[Skyhook]

ha ha where do they get the money, they get it from UA finance lol. A very sad reality of today's young people, especially here.

As to saving money, I think we got that sorted to a level that is extremely localised, shopping for all our food in Yuen Long has saved us 50%-70% compared to if we shopped at the expat aimed GC welcome super market. 2 weeks worth of meat, made up of beef, pork, chicken wings etc, costs us $235HKD versus $700 for the same items at the welcome lol.

Eating out, well we do that once in awhile, but really dont see the point of doing that too often when we can cook a better meal at home, or invite people over here, instead of wasting $3000 for a night out in LKF....

It was fun to do that maybe early on, but after awhile you think about better things to spend your money on.

Also, if one must have luxury items like LV and Gucci, you can purchase those items direct from Italy and France for much less than HK, we've discovered that Tokyo is also considerably cheaper than HK on most consumer items too.We purchased our last camera there for 30%less than HK, without haggling..

HK is cheap on a basic necessity perspective, grocery shopping is actually much cheaper than Australia, once you learn how to eat like a local, and purchase daily eqv items like a local, thats when you save a huge amount of money, without feeling any different.

As to how someone earning earning 10K can survive, well they can if they live in Govt funded housing, or if they are married and earning a combined income of 20K per month, in a modest rental of 5K a month, that would be about the only way, unless they live with parents, who are footing all the bills... There's a large percentage of HK 20 somethings living at home who like to sponge off their folks...

[goleoboy]

and those 20 somethings spend their entire income on their LV / Gucci's... it's sad... young people in HK these days... boy i sound old.. ;-P

[yona]

Skyhook is right. The ones that earn 10K live in government housing. They also send their (only) child to local school, which is free, and pay NO tax at all.
So life in HK can also be quite cheap. The transportation is a big % of the budget for these people.