When searching for a new home, specialists are quick to remind us that there’s always a compromise. We all want to live in a great location, close to great schools, in a house with a big garden, large rooms, and a well-equipped kitchen. 

Many people relocate to Australia thinking that the move will somehow make life perfect. It’s as if moving countries should automatically mean that we can afford the best of everything. I didn’t expect life to be perfect in Australia, but I hoped it would be better than life back home.  Or what’s the point, right?

I recently read an online forum about how quick some people are to compare the UK and Australia, and to moan about the things they feel are lacking in Aus. This relates to the perfect world scenario I’ve described above. By relocating to Australia, people expect to keep all the good things in their lives and replace the bad. They want all the things they liked about their country of origin, just in a ‘better’ location; a win, win situation.

I hate to burst that bubble but for us, the great location comes at a cost. As I write this, Joni Mitchell’s lyrics “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone” keep popping into my head. And before you give up and think this is going to depress you, hang in there; there’s good news to come.

Family and friends

In Australia we live in a great location, near good schools. What’s more we live in a house with a big garden, large rooms, and a well-equipped kitchen. We’re not doing too badly in the prefect world scenario I described above.

In London we lived in a good location, near average schools (unless you want to convert your religion or rob a bank). We lived in a property that worked well with one child but was bursting at the seams following number two, and would have coped less as the children got older.

In London we were worse off in the property scenario. However, we lived close to family and friends and regularly felt the warmth of their support. Night out for a friend’s birthday? No worries, draft in the grandparents. Night out with the girls? Bring it on!

We certainly didn’t take any of this for granted and knew we’d miss it, but even with those expectations it’s hard.  It’s the little things that sting.

In the UK, if I had a challenging morning with the children, I would phone my Mum, have a moan, ask advice, and instantly feel better. I’d schedule a night out with close friends and have a break from the routine to look forward to.

These days, waking Mum at 3am to discuss the latest tantrums isn’t an option. Having a bad day in a new country, on a different time zone to your nearest and dearest can feel very lonely.

Immediate access to people who instantly understand and support me is one of the things I’ve given up for this great location. 

Financial security

The process of moving to a new country is stressful, not least due to the financial pressure it puts you under. If you’re relocating through work and your company pays all expenses, hurrah! You can skip this paragraph as your financial security won’t have felt a thing; unlike ours.

In the UK, we owned the property we lived in. We had savings in the bank. We had a credit history. If we wanted to take out a loan for a new car, we could. We had financial choices, plenty of them.

The sense I have here, in terms of our financial security, is that we’re starting again.

We’re renting again. I know it’s a very British thing to want to own rather than rent the property you live in, but when most of the people you meet at work or the school gates are home owners you feel you’ve slipped down the chain, in terms of financial maturity.

We sometimes (but not too often for our own sanity) bounce around, what ifs? And worry about the lack of financial options we have these days, compared to before we left the UK.

For me, that’s the second piece of bad news. Perhaps, it’s down to poor planning on our part, but I didn’t expect to feel such a loss of financial security by moving to Aus. 

The good news

Now for the good news, and some more song lyrics; we’ll soon be “right back to where we started from.”* The things we’ve given up aren’t lost forever.

Missing family and friends can’t be rectified, but with Email, Skype and Facebook you can get through it. You can also make equally good friends down under. We’ve been here eight months and met some fantastic people who I’m sure  will become as irreplaceable as our friends back home...and we get to keep them too!

And the finances...We’ll work hard, try and be sensible with what we spend, and eventually we’ll have our financial security again. Then we can really enjoy our “great location, near good schools, in a house with a big garden, large rooms, and a well-equipped kitchen.“ And we’ll be “so glad we made it.”**