Couple of questions

Personally; to have a good enough lifestyle here you should aim for €17.5 - €2K per month. But as no doubt others will point out, we are retired.

Hi again Mik,

Bless you, you're the one that always answers all my threads and questions :-)

I'm not sure I can manage quite 2k, but there are two of us so I'm sure it won't be that far off. As I said, we're minimal requirement type of people. Proper yorkshire, chips and beans kinda people haha

I'm just not sure what to expect, as all jobs I've seen won't disclose salary (which doesn't help). I read a lot posts from people complaining about salary being 4 or 5 euros an hour. Not really sure what to make of it or think with salary, as I can only go on what I read (most of the posts are a couple of years old)

Cheers

Hi kamio,

it all boils down to what you have to offer to the job market here in Malta. With the right qualifications and experience and looking for work that cannot be done by Maltese workers you will do very well. Examples are jobs in the IT or i-gaming business with multiple languages usually excluding English (Maltese think they speak good enough English). High level jobs in banks and investment companies are also very attractive. There are also quite a few jobs associated with Embassies and EU offices, so there are jobs out there that pay nicely.

Looking at jobs in the Maltese(speaking) job market you have a lot of jobs paying around 15.000 €/year that require speaking Maltese  ( teachers, higher-level civil servants and so on).

Then you have the whole section of minimum wage jobs for unskilled labour ( construction,drivers,waiters,room cleaners and so on). There you are talking about 5 €/hour and less.

The Maltese themselves have a totally different cost structure to Expats. Most own property and don't pay rent and sell or rent out property for income.

I would agree that to have a decent lifestyle an Expat should have an income of 1500 € or more/month although I know that others do get along with a lot less.  In the end Malta is not as cheap as it looks.

A decent rental place in an attractive area for Expats will cost around 500 € , based on rent being about 1/3 of the costs of living you get to about 1500 € /month.

Cheers
Ricky

Hey Ricky,

Cheers for your detailed reply.

I'm not really sure what I have to offer. A law degree, which is probably useless there (maybe useful in an international company I dunno). Health related management qualifications and a lot of experience in operations. That's about it really. I've always done the same career (bit boring I am) lol I can speak a couple of languages, but not Maltese unfortunately. I just want a normal job, without the pressures of management, which I've just escaped from after 10 years. I just need to make sure I can get by on a basic wage which matches the basic job (if that makes sense)

To be honest, I don't want loads, just enough to live on. Part of this move is to experience a completely different life and get away from everything British. We don't want to live in an Expat area, we want to live in a Maltese area, with few expats (if any). I guess we just wanna blend in with everyday living and Maltese culture. We will meet up with expats, as we know a few couples in Malta, but they live further north.

Thanks again for the detailed reply

kamio27 wrote:

, we want to live in a Maltese area, with few expats (if any). I guess we just wanna blend in with everyday living and Maltese culture.

many people say thats what they want, but in reality it isnt what they want :-) what many expats actually want is to be with other expats who also dont want to be with other expats, and with locals with an international outlook.

"proper" Maltese culture isnt really accessible without speaking Maltese

Well, I can assure you it's what I want. I've spent a lot of my life in France (as my mum is French and my father is English) and I really don't like British culture, way of life...or anything really. I have no love for this country and it's not a 'the grass is greener on the other side' thing, it's a 'I want to move to a place where I love to be in thing' :-P (spent many visits there when my grandpa was alive and lived there) I'm here because you go where your parents go when you're a child, then when you leave home and meet someone, get married and life takes over etc I'll learn Maltese, it's just difficult here as there is so little in the form of learning Maltese - it isn't a popular language here unfortunately

*reads your post again*....You know, that was actually well worded now I read it again haha....Not really sure now I think about it....I guess I just want away from British people/customs - not that there's anything wrong with them, they're just not for me and I just don't want to mingle with people who move to Malta and expect it to be little UK and spend half their life moaning (if that makes sense). Just wanna try and respect Maltese ways and blend in best I can.


Kinda impressed with your wording...wisdom in your words there. Respect to you Georgeingozo...and it's not often someone baffles my chain of thoughts by their words :-)

Hi kamio,

to be honest , it will take many years to 'blend into the' Maltese culture and nearly impossible without speaking Maltese. That is a dream! And I have many Maltese friends that I have known for up to 20 years. I'm on the board of the Ramblers Association and deal with many Government departments and also locals of all sorts. Yet you always stay the foreigner  ..... the language of Malta is Maltese and unless you speak it you stay out!

In the end you will be looking at the Expat community here in Malta to make friends and socialize. Maltese Expats are not just UK folks though ....it is really international. In the end you will get together with Expats that match your interests ..... just not with Maltese -)))

Best of luck though ....
Ricky

kamio27 wrote:

...I guess I just want away from British people/customs

which is what many of the British expats also want :-)  I guess another way of looking at it, is that you make friends based on who the person is here, not their nationality - certainly in Gozo most of the Brits see their British roots as only moderately important - I have friends here of probably 10 different nationalities. That includes some Gozitan and Maltese, but generally those who have lived overseas.

The other thing to bear in mind is the situation regarding pensions if you move to Malta.
You may finish up with a very small UK pension and no Malta pension!

Terry

as long as Malta and the UK remain in the EU until the OP retires (and the EU still exists) then you can combine social security contributions in different EU countries for public pension rights