I never said I was Filippino
Dad was Chicano (It's Mex-Am, probably you confused that with Filipino), mom is Vietnamese born in China. her family have a textile and steel production company, which make anything from re-bar to the metal bar you use on a fan, Vietnam and China respectively which we still run today. And My dad has had 3 farms on his side in the US, all these are still in play. Considering that 300K USD (or around 450K AUD) annually is nothing, as it split between me, my sister and my brother.
My wife is a lawyer, she earns between 110k to 180k depends on her end of year bonus, she does PI work, so her job is paid to a partnership, runs on a base salary and depends on case and settlement she brings home an end of year bonus that is a percentage of settlement she earns. Base pay is 80k after pot (not that pot, it's a pool of money the individual lawyer in partnership made that contribute back to the firm) and tax, and she usually bring home double that with the end of year payout. And she usually contributes her base pay to the household and use the rest on herself.
I used to work for NSW Police, getting civilian pays with a Sergeant Pay scale (or Const 5) as I teach interview/interrogation technique in Detective Course and Forensic Intelligence, I no longer work for them after COVID was on terminal leave in 2021. I used to work 4 days with 3 days off. 45 hours a week in an office is tough work. My paid is actually just above median. A rookie (or Probie, but don't tell the cop I said that, they hated the term probie) earn 76k a year so the 89K I earn is not really that much, it's between a Senior Constable and Sergeant Salary. I also do have book royalty and I did think tank work, I have 2 published book on Intelligence Gathering, and I now work full time with a Sydney Based Defence Think Tank. All up these are about 100k a year.
And yes, we bought the house I am in for 750k around 8 years ago. It's Blacktown so it's average price I guess.
I don't think the living expense is that bad, I mean, sure, my household bill jump about 70% but still manageable. We don't have kids so that save us a lot of money, the thing I have problem the most is pet needs. pet food jumped about 200% I mean, I have 2 cats, they sued to cost me around $45 a week, and around 200 for vet, now it's almost double.
For new Australian, even 90k a year aren't bad, you pay around $500 a week for a nice apartment in the suburb like Campbelltown or Penrith, or 700-900 in the city, which is only 1/3 of your paycheque. You can still save up and pay for the mortgage, if you don't go holiday oversea or so on. I know people who are earning around 55k a year manage to get on home ownership, it's really depends on how much you save and where you live.
. South Spanish coast and Canary islands can be acceptable in Winter, but the rest hasn't nothing to envy to real cold zones.
