OzTennis

'After watching those heartbreaking messages from home, how will X and Y vote'?

Sydney (and Melbourne) commuting can be challenging for a lot of residents it must be said but as you say you could be able to get work and home closer together.

TX and SYD have many similar lifestyle, climate, work-family benefits. If the visa process is going to take so much longer for TX then it's a bit of a no brainer really. Maybe while Trump is having problems getting his travel ban in place you could get a quick visa in one of the 7 countries?

Tanja87

Yeah, haha! It's like "ever heard of Skype?!" Lol
Cool, so if they are quite similar, yes! No brainer I guess Hubby pretty much told me that TX is no longer an option for him so that's that... fair enough! And he's meeting with the guy about the job offer tomorrow so that's exciting!
Now then, what's it like like being out there? What do you guys do for fun, hobbies, family time? Where do you go on holidays? Is the work-life balance generally better for you out there than it was back home? What's the food like? Just tell me everything I'm eager to find out! Thanks in advance xx

Tanja87

Btw this numbeo thing is amazing!! Thank you for posting that! Just had a sneak peek - will have a proper look when kids are in bed

quoll

Australia has fewer days rec leave than UK if you are comparing - just 20 days. The commute can be a couple of hours if you want the big house/block thing or you will need to take a lot of money with you. Living in the burbs can be mind numbingly boring. Our work/life balance was pathetic and it rather depends on your employer as to how much you are expected to do. In his working life, my DH (public servant) always racked up 50-60 hours a week and in some occupations if you want to get ahead that's what you will do. I worked less in education but always edging towards the 50hpw, not the 38 that was demanded.

As the non working parent you might find yourself somewhat isolated - most young families are dual income these days to make ends meet so finding other young mums can be a challenge. You will probably need to be a two car family but that rather depends on proximity to transport etc. Hobbies, you do what you have always been interested in, there is usually something to meet your demands. Friendships are interesting - personally, after 32 years I don't really have any Aussie friends. Plenty of acquaintances but none of those "call at 3am friends" - friendships were very transient and dependent on work/kids activities/interest groups. I've been away 5 years now and have only one who has stuck with me and she is a long term expat like myself and she would kill to be back in UK but is stuck because of a mixed marriage.

Holidays - well, we went back to UK regularly when the kids were young because we wanted to maintain family ties and for a long time we were the ones doing the travelling, other people say they will come then don't. Internally our holidays were geared very much to state level swimming carnivals but I don't expect everyone has sporty kids and NSW is a big state!

You mentioned that you would have a monthly income of $10k - is that before super and tax or after? If it's before super and tax then you aren't going to be rolling in luxury by any means. If super has already been taken from that then you're on a better wicket. But $120k these days is comfortable rather than luxurious and when you figure that you are going to be spending around $30-35k on rent alone that begins to take out quite a chunk of your income. All depending on your visa, you may or may not get any support with child care - if temporary then you won't get anything and you will be up for school fees of $5k pa per child into the bargain.

Bottom line, it's just another first world country. Some people like the weather, some of us don't (the heat kills me), the "outside lifestyle" is a reality for some but not for others (I'm a stay indoors away from the flies and mozzies with windows and doors closed to keep the heat out kinda gal). Some mums are quite paranoid about letting their kids outside because of the risk of sunburn and the kids are covered and slathered with sun screen before they set foot outside. If you fancy an adventure go for it by all means but if you are the kind of family who rely on extended family members then you will probably struggle. It's not magically better, just different, and you will still have to clean the loo and do the washing.

jad n rich

Property taxes and health care in the usa may take a bit of shine off the glaringly obvious difference in lifestyles that would buy. You already know the property side. You want that mansion girl ! Your best bet is to get on a plane to sydney and check it out for yourself. Not just the pretty harbour bit but where you can afford to live.

brits1

A well informed reply, It is a near same reply of mine when I was asked recently by my friends Son (who is looking into migrating to Sydney) he opened his question to me first with "we are looking into migrating to Sydney we think our young children can have much better lives there, friends/family will visit us and the homes look amazing what do you think" .....in the end I said if you think its for you go for it as I could tell straight away he was not really interested in the nitty gritty lol.

Beoz

10k net. So that would be 10k USD net in Texas and 10k AUD net in Sydney?

So that's about $210,000 AUD gross which is a good salary compared to everyone else. As a family income its not amazing though. If you can work and top it up with another 4 or 5k AUD net you will be living very comfortably compared to other young families. Most families do the dual income thing. Its better for your brain too. You will be much more interesting to talk too, and its a way to meet people.

Tanja87

I think eventually I'd be looking at finding some work too. But probably not until the kids are in school... I gather childcare costs are quite high (at least they are over here, I'd literally have gone back to work for the sake of £30 a month and not seeing as much of my kids!) The thing is i also don't have any qualifications apart from an NVQ2 in beauty therapy (and I haven't been practising for years now) My last job here was in retail, which I guess I could do anywhere? Or are Aussies quite strict in terms of needing an appropriate education for any job? In Germany (where I'm from) you can't sweep the floor without having a piece of paper to say you're qualified to do so.....

Beoz

Childcare fluctuates. Depends on quality and area. We pay a lot but its a good day care, in a good area, and its next door to where we live. Very easy. We dabbled with the idea of purchasing a house recently, in another area, still very close to the city but not as nice, and day care was about half the price. $80 or $90 a day.

xizzles

Nothing beats Singapore (where I've been based/living for the past 25 years). You need a piece of paper to say you're qualified to buy a car.....

Beoz

..... and a lot of money.

dfjordan

How anyone could compare Texas with Sydney is beyond me ! With my family , we survived 10 years in Houston (but perhaps you arent thinking about living there) . I have lived in many parts of the world and the only place I would rank worse than Houston would be Guayaquil Ecuador. The more or less illiterate people, disgusting climate, the right to kill anyone who even knocks at your front door at night, was too much for us. Australia, for all the jokes we make about it, is civilised; Texas is a long way behind.

Tanja87

For us it would've been Dallas, which we both did love! But that seems out of the question now so no point dwelling on it I guess xx

Geordie George

I get that it's all different and exciting (we've all been there at least once!), but the reality is much more humdrum than the anticipation. Life, in all likelyhood, will be just like it is now - except 10,000 miles from everything that's familiar and everyone you love. Same shit, shinier bucket as the expression goes.

For fun, we kayak as a family (we have a couple of double kayaks, so our children - 8 and 6 - can hop in, too). We have annual passes to just about every museum in Sydney. We have zoo passes, too. Our corner of Sydney is a little shy of 30km from the CBD - it's perfect for work, but a PITA for weekend entertainment (Sydney traffic is bad). My husband and I don't head out too much as a couple - the going rate for a babysitter here is $20 per hour - it makes a dinner or movie night pretty expensive. Many an evening is spent doing committee stuff for school/Guides/Scouts/netball. Everything is run by volunteers - you will do your bit. I hate committees, so have managed to limit myself to just 3 this year (band, out of school hour care and Guides). Family time?! I drop my children off at OOSH (out of school hours care) between 7.30-8.00am and collect them between 5-6pm - that's four days per week, as I only work part time. Like Quoll said, you work hard in Aus - you'll likely do long hours. Work life balance? The scales tip towards work for lots of families. Part time jobs are like gold dust and it's often a case of who you know. Holidays are expensive - Aus is a long way from anywhere! Family in the UK might well expect you to use all your holidays to visit them. Last year we went to Vanuatu, this year we went to west NSW (Dubbo - how exotic! ). We're planning a trip back to the UK in September - that's at least $12K we'll need to budget for the four of us. It's enough to make you miss Europe and Easyjet. Food aint cheap, but there's a good variety. Particularly lots of Chinese and Japanese ingredients and restaurants. As for outdoors lifestyle - do not underestimate the weather out here. For example, my children are kept inside by school when the temps hit about 38c. The UV levels can be scary.

I love Aus and it's a beautiful place to live. But it's just another first world country with all the usual first world problems. Imagine your day today and imagine doing that here - the washing needs doing, dinner needs making, groceries need buying. It's just the same tedious stuff, just somewhere else.

Tanja87

Same shit, shinier bucket still sounds like an improvement to me xx