My DH earns $48K as a base salary + on call allowance. He's a programmer analyst in the support area of IT (as opposed to development). He's recently taken over some project work as well. We live in a small city and the business is based locally. He's 24 and this is his third year of being qualified.

I'm a business student. Am going back to do 1 paper first semester and two second semester. I do need to get a real job eventually but that scares me

We have a mortgage and a kid. We're not struggling with the 'low' income as it's all we've known. Costs are much lower than living in Auckland as well. It would be great to have an Auckland salary while living in the south island though.

DH looks pretty good in his DPMs too, quite rugged which is far from the type of person he is.

Raspberry Jam there are a number of ways of working towards a qual in environment at Massey, either through the sciences or humanities, it can be quite tough getting polytech papers cross credited to uni, you also need to ensure you geta B pass or better or you'll have to redo them.

Super in the military isn't long term though, as term of service is at the most 20 years some are only getting 10 now. I guess its trusting someone else to invest your own money and they're not doing very well with it.  

sally belly wrote: Maybe your DH should look at leaving if the pay is more in the "real world"? Got to take into account their super as well I guess.

Ha ha DH isn't in the airforce for the money, I don't think anyone in the military is.
Everyone gets the allowance now except those in military housing. Super has been crap this past year as they keep losing money on it and its compulsory - that has annoyed DH as he would have got a better return sticking it in the bank.

They've changed a lot of the allowances and the benefits, and got rid of a lot of incentives that the airforce used to have, its annoying as now DH is eligible for promotion if we get posted to Akl we lose the housing allowance and effectively end up with less money in a more expensive place.  Not worth if for another stripe.

sally belly wrote: We find that the military pays very well . DH gets compensated financially for going away to sea which is great. When we had a mortgage we got paid extra $$ for that. Of course it means he's away sometimes but that's just the way it is for us at the moment.

I don't think they are paid that well considering all the extra duties etc they have to do, DH has been in his trade for 10 years now and is only just over 65k incl allowances, I would expect him to be on more than that in civy street.

I found on average salaries in Welly for Office Admin/PA work were 45-50k they've actually come down in the last year due to the recession with more people looking than jobs. In the Manawatu the average is 35k sucky cause our living costs certainly aren't 10-15k less a year.

DH is in the military and they pay the same salary for the same job regardless of where in the country it is, hence the reason we don't want to get posted to Akl as his 65k goes a lot further down here.

Kate everyone I know in Aus is earning more than they did here.

LF you'd hate living down here, Manawatu has the lowest salaries in the North Island, but then our mortgage is only $500 a fortnight, and a tank of petrol lasts a fortnight.

Lexiesmumma wrote: Wow, DP Earns 37k a year (roughly) at the moment! And I will be on maybe 9k when I go back part-time. Though DP has just graduated so will start job hunting soon, waiting to see there may be some jobs come up at his work. I'm planning to start studying HR next year, does anyone do this what are the salary potentials in HR? I have retail management experience if that helps at all (probably doesn't) Sorry not meaning to TJ either!

Hi Lexies, friend of mine retrained in HR after working as a legal secretary, its been 4 years since she graduated and she's now in Oz earning 80k as an HR Manager seconded, she works hard for it though, regular 12-14 hour days. She loves it, where she is now is only her 3rd position since graduating she was on 50k plus with Hutt City Council prior to going to oz. HR is always a growth field.
Your experience in retail management will certainly help. 

Raspberry Jam have you looked at doing your core papers via Massey extramural, I'm studying Environmental Health via Massey and the 1st year paper are pretty standard.  

caitlynsmygirl wrote: I was a dental assistant . It was interesting . There are some disgusting teeth out there, i've seen them .

ewww yuck  that is one job I couldn't stand doing - bad teeth and smelly breath.. yuck
Are you going back to it?