No Idea wrote:I am shortly to relocate to Singapore and am currently in negotiations around salary. Can anyone give me an idea as to what i should be asking for if i was on a $120,000 salary in Australia. What would you think the cost of living difference is? Taking into account general living differences i.e. rental costs, food, etc etc
It really depends on your lifestyle.
As a general rule, I find accommodation dearer in Singapore - but you know yourself prices in Australia vary from state to state, and from suburb to suburb. If you click on the top banner and go to this sites main page, you'll find some good real-estate search engines that might help you guage yourself whether it's cheaper or dearer to what you're used to living.
Food, I find cheaper - but again, this depends on your lifestyle. I do recall a friend of mine taking punnets of raspberries with her on the plane back to Singapore as she explained that some fruit isn't as cheap as what we pay back in Melbourne. Overall, I still think you'll still be saving in this area.
Transport:- Public transport is approximately the same, assuming you were an inner suburb person back in your home city, if you lived in zone 2 or zone 3 then you'll find Singapore public transport a cheaper and more efficient system.
Cars are another matter.- read the various threads in this forum about that.
My humble opinion, is you can live quite confortably with 120k in any country you visit. The other thing is, cost of living doesn't really dictate what a particular profession gets from country to country. Some occupations are in higher demand in Australia, and thus attract a higher salary package, and vice versa. I quickly found through friends that my profession was esteemed much lower in Sg than in Australia with a noticable difference in the expected pay packet.