garyp

Hi,
I struggle in the UK on a Paramedic wage and a £50000 mortgage and car loan (only me working.)
Also with the cost of 2 kids would my life be any different in Australia or would I still be struggling?
I feel a strong desire to go to OZ but with the cost of housing also rising over there would I not be worse off than now?

maverik1979

it depends on the amount of equity in your house, and also where you wanted to move to, for instance, adelaide is considerably cheaper for housing than the other state capitals, you would have to find out the average paramedics wage in oz, then use this site and search for one of the many threads on cost of living, then look at how much money you can take with you to reduce your mortgage out there, from that you could assess if its a viable option or not

having said all of that , there are plenty of people on here who have gone over with nothing at all and made it work

Centurion

The actual cost of living in Australia is not really that different to that of the UK when compared to wages etc.

So basically I dont think that a financial motivation is a good reason to move here unless you can raise a capital sum by the sale of your house and buy cheaper here. Many people use that as a vehicle by which to be financially better off by starting here with a small or no mortgage.

But like for like I dont think it would be any better at all, except that you would have to pay for the expenses of migration on top.

Timber Floor Au

I havta concur with You on this..

I think, gone are the times, you could look to Australia as being the promised land, full of limitless property bargains, and spend your lovely jubbly hard earned English Pounds..

The reality is, and I have mentioned this over the years... when you Visit OZ.

You think quite rightly that your Pound, gets you the exchange rate for the dollar..
K. kinda surreal this.. but for every $2.50 ( example ) you spend, its Oh how cool thats only a QUID

When you live here, that value drops to around a dollar to the pound.

Steve

Whingin Pom

This is true, like you earn 20k in blighty and buy a fridge for £800. In Aus you earn 60k and spend $2400 on a fridge so to speak.

Ok you can get a fridge for like $400 but you can also get a fridge for £100

Don't let that lot put you off looking into it, yes you have to work and yes you have to pay bills and feed the kids, and yes there are things you will have to pay for that you wouldn't think of like school books and stuff, but you can have a better quality of life (and thats in a non material, stutus symble way) than you can in the UK.

parkhigh

Hi
I think that having migrated with 2 children and now we have 3 it has been particularly hard for us. I had a full time job in the uk and so did rich. We now dont have parents and other family to help with childcare so as a nurse its been very hard to work here. rich works as a plumber at 7am and gets back around 6pm sometimes earlier and sometimes later. I went and spoke to my boss about being more flexible, family friendly and he said "that although aus offers family friendly the culture really doesnt allow it". Now please I hope that I dont receive heaps of criticism that is a direct quote from him! So in other words they couldnt accommodate me having more flexible shifts ie working on a night shift and finishing at 630am instead of 730am. Or work a mid shift during the day, despite being short on every shift of every day and employing agency and bank nurses who are paid $10-$15 dollars an hour more than me as I am permanent part time. I have nursed for 16 years in uk and was a deputy manager of a alcohol and drug unit there. I used to work 915-4pm each day and case manage my own clients. My boss there was easy going and very flexible about leaving to attend kids plays etc. I have 2 degrees and now am currenlty working 2 shifts late 1-930pm twice a week. I dont see my kids and its hard on rich as he has to look after them after having a crappy day. its also interfered with our social life. If you are working and do have family help please really consider this factor not just for childcare issues but how it impacts your children when nanny and grandad dont pick them up and you are relying on new friends at the school etc to pick them up. We have been here 2 years in Oct and my daughters are currently picked up on a wednesday by a friend of mine and the girl plays with bronwyn however they are not so friendly now and bronnie doesnt really want to go with her. There is no after school club and the only option with the council is to put them in a taxi to the nearest after school club. I have a 5 year old and 9 year old and will not send them with a complete stranger in a taxi.
Bronwyn said to me that some of her best memories were of nanny and grandad picking her up from school and having penguin biscuits and a glass of milk. she used to sit drawing etc watching cbeebies until i arrived at 430pm. I hadnt really appreciated the impact of leaving my family behind until leaving here in aus. I had travelled around aus when i was 18 and rich and i had come visiting with the girls 4 times before moving so we knew what we were doing but to be honest i regret it now. if i could take back time i would, but now im here i have to make the most of it and try and make the life for us that we had hoped for. However lack of money makes enjoying a new life very difficult. Its a beautiful country with so many lovely places to visit, but if you cant afford to go its no pleasure at all.
Please dont come just for financial gain as everything is equally as expensive bananas are currently $8 a kilo at the moment a cauliflower cost me $7. I find my bills to be the same if not more than the uk. when you are earning aussie dollars its hard.
I hope i havent sounded negative and im sure many others will disagree with me but im just speaking for my own personal circumstance. Please really think hard about your decision to uproot your family. Will you have support and have you had opportunity to visit?
I hope ive helped you a little.
Irene

Nu-Shooz

Moving to OZ could be the complete opposite of thinking you will be financially better off. Infact you may end up worse off.
Have a look at how much you could earn over here. Each state is so different in house prices, wages etc.

Margaret3

As a nurse i agree totally, its madness the lack of flexibility, why cant they see more flexibility = more happy staff, who will stay = better patient care and also = less agency

However as on here its always a case of different strokes for different folks, we struggled in scotland , we have never, ever , ever had family to help with childcare and over the years the childcare costs nearly bankrupted us. The school my younger girl now goes to offers a fantastic out of hours care and the cost cheaper than scotland.

Here in aus, my hubby has just started with a printing agency = more money than in scotland , i am dropping down to 2 days at work and will do 1 or 2 days nursing agency = more money, we are earning more here than in scotland, , but its early days,

Margaret3

we had just a little less than nothing, we worked hard in scotland and we work hard here , and we're getting there

jad n rich

Australias expensive, wages are not high and the health system including the amublance is in a total mess. Life would not be cheaper if you have kids, expensive country and you pay for kids healthcare, (Scripts, glasses,teeth, specialists etc) and many pay for education, even if its state you pay for plenty of things. Do NOT come to be better off.

Do come because you want a slightly different life for a few years or longer if it works out, I say slightly different because with a couple of kids and a couple of jobs life pretty soon becomes routine.

Think about personal factors too, are you close to family, many who are dont find an email and a webcam compensate, family of 4 airfares back to UK would be $10,000 not easy on a paras wage.

Do it for the adventure, change of scene, experience, but dont expect it to magically transform your lives.

DunRoaminTheUK

I get paid less here than in the UK (to the tune of almost 20,000 ukp less) and our mortgage here is almost double that of the mortgage we had in the UK AND we put down $170,000 of our own money on our house build here.

Money is definitely our biggest concern here and to be honest there doesn't seem to be any relief on the horizon. Australia is becoming expensive and salaries are not increasing accordingly. That's the bottom line.

However, don't listen to me as every situation is different. We chose to build a new house and slightly stretch ourselves. Conversely, our house is nothing amazing (4 bed single storey) and not too much more expensive than the cost of an "average" house here in Brisbane so it really is "swings and roundabouts".

The down-side of being adversely affected in a financial sense, for us, is that it does impact on our ability to live the lifestyle we want. A social reason for me as an incentive for coming to Australia is that I used to surf a lot in the UK but lived too far away and ironically travelling from Brisbane to the GC every weekend would hurt us finanically because of the cost of fuel here (albeit cheaper than the UK). I've been surfing once since we arrived one year ago.

007

Your wife could always get a job.

Don't be a sucker.

DunRoaminTheUK

My wife couldn't and it's presumptious to assume that anyone elses can.

007

A woman is capable of a hard days work.

The economy is based on 2 incomes now.

If you only have 1 due to laziness don't expect sympathy if you're doing it tough.

Boo hoo, you couldn't go for a surf all year. Big deal, people are out there in the world and can't even eat.

Nu-Shooz

Your situation is the same as mine. I have a bigger morgage now than i had in UK and my wage is much lower.

Hmmm, where did i go wrong