chicaescocesa

Hi there

Contemplating emigrating to Oz. I am a modern languages teacher, degree and post-graduate qualified. I have 7 years teaching experience, but also have skills and experience in sales and marketing, particularly online and digital.

DH has recently sold his share in family business and we are wondering whether we are better 'starting again' here or elsewhere.

We have a 2 year old daughter and we are 34 (me) and 42 (hubby). DH does not have any qualifications - he has been self employed in various guises for nearly 20 years. He does have a class 2 HGV licence which he could upgrade to class 1 or would be happy to retrain. We do have money from the sale if our business and property here (circa 250k) to start us off.

Does it sound like there would be opportunities for us in Australia? Would we be considered for emigration?

the troubadour

Only you can answer that. Language teacher probably not a lot of call for. I guess you mean European languages? You could look towards a business but do you really want all the hassle and expense involved?

chicaescocesa

Many thanks for reply. Yes, languages are French, Spanish, Italian. I kind of thought it might be difficult for me given how far those countries are from Australia!

DH would probably start a new business here, I suppose we do know what we're doing here, but it's a hassle/expense no matter where you are! Driving is not a viable job here for him, wages are just too low for it to be justifiable.

Moses2013

When you say here, do you mean UK, France, Italy or Spain? You just have to ask yourself what you expect from Australia and if you don't have a job offer, it's hard to say. The first steps would be to find out if you can even get a job, then find out what the cost of living would be in that area. It might be hard for your husband to find work and you need plenty of money to start a business. I'm not sure what the amount would be for investment, but at the end of the day it's still only a visa and he could risk losing everything. With that amount of money I would just stay where you and enjoy life. With 250K in my pocket I'd just live mortgage free, go to work with no stress and have some great holidays.

chicaescocesa

Oh if only life was that simple! Even without a mortgage DH would still need to work, the jobs he is qualified for here (UK to clarify) are very low paid, which is why it's always made sense for him to run his own business. I guess we are just being stubborn, he refuses to work for minimum wage when we'd have to pay childcare etc. Doesn't leave you much. We are used to him earning a certain amount and even without a mortgage we need him to bring in a reasonable amount of money. No easy answer I suppose!!

Moses2013

Well £250K (€320K) is a lot of money and many people would never manage to save that much in their life. What about family? When you go to Australia you won't have anyone to look after your child and rental won't be cheap either if you live in places like Sydney, Melbourne etc. It's personal choice, but you're in a great situation and maybe you should appreciate what you have. I don't know where you live in the UK, but where we are in Ireland you can easily get a 4 bed house with big garden for less than €200K. Two people working in a minimum wage job is €2.800 a month + €120K left in the bank. I'd be coming back home smiling every day

Beoz

Despite the doom and gloom, we manage to live in Sydney with an infant, without any family help quite prosperously.

If your husband has the drive to start his own business then he's the master of his own financial destiny and not reliant on others.

You probably want to start by checking out if you can get a visa. Without it the glass half empty or half full is irrelevant.

Molly Coddle

Hi,

If I was in your shoes, I would buy a nice little farm in France ( should easy get one for the money you have) and I'd get a job as an English Teacher, whilst hubby starts some sort of small farming business off, be it crops, or meat or both. Lots of scope for your there. And France is beautiful, as I'm sure you know.

But that's just what I'd do if I was in your position. Just my ten pennies worth....

Moses2013

It's not doom and gloom and many manage, but just pointing out that even with a better job in Sydney, you'd still have to consider higher rental costs and don't have much security as a European. If they were both working, they'd also have to consider costs for child care. From a financial aspect, they would probably be far better off in the UK and could enjoy a stress free life.

Moses2013

Or buy a place in the UK and a holiday pad in France

chicaescocesa

Ha ha I'm LOL'ing at the thought of hubby as a farmer!! He literally didn't know what a magpie was when we met - no joke, I got a call from him asking what the 'big black and white bird' in the garden was! France and Spain have both entered my head but there are major recessions in both countries. Not sure I want to live on a farm myself! I think we can get visas, I have completed emigrate2's form online and it passed.

chicaescocesa

I am loving all these replies - it's getting me thinking about what we could do!

Molly Coddle

The world is your oyster it seems. Do what you really want to do.
You must have some idea what you want?

Funny story about the hubby and magpie.


I wouldn't worry about France being in recession, it will come out OK.

You could start another business up there, or else where, I'd definitely start a business up of some kind.

chicaescocesa

We have started a new ltd co letting agency in Scotland but it's still very much in the early stages. We haven't really done anything with it yet, as we are still toying with the idea of moving. We shall see. We were even thinking of renting out our house here and seeing if I could get a teaching job abroad in an international school for a change of scene for a couple of years! Don't know what we want, maybe that's the problem!

Moses2013

That's the problem these days. We have too many opportunities and are never really happy. You have a good budget to start with, so that shouldn't be the problem. I wouldn't be too worried about the recession, because at the end of the day it depends where you can get a job. Thanks to the recession we could afford a nicer house, so there's always pros and cons.