Decision made

Old Jan 8th 2010, 10:45 pm
  #46  
 
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Default Re: Decision made

Originally Posted by JonboyE
Other people emigrate for other reasons. For them this is not madness - just one of the risks that need to be evaluated.
Those in the past few years have had the advantage of being able to bring a lot of real estate capital with them and so can accept a significant down-trading in income without the accompanying drop in lifestyle.

This isn't necessarily the case now, and whilst there are more important things than a decent income you do need something to live on.
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Old Jan 9th 2010, 5:03 pm
  #47  
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Default Re: Decision made

Before we left the UK, we attended an emigration fair where it was said that most people emigrate for two reasons: a better lifestyle or better income. For us, it was the lifestyle.

If we can get jobs doing something we really enjoy that pay well, great. But if not, never mind - we're in the country we wanted to be with all the differences and opportunities that brings. I earned a better-than-average salary in the UK, and don't expect to earn anything like that now. I'm fully prepared to take an entry-level job in a different career if it means I have the time to enjoy a family and social life, something I never had in my last UK job. Canadians are very keen on outdoors activities (and who can blame them?), and all I want is a job that pays the bills and leaves me some free time.
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Old Jan 9th 2010, 5:41 pm
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Default Re: Decision made

The communities our friends have moved to are very welcoming and their evenings are spent socialising either over a beer or a cup of tea.....which is also good for networking, everyone is much more relaxed when they are at home. On our reccie visits, we have also been embraced and can't wait to move there.
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How exactly are evenings and weekends better here? Isn't it entirely personal what you do with them either in the UK or in Canada. I don't see how weekends are better here, they are just two days that the majority of people don't work on, whether that is in the UK or here?
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Old Jan 9th 2010, 6:12 pm
  #49  
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Default Re: Decision made

Originally Posted by Grendel
Before we left the UK, we attended an emigration fair where it was said that most people emigrate for two reasons: a better lifestyle or better income. For us, it was the lifestyle.

If we can get jobs doing something we really enjoy that pay well, great. But if not, never mind - we're in the country we wanted to be with all the differences and opportunities that brings. I earned a better-than-average salary in the UK, and don't expect to earn anything like that now. I'm fully prepared to take an entry-level job in a different career if it means I have the time to enjoy a family and social life, something I never had in my last UK job. Canadians are very keen on outdoors activities (and who can blame them?), and all I want is a job that pays the bills and leaves me some free time.
Grendel - I quite agree with you, this is the thinking behind our move, assuming it happens. We both have stable jobs here in the UK, but it's time for a change, and we're doing it for a different life, not a better salary. If that happens, all well and good, but if we're going to struggle for money, as we're beginning to do in SE England, then we might as well struggle somewhere else where we have a chance of a more satisfying lifestyle for ourselves and our kids.
The OP has her reasons for not going through with the move, personally I'd finish the job, get the PR, land, then take time to decide the next step. But we're all adults on here, allowed to make our own minds up.

Que sera, sera :-)
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Old Jan 9th 2010, 6:46 pm
  #50  
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Default Re: Decision made

Originally Posted by Grendel
I'm fully prepared to take an entry-level job in a different career if it means I have the time to enjoy a family and social life, something I never had in my last UK job. Canadians are very keen on outdoors activities (and who can blame them?), and all I want is a job that pays the bills and leaves me some free time.
I'm at a loss to see how you get a job which allows more free time by moving to Canada. My colleagues all work better than 60 hours a week and carry phones for the time when they're not working. People do go camping and the like but never out of range of the phone; something that's pretty restrictive in Ontario.

Granted, if you leave a responsible job and take one doing manual labour you'll have more time but you'll have less money. Yes, you can more somewhere cheap in Canada but you can do that in the UK; rather than go to, say, New Brunswick you could go to Belfast or Fort William. The trick of being able to move and take a menial job because of the vast difference in property values works less well with the current exchange rate.
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Old Jan 9th 2010, 9:12 pm
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Default Re: Decision made

Originally Posted by Oink
I think you've had a bit of touch there, and you've made a very wise and sensible decision. If you have a reasonable life in the UK, why bugger it by going to live in someone else's country?
I don't often write on the Canada forum, but I do agree with this sentiment. Unless you are completely willing to accept the potential consequences of the move -loss of gainful employment, dislocation and all the concomitant anxiety - then I would stay in the UK. Personally (I stress that) I can absolutely no need to disrupt a stable existence in the UK to move to Canada.

I also, although I may have read this wrongly, think that someone seemed to comment that the Canadians work to live not vice versa. Have to say, in 22years here, never found that to be true. In fact, exact opposite. Its a hard place to establish yourself and get 'ahead.' - for Canadians as well as immigrants. As for cheap property - its a big country with no-one living in it so, yes, it is cheaper than Western Europe....whether that's to your taste, though, is up to you. It seems to me, from this website and detailing experiences from Australia and so on, that many Britons find the isolation in these countires as disconcerting as I do.

(To answer the inevitable - I moved here to be with my (then) Canadian wife and stayed to be close to my (Canadian) children).
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Old Jan 9th 2010, 9:15 pm
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Default Re: Decision made

I agree with dbd33....that is in itself is a very rare happening!. I have recently declined an offer to move from casual/part time to full time simply because on becoming full time I will be subject to limited windows re holidays etc. I enjoy my freedom of movement so to speak...but I am fortunate enough to be able to to maintain that status....so casual/part time it will remain!
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Old Jan 9th 2010, 9:26 pm
  #53  
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Default Re: Decision made

Originally Posted by Grendel
a better lifestyle
Perceived lifestyle

Originally Posted by Grendel
If we can get jobs doing something we really enjoy that pay well, great. But if not, never mind - we're in the country we wanted to be with all the differences and opportunities that brings.
All good and well but if you get a crappola job with crappola pay you'll - 1, you'll not be able to afford your perceived lifestyle, and 2, the latter kind of limits yours and your family's opportunities.

Originally Posted by Grendel
I'm fully prepared to take an entry-level job in a different career if it means I have the time to enjoy a family and social life, something I never had in my last UK job....and all I want is a job that pays the bills and leaves me some free time.
You can have this in the UK without the hassle, upheaval, and financial/emotional expense that goes with emigrating. Just use your 5 or so weeks per year vacation time to travel around Canada every year.

What i'm getting at is that the reasons people often give for wanting to move to Canada are easily accessible within the UK.
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Old Jan 9th 2010, 11:10 pm
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Default Re: Decision made

Originally Posted by el_richo
You can have this in the UK without the hassle, upheaval, and financial/emotional expense that goes with emigrating. Just use your 5 or so weeks per year vacation time to travel around Canada every year. What i'm getting at is that the reasons people often give for wanting to move to Canada are easily accessible within the UK.
In the year or two before we emigrated, my working life became intolerable - I ended up working six different shifts every two weeks, with absolutely no time for family or social life and no sign of any improvement. Everywhere in my industry (newspaper publishing) seemed to be going the same way, and it was clear it was time for a change. At the same time, our mortgage was becoming crippling. Enough was enough.

Yes, moving to Canada has been inordinately stressful and we're not out of the woods yet. We know life here will not all be sweetness and light and it has proved hard to find work. But the same would have been true if I had tried changing jobs or my career in the UK. There were few opportunities in my region (S Wales) so we would have had to move somewhere else in the country, and would have had to look for a cheaper place to buy a home. If we were going to move and look for a new job, Canada seemed a much more preferable option. So far we have found the people welcoming and their attitude to life generally more positive than those of people in S Wales, and our house is better than anything we could have afforded in the UK. Our UK mortgage was so high it really limited the jobs I could do as I needed a certain salary to keep the house, which we loved; any job would have had to be of management level. Moving here has meant we require a lot less money coming in, which has broadened the choice of jobs we can try. We have the opportunity, if given the chance by an employer, of trying different fields, even if it means an entry-level or trainee position due to our possible lack of experience. I have enjoyed my career (up until the last few years), but now I can afford to have a go at something else or possibly work part-time.

Life here is just different - some Britons like it, others clearly don't. For us, the chance of experiencing it on a permanent basis was definitely worth all the hassle we had to go through to get here. We might have found a better job and cheaper home somewhere in the UK, as I'm sure many people do. But we wanted to try emigrating, despite all the stresses it could bring. You only live once.

That said, everybody's circumstances are different. We took more than three years to make up our minds and I wouldn't advise anybody to make such a life-changing decision without a vast amount of soul searching.
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Old Jan 10th 2010, 6:46 am
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Default Re: Decision made

Originally Posted by Grendel
In the year or two before we emigrated, my working life became intolerable - I ended up working six different shifts every two weeks, with absolutely no time for family or social life and no sign of any improvement. Everywhere in my industry (newspaper publishing) seemed to be going the same way, and it was clear it was time for a change. At the same time, our mortgage was becoming crippling. Enough was enough.

Yes, moving to Canada has been inordinately stressful and we're not out of the woods yet. We know life here will not all be sweetness and light and it has proved hard to find work. But the same would have been true if I had tried changing jobs or my career in the UK. There were few opportunities in my region (S Wales) so we would have had to move somewhere else in the country, and would have had to look for a cheaper place to buy a home. If we were going to move and look for a new job, Canada seemed a much more preferable option. So far we have found the people welcoming and their attitude to life generally more positive than those of people in S Wales, and our house is better than anything we could have afforded in the UK. Our UK mortgage was so high it really limited the jobs I could do as I needed a certain salary to keep the house, which we loved; any job would have had to be of management level. Moving here has meant we require a lot less money coming in, which has broadened the choice of jobs we can try. We have the opportunity, if given the chance by an employer, of trying different fields, even if it means an entry-level or trainee position due to our possible lack of experience. I have enjoyed my career (up until the last few years), but now I can afford to have a go at something else or possibly work part-time.

Life here is just different - some Britons like it, others clearly don't. For us, the chance of experiencing it on a permanent basis was definitely worth all the hassle we had to go through to get here. We might have found a better job and cheaper home somewhere in the UK, as I'm sure many people do. But we wanted to try emigrating, despite all the stresses it could bring. You only live once.

That said, everybody's circumstances are different. We took more than three years to make up our minds and I wouldn't advise anybody to make such a life-changing decision without a vast amount of soul searching.
Fair enough. You don't have to explain your reasons at all.

Good luck with it all and i hope it all works out as you imagine
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Old Jan 10th 2010, 7:12 am
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Default Re: Decision made

Originally Posted by el_richo
Fair enough. You don't have to explain your reasons at all.

Good luck with it all and i hope it all works out as you imagine
I think it's extremely helpful that Grendel has explained their reasons, not least because they sound just like own reasons for wanting to move. If more people explained the thinking behind their posts on here, there might be more understanding replies than I sometimes see. Of course, there's no reason why everyone should agree with those explanations, but I, for one, would be happy to see more posts like Grendel's.
Your reply, el_richo, should be an example to others as to how to respond to the thrust-and-parry sometimes displayed on BE, and I hope only encourages more people to go into detail about their reasons for a particular decision - it can help and reassure others who might find themselves in the same boat.

Oh no, now I sound like I've been soapboxing! Sorry, I'll blame a hyperactive 2 year old for waking too early this morning :-)
This is still the best forum on the web! And Grendel, more power to your elbow - good luck with settling in :-)
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Old Jan 11th 2010, 3:10 pm
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Default Re: Decision made

Originally Posted by Bucks_Family
I think it's extremely helpful that Grendel has explained their reasons, not least because they sound just like own reasons for wanting to move. If more people explained the thinking behind their posts on here, there might be more understanding replies than I sometimes see.

This is still the best forum on the web! And Grendel, more power to your elbow - good luck with settling in :-)
Thanks very much. Sometimes I do go on, but I think it's important to give details so newcomers to the whole emigration process can understand the emotions, thought processes and problems involved. Those of us who have been through it might forget just how confusing it was at the beginning - should I go? Where will I go? What will I do for a living? etc, etc.

The more information you have, the better. People who haven't looked into emigrating really have no idea just how complex, time-consuming and stressful it can be. Hopefully BE's members can help a lot. There are far more experienced posters on here, and we're quite new to Canada, but I'm happy to offer any information if I can to Bucks_Family or other relative newcomers.
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