Yes, you're right, we do have our own weather system here in Finchley and the local council has decreed that all houses must be built to the same blueprint! I'm agreed that Finchley has little to offer someone who enjoys designer shopping and celebrity-style venues but in terms of weather and housing it's really rather similar to the various suburbs of London all my friends live in!!!!

"Finchley Central, 2 and 6 pence" ever since that song i've always wanted to go to Finchley Central and see what's there - now i know.

PalQ: You forgot to mention the best thing about Crystal Palace - The Dinosaurs!

And as for Finchley. We must all be eternally grateful to the good people of Finchley for making Thacherism possible.

Not in my time, David... it's Labour now.

Kavey - Exactly!

So its's gone downhill then.

David - Putney (con gain)

I'm not even going to get into who we each voted for - there are enough confrontations on this board without going THERE! :D

Kate (or whomever else would like to jump in) -

Roughly how much would a single room or a studio flat run in either Queens Park/Kilburn or West Hampstead/Maida Vale?

I've looked at a few property sites and just haven't come across a listing for those areas (only 2- or 3- bedroom flats).

Are you familiar with the Gum Tree site? (www.gumtree.com - but you may have to fiddle about to get the one for London)) It's for young(ish)foreigners in london, and is a mine of usefull information (and you can get a shag off it too - which seems to be it's best known purpose!)

On there at the moment is a one bed in Finchley Rd (near W Hampstead at £140 pwk(which seems cheap), a studio in Kilburn (again near W Hampstead) at £130 pwk. A studio in "Maida Vale Borders" (again watch out for that "borders" bit!) for £100.

These all seem on the cheap side. I would expect to pay about £150-180 for a flat in Maida Vale (aka Media Vale - it's full of journalists!), the same in W Hampstead and a bit less in Queens Park.

It also has falt and house shares and is the first point of contact for most young people coming to london.

Thanks, David. I'll check out the site today.

Rather than saying "how much will it be?" which is only useful to you, and no one else can possibly know what you have in mind, it's far easier for you to say "I've got from X to a maximum of Y to spend" then people can find you some alternatives.

You're best off with www.primelocation.com.

m_kingdom -

I don't have a budget yet, so it is impossible for me to give a range. I'm working backwards and trying to determine what salary range I need to be in in order to find appropriate housing in a neighborhood of interest to me.

I'm coming from NYC, and while all the cost of living indices say London is more expensive, I don't buy-in to the real-life application and know that London salaries are less than what I'm used to here.

Thanks for your reference - I will check in out.

Bear in mind that there is a huge difference between the salary on the Job ad and what you get to take home. The tax man is quite fierce!

To give an idea: A salary of £25,000 equates to a take home pay of around £1600 pcm, £30,000 about £1800 and £35,000 around an archer a month. Higher rate tax kick in at around £38,000 so an income of £50,000pa won't produce double the take home pay of £25,000.

Also remember that most landlords will want at least one months rent as deposit and one month's rent up front.

Then there's the Council Tax - a local tax not usually included in the rent. This can vary hugely depending on the political make up of the council for the area (in short, Conservative councils are usually a lot cheaper), but even for a quite modest one bed place this can add up to at least another £100 pcm.

Then you've got to have a TV licence (but once you've seen British TV you'll never be able to watch yank TV again - too many ads) and thats another £100.

Don't even think about driving into London for work - that's £8 a day tax before you start.

A weekly zone 1-3 travelcard is £25.00

It's not a cheap place to live and I wouldn't want to do it on a modest salary!

You must have some idea of budget. You obviously know what job you can apply for, so you can have a rough idea of how high you can aim. And please don't say you don't know, because if that's the case maybe you should stay put. Surely you want the highest salary you can get? A most odd way of doing things.

As for council tax, Westminster is one of the cheapest, with the top band's rate equating to little over an hundred a month.

London salaries are higher than American ones. I remember a long time ago looking into American counterparts, and they earned typically 75% less than in London. Although of course when you look into cost of living differences there is some equilibrium.

You need to consider that practically 10k of your net salary will go on cost of living - heating, taxes, transport, etc. And renting isn't a long-term fix really. Rental prices can go up far beyond inflation whilst wages might only increase (or even decrease if that industry sector is doing badly) in line with inflation.

What sort of salary do you think you can aim for? (rhetorical question, I don't want an answer, I just wish you'd say you can afford 200 a week rental etc. etc. otherwise it's pointless).

I don't think you can say that London salaries are higher than NY ones. I think it depends on your profession. I'd certainly get paid slightly more in NY for my position than here, and that's before the tax man cometh.

I remember reading an article (that's several articles in several publications over a period of time) and someone who'd be earing around 100kGBP (a relatively high salary) here would only be earning around 150kUSD in NYNY, so that is a pretty significant drop. But then again someone at the top on a seven figure salary will probably be doing equally as well, if not better, in New York. I've no idea about the salary of cleaners and low-paid workers though. But I'd still say they're better here as we have an higher minimum wage do we not?

Of course when you look at net salary then there might not be such a drop at the top end, but I'd still favour UK for higher gross pay.

I think you have a fair point about lower paid workers (and let's not forget the poor waiting staff, scavenging for tips).

I remember in the aftermath of 9/11, hearing the average pay of a NY Fireman and thinking 'wow, that's a lot less than even our lot get paid'

What’s important isn’t how many pound/dollars/Euros/cowrie shells you get – but what that buys you.

The best way to work out what the purchasing power of you salary is the famous “Big Mac Index”. It works on the assumption that a Big Mac is A globally standardised product, and therefore offers a fair and efficient way of comparing bangs-for-your-buck.

Here’s the most recent with an explanatory article from the Economist (the actual index is the little blue thing in the top right of the article). Suprisingly for the Economist this article makes sense to people who don’t have pointy heads.

http://www.economist.com/markets/big...ory_id=4065603

It's a stupid index to be honest. The Scandinavian countries appear to be very expensive, more expensive than the UK. It's quite simply ridiculously wrong. I've always found that everywhere I've been has been cheaper than London.

Why not choose another product? You can never look at retail prices by looking at one product, you need several hundred at least.

E.g. English mustard is more expensive than caviar in Russia, and that certainly isn't the case in London. European designers are pricier in Japan than in Europe. etc. etc. etc.

Actually it’s not as silly as you might think. Bearing in mind that in almost all the places on the index a Big Mac is not an exotic or expensive purchase (or specially taxed – like alcohol in Scandiwegia) you have to wonder what the difference in costs actually represent.

What they represent is the cost of land (ie rent). Overall taxation (land tax, employer’s tax, sales tax) and overheads (utilities, wages, other costs).

If they are incurred in putting a Big Mac on the table they will be incurred in almost all other economic activity – so in short: expensive burger? Expensive everything else.

The other commodities you mention cost more in different countries as, firstly they have to be imported, with attendant duties and tariffs, and secondly they are niche goods, and as such are priced at what the market will bear.

London is expensive, and that is reflected in our salaries.