Hello all! I am still a little anxious about our package and am wondering if someone has a link to a good website that can compare our salary here to what we will need in Belgrade. I am worried because we have friends that agreed to a package to move from here (US) to Australia and have found that it is not working as well as they had hoped.

Thanks for your help!

It seems that when people are being transferred within a company, the company tries to give them at least the same standard of living as they would have in their home country. Sometimes this turns out to be quite luxurious by local standards. Or the company wants to make an impression for their executives. Or no one wants to go there and they have to sweeten the pot.

Local companies recruiting from abroad give you a package appropriate to your level by local standards. So if you get hired by a South African company as I did, they would never think to include a house with any kind of heating, as that isn't customary no matter how cold it gets.

Australia seems to have a lot of people who are surprised by how much it costs to live there.

Synthia, thank you for your reply. This is not a transfer within his company. He is accepting a job with another company, so I want to be able to make very sure that we are getting everything that we need.

Have they hired any other people from overseas that you could talk to?

You do adjust after a while. Regardless of the package, there will be things that you can't afford in the new place that you took for granted in the old, just because the aren't popular or must be imported. Then there will be things that seem practically free. When I was in South Africa, their wines were embargoed, and without and overseas market and very high production, they were practically free!

synthia is right, you do have to make adjustments. When I moved to Japan a long time ago, I had to give up on my idea of how much space is appropriate for a single person, most of my favorite fruits, and going to see every movie that came out. Why? My condo was over 1000 square feet, more that most Japanese families have. The cheapes melon I ever saw cost $6. Movies cost $14 at a time when the price in most US cities was around $4.

I learned that a small place is cheaper to furnish and clean. I learned to concentrate on seasonal fruits. Oranges, for instance, are virtually free there during the season. I found a theater that showed double features for my $14, and considered movies a big treat.

I suppose I am just anxious and worrying about things that don't really warrant it. I just don't want to get there and lose money. In reality I suppose that isn't going to happen. But it would just be nice if I could find a cost of living chart that I actually understood just so I can have some idea of what to expect!

Thank you all for your information!