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Expats - your opinions please

Expats - your opinions please

Old Aug 6th 2005, 10:42 am
  #61  
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

We chose NZ because we wanted the kids to have the experience of living abroad and me and DH fancied living somwhere else to Britain, both having had expat lifestyles when we were kids.

It was a toss up between NZ and Canada for us. I always prefered NZ anyways - better and cleaner environment, stunning scenery, volcanoes, near to the Pacific Islands, in the Southern Hemisphere.

On balance I do not regret coming here. Even though we did our homework NZ was nothing like I expected it to be - it exceeded expectations in many ways and fell short in others.

It has taken a good year to get used to things in NZ. The homesickness faded after a while, I've got used to not having CH (well, up here it's warmer anyway) giving way to the right, even John Campbell's charm works its way into your heart after a while.

Things are not perfect but on balance they are better. What more could I reasonably ask for?
 
Old Aug 6th 2005, 10:48 pm
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

These posts are another thread highlight that migration to NZ (and probably other countries) is a 50 / 50 chance as to whether you will love it or curse they day you ever considered it. Up to you to take the gamble.
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Old Aug 7th 2005, 4:46 am
  #63  
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Originally Posted by livewire
....... even John Campbell's charm works its way into your heart after a while.

How long does that take? - I have been here a year and a 1/2 and he just gets even more annoying as far as I am concerned!

Murray Deaker is the other one who drives me nuts - hubby dives for the radio to turn him off when he comes on to prevent my anti-Murray Deaker rant!
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Old Aug 7th 2005, 5:13 am
  #64  
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Originally Posted by ElizabethC
I have skills, brain and insurance. Whats more I have shoes, a very warm house (we heat it too!) as well as a yacht and a marina berth, 2 cars, have overseas holidays and a bloody a GREAT life. And not a big wage in sight!

How sad it must to be to be so disgruntled....

And by the way - weather aint too bad either

I've made so many kiwi friends that I won't be rude to you.

You probably don't know what it's like to have lived somewhere a bit more modern with all the conveniences and choice, so I forgive you.

I have enough money here I just would like to keep some of it. I have lived in several different countries and as I said I would not be here out of choice but it's better than somewhere like Iraq.

There is a huge brain drain here. A beautiful country won't keep its best assets if it just projects a false image i.e. green, forward-thinking, anti-nuclear, anti-war on terror, if it doesn't come up with the rewards for the folk that live here, will it?

It has an appaling child poverty rate and the World Health Organisation recognise NZ homes as below the recommended levels for more than 60percent fo the year; also recycling is a joke - just dig a hole and bury it. Also, in Christchurch they have such a collection of glass that just sits there because they can't 'afford' to move it to the North Island to process it. How backwards is that?

You're so behind here it's like the UK was in the 70's compared to the US and when the Americans used to visit the UK we used to get the same comments.


What I reckon is all us expats that are cold and fed up set up a company that sells central heating and double glazing and insulation. Who's in?

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Old Aug 7th 2005, 6:02 am
  #65  
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Given that there are already companies selling all of those, you'd probably be better off just going out and buying some for yourself for a start.
Originally Posted by mumomonty
I've made so many kiwi friends that I won't be rude to you.

You probably don't know what it's like to have lived somewhere a bit more modern with all the conveniences and choice, so I forgive you.

I have enough money here I just would like to keep some of it. I have lived in several different countries and as I said I would not be here out of choice but it's better than somewhere like Iraq.

There is a huge brain drain here. A beautiful country won't keep its best assets if it just projects a false image i.e. green, forward-thinking, anti-nuclear, anti-war on terror, if it doesn't come up with the rewards for the folk that live here, will it?

It has an appaling child poverty rate and the World Health Organisation recognise NZ homes as below the recommended levels for more than 60percent fo the year; also recycling is a joke - just dig a hole and bury it. Also, in Christchurch they have such a collection of glass that just sits there because they can't 'afford' to move it to the North Island to process it. How backwards is that?

You're so behind here it's like the UK was in the 70's compared to the US and when the Americans used to visit the UK we used to get the same comments.


What I reckon is all us expats that are cold and fed up set up a company that sells central heating and double glazing and insulation. Who's in?

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Old Aug 7th 2005, 8:15 am
  #66  
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Sorry Rascal if my remarks offended, I appologise but thats just my opinion.
I just find it hard to belive that some one can make such a huge life changing decision and not do their home work. I'm interested in knowing why you went over with so little info and what you think went wrong. How and why did you choose NZ?
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Old Aug 7th 2005, 2:55 pm
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Originally Posted by Loxley
Sorry Rascal if my remarks offended, I appologise but thats just my opinion.
I just find it hard to belive that some one can make such a huge life changing decision and not do their home work. I'm interested in knowing why you went over with so little info and what you think went wrong. How and why did you choose NZ?
Loxley,

Agree with your observation, and having read this forum daily with avid interest for over 6 months now (not NZ section exclusively), I am astounded as to how many people do such little homework.

I agree with another poster who said you never really know it will work out for you until you are living in situ, but there is so much information very readily available now to enable people smoother journeys in life. I wonder if people get scared to find out too much and therefore adopt a 'heck let's just try it and see what happens' attitude perhaps? I don't know, people are very different and interesting in the decisions and choices they choose aren't they?

Good luck with your plans.
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Old Aug 7th 2005, 3:55 pm
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Originally Posted by Loxley
Sorry Rascal if my remarks offended, I appologise but thats just my opinion.
I just find it hard to belive that some one can make such a huge life changing decision and not do their home work. I'm interested in knowing why you went over with so little info and what you think went wrong. How and why did you choose NZ?

No matter how much homework you do one thing that you cant be prepared for is a shite employer who treats you like shite. This is something that myself, Sky and Rascal all found it once it was too late and we had sold everything we had in the Uk and moved all those thousands of miles to NZ. Some folk are financially trapped and others keep thinking it must get better surely!!! I personaly know of Sky and Rascals story and it is one that isnt down to planning but more like bad luck and lots of it.
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Old Aug 7th 2005, 4:56 pm
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Originally Posted by NZ Climber
In the UK we had a lot of disposable income, we don't have that here. In the UK we could live on one salary, we can't do that here (and we earn ~$150k and have no kids). Admittedly we are saving for a wedding and we've bought a house but still, it's financially hard, far harder than the UK.
NZ climber, I was rather shocked to read that you are rather strapped for cash on the salaries you have. The average salary in NZ is ca. $40K so you are doing well by Kiwi standards. I think it was Don who recommended that people couldn´t maintain a reasonable standard of living for less than $80K but that depends on so many things. I considered this aspect carefully before accepting the job i have for $120 K in Christchurch, hope I´m not gonna be on the bread line for that!

I know housing in Auckland is very expensive so that must be quite a drain - did you have much of a deposit? May I ask what you did in the UK?
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Old Aug 7th 2005, 5:07 pm
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Originally Posted by SteveDK
NZ climber, I was rather shocked to read that you are rather strapped for cash on the salaries you have. The average salary in NZ is ca. $40K so you are doing well by Kiwi standards. I think it was Don who recommended that people couldn´t maintain a reasonable standard of living for less than $80K but that depends on so many things. I considered this aspect carefully before accepting the job i have for $120 K in Christchurch, hope I´m not gonna be on the bread line for that!

I know housing in Auckland is very expensive so that must be quite a drain - did you have much of a deposit? May I ask what you did in the UK?
Steve,

120k in CH would be a dream for a lot of people (me included and hubbie currently works for a well known investment bank in London) so you will be fine unless you have extreme spending habits. The average NZ salary is roughly 46k, average family income roughly 75k. Cheers.
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Old Aug 8th 2005, 12:09 am
  #71  
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I'd agree with the salary of $80K. That should be the starting off point for anyone coming over from a westernised country and who has kids. We came over for slightly more than that, are in our forties and have kids at primary and intermediate schools. We were finding things a bit tight at times.

Obviously if you have a big mortgage or rent to pay out you are going to have less of that every month to spend on other things. Average rents around here are $450-550/600 a week for somewhere "decent". Ours is $550.

For our family of 4 electricity is around $150 a month, food around $150-200 a week, plus 2 cars' insurance and house contents $150 a month, phone and internet (broadband) around $110 a month, health insurance $145 (subsidised through work). Petrol around $1.39 a gallon, a tank full costs me almost $70 and I get through it in just under 2 weeks.

I don't buy deisgner clothes (no point) but I do like to get out in my jeans and T shirt and see NZ, travel to Australia and stuff. There's no point in being here unless we get out and experience the country.
 
Old Aug 8th 2005, 12:42 am
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Originally Posted by SteveDK
NZ climber, I was rather shocked to read that you are rather strapped for cash on the salaries you have. The average salary in NZ is ca. $40K so you are doing well by Kiwi standards. I think it was Don who recommended that people couldn´t maintain a reasonable standard of living for less than $80K but that depends on so many things. I considered this aspect carefully before accepting the job i have for $120 K in Christchurch, hope I´m not gonna be on the bread line for that!

I know housing in Auckland is very expensive so that must be quite a drain - did you have much of a deposit? May I ask what you did in the UK?
Put it this way, we live in Auckland and have bought a house there too so a decent amount went on the deposit (10%), a huge amount goes on the mortgage and we've had to budget for going back to the UK twice in two years for important weddings (the other half's best mate and my oldest friend) so in terms of being able to afford all that, it leaves us strapped for the day to day luxuries. We came here with me still owing money in the UK and have now paid that off and we're saving what we can for our wedding so being strapped for cash is a choice thing, not necessarily because salaries are that bad here...

Although, in Auckland at least, the rise in the cost of living (even over the last two years) is not matched by the rise (or lack thereof) in salaries. When you consider that petrol has gone up from less than a dollar a litre two years ago to $1.40 a litre now, and energy prices have gone up by 40% and house prices are artificially high, the salaries need a lot of work to actually make the cost of living here anything like the UK. My point was not that we lead a lavish lifestyle and are suffering, it was more that the cost of living here is wildly different from the cheap utopian paradise that it is sold to be and that sacrifices have to be made in order to maintain anything approaching an equivalent lifestyle to the one we had in the UK.

And in the UK, we were on around about GBP70,000 between the two of us so yeah, we've taken a significant drop in pay (which we expected).

Considering that you've just accepted a job for $120k in Christchurch, I shouldn't worry too much, you'll be rolling in it down there.
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Old Aug 8th 2005, 3:59 am
  #73  
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$120k ok - just don't spend it all on housing!
 
Old Aug 8th 2005, 6:13 am
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Originally Posted by livewire
That's probably the most sensible way to do things. A visit is so worthwhile and I wish we could have been able to afford it before we came over. Would have had less shocks that way.

It's good to suss out the places where you want to live and to have a good look at different house styles - there is such a variety to choose from. Makes some of the UK houses look quite small and drab.
Its not always the case though is it, I always say a visit to a place no matter how long for, does not give you any idea of what it will be like to live there, except you will be familiar with certain areas, but thats all.
I have travelled to lots of countries, all of Europe, USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bahamas etc.......I can tell you what they are like, but can I tell anyone what they would be like to live in??.......not at all!
You have to experience living in a new country yourself, no holiday will ever prepare you.
By the way, out of the countries I have visited, most of them I loved, but like I say, I wouldn't have a clue as to what they are like to live in.
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Old Aug 8th 2005, 6:29 am
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Default Re: Expats - your opinions please

Originally Posted by Loxley
Sorry Rascal if my remarks offended, I appologise but thats just my opinion.
I just find it hard to belive that some one can make such a huge life changing decision and not do their home work. I'm interested in knowing why you went over with so little info and what you think went wrong. How and why did you choose NZ?
Apology accepted but there are some things you do overlook and assume a Western World 'modern' country would provdie the very basic things our children need. It never occurs to many that they will have to pay for orthodontist, school books and stationery, school subject fees, exam fees, you will be surprised how many people this catches out!!
Even NZ government is slowly admitting its standard of housing, its child dental care, its schooling etc is in serious need of a revamp!
I have been out here 4 times before, once for two months, but I will always maintain, you NEVER really know a country until you have been here quite a while..........
Lost of things happened to us and others know, which no amount of research will prepare you for, it was financially disasterous for us, we didn't come out here empty handed and with an empty mind.
Our life here therefore is no way near to what we had in the Uk and with poor, poor salaries, you just cannot get ahead and back on your feet again.
We have too little capital left to enable us to get on the property ladder back in the Uk and our kids love it here, so we stay for them. But I dont see it being forever.
One day we will either leave to live back in the Uk or go to Australia. A high percentage of migrants do.
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