I moved to Hungary and earn £260 a month - I don’t regret leaving the UK

Jamie Murphy, 37, moved to Hungary over ten years ago and has remained there ever since, despite finding it difficult to find a steady income, currently earning just £260 a month.

He grew up in Skelmersdale, Liverpool, but moved to different locations, including Northern Ireland, St Helens and abroad, once he started working.

“I never felt I found my place or that I had a solid place to live for years”, Jamie said.

In 2015, Jamie was offered a remote job he could do anywhere in the world as an app and tech product developer. At this point, he was living in Manchester and enjoying it. But he did not want to overlook the opportunity, so he accepted the job.

“I was in my early twenties and constantly buying things on credit cards and paying back loans from years ago. It wasn’t the only reason I left the UK, but I just didn’t like the debt culture back home.”

Before quitting the UK, Jamie was earning £30,000 a year as a product developer for an e-commerce site, working 40 hours a week.

In August 2015, Jamie moved to Budapest, Hungary, after a friend told him it was a great place to visit, and subsequently met his now-wife.

There are many aspects of living in Hungary Jamie enjoys, but his move overseas has not been without its challenges, particularly when it comes to securing a job and steady income.

“One of the biggest challenges about Budapest and Hungary is finding well-paid work”, Jamie said.

Earlier this year, Jamie secured a full-time job in tech product development, which would have paid him just over £5,500 a month before deductions. However, the employer subsequently withdrew the job offer for financial reasons.

Having found well-paid roles hard to come by, Jamie has run his own apps, including StillMind Meditation Journal, a meditation app, and has done contract work.

Such work included Jamie taking on the role of a product manager for a language learning app, and in the past few years, he has been earning about £77,000 a year.

Jamie’s current income, however, is only around £260 a month and comes from his StillMind app. The long-term contract roles he had recently ended and he has been struggling to find new contracts or a full-time job since.

“Unfortunately, we’re living off our savings at present. We do not have much in savings because buying our house in Hungary last year pretty much wiped us out and we spent a lot renovating it.”

He said he has about £6,000 in savings that will probably last around two months – and is actively looking for jobs.

He added: “I’m hoping some income appears from somewhere soon.”

Jamie’s wife, Ágnes, 31, looks after the couple’s children, Noah, four, and Luna, two, at home and has not worked for a number of years. The couple have a third baby coming in November.

“I’m not too bothered by the fact I could be earning more in the UK because, in some ways, though not all, living in Hungary is cheaper”, Jamie said.

However, he said rent is expensive. While living in Budapest, in a small flat, monthly payments had increased to £1,000 a month, often increasing 20 per cent a year.

“The rent in Budapest became unsustainable, so we moved in with my wife’s family for a few months to save money for a deposit. As I’ve been self-employed, it was very hard for me to get a mortgage. Very few banks would take me on. To get a mortgage we had to have a bigger deposit.”

Last year, Jamie and his wife purchased a detached three-bedroom house with land in Piliscsaba, 40 minutes from Budapest, near the Pilis Mountains, for £170,000. The couple have a 25-year mortgage with an interest rate of 6.19 per cent, paying £900 a month.

In terms of other bills, Jamie pays around £720 a month for groceries in Hungary and £290 a month for gas and electric.

“Some of the bills are quite comparable to the UK”, Jamie said. He also believes there is a much wider choice of groceries on offer in the UK than in Hungary, particularly for vegetarians and vegans.

But the cost of family-related activities is much cheaper in Hungary, according to Jamie.

He said: “Our daughter’s private nursery is £360 a month, including food, and swimming lessons for our son are £30 a month for one lesson a week. Getting music lessons and use of an instrument costs £62 for each child for one year.”

For public transport, Jamie pays about £25 a month for unlimited travel on buses and the metro system.

Jamie thinks Hungary beats the UK when it comes to the cost of socialising and sports. A trip to a restaurant costs about £12 per person in Hungary, while a pint of craft beer can be picked up for £3.40, according to Jamie.

Jamie does think the tax system in Hungary could be fairer.

He said: “In the UK, you get tax-free allowances which are helpful. That is not the case in Hungary. Hungary has a flat 15 per cent personal income tax rate. There is also a mandatory Social Security Contribution of 18.5 per cent.

“I don’t think the tax system is quite as fair in Hungary as it is in the UK. In Hungary, because of the flat rate, people on lower incomes are, in my view, taxed more than they should be. Hungary should be taxing people on higher incomes more.”