love30stm

Agree none of my friends struggle and most are British, our life is good here, no way I'm going back to the UK.

TommyLuck

Firstly, whilst this thread is going OT it's really cool that people are giving their own opinions and offering their own experience without it getting personal when opinons and experiences clash

My wife reminded me the other day about a time, before we got married, when I told her that if she wanted to move back to NZ she'd have to go it alone and that I would never leave the UK - how times have changed, I've been the catalyst for this up coming move.

I'm older and arguably a tad wiser and just feel that I want to push my comfort boundaries, as Bo-jangles mentions.

Whilst I'm a creature of routine, I like doing things, having projects if you will. There's more to it than this, but I got married at 26 and became a dad at 27 - way earlier on both counts than any of my close mates - because I felt that I needed to move my life on.

I was fed up of the living for the weekend, beer swilling, curry eating lifestyle and wanted to kick on.

I suppose in a way, a move to the home of my OH is just another one of those projects.

We're in a lucky position. We have no reason to take any of our £'s to NZ at this stage and anticipate, should we get a household income of £100k we'll live just as comfortably as we do now.

We're not big spenders of money and are hardly materialistic, if we treat ourselves on anything it's meals out and days out watching Rugby and Cricket.

We've lived together for 6 years and barely own anything worth nicking, it's only costing us £2k to ship our goods to NZ - we don't own a lot.

I thought about this a lot. Mainly off the back of the thoughts of the people who post on here.

I'm as sure as I can be that I'll enjoy my move.

Either way, I'm certainly not someone who wants to regret a passed up opportunity to give it a go.

Bo-Jangles

It depresses me a LOT that it has taken until now. Nobody here should be at all surprised that things will be looking quite grim bringing money from the UK right now.

Assuming you have money / capital to bring over you will have studied the exchange rate and will have some idea or plan as to what you hope to achieve in terms of the money available for you to start your new life. Only you will know to what extent the exchange rate will impact upon your plans.

You may well have planned a contingency or a worst case scenario, but I'd guess human nature will have lead you to an optimistic view on what the exchange rate will be. It stands to reason that the amount of capital you have from the outset will have a huge bearing on your your sustainability and resiliance towards cost of living in the longer term. Shifts of a few cents to the pound either way can make or break the deal for some.

During our planning stages we were looking at $2.78 to the pound and there was always talk of reaching the giddy heights of $3.00 to the pound, by the time we got here and into buying a house, it was well on the slide and at the lows of NZ 2.40 to 2.50 and this made a huge difference to the lifestyle we were able to achieve versus what we thought it might be like when we first started looking - it meant getting a bigger mortgage than we ever anticipated and affordabilty has been an issue ever since.

Back then buzzword and holy grail among wannabe NZ emigrees used to be all about being 'mortgage-free' and that was at one time a reality for many. We rarely hear it get a mention these days, because the world and the financial ladscape has changed a lot and continues to surprise us with new lows.

If I were researching a move to NZ today and looking at the present exchange rate, it simply would not have been economically possible and I have no idea how some people here hope to make it so. You may be able to afford to take a hit on the currency and you may be able to achieve lifestyle factors that money can't buy, but it would need a far braver woman than me to consider gambling 25% of my net worth on it.

TommyLuck

I have to agree that were I not in a position to leave my £'s in the UK I don't think I would be making the move, but perhaps this is purely based on my percieved value of the New Zealand Dollar (rough estimates);

I visted @ Christmas 2003 - $2.9/£1
Visited in @ Christmas 2008 to search for wedding venues - $2.5/£1
By the time I actually got married in 2010 - $2.2/£1

By the time I move in July 2013 - ???


It's been dive bombing for a decade and where as I arrived in New Zealand in 2003 barely being able to give my cash away, when spending holiday £'s I'm a bit more frugal these days.

rodge

Hi Synky,
Thats only opinions. I can understand how you might be losing sleep if you've stewed over this thread before moving. In the 15 years we've been here, I honestly don't feel the cost of living in relation to wages has worsened, for us anyway. It happens everywhere. People look back on the past very fondly. I bet in another 15 years people will be saying "I remember NZ back in 2013 when everything was so much better".

The fact of the matter is, there are reasons why the NZ dollar has strengthened and the pound has weakened, and it's very little to do with interest rates. NZ currently has the lowest interest rate (Oncall 2.5%) since we've been here and yet the dollar has increased in value. It has more to do with the perceptions, by international investors, of the relative positions of the economies. NZ fundamentals (government debt, economic growth, unemployment) are looking good in comparison to GB. The strength of the Aussie economy also is a factor, as NZ relies heavily on it for exports. Also there is the worlds 2 fastest growing economies of India and China on NZs doorstep. Again, there is a perception by investors that NZ can take advantage as growing economies need primary produce (ie NZ's exports), and this is starting to bear fruit with record sales of lamb to China announced just a few days ago. There is no prospect that NZ will be doing a 'Greece' any time soon. It's all about supply and demand. The NZ dollar increases in value because there is a high demand for it. It is seen as a safe investment, currently, in relation to some other currencies.

So, while the exchange rate is worse than it used to be, I think it's also important to understand the reasons why. Whether the NZ dollar will fall in the years to follow, absolutely no one knows. If they did, they could ensure themselves of becoming very very rich, instead of just taking a gamble on it. Don't get depressed. When you get here, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised after reading this thread. Where are you heading to?

Synky

Maybe Christchurch, going to make sure I get a good enough job offer now.

Thanks all, as always this forum is a font of information & advice

BEVS

It certainly does.

trafford

Unfortunately we aren't happy. The business has provided a comfortable lifestyle for years, but the last two have been sheer hell -walking a tightrope trying to keep everything afloat. I am not wishing to complain too much as lots are in the same (or worse) boat, but my OH and I are close to emotional collapse. I just worry that I am being blinded by the desire to run away. The thought of toughing it out here for another couple of years fills me with panic. Maybe my run back to NZ is just the desire to rest.

No, not really. I guess we just want a fresh start and to leave the past behind us. Like TommyLuck says – not wanting to regret passing up an opportunity. We have assets, so it’s not like it would be a huge struggle either. But our earning potential is greater here in the UK. It just seems intolerable to stay here.
Sorry, for the drama! Everyone having to read my witterings! Having another bad day at work – more disasters. It almost feels like fate is forcing us to go (if I believed in fate)!

I couldn’t agree more. My OH says I over-think. He says I should trust in my own resilience and in the relationships with friends and family to help me, and then just jump in. But, then again, he is a complete idiot at times. Just hard to predict which times.

BEVS

You're getting BE karma just for this.

scottishstacey

Dont worry about wittering - everyone wants to help even if its just listening. You arent the only one who overthinks everything lol.

Best of luck

downunderpom

Ah, yes - "The paralysis of analysis."

And we're all (men) idiots at times. It's what makes us so endearing!

Bit of background - Mrs DUP and I went to Oz in 2002. I had a two-year contract with accompanying work visa from a company which had promised to sponsor me for permanent residence at the end of the contract, if I proved I could do the job. I did the two-year contract in one year, then continued in the job I was expected to do once permanent residence was granted (if that makes sense).

Then we got a new (American) CIO... who decided that this 'deal' wasn't going to happen, and if my manager (who'd made the promises) tried to push back on his, the CIO's, decision then he, my manager, would also be looking for a new job. Not that this pathetic excuse for a 'leader' knew me - never even spoke to me. Nice guy.

It took the company nine months to figure out that this CIO was one of life's w@nkers, and get rid of him, but by that time Mrs DUP and I were back in the UK. The damage was done. (We also got screwed over by just about everyone we dealt with in Oz but that's another story.)

Worked in the UK, contracting, while deciding what to do next, for another 16 months. Looked at Canada and NZ, decided that Canada was a) too cold and b) too close to the States, so decided on NZ. Mrs DUP got the job offer which clinched it for us, and we moved here. So we moved half way around the world three times in less than four years. Expensive. More expensive than a single move, anyway, no matter what the exchange rate...

Now, we're NZ citizens, established, have our own 5 hectare (12.5 acre) 'lifestyle' rural property, and live in a well insulated, centrally heated brick house that we designed ourselves.

So - the point of this ramble - you can only plan ahead so much. Then something will come along to change things. There will be changes, sometimes dramatic ones, like ending up in a different country from the one in which you'd planned to spend the rest of your life. You just have to keep your goal in the forefront of your mind, and keep working toward it. No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Be flexible. Trust your instincts. Don't over-analyse.

Now sit back with a nice cup of tea / coffee / Horlicks / glass of wine, and decide what YOU want to do. Then go for it.

If Mrs DUP and I, with all of our set-backs, can make it, so can you.

Synky

Nice one.

trafford

Thank you scottishsstacey. The forum helped me tonight. I can't talk to my OH about it - he is as stressed as I am but doesn't want to talk or think about it (he isn't an over-thinker!).

So so true. I love the phrase!

It sounds like you had a bumpy ride downunderpom! I keep telling myself that life cannot be planned or anticipated in detail, but my nature wants to write long checklists and pro/con tables! Now if I can just get through the next three months while the business heaves and shivers, without losing it! Like you say, I need to keep my mind on the big picture, be flexible and stop thinking I can know every step along the way.

Thanks for the advice. Without being too melodramatic, it has somewhat eased my rotten day, my blind panic and my anxious evening. It has been more like therapy than emigration!

GoingIn2011

Nice! Encouraging too.

Charismatic

Don't know if anyone mentioned this but BOE has suggested negative rates which would really drive GBP down.

House prices are down, slash rates!

House prices are down again, slash rates to near zero!

House prices are down again, Jesus there is no more room left to slash.

You can't have an economy built on investment in an unproductive asset. In most western countries banks have a lot of residential lending junk on the balance sheets, the toxic debt problem was never really solved. Rates need to rise and banks need to write off debt in a progressive manner, the current game is helping nobody and stalling the inevitable.