offered and i am almost sure is working at the same place where your friend is headed , with kids he is hardly managing to have any savings.

[greyhound82]

Originally Posted by Gaur

Have a friend who moved there a year ago (moved from Spain to UK) has the same package as your friend has been offered and i am almost sure is working at the same place where your friend is headed

Offtopic : Can I deduce that most of the people moving to Coventry will be part of the same automotive company acquired by our beloved Indian conglomerate? I started my career with their ADAS team in 2010, and Coventry was the main attraction for an onsite assignment.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by greyhound82

Offtopic : Can I deduce that most of the people moving to Coventry will be part of the same automotive company acquired by our beloved Indian conglomerate? I started my career with their ADAS team in 2010, and Coventry was the main attraction for an onsite assignment.

Stellantis is also there