Job Discussion Forums

[matador]

How much money should I be earning before/after tax in Spain in order to support my wife and young child...nice apartment, car, the nice things in life. Not rich...just how much do I need to be comfortable per month? How many euros a month??

[Moore]

To support a wife and child it will be expensive, at least here in Madrid.
For a two bed appartment you're looking at least 750 euros a month plus bills. It's hard to say how much the other stuff will cost, but you do say comfortable. As a single person I think that you need to be on at least 1750 a month to relax and do normal sorts of things (the odd holiday, think about buying a car etc), so to support a wife and kid, you'd want at least 2500 a month, probably more towards 3000 (I'm assuming the wife won't be working).

This is obviously way more than a TEFL teacher can expect to earn, you can get around 1800 a month if you work very hard and are legal and have been here for a while.

[Moore]

A good idea might be to post you question on this forum...

http://spaintalk.multimadrid.org/groupee/forums

...there are a good few married couples posting on there.

[jr1965]

Matador,

I'm living in Madrid with my husband and young daughter. I'm not sure if your child is school age yet, but if he/she is and you want a quality, non-parochial education, it will cost you btwn 500-700 euros a month. Add then the cost of renting a flat, food, bills (electric, water, DSL, etc) tranportation (I don't own a car and wouldn't here in Madrid, but still, getting around by bus, metro, and cab adds up). Yep, you're looking at about 2200-2500 euros a month. Then, of course, there are the set-up costs when you arrive (buying furniture, getting DSL installed, etc).

I'm sure you can do it far cheaper in a small town here in Spain, though the tradeoff, of course, is lifestyle and access to employment.