Ok my question is... Could you survive in England on 40,000-42,000 pounds a year salary (not the London area) and how much taxes do they take out there? My husband has applied for a job in the Lancashire area and is wondering if he should live in England or commute from Switzerland, assuming he gets the job. He would not commute everyday of course, but do you think it would be worth it? Thanks for the input in advance.

My husband is swiss and the job is a university professor job- although i don't think it matters really.

Hi Americanmommy,

Have you tried searching the Forum for this subject? There are some long, recent threads dedicated to this. There's no sense in repeating it all!

Here is an excellent guide to searching EF.

Cheers!

Gut feel is that
1. You could comfortably live in Lancashire on that sort of salary. It is a lower cost part of UK.
2. It would be costly and time consuming to commute. I guess Manchester airport is the nearest, but unless you live near to the airport you will be frustrated by how long it takes to get from the airport to your home. (Nothing like the public transport network in Switzerland.

I am not sure how many rental properties you will find in that area. You should research this thoroughly before he signs up. Rental is a lot less common than it is here.

Lancashire people are amongst the most friendly in the UK (in my experience) but you might need some help with the accent!!

Good luck. Hope that helps.

Tax on wages above 30,000GBP is a wopping 40%, don't know if it's different for foreign nationals though.

All employees
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm

Over £39,825 actually and it's 41% because of NI

Hi there,

New to this forum - but have experience of UK - especially around Manchester as spent 8 years there..(Uni and beyond)

Yes you could live off that salary happily - though as always with these questions its all down to what you spend your money on.

Remember UK you get free health service that is included in taxes... but the speed of service may be slower :-)

We did a comparison between Basel and Bristol, UK earlier this year on similar figures and worked out that we would pretty much have the same 'end of the day money in the bank' in the UK as here. Reason being several different ways the money goes, e.g: as here we have one car, use very little, public transport cheap... UK would need two cars and use a lot, plus petrol is a lot more..., and took all other taxes (e.g. council tax) into account too. Bristol is higher rental area than Lancs - so further north you do get more for your money. Rents in UK also are for property only on the whole - you need to add in heating, water, electric etc

In UK it is always worth buying if you can as its generally a great capital investment (along with mortgages being less than rental costs) if you can get the deposit down. Mind you quality of housing is not the same as Swiss! Expect damp!!!

Hope that is of some help

Susanna

Just curious but why are you wanting to stay and your husband go if you are a "stay at home mummy"? For your childrens sake being 3 and 5 it would be pretty useful if you all went seeing as school in the UK starts a few years before it does here. And the schools are not working on the silly 8 till 11:30 and then 2 till 4, just so the mummy can't do anything in her day. Plus I would have thought the language would be easier for you...

Answering your question you can expect to have a low 30s in your hand ie you will be losing somewhere close to 25% in deductions. As a professor though he should be earning nearer, when not over, 50K. Furthermore as a professor the universities often have houses they will let you stay in for the first year, when not permanently.

There would be no advantage in your husband travelling in it would make much more sense for him to live there. I have known one or two people who have tried commuting between Manchester and Switzerland and managed to enjoy a whole 24 hours with their family and went back to work shattered. They were not professors though so the opportunity to leave Friday Afternoon and return Monday morning did not usually exist...

Thanks for all the replies! They were all really helpful. I will be looking into it more and deciding (if) when he gets the job.

there's more to life than money - the beer is SIGNIFICANTLY better in the UK

I am sure that there is good beer to be had in Switzerland, but I have yet to be served it. which leaves me with Becks, Budvar, Chimay & Staropramen. Which taste similar if not identical from the bottle.

Additionally, in Lancashire you get it served with a smile by a pretty young student - that you are sure you lectured in one of your tutorials....

dave

I know that- but I have 2 kids to think of.
BTW, I checked out your pics- so beautiful! Is this a career? It should be!

agreed... beautiful pics!

Thanks. Just a hobby - it's not too hard to take nice pics here, like shooting fish in a barrel really.

Cheers,
Sam.

Lancashire is lovely. I was born and raised in Southport (when it was still part of Lancs - hence the Avatar). You can find some gorgeous villages and, although the property prices have jumped in recent years, it's still miles cheaper than living in more southern counties.

If your husband chooses to commute you should know that there is only one airline flying direct to Manchester from Zurich (Swiss). All BA flights fly via Heathrow which will add hours onto his journey. Easyjet doesn't fly to anywhere in northern England from Zurich.

You would live easily on 40+K but if you wanted to work you would probably find it a bit easier than here in Switzerland because childcare is much more widely available and it's cheaper. My sister's youngest is in nursery three days a week and she pays less than half the fees that I have to pay here in Zurich.

Good luck with your decision!

Comparing my photo collection to yours, i must be shooting into a much larger barrel than you do!

My husband will be in the Ormskirk area. Do know where this is?

Its near Wigan. Not pretty but warm friendly and cheap.

dave

Well, if he got this job I would probably want to live in England. I just didn't know for sure if this salary would be enough to survive there. Plus, I just got my permit to live in Switzerland and we are moving our stuff there already. I have never been to England so I don't know anything about it really. Also, my husbands father has spent a lot of money refurbishing his house for us to live there. Well, we will see what happens, he is leaving for an interview on Sun.

Yes, it's a small town with some nice residential areas nearby http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormskirk

For info on a current local level I always have a quick look at the "local rag" for a warts-and-all picture of a place. Here's a link to the local weekly paper http://icseftonandwestlancs.icnetwork.co.uk/icormskirk/.

There's quite a helpful classified section which has a property section, listings of jobs, if you're looking for one, and adverts for local childcare.

The local paper also has an online forum so you could direct your finer questions to them: http://forums.icnorthwest.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=36.