sjn2003

Andy

Great post - good to hear people do come out the other end with positive things to say.

By the way, by 4.20pm here in London it was dark and drizzling!!
That should make you feel even better

Jamesy

Great to hear some positive news. I think we all know it won't be easy and you have to try and prepare yourself for it as much as is possible.

Nice to hear you landed on your feet workwise and that not all Ozzies work ridiculous hours as we are led to believe by so many posts.

Keep posting!

dotty

I think as someone who has lived on the Sunshine Coast and runs a business here I should explain about "led to believe about work hours in so many posts".

The Sunny coast is basically a holiday resort area, weather beaches and all that stuff, Plenty of people work hard here however a huge percentage of the population has moved here to enjoy not working or working part time. "lifestyle" (urgh I hate that overused word).

A wopping 80% of the population up here is living partly or wholly off of welfare, many through choice a fact widely recognised by the government. A big chunk of this is retirees, however its an area where "doing a few hour of casual work" then topping up with benefits is abused becuse you get an element who move here well to "bludge" basically.

A while ago the average wage here was $23,000 PA. Not because you cant make a buck here, thats damn easy, because so many here dont want to work, its low because people choose to just take a few hours and go to the beach instead. Theres a huge floating population here that come up relax for a couple of years then go again too.

Basing the average Australians work hours on what happens in a holiday resort area is not really fair.

Jamesy

Dotty

Would you give us any indication regarding working hours then? Is it the case that you are expected to work v long hours, I am an Accountant so am familiar with the ridiculous hours culture, but don't really want to continue doing so for the rest of my working life!!

RichS

I think Childcare was the one thing that we had not factored into our equations when we moved to Sydney.

Basically we had to take whatever childcare we could get. Initially all we could find was 1 day a week for our 2 boys. We found the biggest issue was finding a place for a child under 2. We had several plaes that could take our elder son (nearly 4 at the time).

It meant basically that I worked mon-Fri and my wife had to work 4 night shifts across the weekend and then stay up all day Monday - not ideal.

Family daycare as mentioned previously in this post came through for us in the end and our boys are looked after by a lady 2 days a week. These people are vetted in NSW.

We now have all days covered, but at a cost. As 457 visa holders we are classed as resident for tax purposes, but not eligible for govt rebates on child care etc (which is fair enough I guess). The bottom line is that we are ow shelling out $2000 a month in child care costs.

There is a moral dilemma here - at what stage is govt policy encouraging women (or even 1 half of a husband/wife team) not to persue a career as the costs are prohibitive. We're paying out $24000 per annum, which I guess is upwards of $30000 pre tax. Once you factor other costs related to actually performing your job (transport etc) it becomes a close call.

We didn;t arrive here direct from the UK, so I can't give any comparison from memory. However my inclination is to believe the cost wouldn't be all that different, so lets no degenterate into an aus/gb debate here.

Paylia

Great post Andy

Good to hear that you are settling in ok.
Please keep reporting back on how you find it - the good and the bad. You have answered a couple of points for me already and it helps.


Good luck in the new job!


Peter

dotty

Firstly there was an accountant on here, Herman, do a search on his posts, if I had to name one person on here who gave fair honest advice it was him.

Now working hours, well I know a Doctor who does 20 hours and a Plumber who does nearer 60. Both earn brilliant money. Normal working day here would be 8.30 to 5.00 if you could find a job with standard normal hours. Big difference in OZ is many jobs are casual, even positions like nursing etc are paid by the hour so the hours really fluctuate. My accountant works for himself, is so flat out he takes no new clients and structures his working week to suit himself, which is like me really.

The Sunshine Coast has plenty of super high income earners, most tho work for themselves, so dont let the area average put you off, I was just demonstrating how although many people here do not work long hours they dont earn much either!

As for work for accountants, I thought there was a plenty, since the introduction of GST and all the extra 3 monthly tax lodgements (BAS) now requied.

Which area are you going to? Job markets are very different here.

sjn2003

Jamesy

I am also an accountant. Just out of interest, what are you thinking of doing when you get out there ? Practice or Industry ?
Personally I know little Oz law or tax and so not sure what options are going to be available.

Damn well not going to worry too much though. Gotta beat the UK