wots best money or lifestyle
 

Sounds like UK pays better but whats more important money or lifestyle- and what does the future look like for your kids. I spent a year in London and cant understand why anyone would want to live there. Maybe Im uncultured. I know its hard to start anew somewhere else. But maybe we need to look 10 or 20 years down the line instaed of just 2 or so and think of the kind of lifestyle we want our kids to have. What is the future for your kids in the UK in 10 or 20 years. Are you positive or negative about that? maybe in 10 years we will be earning better $ in OZ. Maybe.... I think lifestyle is more important, however lifestyle is affected by family and friends. In 10 years I would have kids married to aussies and grand kids as well probably. And heaps of good friends as well. Sure I'd miss the people I grew up with and family members in Kiwiland but I bet in 10 years when my kids are married to Aussies they wont want to leave and neither will I.

That's a really difficult question! We have the money here in the UK - not loads but enough for us to live comfortably, but hubby gets up at 5.30 to travel for 1 1/2 hours to work. Then has the same on the way home but with all the traffic it takes him 2 hours. By the time he gets home he has had enough. We all seem to be running to keep still here, trying to keep the big house and the big mortgage. I want the best for the kids but I don't want them to have the pressure they have at school here to get the STATS results, the GCSE's etc. I want them to enjoy their childhood and have time to be kids.
Two people that hubby works with have died suddenly in the last 3 weeks - both with young families, and it does make you think. You can do all the planning you want, for you and the kids but you don't know what is round the corner.
So if we get a chance we are going for the lifestyle and not the money - we are going to give it a year in NZ and see. If eventually the kids want to come back to the UK for the jobs then that will be their decision and we will give them any help we can(won't be money as we won't have any living in NZ according to Wilf!)

Sandra:p

Re: wots best money or lifestyle
 

I'm sure your views are shared by many readers, and thats why many are emigrating to Oz or NZ and are on this forum.

However, not everyone has the same priorities, and it is stating the obvious that a lot of people love living in London for whatever reason (that is why there are so many there). Job opportunities, theatre, the pub scene, the hustle and bustle are all things that many people like. I have lived here (London) 10 years myself, and have to say it is the number one big city in the world (my view-others would disagree), and I am really glad I have had the opportunity to live, work and play in such a place.

So yes, let us hope we are making the right lifestyle choice ourselves by moving to Oz/NZ, but we should not expect that it will be everybody's cup of tea. In fact, lets hope it is not everybody's cup of tea, because if too many people move down under then that will ruin the things that make it so special, in my view.

Regards...

Re: wots best money or lifestyle
 

I think the lifestyle being better down under is a very personal and subjective issue probably more linked to where your family are or what you find familiar. The truth is a lot of UK people find the lifestyle in oz limited after a few initial years. The other issue is high unemployment and overcrowding in the major Oz cities.

How good really are the opportunities in Oz for kids where unemployment rates are high particularly for youths, universities and schools are of mixed quality and not well rated on an international basis and salaries are lower but cost of living is almost identical to UK. As a Kiwi you may find Oz a wealth of opportunities but for a Brit from London its a different story.

The other sad thing about oz is the increasingly high density of living in the few major cities. House prices in Sydney are probably worse than London and Melbourne is not far behind. When we last visited Oz young people where either living in small units in poor parts of the centre or on huge housing estates miles from the cbd. It was difficult for us to understand how they could enjoy lives given the standard of accomodation available to them.

Sure London is overcrowded but it has been that way for many hundreds of years and given the opportunities and salaries available it will always attract people seeking to better themselves including lets face it loads of young aussies and kiwis. We have met plenty of aussies that have to go home each year as their visas have run out and want to stay but cannot.

In London, travel less than 35 minutues on a train from waterloo and you can live in herts, surrey, hants, berks countryside which is wonderful. Schools are first class, international travel is cheap and plentiful, work is abundant, every possible facility is available. Its also been that way pretty much the whole of my life and given London continues to grow into one of the very few truly major international world cities I cannot see that changing in the future.

The only thing I would point out is that you can manipulate your career.

Unless you are stinking rich you cannot manipulate your lifestyle.

I think it all depends on your own experiences and views. We lived in Grays in Essex, 35 mins by train to London CBD. This was the only area we could afford to buy the place we wanted and have the lifestyle we wanted. Trouble is hubby had to work all hours, even though he was an IT contractor, just to keep us out of the red, resulting in him missing the kids growing up etc. Anyway we found Grays to be a s**t hole as it is the cheapest area outside London. The school my kids were in was absolutely rubbish, being told by the teacher that my 5 year old was too disruptive in class and she didn't have time to deal with him was not the attitude you want to hear from an experienced teacher!! Anyway, as time went on and the situation at school got worse I imagined 10 years down the track my son would be in one of those gangs that went around Grays town centre causing havok and maybe even getting into drugs as the school just didn't have that caring and respectful attitude young kids need. Anway, we moved here for the lifestyle and even though when we first got here my son was disruptive and difficult in class, the teachers have been great, so proffessional and helpful, he is now a nice respectful little boy who will grow up with a much better attitude to life, enjoying school like he should be. When the kids grow up we will encourage them to travel the world, go and work in London, New York or wherever they want to, at least they have that oppertunity to, and if we keep their british passports up to date they will have no worries.

anyway, this is my experiences and views and we have no regrets. Yes London is a great place if you are single and love the life, but its not for us and never has been.

mandy

Mandy,

Nice to hear your comments. My son has dyspraxia and some attention problems and i feel that he does not get enough time given to him within the class, even though he gets 5 hours help one on one a week (allegedly) I don't know weather things will change overthere, but i know that primary schooling is a lot more relaxed, so that should at least take the pressure off him for a while.
The anser to the origional post, well, a balence of both is essential, i just hope we achieve it:D

Lifestyle everytime.And regardless of what Wilf or anyone else says about work in NZ there is loads if you are willing to adapt,retrain or just plain get stuck in.Central and southern South Islands unemployment is made up of people who don't want to work,or people in specialist subjects that don't want to change.If the money is so important you've come to the wrong part of the world.However,if you want to have a lifestyle that few places in the world can offer here is the place.Southland currently has a huge shortage of workers in lots of careers and even if times are desperate anyone who is physically able can earn 20$ an hour just doing unskilled labour work.I guess it all depends how keen you are to live here.I'd work here for 50knz$ than 50kpounds i find it that good,it just suits my person.In the rural paper today,a 25 acre lifesyle block,rolling contour in the hills,nice simple house,15 mins from Gore(loads of work there)all outbuildings,paddocks and water in good order,needs nothing!..$120k.
Yeah,i know its not Auckland but Londons as grim as Bradford;)

I don't think you can really have a lifestlye without money, unless you are prepared to live a life without? Some people will disagree but in my opinion you can't do the things you want without a bit of money.
I lived in London for 7 years from 1987 and earn't more money than I've ever earnt. I wouldn't want to live there again but it was a great experience. Didn't cost me much either as I shared a house with others!

fresh airs free.I feel people have forgotten what to do without money.:rolleyes:

Hi janeyray, totally agree with you there.

A close friend of our's, an Australian, lives in Adelaide. He's a university lecturer, his Chinese-born wife works for one of the larger banks part-time as they have two small boys.

The bought a house last year in the Black Forest area of Adelaide for not very much money. He only has about a 20 min bicycle ride to work, but works very long hours. Not only does he work long hours it also has to be said they really don't have money to throw around, his family's originally from continental Europe but he can't afford to take his family on a visit. They don't travel within Australia, don't have the money or the time. They don't live a bad life obviously don't belong to the working poor, but money is a serious consideration, and if you don't have some money, then I also believe you cannot take advantage of the lifestyle that is on offer in both Oz and NZ.

I know there are many things that don't cost - a walk on the beach, swimming or going to a nature reserve close to town for a day out. But most things do cost. If we went to NZ to live one of the things that would be high on my list would be having a horse, costs money, hubby would like to surf, costs money. The boat everybody seems to have, costs money. If you want to go away for a weekend to enjoy all that gorgeous countryside you need money, if you have children even more.

I'm not in any way trying to say that you have to be rich to enjoy the lifestyle, but if you just manage to get by, to just pay your daily expenses there is not much scope for enjoying the lifestyle.

We wouldn't be going in order to make lots of money, hubby would like to work less if possible, but I know that having a gorgeous view to look at will not be enough, and if we can't earn enough to be able to afford that lifestyle that's always mentioned I dont' think it's for us.

Just one of many things to consider before going. Other people probably have different ideas of what "lifestyle" means to them but unless you're young and single it does not come cheap one way or the other. :lecture:

Guess I've gone on for long enough this time.

sashimi

Sorry deedee but the World I live in has money as it central mechanism. Is there another World I am not privy too? You can not forget what you never knew...

I can only remember that "The lack of money is the root of all evil".

Hi,
My son had some behavioural problems to the point where I almost had him tested for ADHD, but then I found this great book about how additives and preservatives can affect childrens behaviour if they are intolerant to them. I have since found that my son is intolerant to a natural chemical in some fruits! anyway, a great website all about this is www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info
it really opened my eyes to the way I feed my kids and since I have eliminated food additives etc from their diets they have completely changed. Even though they were dealing with my son quite well at school, he was a shocker at home, always in a bad mood and very defiant, now he's an angel, and the teacher does a weekly report on his behaviour in class while I'm testing different foods with him to find out which ones affect him more. Anway I'm quite passionate about it all but don't want to bore everyone with it, send me a PM if you want to chat.

Just to add that the author of the book I got did a world trip to research the different countries attitudes to additives etc, and she found that the USA was the worst for food additives then Australia then the UK, the rest of Europe was the best for not putting too much c**p in foods.

Mandy

Exactly. It costs nothing to go for a day's hike in the hills/rainforest/along the beach. Bring a packed lunch, listen to the birds.......

Camping isn't expensive (once you have all the equipment - which can be built up over time).

I live in London; hubby and I make more money than we know what do to with (I'm not bragging tho) and we can't wait to get to Australia for the free fresh air, clean beaches, rainforests, and cheap BBQ's. We obviously won't be making as much $$£$ as we do here but that's fine by us. As long as we have enough for top notch bikes, camping equipment, boat, fishing rods, good binoculars, telescope....ha just kidding of course. It would be nice to have all these things straight away but if we have to save up to get them (like in the olden days) then that's fine. What we should probably do is buy them here (with all our surplus cashola) and then take 'em with us so we already have some of them for there, when we will be able to put them to good use.

i'm sure you know what i'm getting at.I was pointing at todays society needing monies to entertain them more than ever before.I would be a wrong to say no one needs money as much as i don't have an empty bank account,just that most of the things i enjoy don't require money.I do realise though,i'm not normal by a considerable margin,which i dare say is why no one else lives up here with us where there is nothing to spend ya dosh on.
I do have one outlandish expense though,good coffee in town is 3$ a cup....i do get one a week :D