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Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by deb68
(Post 8676497)
Having used this site for information and advice from a few members (which is very appreciated):)
We are in a funny situation now as we need to sell our house to help fund the move out there, but at the same time we read all the different stories about moving and living in Australia as really bad lately? Is it all about money and self? We had this idea of moving to Australia to better ourselves and give our children a better and healthier chance at life than here in the UK, is that so bad an idea? But all we are reading of late is the notion of going there to start a fresh without quad zillions of dollars as a none starter, it's not that bad really, is it? We are not looking for the massive house with pool and double car port, we have that here - minus the pool and the double car port (single garage):o We just want a reasonable standard of living with no real issues and hasstles that the UK of late brings with it, and yes we appreciate that money creates a life style, that worked here to, just depends how much extra anyone person/family desires surely. It just looks to us reading from the UK that if you have no high paid job to go to with a bank account to full to worry about that a move to Australia is really beyond anyone and not really that viable an option:( Or have we totally missread all the comments and got it oh so wrong, it's not that bad is it...is it? It is more expensive over here but we live in Brisbane which is a major city so we pay big city prices but to get established over here unless you are lucky with work you will probably need to go to a major city for work. I also find that Brisbane has been hit by the money bug and everyone here is addicted to big houses, big cars and big fridges with probably no food in them. This means that the "laid backness" of the place has been affected and has gone. Food tends to be expensive here and bills a little dearer. I earn relatively reasonable money here and we struggle to pay all the bills so much so that my wife has contemplated a full time position. This means full-time childcare which raises the question of lifestyle for our kids and ourselves. Good childcare is hard to find but again this is down to personal expectations. All factors will contribute to your own experience and these coupled with the loss of your family and friends support will have an impact. Money will of course make your transition easier, and if you can have a small morgage you should be in for a good lifestlye, but if in the uk with a bit of cash and small morgage you should. It really is down to you being honest about what you want and expect. Come for a holiday first and see what you think. Then go home and think again. Also remember that at the moment if you sell your house in the uk the price you may achieve will probably not be the price it may be worth in eighteen months time and if you have been to oz dont like it and want to go home you could be financially ALOT worse off. |
Re: Worried.
I recently visited a friend living in Germany. He has a "little bit" theiry which I like. Essentially there a lot of things that, to them, make their life in Germany a "little bit" better than the UK. Taken together, it makes their life appreciably better.
If enough things are just a little bit better for you in Oz, the overall impact will be great. |
Re: Worried.
As some on here may remember, i REALY did not like this place (Perth) for a fair time after arriving and have only recently come around to it. As most have said it has it pluses and negatives.
I love the sunshine and the beach. I love popping down to Margaret River for a long weekend as we did last week. The houses are bigger, but (in my opinion) buit crap and designed worse. Perth, isnt actually a "hot" climate. It is a for a couple of months a year but for several months such as now it can get pretty cold and wet, but the houses often have no form of heating, double glazing is unheard of and lets not even start talking about insulation. Life is expensive, but there is a lot of fun that is free - summer days in the ocean for example. We came without much money and could afford to ship furnishings, so had to buy everything new again and not sure when we will be able to afford to buy a house. Is a life in Australia fantastically better than the UK? It depends, but i think it just different. There is still a lot of crap, its just different crap and there is still a lot of good stuff it just different good stuff. So to decide on if its worth the move you need to decide if the new good stuff is really important to you and if the new crap is stuff you dont mind gaining Do NOT come thinking that it is some wonder place. It isnt |
Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by spalen
(Post 8677689)
22 million people live here quite happily.
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Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by verystormy
(Post 8677737)
Is a life in Australia fantastically better than the UK? It depends, but i think it just different. There is still a lot of crap, its just different crap and there is still a lot of good stuff it just different good stuff. So to decide on if its worth the move you need to decide if the new good stuff is really important to you and if the new crap is stuff you dont mind gaining
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Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by Family of 3
(Post 8677699)
I recently visited a friend living in Germany. He has a "little bit" theiry which I like. Essentially there a lot of things that, to them, make their life in Germany a "little bit" better than the UK. Taken together, it makes their life appreciably better.
If enough things are just a little bit better for you in Oz, the overall impact will be great. |
Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by Bermudashorts
(Post 8677658)
I don't think all the comments on BE are bad at the moment. I think there are plenty of positive ones and plenty of people very happy that they made the move. But I think us who have yet to make the move are more alert to the negative comments.
This is very unfortunate especially for me at the moment as I have a flight booked for Tuesday. I have decided that it would be in my best interests to avoid the "what do you hate about Australia thread" right now. I hope I am being realistic in my expectations, I have spent long enough on BE to understand that we are not moving to Utopia. I have never really bought into the "better life" sentiments though. If I were moving from a third world country this might be true but I tend to see it as something different rather than better. But your right, go for it and for a while ignore the nay sayers!! "different" is my new choice of word to describe Oz...not better...just different!!! |
Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by Hutch
(Post 8677591)
I've said it before and I'll say it again - It's Australia, not Narnia. You basically have all the same problems any western style democracy has - fat kids, fat people, crime, thoughtlessness, bad roads, bad public transport, rising house prices, rising energy costs, water shortages, expensive petrol, shite TV. So take all that as a given. What all the above leaves us is the gray areas in between and it's largely down to you as to how you use them.
For example, one of the posters above complains that they never see kids on bikes, well it's a very different story in my little town where there's always kids on bikes, kids walking dogs, kids on skateboards. Just goes to show how different things are from town to town, city to city. Other people complain about the public education system and send their kids to expensive private schools. The top performing school in this area (public or private) is the public school my son attends - but more important than league tables as far as I'm concerned is that he's happy there. Other people complain that the houses are expensive whereas we managed to swap a titchy detached bungalow with two bedrooms for a detached four bedder with dlug and pool. Not bragging about it, just pointing out that not every town in Oz is stupidly expensive. So bottom line. Expect most aspects of life to be exactly as they are - bills need to be paid, laundry needs to be done, kids need to be taken to school, tax has to be paid. Then work in the margins - choose where you live veeeery carefully, consider public transport options where you are, get good advice on the schools. Once you have all that covered then you can go about the task of reinventing yourself, as many of us have done, in whatever way you want. |
Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by paddyo
(Post 8677792)
Bloody hell!!!! You HAVE been lurking!! I thought you was an old and bold Pom gone native!!
But your right, go for it and for a while ignore the nay sayers!! "different" is my new choice of word to describe Oz...not better...just different!!! |
Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by Bermudashorts
(Post 8677968)
Old and bold Pom! Old?!! Have you seen my picture, I am in my prime. :p
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Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by paddyo
(Post 8677785)
no....22 million live here......whether they are happy or not has not been defined or can be......you could say 64 million live in UK happily by that same token of measurement...and we all know THAT ain't true!!! (those of us who were part of that 64mill)
All this 'will i survive' has nothing to do with the country. The infrastructure ,is all here, just like UK, the jobs are paid according to the cost of living , just like everywhere else. Both are eco-systems, salaries are pegged according to cost of living, things are priced to be affordable within a range for the vast majority. Just like most western societies. Otherwise nothing would sell. There is a settling event which is transforming your net wealth from UK to a new net wealth in Australia which can take you up or down a level but after that most would fall back into similar lifestyle category because lifestyle is more to do with job and earning power than anything else. You can afford the same number of plasma TV"s in the UK as you can in Australia if you are doing the same job with the same earning potential. I'd imagine there are a few change up/down events like electricians in Australia who are coming to work on the mines are going to earn comparatively more than working in a factory doing electrical work on shift but thats because of the hardship - just like working on the rigs from UK. Then you are just down to the ease of living and the suburb you chose. What is more of a life changing event as someone else has said is where you chose to settle. If you come from a crappy housing estate in the south ,north, east , or west of england and mistakenly settle in a similar place here -life will be very similar just a bit warmer/sunnier at odd times of the year. If you land in a really nice suburb with great schools where kids play out (as people have) then you have a new baseline for your life which has removed a lot of stressors. fact is - job defines income which defines relative purchasing power which defines peoples perception of how expensive things are. People in UK grow up knowing that gas comes out the ground for 50p a week, people in Australia grow up knowing gas comes in LPG bottles for 130$ a quarter. UK people know that petrol is hideously expensive, Aussies grow up knowing its 'getting' expensive. Everything is stock+balance but I cant imagine that net net people are really truly moving more than 5-10% up or down in wealth if all they are doing is transporting themselves halfway across the world to do the same job, at the same level, in a similar industry. The monopoly issues like coles, woolworths, are real and present, but again - if coles or woolworths price their food above the level that the market will bear they will lose share - the market pricing is set by the consumer - which is set by how much disposable income they have - again set by job. people just move from one eco-system to another, I dont think they move up or down just by executing that move. |
Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by Buzzy--Bee
(Post 8677648)
I was remarking to Mrs BB only yesterday how lovely it was to see all the kids around here cycling home from school, many aged only about 8 or so, some with 6 year old siblings in tow, and almost none with their parents - and we live in a city suburb. This particular incidence really is like "England used to be in the '60s" and I hope it never changes.
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Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by louie
(Post 8678649)
Had you seen this when you wrote that? Much as I think the UK still has a lot going for it, the "wrap up children in cotton wool" approach to child-rearing is not one of them.....
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Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by louie
(Post 8678649)
Had you seen this when you wrote that? Much as I think the UK still has a lot going for it, the "wrap up children in cotton wool" approach to child-rearing is not one of them.....
I only let my kids ( in OZ ) ride once they were in high school, even then I was worried sick. The reason, we live in a safe, wealthy, white:rolleyes: neighbourhood and a large 13 year old boy was taken and presumed murdered, - he used to go to my kids primary school. Aus has loads of silly PC cotton wool stuff too, we couldnt use antiseptic cream or bandaids in school if a child was injured, could use an ice pack if we had rang the parents for permission! The shade covers were taken off the playground as they were dangerous to playing kids, then they banned the kids using the playground equipment except at lunchtime, by which time said UV level was about 13 in summer:eek: Currently qld is talking people may have to fence driveways!!! not the first time its come up either, child is run over by parents in mega 4WD and its not parents need to watch kids :rolleyes:its lets talk laws to fence driveways. |
Re: Worried.
Originally Posted by jad n rich
(Post 8679787)
Aus has loads of silly PC cotton wool stuff too, we couldnt use antiseptic cream or bandaids in school if a child was injured, could use an ice pack if we had rang the parents for permission! The shade covers were taken off the playground as they were dangerous to playing kids, then they banned the kids using the playground equipment except at lunchtime, by which time said UV level was about 13 in summer:eek: Currently qld is talking people may have to fence driveways!!! not the first time its come up either, child is run over by parents in mega 4WD and its not parents need to watch kids :rolleyes:its lets talk laws to fence driveways.
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