Another “How Much Do We Need in Israel” thread

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Forum -> Inquiries & Offers -> Israel related Inquiries & Aliyah Questions

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amother

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 11:39 am

Reading through another thread and I didn’t want to completely derail it…trying to figure out what kind of an income you need in Israel to get by (not “comfortable” but not “struggling” ie can pay the bills but not living an excessive lifestyle).

Currently we bring in about $11,000/month net (gross would be close to $17,000 but we are in Canada so our taxes are very high) and we are very much struggling. Basically at a high-level our monthly expenses are:
•Housing ~ $4000 (mortgage, property taxes, insurance, utilities)
•vehicles ~ $1000 (car payment on one car is 356, rest is maintenance/insurance/gas for both vehicles)
• groceries/household ~ $1500
• tuition ~$2000 (subsidized amount for 3 kids, including 1 IEP at 2K/year and 1 kid on the bus for 2k, we also have 2 not yet in school)
• misc other (phones, internet, shul dues, mikvah, clothes/kid activities, school supplies) plus interest on debt (mostly carried over tuition) pretty much takes up the rest and whatever is left gets thrown at debt.

If we move to Israel, we could either sell our house and would probably have about $700k cad/1.8 NIS after the mortgage, or could probably rent it out for $4000-5000/month because prices here are insane 🙃 and that’s what a regular house is renting for here).

I doubt we could keep our jobs in Israel so that is the big unknown.

At the moment we’re thinking we wouldn’t land in RBS or one of the usual olim spots, we are looking at Harish and Carmi’el and maybe Karmei Gat, but basically somewhere that we’re not going to squish our kids into a 3 bdrm apartment.

From my very preliminary research we would be able to buy a 4 bedroom/5 room with little or no mortgage (and not 10k NIS/month anyway) in those areas (probably not CG). Not sure if we would have a vehicle because I know that’s crazy expensive.

Schools we would probably send to dati public schools so I’m assuming minimal tuition.

Groceries…what would we expect to spend as 7 people? We don’t generally eat meat during the week. We eat a lot of pasta and rice.

We don’t buy fancy clothes, clothes come used from value village etc or Walmart or hand-me-downs and we buy on sale when we need something beyond that. No fancy vacations. Don’t really eat out. Kids do sports activities through the city/community.

What things are cheaper in Israel vs more expensive? Phones/internet?

How much is healthcare? We pay nothing here (I mean, we obviously pay tons through our taxes, but we don’t see it) and most of our dental/vision/physio is covered through employer benefits.

Everyone talks about how Israel is so expensive and salaries are so much lower, but by my estimates I feel like 15k-20k NIS month should cover everything at a level comparable to here? Maybe? 5000 housing, 5000 food (or would it be more) and those would be the main ones? Isn’t that basically two FT minimum wage jobs (not saying we would be in minimum wage jobs, Gd willing we would be more gainfully employed, but even if both our current salaries were literally cut in half we would still be around that…)?

Thank you ladies for your kind input 🙂

Success10 ↓

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 12:13 pm

I personally think 20,000 shekels is enough to live with a family your size. But 25,000 would be more comfy. The first few months you spend tons more setting yourself up.

amother

Lightgray

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 1:33 pm

We are a family of 5 and make do on about 12000 Shekel a month. We bought and paid off completely our house in a Yishuv across the Green Line, thanks to dh's savings and an inheritance. We own 2 used cars. I feel we are doing fine, though Americans would probably find our lifestyle frugal. Hardly ever eating out, being mostly vegetarian during the week, cheap clothes and second hand furniture for the most part. Children go to dati State schools. There are some fees for this and that but it is absolutely peanuts compared to Jewish education in the US.

Regarding basic health insurance in Israel - it is basically mandatory. If you have an Israeli job, it gets deducted automatically. Basic care is not expensive. All the kuppot cholim have various upgrade plans where you can choose to pay more to get better service.

Bnei Berak 10

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 2:05 pm

With your frugal down to earth lifestyle it seems to me you could have a good life where Smile

DH, who's been in the US for 22 years says cellphone plans considerably cheaper in Israel.
You have Arnona (municipality taxes) to be paid every second month and upscale cities are considerably expensive (it depends on that apartment/house you have, it's based on size of square meters and sometimes lots of other parameters) so you need to take into account.

amother

Oak

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 2:40 pm

We live nicely (we think) on 17,000 a month. We save the rest of our salary.

amother

Broom

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 3:46 pm

We’re just making it on 32,000 shekel a month because car payments and mortgage are 16,000. So after those payment we’re living on 16,000 which is fine - but not much space for extras. Any big unexpected expense is a challenge. It sounds like you’d be able to live pretty comfortably in Israel with your lifestyle, savings, and salary!

amother

Pistachio ↓

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 3:55 pm

I’m also from Canada. Lived In harish when we first made Aliyah, really didn’t like it. Too far from major cities. We came when it was still being built. Moved to the merkaz ( central area ) due to (my own perceived) better quality of life, closeness to Jerusalem & other major city centers for work. In Jerusalem specifically the religious area in big stores like osher ad, food prices are cheaper than the rest of the country.
Compared to Israel, Canada’s fees on everything are more abundant and higher cost.(in my opinion.)
I had horrible work opportunities in Canada and way more bracha in EY
High speed wifi is 170 shekels appx
Our phone service is 35 shekel per phone per month, includes unlimited talk and wifi roaming which is high speed
Healthcare is free except when you visit specialists it’s around 30 shekels, if you want an elite health membership with benefits and reduced costs it’s around 80-180 shekels a month.
Good luck on your Aliyah and may it be with lots of bracha and hatzlacha. Ashraich!

Brit in Israel ↓

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 4:00 pm

amother Pistachio wrote:

Health care isn't free (maybe for a short time after Aliyah but I didn't get that maybe I wasn't eligible coz I had work straight away)
You have to pay a base amount each month per family member to your Kuppah and then all regular Dr visits are covered specialist and scans like US each cost 30 Nis.

Phone lines are also slowly picking up the price.

↑ Success10 ↓

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 4:03 pm

Brit in Israel wrote:

Healthcare is free, Bituach Leumi is not.

And if you want an upgraded healthcare plan, then it's also not free (although pretty close if you compare to what they pay in the US).

↑ Brit in Israel

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 4:06 pm

Success10 wrote:

Healthcare is free, Bituach Leumi is not.

And if you want an upgraded healthcare plan, then it's also not free (although pretty close if you compare to what they pay in the US).

Besides bituach leumi, don't you have to pay a base to the Kuppah?
I'm meuhedet, we don't have full coverage and we are paying them.

↑ Success10

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 4:09 pm

Brit in Israel wrote:

Besides bituach leumi, don't you have to pay a base to the Kuppah?
I'm meuhedet, we don't have full coverage and we are paying them.

I think the base plan for all 4 kupot is free. Most people take the upgrade, though.

amother

↑ Pistachio

Tue, Sep 10 2024, 4:49 pm

Success10 wrote:

I think the base plan for all 4 kupot is free. Most people take the upgrade, though.

Correct

amother

Magenta ↓

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 12:35 am

amother Lightgray wrote:

You mean: All kupot cholim have various upgrade plans where you can choose to pay more *to receive discounts or sometimes even free additional services not included in the basic healthcare basket.*

This shouldn't and in our experience hasn't impacted the quality of service. (Never heard of someone for who it has, actually.)

But the upgraded plans offer discounts on therapies, dental treatments, glasses for those over 18 (under 18 the discounts/plans are standardized), and so on.

amother

↑ Magenta ↓

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 4:51 am

We earn (neto) about 15k together, 5 kids, renting in Jerusalem. We are barely managing the month, meaning we have a hole 1k or so each month. I think if we were earning (neto) 20k a month we'd be pretty comfortable unless we started paying lots for therapies in which case I'd want 23k-25k a month.

amother

Fern ↓

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 5:12 am

We live in an area priced around the same as the areas you're looking at.

We need around 25,000 shekels a month with 6 kids. Ages of kids matter - daycare for ages 0-2 and private school (if you want or need it) for older teens both cost a lot more than elementary school.

We just finished paying daycare (subsidized, at 2,000/month, non-subsidized is more like 3,200) and are still paying private school tuition for one child (1,300/month).

Cars are expensive but still doable if you buy used. We got a 7 seater for 37,000 (35,000 + 2,000 in minor repairs). To be honest I sort of regret not getting a hybrid, but a hybrid minivan costs more like 80,000 shekels.

Our major expenses:

House: 4,500 a month (mortgage, property tax, repairs)

Food: 6,500 a month (we don't eat much meat but also not much pasta and rice, a couple kids are on special diets)

Transportation: 1,800 a month (school bus, car insurance, gas, buses and trains, savings toward a new car in another 8-10 years)

School: 2,600 a month (1,300 private tuition, 900/month afternoon daycare for toddler, 200/month fees for high school kids)

Furniture/electronics: 1,000 a month (of course not every month, but we need to replace 1-2 major items every year)

Special occasions: 1,300/month (holidays (eg Passover costs around 2,000, summer vacation is expensive), birthdays (8 per year), 1 cheap family vacation eg camping or renting an air bnb in another city for a couple nights)

Travel abroad: 1,000 (we don't all go every year! but even half of us going once every few years adds up)

The rest is maaser, water and electric bills, phone and internet, medical (around 700/month, including glasses, braces, and adhd meds), entertainment (netflix, newspaper subscriptions), clothes and shoes, and minor miscellaneous expenses.

amother

↑ Fern

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 5:18 am

In general it varies by region. If we were in Jerusalem our rent or mortgage would be much higher.

Our mortgage is pretty low even for this area, we had a big down payment and also got a very good deal on the mortgage with help from a mortgage advisor. It was more expensive for the first few years but is very affordable now. So even up north, if your down payment is less than 500,000 shekels your mortgage will probably be more like 6,500 a month, maybe higher.

The other main thing is to remember non-monthly expenses. Sometimes people will say they spend 13,000 or 17,000 a month when what they really mean is that their monthly expenses are that much. But if you add in Pesach, fall chagim, replacing a broken fridge, fixing a plumbing issue, a kid needing braces, suddenly you're at 20,000 a month.

amother

Honeydew ↓

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 5:34 am

We're a family of 7 and we need about 19,000 net to make it through the month properly. No vacations abroad, no car, rent is 5000 (tiny apartment in Jerusalem). Just regular expenses including the random one-offs. We do use the kuppah for medical including dentistry wherever possible. I am frugal about meals and we don't each much meat during the week, nor have that many guests. Usually shabbos protein is chicken wings, cold cuts, two salmon fillets cut up. Take out once a month for Rosh Chodesh, usually pizza or sushi. Buy all clothing and shoes new, but not from expensive stores, usually from Next etc. We're comfortable in our simple way, I love the minimalist lifestyle.

amother

↑ Magenta

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 5:52 am

amother Magenta wrote:

Oh, and no car, and baby is home with me (WAHM), not in daycare.
Which likely is the difference between us and the poster who wrote that they need 19k - daycare is about 2k monthly.

amother

NeonPink

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 6:06 am

Family of six, one in diapers
Live in the merkaz
Mortgage is 8500 shekel
We need approx 28000 a month. We have food intolerances so eat a lot of chicken during the week. We host a lot for shabbos.

amother

↑ Honeydew

Wed, Sep 11 2024, 6:32 am

amother Magenta wrote:

Oh, and no car, and baby is home with me (WAHM), not in daycare.
Which likely is the difference between us and the poster who wrote that they need 19k - daycare is about 2k monthly.

All our kids are in schools, no daycare. I budget quite carefully but it could be we just have a lot of one off expenses these days.

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