Thanks for this. Ultimately my wife will work - when our youngest starts school - so the 60K is only for one or two years.
Your other points are valid though - and only give me yet more confusion!

Do you worry about having regrets - 'if only?' - at some point in the future?

IMHO - the saddest words ever are "If only"

And no such thing as "regret", only a life learning experience.

I think was all worry too much, a real shame but the way it is. I am working so hard to learn how to chill and go with the flow.

M

Of course, yes, I worry about having regrets. However, I think I'd regret it more if I took my family 10,000 miles and they ended up worse off.

I did think at one point of putting our furniture into self-storage in the UK for a year to avoid the humiliation of having to pack it all up again and ship it halfway round the world if things didn't work out. That made me feel better, but I realised that my children's education means the trip to Oz is more of a one-way ticket. My kids are both summer babies. Neither are top of the class. With the Oz system being, they say, a year "behind" ours then they would have really struggled if we had come back after a few years. Don't get me wrong, the education they would get there is a major draw in my book, but it's only really an advantage if you can see it through, I reckon.

Apologies for not telling you to "just go" but I think you have to be as certain as you can be that your lives will be quantitatively better, not just qualitatively. This "quality of life" stuff just isn't enough on its own. A lot of the people telling you it is are either going to semi-retire and/or don't have kids and/or have really nothing to lose.

You also have to ask yourself how keen your other half is.

Saying all this, it's OK for me and mine because we have dual nationality and can go anytime we like...

I have admired the way you have took stock of what you have now and been brave enough not to go to Australia.

Everyone I guess is different, our situation is that we have nothing to lose by moving around as no kids, ties, etc. So off we tootle.

All a personal thing.

M

Cul de sac problems here too, only renting not our no 1 area either, wer'e the house right at the end of a cul de sac which widens out into a big circle shape. Come 11pm hoons line up 3 at a time, headlights OFF and scream down street in dark, how the F! nobodies been killed I dont know.

Still on crime, my mother rang from Melbourne, to tell us friend of friends daughter (you know how mothers are ) watched a security guard shot dead in broad daylight in shopping center while women and kids watched.

Trouble in paradise indeed.

The Evening Gazette in Teesside is equally doom & gloom!

Nowhere is immune.

M

What I find depressing is that murders no longer make it onto the main News. They are so commonplace as to be relegated into the local news.

Yep, I noticed this more since my return to the UK, like its the norm. Very sad state of affairs isn't it.

M

Makes me want to immigrate to the UK where theres no armed robberies or murders.

Thanks for that. Yes, it does depend an awful lot on personal circumstances. With kids you have to ask yourself if you're doing the right thing for them in terms of education and job prospects. My kids are of Primary school age. Their school is one of the best in the LEA but I'm not exactly impressed with the education they get. The school seems to concentrate on the three Rs to the exclusion of just about anything else, eg, sport, foreign languages. The worse thing is, despite the narrowness of the curriculum, they don't even teach the three Rs that well.

Sorry but is'nt the decision to immigrate and take a risk much braver then deciding to stay where you are and take no risks. What if Captain Cook said its too risky sailing down to the south pacific, l'll stay at home .
It seems to me they are only looking at the negative side, things that could go wrong and not the positive sides of immigrating to OZ.

Whjoops sorry, I love the response when crime in OZ is posted, sarcasm or how its 15 times worse in UK

Now lets just try to discuss it as the adults we are Australias having a nasty surge in crime, I dont care whats happening in northern manchester or teeside, I live here. Australias got some pretty serious problems right now and I dont like the piss weak attitude of our police's way of dealing with them. No wonder its getting out of control.

Ok, I think brave maybe wasn't the word to use for not going, I think brave to come on here and say why he has decided not to go as you know how much fire that can raise

I think sack of spuds as weighed up all his options for his circumstances.

M

Fair comment but I thought you were coming back to the UK???

I think we are highlighting the sh*t going on both sides of the globe.

M