Confus3d

Hi all,

I have a lot of questions and I am "confused" so if you could please help me out with as much info as possible.

Here is a little background: I am from India and my wife is from UK and we got married in USA and moved to UK back in 2003 and stayed there up until 2007 and the only reason we moved out of UK was that we were not able to make ends meet and moving to India seemed like a good idea at the time as I had a place to live here and things were cheap. Me and my wife put together were making 2200 pounds a month at the time we moved to India and it was just not enough.. A lot of credit card debt and personal loans and what not and we were both young and stupid at the same time. I dont even know if there are other people who were living off that much money because I believe our jobs at this repossession company were lowest of the low and we had no savings either and we were spending from our credit cards by the end of the month. So my question is that was this money enough for a couple at the time? considering the prices of things back then? We were living at Crawley at the time and were paying 575 a month for rent and 110 for council tax.

Its been almost 6 years since we moved to India and now we have a year and a half old daughter and we are thinking about moving to UK again. Things have changed a little since we moved to India and we now have a steady income of 4500-5000 pounds (before tax) per month here in India and it wont make any difference where we live so we would still be making the same amount of money if we moved to UK. Is this much money enough for a family of 3 these days? The only change in the life style is that I don't smoke any more so thats a lot of saving given the amount of money a pack of Marlboros cost in UK. I have no idea how expensive things have become in UK since we left so need some good insight please. Is 5000 pounds a month enough money? Do you think we would be saving any money out of that? Considering that we wont need two cars as we dont need to go to work and no daily commute to work will also save money on petrol..

I would highly appreciate if you guys can post lengthy replies for me please Any and every detail is most welcome.

roaringmouse

Not sure what your income currently is in India has to do with once you've moved to the UK? Unless you run an internet-based business, then your income would likely be different.

Confus3d

Yes it is internet based and would remain the same regardless of where I live.

morayeel

I too am moving back in MAY. Going to stay with my sister until I find a job etc. My only qualifications are Nursery Nurse and cashier, but I can clean etc so hopefully find some kind of job. I am scared but ready to make the move. Just wish I had done it years ago instead of waiting so long. Good luck to you on your journey

Jenny22

Yes, a steady income of 4500-5000 pounds (before tax) per month should be fine. There are many families living in the UK who earn much less than this. Of course, it does depend on where you choose to live and the cost of the accommodation you are able to find.

But two things.
First of all, if you have no recent credit history in the UK and are wanting to rent there, you may be asked to pay as much as 6 months rent up front, so you will need savings put by for that, as well as other costs of moving you are considering.

Second. And this is a rather personal question which may well no apply to you and if it doesn't, please don't take offense.
You say you were in a lot of debt in the UK, and had to leave because you and your wife could not make ends meet. So I'm wondering if you left any debts behind when leaving the UK.
There is a 6 year limit on many debts. However, it is the practice now for companies to sell on the debt to debt collection agencies, which, in theory, makes that debt continuous. So, if that is the case, you may find you start to receive debt collection letters as soon as it is known that you have returned.
That was just a warning. I used to be young and stupid with money too, which is why I'm posting this advice here.
Good luck on your return.

Confus3d

Thanks for your reply Jenny22

We have been looking at right move website and the areas we are looking at are some suburbs of London, Birmingham and Manchester and find Birmingham to be the cheapest as far as rent is concerned and found some lovely houses below 800 per month on right move website but as you said renting could be a problem as we dont have any recent credit history so going through an estate agent wont work out I believe. We don't mind paying 6 months advance rental or even more if need be.


We did leave about 40000 pounds unsecured debt. It was mostly credit cards and two personal loans but we had a company mediate for us and got a fixed monthly installments set up for us which went on for 4 years and the only thing that now remains is a 7000 pounds personal loan with LLoyds TSB and we have tried to contact them over the phone but they don't seem to have any record of me getting a loan from them. I would be happy to pay it off if we are contacted about it in future. There is also a student loan in my wife's name that needs to be paid which I believe is less then 3k. I would be happy to pay off whatever little debt there is once we get there. It is all unsecured debt and my understanding is that I wont go to jail for such debt... please correct me if I am wrong.

We have friends in the repossession industry as we worked at one of those companies and we plan to buy a house in an auction as they go really cheap in auctions. We have 90k saved up just for that purpose and there are lots of decent houses that go for a lot less then that. At least that's what the plan is if it goes accordingly.


What I am really concerned about is that is 5000 pounds a month really enough money for a family of 3? There will be an increase in our income at the rate of 15-20% per annum from here. I dont want to move and then find out a year later that we need to move back to India again. We dont plan to take up a job to supplement our income and that's whats keeping us from moving right away because if we started working again we would I believe make at least what we were making previously.. 1100 per month each but that's not an option any more as we are both too used to not going to work.

Confus3d

I personally believe things will only get better for the UK economy and job market from here on. I hope you land a good job once you get there

chris955

Yes i agree, it looks as though the economy has bottomed out and is on the rise. £5000 would be plenty to live on for 3 people.

Dashie

To be honest, it all depends on how you choose to live. We will be living on half that if we move back, but it's enough to support our family of 4 and our chosen lifestyle.

dreadsoc

Hi Confused

5 grand a month is ample to live on for a family of 3 people. A decent 3 bed house in the South East rentals at around 1000 per month, cheaper in the Midlands, and hideously more in London and it's immediate surroundings.
You will have no worries there, in fact that is a pretty good income here in the UK.
By the way I just noticed that you are a relatively new member here so welcome to BE and good luck with your return.

Dread - x

Homeiswheretheheartis

Hi Ive just recently left the UK in the last 6 months, so upto date on cost of things.

We earn £2500 a month and have a family of 4, two kids aged 9 and 11. We lived in Lincolnshire so the housing was cheaper and we own as well, but most else should be the same.

Just to give you and idea:

Housing £500 (own)
Council Tax £135
Building/contents Insurance £45
Electric £45
Gas £50
Food £450
Life Insurance £36
TV £13
Water £35
Broadband/landline £30
Mobiles x 2 £40 (nothing fancy just basic ones)

Petrol is hard to estimate as it is really expensive but it depends so much on what car and how much you drive. We are in the US so fuel is so cheap compared to the UK, but we spend exactly the same as we did in the UK as we have to drive so much further to get everywhere.

I was happy with our standard of living we ran two cars, again nothing fancy, we went on holiday to France each year for a week. My kids participated in Football, Brownies, swimming. We never go without clothes, my kids have what most kids have. We eat out at least 1 a week.

So much depends on what type of lifestyle you want. I have friends back home that earn lots more that us and they can't manage. I also have friends back home who earn a lot less and still manage to afford a better car that we can and what appears to be a more expensive life style.

With my lifestyle I would be rich on £5000 a month But I would never dream of spending £100 on eating out meal or £5000 on a holiday or £20,000 on a car. My life style is £45 to eat out, £2000 on a holiday and cars at £5000.

Hope this gives you a better idea of the cost of living in the UK. If you have any more questions just pop them on here I be happy to help.

One more thing, I am financially better of here in the US, I have a much bigger house, nicer cars, much better weather. I'm counting the days down to when we go home to the UK and our tiny house, shitty weather and my real life

sallysimmons

To the OP, we also run an internet-based business and recently rented a house in the UK with no UK credit history. It was through an estate agent and we didn't need to pay 6 months rent. We explained our situation and they just asked for a copy of our US credit report (you can get those free here, not sure if you can do the same) and contact info for our business accountant so they could check with him about our business. We didn't actually have an accountant, so I got in touch with one, asked him to audit our books and then serve as a reference. It cost £100 but it was the key to securing a place.

I would recommend taking the same route (telling them you don't have a UK credit history) because if you do tell them, they will check and then find the bad stuff.

Good luck!

nandnor

Going from the cheapest country in the world to live to one of the more expensive.. that ought to be a bit of a shock, cant deny that.

chris955

They are going to the UK, hardly one of the more expensive but on their monthly budget it will be pretty easy. Obviously their weekly monthly spend will be higher in a major Western economy than it would be in India.

Confus3d

This is a very big misconception every one has about India and other developing countries. If you want the same quality of products that are available in UK you actually end up paying a lot more here in India. A bottle of good French wine that would cost you no more then 15 Pounds in UK will cost you over 35-40 here in Delhi. I bought three pairs of trousers and a shirt last night and the total was Rs10500 which is about 131 Pounds and if I go buy exactly the same brand from a shop in London it would cost me about 80-90. If you want to buy vegetables that are guaranteed to be free from mega doses of "oxytocin" you would need to pay about three times what you pay in UK and you would be lucky to get oxytocin free milk for less then 3 pounds a litre. I have a piece of land on the outskirts of Delhi where vegetables and milk comes from for my family but consider the 35 Kilometer that my driver drives every other day to get the milk and veggies and the cost shoots up considerably more. In UK its normal to have access to safe food and in India it is normal to put up with adulterated food. There is a huge difference.

The general population in Indian cities look sick and tired and its purely because of the adulterated food they eat and nothing else. Milk is adulterated with urea and detergents for example. Buy a bottle of soda from an ordinary shop and buy one from a dominos outlet for instance and see the difference... This is a country full of thieves and immoral people trying to succeed financially at any cost. Rural areas are still better off in this regard but you just cant trust any one when its about food and in rural areas you wont find something as simple as a new music CD and you would be driving to the city for every little thing. The emergency medical facilities are non existent in rural areas and whatever little there is you would have to see it to believe it.

For living in a country considered to be cheap there are a lot of long term costs involved as well but that is irrelevant as there are hardly any savings in the first place if you want the same quality products as you would use in UK or other developed countries.

There is one major difference people talk about and that is you can hire a full time maid here and a driver and a gardener if you have the luxury of having one (I dont have a garden). Yes wages are low and we have two full time maids and a driver as well but the only reason I have the driver is that I don't want to drive in this bumper to bumper traffic where traffic rules are unheard of.. people just overtake you from where ever they can/want. Maids because if they don't constantly keep on cleaning the house it would have a few inches of dust every where within a month but in UK there is no dust atall thanks to the weather there. Hiring some one to clean the house in UK isint as costly as many people think it is. Ask your local agency and find out how much it would cost for some one to come to your place twice a week and do the vacuum for you and other titbits. Delhi gets extremely hot in summers and the cost of air conditioning for my house is about Rs15-20k per month for about 4 months every year and also need heating about 2 months and that's about 12-15k Rs per months for that and that adds up to at least
2200-2500 Pounds every year and a three bedroom house in UK wont use up that much electricity not even near that so where is the saving. Clean water costs money as well and you could just drink from the taps in UK without having to think about it. Its these simple things really. Living in Delhi also need you to have electricity back up and that comes at a cost if you want even one of your aircons to run when there is a power cut.

Yes people live in 100 pounds a month as well and there are lots of them who do and live lives that dont make me jealous. There are about 30% of Indians that live on less then $2 per day but that is not enough to buy one meal a day. Hospitals are free for people who cant afford private health care but you need to go and see the government hospitals to be able to believe what they are like. The old age pension that government provides is not enough for a single meal at a restaurant.

The only good thing about India at the moment is the stock market and those people who can make money from both a falling and a rising market are making a killing Even investing in some good mutual funds would get you some 15-16% annual return in the long run. GDP is growing at a healthy 7-8% and it would continue to grow at that pace for the next 20-30 years at least and stock markets are known to give you double the return even if you stay invested in the index funds. Interest rates for fixed deposits are in excess of 10% and upto 13-14% with NBFC's which are pretty safe as well and the currency is more or less stable. So thats whats good about India in my opinion.

PS: No disrespect meant to any one. Its just my own view of things.