Back to Aus? | |
Should I stay or should I go?With so many people endeavouring to obtain that coveted visa to a new life down under, I wonder if there are many who have already done that, been there, come back and are now wanting to return to Aus for good, but need to overcome the usual financial and emotional obstacles firstly before booking that one way ticket back?I lived in Sydney between 1999 and 2002 where I became a citizen, then following redundancy and a desire to put my life in order returned to the UK. I have regretted it ever since and am now desperate to return. So what's stopping me? I moved to Aus after throwing in my career as a stressed and underpaid London teacher. Having spent the previous 18 months retraining as a web designer and arriving in Aus with just £500, I found myself in work within a week of arriving and soon settled into the Manly beach lifestyle and considerably lowered stress levels and improved health. But at aged 40 I had outgrown the back packer scene I ended up in and wanting more of a career, property investment and family, thought a stint back in Blighty might work before returning to Aus permanently. It did, sort of. I am now very happily married, own two properties worth about the same as what I paid for them 8 years ago and am carrying the all too common personal debt burden. My career has moved on and I am now a highly paid contract ecommerce project manager. I also just turned 50! I reckon that within 18 months I'll have cleared the debt, have off loaded one of the properties, the other becoming a rental safe harbour if it doesn't work out in Aus second time around and should have about £50k for the move back to Aus. My wife, who is 13 years younger and a senior nurse but not eligible to work in Aus until her language skills improve (to an impossible IELTS level 7) is also keen to go. But whereas such a move would have been easy for me in my youth, it now just feels altogether more risky. Firstly, can I find the work and will it last? I know IT project management is in demand in Aus, but then there are significant age barriers and I believe Aus to be far worse than the UK in this respect. My trick has always been not to let on about my age and work as contractor. I am generally thought to be a good ten years younger by people who don't know me. Secondly, is there any hope of setting up a mortgage with AU$60K at 52 years of age? Australian house prices look as scary as the UK these days. Despite my profession, I am actually a risk taker at heart having moved between jobs, lived and worked around the world and benefitted from that spirit of adventure and enterprise. I believe my sense of adventure, hard work and flexibility would see us through a second time in Aus, but the psychological barriers are different this time. Or are they? BonzaBloke Trackback |
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