Help on Australia

Cheaper Stuffs

2011-03-13T06:39:00.001-07:00

If you arrive in Australia, actually in Melbourne and need or want to buy things, you probably will think like me when I first came here, "It's good, really good price, so cheap", you are wrong, I got a 50" TV that I paid AU$1200, I thought it was cheaper, turns out 4 months latter the same TV was selling for AU$799 and now it is AU$699.

When I first came I had nothing than I came out to buy, refrigerator, washing machine, mattress and bla bla bla, everything, actually I got lucky, I got Easter deals at Mayers, lol, laugh a laud, I deserve, but I got lucky, I paid almost half price in everything that I've bought, after a full year I learnt few words "Boxing Day", "Half of Year Sale", yes it's right, if you can wait few months for sure you will get a sale and save lots of money.

During the time we have discovered some sites to buy online, many time cheaper than stores, have a look on these:
http://www.dealsdirect.com.au
http://www.oo.com.au

don't feel excited to start buying in one of those now, that’s the beauty, they have sales too and even better, many times they offer free shipping for whole Australia, this is the deal, sometimes you will pay much less but when delivery comes up, ohhh, you cry.

Those one have a really good daily sale, but you need to hurry up because each sale takes just a day, if you lost, it's gone
http://www.1saleaday.com.au
http://www.onedaysale.com.au/

If you want to buy some notebooks, go to OfficeWorks first, they have really good deals but.....wait for a good one. GB HIFI, Dick Smith they have too, not as good as Office Works but give it a shot but always, doesn't matter what I am saying compare prices, you will be impressed how different it could be.

If you want to go out, sometimes is good to see, touch what you are buying or even get a fresh air, go to "Going out of Bizness", it's insane:
http://www.goingoutofbizness.com.au/
I just love this store, I will give you a most recent example, a friend of mine bought to his son a RC Ferrari from a car dealer and paid for it AU$130.00 (this price was with discount), I shown him this store and he found out, the same car selling for AU$45.00, after that he wants to kill me and I understood why, lol, he was happy to know that place, too many good thing and cheaper than other stores.

Half Year Sale
Every end of June, every single company need to close their year, make the balance and see how much money they have made, they start selling like crazy from late May and early June,

Car Dealers are the best, they offer some very good deals, but if you sleep you will end up buying something with normal price, be aware, many stores does the same, you go to buy a good deal and end up with a bad one.

Even at Mayers, on half year sale my wife and I went there to see some stuffs, turns out she bought a GUESS handbag for AU$69.00, normal price was AU$189.00, but they had some of them with normal price just mixed within sales, sales and sales, pay attention.

Boxing Day
What can I say about it...

This is another good one, a day after Christmas, December 26 of each year, most Australian's store promote big sales, to much discount, but it is the same, many discounted things mixed with things with normal price.

Even next few days you still finding big deals, for sure much less stuff, people have bought almost everything, lol.
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A travel bag at an expensive store that the normal price was AU$3000.00, yes it's right they were selling for AU$1200.00 only, lol, still expensive to me but you cannot say that it's not a really good deal.

Everywhere in Australia, close to big and/or expensive stores since 7:00AM even earlier will be a line, lots of people waiting for the store to open to get a bargain, and they get it, would be good idea to wake up earlier and go to buy whatever you want, if you go late, most big deals are gone, or is impossible to park or even go inside the store.

You don't see much place in Australia like this in a ordinary day

For example Chadstone Shopping, 9:00AM it's full loaded, impossible to park, the really cheaper stuffs gone, people go there to buy stuff and sell on eBay or even in their own store, I go to buy to myself lol.

Well, wake up earlier, get dressed, skip breakfast and go to the war, spend some good money and buy some good things.

Cheers

Working

2011-03-12T00:04:00.000-08:00

If you are like 99% of everybody and need to work to make some money then it is good idea to keep reading.

I know many people with a high degree like Architects, Engineers, Doctors, Psychologists from other countries, they cannot work here in their own areas because their diplomas are not recognized in Australia, they could validate their diploma in here but some areas like medical, are requested to make an examination, like a test, for this they need to know the English language really well, that is the biggest problem.

We are talking about the recognition of overseas qualifications while you stay in Australia, these are the people who do it.
http://www.business.vic.gov.au/BUSVIC/STANDARD/PC_63290.html

Overseas Qualification Unit
Level 20, 80 Collins Street
Melbourne Victoria 3001
Tel: (+61 3) 9938 0600
Toll Free: 1800 042 745
Fax: (+61 3) 9938 0543
Email: oqu@diird.vic.gov.au
Postal Address
Workforce Participation
GPO 4509
Melbourne, VIC 3001

However, don’t put too high hopes in them as they tend to undervalue foreign qualifications, but give it a try.

Finding a Job

If you are in a hurry and want to do anything, even cleaning, then would be easy, I know a cleaning company's owner, if you talk to her you will have many work to do, I know that she owns a really good company, at least people working for her are really happy, contact me if you are interested and I'll be glad to send you a link.

If you are confident that you have enough skills to work in something else, there is a site that should work for you, give it a try, I'm pretty sure that you can work something out here.
http://jobsearch.gov.au/
http://www.seek.com.au/

Sometimes you can find jobs here.
http://www.gumtree.com.au/

Been an Employee
If you are employee the you need to know few things:
You will need to apply for a TFN number, this allows you to work, this is the ATO site http://www.ato.gov.au/youth/content.asp?doc=/content/4716.htm

You will need to pay 9% of your annual income to a superannuation, it is some money that is sacrificed every month from your salary, you can chose with company will manage your money, but you will be able to get it just when you reach certain age, you will get everything back with interest through the years.

You need to pay tax, better you will receive a salary without this taxes, the taxation is something like this:

Taxable income a year	Tax on this income
0 – $6,000	Free of Tax
$6,001 – $35,000	15c for each $1 over $6,000 under 35,000
$35,001 – $80,000	$4,650 plus 30c for each $1 over $35,000 under 80,000
$80,001 – $180,000	$17,550 plus 37c for each $1 over $80,000 under $180,000
$180,001 and over	$55,550 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000

you can find out more at Australian Taxation Office
http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/12333.htm&mnu=42590&mfp=001

it means that, if your annual income is AU$58,000, and you have a salary sacrifice of 9% of superannuation it will be AU$5,200

for now your taxable income if 58000 - 5200 that is AU$52,800.
Now use the table above to see how much more tax you would pay, in this case you will pay tax of 4,650 + ((52,800 - 35,001) * 0.30c), it will be 4,650 + 5,339.70 = 9,989.70
(gross salary - superannuation) - (smaller taxable income on table) * (cents founded on respective row of your salary on table)
In this case your salary will be 52,800 - 9,989.70 that is 42,810.30
now just divide this result by 12 months, it will be your month salary AU$3.567.53

Been a Contractor

When you work as a contractor you will need to aply for an ABN (Australian Business Number), it allows you to work, it means that you will receive your fee in full but you will need to pay tax once a year, I'll explain.

For example, if you work as a cleaner and you agency ask for your ABN, when you send your ABN to them, Australia Taxation Office knows that you are earning money, once a year at the end of the financial years you will be required to lodge a tax return, it is an application that send all informations that you fill in to ATO(Australian Taxation Office).

When you fill it in, it will tell you how much you will need to pay or how much to receive back, the good thing to be an employee is that every year you will receive it, if you work with an ABN number, I would save at least 10% a month to be prepared and pay the tax after one year.

The difference is employee pay upfront and contractor will pay after an year, I'm not sure if it's just 10% but be prepared.

The End of financial Year is 30th June, be aware and save some money, not just to pay tax but to spend some money, every store go crazy and the prices drop, I will talk about this on Cheaper Stuffs post...

See Ya...

Health Insurance

2011-03-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

It is a little bit different from my country, in my country we pay for health insurance and don't need to spend any money out of pocket, here 99% of time you will need to pay for it and then claim for it, many times through internet, some of them you need to go to any attendance place to claim.

I have Medibank under working visa, I think it is the most famous and expensive in Australia, unfortunately because of my work I could not get another one that should have less coverage but much cheaper. One day I came to the doctor and he charged me AU$90.00 for a simple consult and to give me a prescription, when I claim for it they gave me back just AU$73.00.

If you are student your life will be easier in this aspect, you can pay for NIB, it's really good too and much cheaper

Medibank Health Insurance http://www.medibank.com.au

NIB Health Insurance http://www.nib.com.au

MBF Heal Insurance http://mbf.com.au

Dentist
Most of health insurances cover few dentist expenses but no much, anyway the cost of a dentist session is too expensive.
My first dentist visit I have a bad, really bad news, it was a root canal and worse it would be AU$3400 to have it done, anyway I paid for it and the insurance gave me back just AU$800, ahhhhhhhhh, it hurts. After few visits to this dentis we have found a really good one and much, I mean much cheaper, a root canal in this one cost close to AU$1200 and even better after claim to Medibank we got back between AU$600 to AU$700, it is in Melbourne Victoria.

I almost forgot to say most of the dentists you don't need to pay in full and claim, they have a machine like a Credit Card machine but from Medibank and you just pay the difference between the full price and how much your health insurance has covered.

General Practitioner ( GP )
After many months too, my wife and I found a doctor (Medical Centre) that fortunately our health insurance cover the full value, we paid nothing.

In most cases, if you need to go to a dermatologist, a gynaecologist or wherever you think you need, you cannot go straight away, you need to consult a GP first and this guy will send you to a right doctor or specialist.

Hospital just in last case, but I can anticipate, go prepared to stay for long because to get done just few stitches, a friend of mine stood for 4 or 5 hours on Monash Medical Centre on the emergency to get few stitches on his finger.

That is it, make your choice and good luck.

Your First Mobile

2011-03-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

It's really a rats race, you need to have bank accounts and bills in your name to buy a mobile, if you've just arrived here, it would be a little tricky...

First of all you need to open an bank account, it's a good idea to open it at Commonwealth Bank, it's easy and they have accounts with no monthly fees.

After a month you will have bank statement and your passport.

If you can get a drivers license will be good, it's one more document

If you rent a house in your name, even better, you have a copy of your contract and you can give to them a copy too.

But even with all of this, I could not setup a mobile account, Go for a cheaper and prepaid one, still hard because you need to give them lots of documents, proving that you are you, lol, funny and ridiculous process, use this one for a while.

If you have a job, half of your problems are solved, you can prove that you are not going away and few more important information to them.

Everything in Australia are points, you need to make 100 point, it means passport you get 50 point, if you show them, water or electricity bill, you get 30 more points, every company has their own punctuation form.

well take with you as much document as you can, as many document with pictures too, to prove your identity, they call it document ID.

The first thing that I could buy here was an prepaid mobile broadband and just because I had a job and I could prove that I would pay every month, otherwise I would spend much more money a month.

I could not buy a mobile plan and even less a mobile broadband plan, I bought prepaid of everything, they made me pay for a mobile broadband key, actually I paid AU$170.00 instead of buying a non prepaid for AU$39.90 a month with a free key, just because I didn't have enough documents to make those points, ridiculous, my international drivers license was in my country and my wife was bringing to me, my bad, don't make the same mistake.

Anyway, open an bank account first of all (do it on the next day after arriving), put some money there, get a drivers license copy (national or international works), copy of rent contract and/or job contract, if you already have any water, gas or electricity bill in your name you are safe, make a copy and go ahead.

Everything that I've said here, doesn't mean that you cannot have a mobile or mobile broadband, actually means that you will pay more for everything, intead to buy a mobile plan for example paying AU$29.90 a month and get a free awesome mobile, or even some deals to get a xbox or a tv for free, you will buy a mobile by your own or get a pre-paid plan with a crap phone or spend a lot to get a good one.

Telstra has the best coverage of all but every call is much more expensive than others

3 Mobile and Vodaphone, they have a good coverage, now they are the same company after join each other, the price of calls is good and in some cases you call for free to any number of 3 Mobile or Vodaphone.

Optus is really good too, sometime you have a really good deal, but I'm not sure if they have free calls to their mobiles on other numbers(like if your friend use the same mobile company)

mobiles of the

Keep eye on deals, they offer really good things when you chose their companies and
Good luck.

Buying a Car

2011-03-04T00:53:00.000-08:00

Buying a car is a really simple task except, finding a good one with low km, you do not need to know much in this transaction:

First of all finding "The Car", the one that you like and most important that you can afford, better buying in a dealer, this way you will have at least 3 months warranty and the chance to be a lemon (crap car) is really low but still existing. You can visit http://www.carsale.com.au it's a best place with lots of filter that can make your task a little bit easy.

See for options to have LPG (it means gas), it is much cheaper to fill in the tank

Every year you will need to pay the registration, it is around AU$600.00, does not matter the value of your car, you can pay AU$500.00 or AU$200000.00 you still needing to pay AU$600.00 to get it registered.

When you buy a car you need to do the roadworthy certificate, after this done you can register you vehicle. The roadworthy certificate is a general check in your car, they will check everything, from a light bulb, to a chassis’s rust, sit belt, everything that you can imagine, if they find any problem, you will need to fix, and sure pay for it before doing the registration. Sometime when you buy a car from private, they don't know or know how much would be to get the roadworthy certificate done, but is your responsibility, in a dealer they do it for you, you still paying, is good idea to ask first how much it will be.

When you buy a car and you read "Drive away", mean that has no more to pay, the value asked is the value that you would pay to get out driving, included roadworthy certificate and registration (REGO)

If you see "Drive Away", always ask but means that the roadworthy certificate and registration are included.

Once you have a car, never miss more than 3 months without paying the registration(REGO), otherwise they will suspend your registration, you can reinstate it but you will be obligated to do roadworthy certificate again, sometimes, pay more than your car value to get it done, "IT IS MY CASE" ahhhhhh.

Last advice is, pay for an insurance, it's really important. If you need road assistance go to RCV roadside assistance, they are cheaper, unfortunately you will need to pay for insurance and roadside assistance probably in different places and different bills.

in Victoria you can go to vicroads site http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/ there you can see more information.

that's it, get you ride and have a good one.

good luck,

Ask me questions if you need, I'll be happy to answer.

Cheers

Basic Bills

2011-03-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

The basic thing that you need to know is, save money because light and water are charged avery three months, it means that every three months you will need to pay 3 months of water and 3 months of electricity, if you have gas they send you a bill every two months.

When I first came here, was winter, in my country the weather is so hot and I couldn't live without heater, unfortunately my unit didn't have gas heater, everything was electric, after three months, wow the surprise, AU$780.00 for three months electricity and more AU$80.00 for water.

It is good idea when you rent a house, it is good idea to find something with gas heater, when you take shower, wash your dishes and warm your house, everything is gas, it's a little bit cheaper and you can use a little bit more.

How to save lots of electricity:

What I did was, to sleep we use now just 19º or 20º, turning off during the day when we are at home or just putting the temperature down to 16º or 17º.

Take your shower but do not abuse of the temperature, take it hot not really hot like burning, if you need to take that really hot shower, be quick, otherwise you will burn your money, lol.

Do not leave TVs, DVDs, or every electronic or appliance in standby, if you are not using turn it off, some of them are ok, but all of them ... never.

Never wash your car at home, prefer self car wash, you pay 4 or 6 dollars and wash your car.

If you have a garden and need watering, be quick and with no much water, if you have a small garden use watering can.

If you need to buy big appliances like fridge, refrigerator, washing machine, dryer..., have a look on energy rating, 5 starts is magnificent, save lots of electricity, never buy less then 3 starts, it will burn you money in electricity.

This is the energy rating, means that it's 3 1/2 starts, it's good

it shows you how many kWh you will spend for year using, e.g 3 times a week on temperature xx

This is the water rating, means that it's 3 1/2 starts, it's good too

it shows you how many kWh you will spend for year using, e.g every day on cicle x

Every appliance comes with the related label on it, like this tv, it is just 2 1/2 stars, is not good one, but if you watch tv for a couple of hours a day it should be ok, otherwise it is not a good one.

Sometimes is good idea to spend a little bit more money when buying those appliance and save a lot in electricity and water

be your own luck

Rent a House

2011-03-02T02:05:00.000-08:00

It looks like an easy task, but actually it is really had, if you gonna live in big cities like, Melbourne, Sydney or even Canberra, keep in mind that you need a good 20 days to find something good and sure win the competition. "Competition?" yes see why.

Thing that you need to know:

A good site to find houses to rent or even if you need to share id http://www.realestate.com.au/
If you live close to the city, most of times you don't need to pay train, you can walk
The best suburbs are in South East but they are expensive then others, you will pay for a normal house close to AU$1400.00 and a good one close to AU$1700.00 a month
North areas you can pay close to AU$1000.00 but they say that is not the safest area in here, my opinion, it still good, not that dangerous.
North West areas, it is so far and takes long by train to go to the city but with AU$1200.00 you can rent a big, really big awesome house
Keep in mind the distance between the house that you are looking for and the next train station, if you do not have car can be painful to walk.

this is a house located on the Noth West area.

You will pay AU$1200.00 a month to live in this house

this is a house located on the Noth area.

You will pay AU$1000.00 a month to live in this house

this is a house located on the South East area.

You will pay AU$1800.00 a month to live in this house

Remember to find a house with carport or garage if you intend to buy a car soon, some houses doesn't have garage and would be hard to park your car outside, sure have a look on the street first.

Is good idea to go by train and see how long from the city to the destination, and ever more important, mark time wealking from the train station to you new house, some of them looks like close but they are so far. It's good idea to see it on google maps before going, somtimes, you don't need to waste your time going to somewhere so far to walk, remember that you will need to walk every day that distance, raining or shinning lol, I did.

Almost done, now when you find a good house that you like and most important, you can afford, have a look on realestate site, they tell you the inspection date and time and house availability, it means that you need to be there at the inspection time and remember to have a look on availability of the house, some of them take months to be available.

Once you have seen a house and like, ask the realestate agent to give you an application form, you will need to fill in and provide fill documents like, passport, some bills, drivers licence and it's good idea to open an bank account before renting, if you give them a passport copy and a bank statement showing your account balance, you have a good chance to be approved, then landlord or owner need to see if you can aford living there.

You can apply to 100 houses at the same time, the only thing, if you are not rich or doesn't have a good money, it will be harder.

Once you are approced, you will be asked to pay the bond and the first month, e.g. if you just rent a house paying AU$1700 a month, normally they will ask you to pay the bond, value that warantee them, even if you break something they will get from this money, otherwise they will give it back in full, the value is not right but often it is a month rent value, and you will need to pay the first month renting, it means you will need to have at least AU$3400.00

When you leave this house, if you get you bond back in full is better, easier to rent the next one.

On your first day on the house take picture of everithing, inside and out, when you give back to them sometimes they complain and ask you to pay for something that was already broken, take those pictures and send to your realestate agent through email, it's a document.

Thats it, good luck for you.

ask me what you need, I'll be glad to answer.

Cheers

Public Transport

2011-03-01T18:47:00.000-08:00

In Melbourne we have train, tram and buses, the most used is train, you can go everywhere by train, and even if you cannot reach your destination, you can get a tram too, it's really good and works fine.

What you need to know

When you buy a ticket it works for everithing for the time that you have bought it, for example, if you buy a 2 hours ticket, you would pay something close to AU$3.60 and you can catch train, tram and buses in this between. Depends how will you use it but if you get public transport every single day, worth more to buy monthly ticket
There is Zone 1 (Yellow) and Zone 2 (Blue), it means that Zone 1 are the closest one and Zone 2 are those a bit further.
A monthly ticket to Zone 1 (Yellow) cost close to AU$109.00, a Zone 2 (Blue) is close to AU$179.00, starts counting days after you use for the first time.
When someone tels you that your train will depart from platform 4 for example, please DO NOT GET THE FIRST TRAIN ARRIVING ON THAT PLATFORM, have a look on tv information, almost every station has a tv displaying the destination, some of them has all station that the train will stop, have a look and stay connected to sound advices.
Even after you knowing that the train arriving is yours, have a look on the TV information, some of them are express to somewhere and they jump few stations, I got the wrong onw so many time, them I needed to get another one to come back, it's not cool.

There is a site (Metlink Melbourne), hereyou can use a tool to plan your journey before go anywhere and get lost, you just write where you are and from where are you going, it's quite good, it tells you where you need to go off train and get a bus or tram for exemplo, the link is http://jp.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/metlink/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en

A monthly ticket to Zone 1 (Yellow) cost close to AU$109.00, a Zone 2 (Blue) is close to AU$179.00, keep eye on it before rent a house somewhere.

It is what the ticket looks like, once you need to validate it, this blue side goes up and the whole(ball) at front like I am holding, and go ahead, you can validate it and be happy.

Hope you enjoy Melbourne and don't make the same mistake as me, getting the wrong train.

Thanks, hope that helps and send me comments or ask me for something else.

NEXT POST COMMING SOON

How to Use

2011-03-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

On the right side you will find a box labeled "Blog Archive", there you should be able to find the information that you are looking for by title.

If you could not find the information that you are looking for, please send me a comment and I will post as soon as possible.

Enjoy and Cheers,

Marcos