Can a family of four live in (or close to) Dublin on 45,000 Euro (gross) a year (p.s. we have no debt)?

Question

1) Two boys will be in Catholic school

2) We plan on buying a car outright when we arrive (or is it cheaper to ship one from the states)

3) Both boys (5 and 13) are heavily involved in sports (Fall, Winter, and Spring)

4) We have two small dogs (shipping?) -will rent be more because of said beasties?

Answer 1

1) Catholic schools are all over the place. They don't charge fees.

2) Shipping a car from the states?! You'd better have deep pockets!

3) Get the boys interested in the GAA; they'll soon be tearing into each other with the hurley sticks.

4) Tell no one about your dogs!

Answer 2

It's not so much the buying of the car that'll be the big cost, it'll be the taxing and insuring ... and you don't say where you will be living, as this counts too. I'm with FBD insurance and they're reasonably good value. I suggest shopping around for a good secondhand car dealer, or looking in Buy & Sell, I know a guy who got a 1985 BMW in perfect condition for €800 through this magazine. Shipping cars from the States could be problematic later if your car type isn't common in Ireland, it might be hard to get spare parts.

Not sure about the cost of sports, but we call the season Autumn over here.

Landlords are sometimes funny about pets, you might have to rethink that.

Answer 3

To be honest you're going to have to sit down and work it out Dublin is a very expensive city.

I suggest making a list of all your absolute necessities

Accommodation  www.daft.ie

You can expect to pay upwards of €1,300  for a basic three bedroom on the outskirts of Dublin.

€14,600  per year (bear in mind anything this price will probably be 90 minutes away from the city centre.

Public transport in Dublin could be better so a car will probably be a necessity:  To Buy a decent sized car €2,000,  Once you tax and insure is you can probably double that

This site give the price of everything in Dublin it's definitely worth checking out

http://www.cso.ie/releases publications/documents/prices/current/ap...

If your children are into sports there will be some offered by your local school (most likely Gaelic Football and football (soccer) but if your boy's sports are a bit more unusual you will probably have to pay.

This site's the best one to find out:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisp...

As for your pets I agree with Orla.  this site:

http://www.movetoireland.com/movepag/pet...

Should give you a brake down.

To answer your question I'm tempted to say yes but this above is only the tip of the iceberg.  You'll have to consider health insurance, entertainment, cost of running a care petrol is now around  Ã¢Â‚¬1.30 a litre.  Find out exactly what your Tax bracket is, work out how much money you have to play with and then factor in every thing you can think of and leave a good bit for the unexpected.

Good Luck.

Answer 4

Agree with above... you haven't got a hope of living comfortably in Dublin on €45k gross household income with a family and rented accommodation.

You should seriously consider moving to Cork or Galway as they are not as expensive as Dublin is!

Answer 5

45k  or 42k after tax, forget it.

You will not survive with a family of 4 on that.