Ireland to Canada info

[Simon9999]

Originally Posted by G-Mo

Some of your points and numbers are seriously wonky!

Apartments are NOT the norm, not even in the city centre (like Toronto). There are a lot of condos which are very popular, but, I don't know ANYONE who is renting anything other that a house in the GTA.

125k for a software engineer, in Toronto or Vancouver, is VERY high. That's more Senior Team Lead or PM (even then, it's high).

You can't just convert Euro to Dollar when doing your salary and tax calculations, doesn't work that way. Also, your tax numbers fail to take into account Provincial and Federal Sales Tax (sometimes amalgamated as HST) on TOP of many of the items you have listed in your cost of living (tax is not included in prices here, it's added on AT the till). Plus property tax, etc, etc, etc...

Cost of living, many of your Canadian prices are WAY too low. I'll highlight some of them:
Domestic Beer (0.5 liter draught) between $6-8, plus tax and 15% tip
Milk (regular), 1 liter $3.00+
Fresh Cheese (1kg) $15.00+
Bottle of Wine (CHEAP) $14.00
One-way Ticket (local transport) $3.00
Monthly Pass $126.00
Taxi Start (Normal Tariff) $4.25
Gasoline (1 liter) $1.30

I could go on...

G-Mo,
sorry but I have to say that some of your prices are WAY high...not all but some. Booze, fuel and dairy costs are no where near your stated levels where I live...small town southern alberta. I have experienced the prices you state in the larger cities (Van or Calgary) but they are certainly not to be found in smaller centres (lower overhead costs than those found in larger cities). Taxes are also variable...no HST or PST in alberta. In my career specialty, environmental management, salaries have never been better. If you are employed in the private sector a six figure salary is the norm for anyone with the smarts and 5 plus years experience. Do I think the cost of living is too high? Of course!...but it could be a lot worse and apparently it is...in some places.

[G-Mo]

Originally Posted by Simon9999

G-Mo,
sorry but I have to say that some of your prices are WAY high...not all but some. Booze, fuel and dairy costs are no where near your stated levels where I live...small town southern alberta. I have experienced the prices you state in the larger cities (Van or Calgary) but they are certainly not to be found in smaller centres (lower overhead costs than those found in larger cities). Taxes are also variable...no HST or PST in alberta. In my career specialty, environmental management, salaries have never been better. If you are employed in the private sector a six figure salary is the norm for anyone with the smarts and 5 plus years experience. Do I think the cost of living is too high? Of course!...but it could be a lot worse and apparently it is...in some places.

If you re-read the OP, it was predominantly about TORONTO not small town southern Alberta. The prices I gave are applicable to location.

[Wexford_Ireland]

Just as a follow up on this having spent the intervening time researching further I've come to the conclusion that I need to earn 1.5 to 1.75 times my euro salary in CAD dollars to equal or better Irish cost of living if you live near a large city where near is some type of reasonable commute.

Now obviously if you earn 500k a year that's not going to scale so well but a 40k euro job in Ireland would need a minimum of 60k in Canada in general to be comfortable and 70k to be happy.

Maybe an hour north of Saskatoon would let you away with less? Maybe, but I wouldn't want to be an hour North of Saskatoon scraping by trying to find the money for home heating oil.

I know this is hugely dependent on your lifestyle, kids or no kids, 1 or 2 cars, etc etc.


But if your earning 20 euro an hour here and struggling and someone offers 30 CAD an hour in Canada you're going to struggle in Canada.

Equally if you're earning 40 euro an hour here and comfortable and you're offered 70 CAD an hour in Canada you're going to have a nicer time there than here.

For the UK viewers change those figures to between 1.75 and twice your UK salary in Sterling.

And I hate to say this because it rubs me the wrong way but if you are on social welfare you need to figure out your hourly "wage" by taking your social weekly amount, add in mortgage relief etc. factor in an extra 15% to cover the fact your "wage" doesn't have a commute or travel costs and divide the answer by 40 hours to get an hourly rate.

so 500 euro a week on social including all the bits and bobs by 15 % is 575 so your hourly rate employed by the government for sitting on your backside (I appreciate it may not be voluntarily) is just shy of 15 euro an hour. And your struggling at that big time. So the CAD offer better be better than 27 CAD per hour before you think of moving.

How sad is that.

John