The cost of setting up to live in an another country

Relocating is always a significant event in anyone's life. It is ever more so if the relocation is to another continent. We recently start our relocation from Melbourne, Australia to Leichlingen, Germany. We are still in the relocating process, but are getting close to finalising it all.

The cost of the relocating is extremely astounding. Before we actually shifted, I did a budget on what I envisage we would needed to spend for the shift to be successful. Needless to say, I totally underestimate it. Some of the assumptions that I made during the formulation of the budget proved to be totally false.

The following are the major ticket items that we have encountered during the relocation.

Cost of renting a house. In Germany, the cost of renting a house is much, much higher than in Australia. The cost can be divided into two catergories, administrative and constructive. Overall, I estimate that it has cost close to about $20,000.

For the administrative, you will need to be paying for the real estate agent's commission (2 x monthly rent), the security bond (3 x monthly rent), the rent (1 month in advance). For a typical house, this is a total of about 6500 EUR.

For the constructive side, the houses in Germany is usually bare and it need to be kitted out with lighting and a kitchen. Yes, I mean the kitchen. This could easily cost up to 2000 to 3000 EUR.

Cost of transport. We managed to get a car, an old car but driveable and suitable for the family for about 5000 EUR. However, it is the incidental cost that caught us out. This includes the conversion of our Australian driving license to a German driving license, (1000 EUR for my wife and mine), the car taxes (400EUR for my diesel car), the insurance (400 EUR per year) and registrating it in the your town (100 EUR). It is certainly not cheap to own a car in Germany.

Cost of appropriate clothing. The winter in Germany is totally different to the winter in Melbourne. For the kids, they will need to "upgrade" their winter clothing. The clothing includes their shoes, coats and jackets, thermal underwears, hats and beanies, gloves and mittens, and the list goes on and on.

I think that we were fortunate that our relocation occurs in European summer. It just means that we can delay the cost of the appropriate clothing until the winter time.

Returning...

I have decided to restart this blog as I starting to feel the need to write. However, I have evolve this blog from a personal fianance blog to something that I can write about anything. I guess time will allow it bias it towards a certain theme.

In the meantime, I hope that you will join me on this ride...