Sydney can be okay financially, but it’s definitely not optimal. But it’s a nice enough city and I have my friends and family here, plus a good research group for my interests, located in a nice suburb.
Post-docs make okay money here, so I’m on 51.6k after tax and my 7.5k “tithe” (75k gross salary), and the uni pays 16% superannuation.[1] My living expenses are $500 a week, so I should have roughly 25k per year savings. I’ve only done three months on this salary and I’m on schedule, but we’ll see whether I fall to the common spending traps.
I do spend a lot of time working, but I live 5 minutes walk from the office and the hours are flexible, so it’s manageable. In an average day I’ll spend 6 or 7 hours in the office, and then 2 or 3 hours at night.
I consider myself lucky to have the skills and interests to pull off the “live-to-work” strategy. If I were interested in, say, writing novels instead of researching language technologies, the equation would be quite different.
[1] The university pays more super than is mandated, and all salaries are indexed to inflation. Our union is good.
I agree with you. Sydney is a great place to live in it’s own right, but it’s a terrible place to work and earn money.
Didn’t think about the night shift idea but that’s true. Good suggestion!
Sydney can be okay financially, but it’s definitely not optimal. But it’s a nice enough city and I have my friends and family here, plus a good research group for my interests, located in a nice suburb.
Post-docs make okay money here, so I’m on 51.6k after tax and my 7.5k “tithe” (75k gross salary), and the uni pays 16% superannuation.[1] My living expenses are $500 a week, so I should have roughly 25k per year savings. I’ve only done three months on this salary and I’m on schedule, but we’ll see whether I fall to the common spending traps.
I do spend a lot of time working, but I live 5 minutes walk from the office and the hours are flexible, so it’s manageable. In an average day I’ll spend 6 or 7 hours in the office, and then 2 or 3 hours at night.
I consider myself lucky to have the skills and interests to pull off the “live-to-work” strategy. If I were interested in, say, writing novels instead of researching language technologies, the equation would be quite different.
[1] The university pays more super than is mandated, and all salaries are indexed to inflation. Our union is good.