doeyedonteye

Dear All

I've been a silent onlooker on these pages for some time and have been suitably entertained and enlightened by the various topics/banter raised - so many thanks.

Having pondered emigration to Aus for some time, you have all left me totally confused!!!! So given my circumstances described below, am I completely mad to consider this major change?

About me ? I'm male, 39, in IT, married with two children aged 12 and 7. I have a good job paying £52k/year, but which I dislike with a passion! I don't work particularly long hours (35-40/week) plus 50min commute each way. I have a nice 4 bed modern house with garden overlooking fields in a cul-de-sac location in North Kent. I have no mortgage or other debts, so I guess life
is comfortable. I'm fairly sure I would qualify under skilled independent, and would end up going to Aus with around A$1,000,000.

My wife and I have no family or other ties to Aus, though we have visited on holiday and loved it. We also have no great family ties to the UK (parents deceased, not particularly close to brothers/sisters). We are comfortable with the 'slightly old fashioned/out of date' feel to Aus, so things like not having the latest car don't bother us. Being called a 'pom' or whatever wouldn't bother us either, our best friends feel comfortable
taking the p*ss out of us, just as we are comfortable taking the p*ss out of them!!!

Motives? Usual, I guess. Me and Mrs are happier when the sun shines (though we are not particularly beach people), I don't want to keep doing what I'm doing (work-wise) for another 20 years. We feel the UK is too crowded and not what it used to be. We are probably in a bit of a rut and feel like we need a fresh challenge. We want the kids to enjoy more of the outdoor life, rather than just a few months a year.

What would we do if we went to Aus? Well we have no desire for an 'executive' standard of living (whatever that means) and I probably wouldn't want to continue in IT. Maybe try to work part time. Maybe set up a business (no idea what), possibly buy some property to rent out. I guess with a million dollars we maybe could live off the interest on the capital, but I doubt this is a good long-term plan.

OK?..enough, enough. What do you think?..especially those in Aus already? Am I completely bonkers to risk my current lifestyle and take this risk? Or would I be completely bonkers not to take a chance to 'downshift' in a beautiful country? In my position, what would you do? All comments negative or positive are welcome.

I promise promise promise to do what the majority say (well, maybe!)

arlene

why not life is short for ifs and buts and you can always come back if you dont like it but it is a big decision and at the end of the day it has got to be between you and the mrs to decide what is best for you and your family, you are a long time dead as far as i am concerned

living the adventure

arlene

ps welcome to the site

karawara88

No doubt about it you are bonkers. !! Although with a million squids in the bank you will not have to worry too much about work, depending of course where you want to live.

My advice, take 3 months off or so and come over here and take a look see whats available to you. (not in holiday mode but look for work / business opps / houses etc.

You are giving up a lot so you need to be certain its the right move.

WBB

i would go just to say im a milionaire

seriously though, why not go, as arlene said life is short and i agree that a new start would be like a new lease of life.

ellen fedulow

Firstly, love your site name!!
and yes you should go for it! why not! you are obviously in a good financial position (loads better than me! and i'm going for it!) and if it didn't work out you could return. Many of us here are going for similar reasons, some are going to join family, but i guess, like me many are doing it because they can!

any way best of luck deciding

ellen1

ADELAIDE BOUND

We are in a similar positon to you.

The main reason for our decision to leave is to give our 4 children a better quality of life. We also want them when they leave home to be able to buy a house. We want to be able to help them when the time comes. We are not altogether sure however the way house prices are rising in Australia whether this will be the case in 5 or 6 years.
Here's to taking a chance in life.

Cheers.

tinaj

You sound like you are in a similar situation as us. We have jobs, nice house, lots of equity etc etc and we have decided to go for it. If it doesn't work out we will come back and probably be able to walk back into our jobs as well.

The freedom the money will give you will make things easier for you. We want to get out of the rat race and not be employees any more, the money should help us do this.

Go for it, you only live once, could you live with the 'what if' when you are 50 and too old to qualify, if you could then think twice.
We couldn't and that is the main reason for us going- adventure!


Do you want to be MR average and plod along doing the same thing for ever or do you want a slice of something different??

Good luck with your decision!

doeyedonteye

So most seem to think "go for it", eh? Although its true we can just come back if its not for us, with the way UK house prices are rising we'd be unlikely to find a similar house in a year or twos time. Also I'd be unlikely to find work paying similar money to what I'm getting now - so we'd lose on those scores. However, I reckon we'd be richer in spirit for the experience.

kara - surely 3 months wouldn't be enough to be certain. I was thinking more like 2 years.......

karawara88

I meant 3 months as a look around period check out what property you could get for your money in a chosen area, look at business opps. that might be available to you that sort of thing.

As you say yourself if you decided it did not work and went back you may not be able to replace your house and salary. That in turn would affect your lifestyle.

I am all for giving it a go and taking certain risk, but whereas most who have not yet lived out here are giving the advice go for it. I would advise more caution. Was in a similiar position some 3 years ago not with the million squids, but had a ltd company and was earning 70k plus as an IT contractor jacked it all in to come here and was being offered contracts at $15 an hour !!! Ended up going back to UK and found the momentum was lost, no company, very hard to get back into the lucrative contracts after all most of my contacts knew I had gone to Oz so were not calling me with the work. Some of it was bad timing, some bad luck and a lot of bad judgment.

I am 39 now and its hard getting any type of work, I would quite like to find a business opp. But dont have the luxury of a lot of $s plus not sure I want to live here. We put most of our money into two rental properties in UK, mainly so we had foot on ladder still, had a place to back to should we need to plus the rent is paying 2.4$s and gives us valuable income.

Thats just my outlook / opinion for what its worth. According to Donna I am always wrong anyway, but I guess thats the joys of being married.

Think if I had your sort of cash I would be looking at France nice chateu with couple of giuts (not sure of spelling) to rent out. Or Spain. But I have no kids to consider.

doeyedonteye

Kara - I used to do the contracting thing too. The market in the UK has been rubbish since Y2K - I guess the same as Aus. When you say it's hard getting any type of work, do you mean any kind of IT work or literally ANY work at all?

It sounds like you regret the move, or am I mis-interpreting what you're saying?

We didn't want to go somewhere which didn't have English as its first language - thought it would be a bit unfair on the kids (not to mention my wife! - who, by the way, also thinks I'm wrong too!

Badge

its' precisely because you have stacks of equity etc you should go. Or you'll end up a prisoner of a comfortable middle-class existence in the UK - what could be worse!!!

doeyedonteye

Hmmm, another "do it" post. If I live up to my promise I'd better download the application form!!! Yeah Badgers, thats my leaning - there's no way out in the UK and I really dont think I can hack that............

jandjuk

Do you mean your wife doesn't want to go??

If so, I would think very carefully about and consult the whole family...

If everybody wants to go just do it... life is short. If you are not bothered about your career then you are risking little. Life is what you make it, and a million dollars in the pocket helps you make it even better. (Just make sure you keep enough aside should you want to return to the UK)

You sound like you already think you like the Aus lifestyle and culture, and if you think you will settle well then go for it.

sky

house prices have prob reached their peak for a while now in the uk and it is prob the Ideal time for you to go go go for it, I would in your shoes. If you dont like it you will come back but why wouldnt you like it? .... we live on such a small island and there is so much out there to enjoy and as many have already said we only live once

cam the man

Sounds very similar to us.

One day we think yes and the next we say no.

Like you I will be giving up quite a lot but taking out quite a lot.

My feeling today is to go for it. You only live once and life is for experiences and you'll cetainly get that if you spend a couple of years "holiday" in Oz.

I t is not an easy choice though.