Grayling

Absolutely nothing.

Retired early, good pension, Enough money to survive on comfortably here or to live comfortably on in the Uk if I want to return (which I will one day).

Now I have also been offered a good job....if I decide I want to return to work.

I did not gamble at all.

Twinset

Good on yer! What made you move to Oz?

Grayling

family reasons....one of my sons lives here so we are spending some time here.

G

Twinset

Then you'll understand that whole piece about doing anything for your kids?

purple rain

I had a job for when we arrived, hubby did not.
Rented house out in the Uk
Very little money
Never been to Ausralia before

Grayling

No...not the way you put.

You think it is better for kids to be in Australia. I think that is debatable.

In my opinion the UK is a far better environment especially if that is where their extended family is.

My children are adults and are able to decide for themselves. My youngest also lived in Australia for a while but returned because he prefers the UK.

G

Twinset

Good on ya! My wife and I in race to see who gets job first, then who gets to be house husband or wife!!

Coming to Adelaide too - how have you settled in??

Twinset

The Gold Gang

Hi Grayling,

Hey, we are both still on here since this morning (UK morning, that is)...!
You know what, this thread makes really interesting reading and I particularly enjoy reading your comments. But having read what you and other people have said, I think I've been put off coming to Australia!! The thing is, we are really happy here in England, both my OH and I have great jobs, I work four days a week for the same money or more, than I could earn for a five day a week job over in Aus, and my husband earns TWICE here what he could earn there and believe me, we have done the research all over Aus and have been there twice to all the states, we've even been on TV in Canberra!!
We live in a great house with four happy kids all at good schools, all doing well and all with lots of other interests, like playing football for the town club, etc. My daughter is 17 and does not want to go to Australia at all, she likes London and Cambridge and many of the quaint little towns around Bedfordshire. She wants to go to University here in England, even though she could go to Uni over there.

We nearly came to Aus last year to live, sold our house privately at the peak of the market, then lost our nerve, pulled out of the house sale (oh, my God, how dumb was that??!!!)

The thing is, we have a PR Visa which we validated and it lasts until 2012. We feel if we don't at least try life in another country, then are we going to regret it when we are older? But I have to say that I veer between wanting to go, for the sheer adventure of it, and not wanting to go, as its takes so much hard work to be a working mother of four kids and I've got it all sorted here, and it works so well and I don't know if I can face trying to get it all sorted out over there just so that we all end up as happy as we already are, right here, right now!!

I just said to my husband, 'shall we just forget it and wait five or ten years, then we can downsize our house from five to three bedrooms and maybe buy a second place in Spain, which I do actually love and which has no nasty stuff in the sea other than jellyfish at certain times and locations, and no poisonous stuff on land either...!' Plus Spain has a much lower UV index than Australia and they will serve you a meal at 11pm at night with no grumbling....the problem is I am 13 years older than my OH and whereas I could retire in 10 years, he'll still be working and so it would be me on my own spending time in Spain, which isn't what we were after! We thought if we came to Australia, to the sun and warmth, I could retire and he could work...

Anyway, I'm off to bed now as its way late here and my head is confused now...I'm not looking to anyone for answers, I'm glad you have all expressed your opinions and I wish you all the best of luck in your choices...God knows what ours will be!!!!

Twinset

Wow Dr Who, somehow missed your post in amongst all the others....where do you consider home now?

Twinset

Feel for you - at least our family are united in what they want, which makes life a lot easier....hope you make the decision which is right for you.

Twinset

quoll

As you will know, I am firmly in the camp of if it aint broke dont fix it!

Also being old I am increasingly aware of the problems that face older Australians unless they are pretty well heeled. You probably have your retirement worked out and will be comfortable - if you came to Aus you would need to be. Your UK pension would be frozen and you would have no access to any Aus support for 10 years.

What is so important about living in another country? It isnt so much the place as the people that make life worth living IMHO. Have you thought perhaps that in your "old age" you could come to Aus, be grey nomads and travel around in a camper van for months on end on a tourist visa. Then you could do the same in Canada, USA, or you could do what many of us did as youngsters and backpack across Asia - that's an adventure!! then you could get a taste of other lifestyles. I find there is much less here to engage and inspire me in my old age than there would be back in UK with Europe on my doorstep - my retirement in UK would be peppered with city breaks all over Europe whereas here it will take me 5 hours flying at least to just get out of the country.

BTW your daughter has excellent taste - being a Cambridge born and raised girl myself I cannot but agree with her!

DrWho

TBH I'm a fanatical Englishman... but this place is growing on me... IMO if you can get over the sense of isolation and lack of things to engage your mind then things are OK... Whether I'll spend the rest of my days here or not I don't know, but for the moment it's ticking all the right boxes and I certainly feel more comfortable as time goes on... However, my younger brother and his wife, lawyer and barrister, came to stay over New Year and it really brought home how out of touch this place feels with the rest of the world...

iamthecreaturefromuranus

I would echo most of that... it is isolated and I used to describe Oz as just a bit dull.. but it does grow on you... or perhaps you just grow into it?.

DrWho

Quite probably...

Dorothy

What exactly are you planning to do if your visa is refused? There is a very good reason the DIAC literature says to not do anything such as quit jobs or sell property before a visa is issued.