Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

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Mar 4th 2008, 8:07 am

#16

luvwelly

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Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

Can't the BMA advise about the pensions position...transferring to a scheme in NZ might be a bit financially dodgier.....given your age, you might be better to leave it frozen in UK. Surely the BMA or surgeons' equivalent must have some experience of UK medical staff working abroad?

I'm also guessing that the hospital personnel department of whichever DHB is offering you employment will have some experience in what employees from the UK need to do etc etc ...but maybe I'm deluding myself

.

Good luck.

Mar 4th 2008, 12:14 pm

#17

to-go-or-not-to-go

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Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

Your absolutley right once we have a job in place then we will be able to get the right advice and the HR dept is sure to have experience as to wether we transfer it and keep paying into it, or wether we could keep it in the UK and make contributions from NZ or to freeze it and start another scheme in NZ. But with all superannuation pensions your final salary is the crucial factor so we will probably have to use it as a bargabing tool as we will take a pay cut to come to NZ. I just wondered if anyone already knew. We don't want to miss out on the lump sum and pension when in reality its the only thing that has kept my husband working for the bloody NHS for the last 5 years!!

Thanks for your help though.

I've been looking at Hawkes Bay and H.Lock north and it does look lovely plus we'd get more points for getting a job outside Auckland and the property is slightly cheaper than Auckland. We should hear back on Friday as to any possible job opp's for interviews etc. So I'll keep you posted.

What about property - ther are some beautiful houses out there but what about buying a section and buildng or do you think that would be taking on too much?

lots of love to everyone who has offered me help so far thank you.

Mar 4th 2008, 9:23 pm

#18

Nice Guy

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Scalpel.............

Hey to-go-or-not-to-go (cool user name)

I also worked for the dear old NHS as well.

As far as my pension is concerned I gleaned the following information:

You can retire at 55 if you are in the service, but if you leave the NHS your pension is deferred and you can only retire at 60.

Final pension is effectively frozen but I believe is index linked on an annual basis

The very helpful pension people will do a pension forecast for you at any stage, it does take some time, mine was about 2 months, check out their web site here http://www.nhspa.gov.uk/nhspa_site/index.htm

The NS pension scheme, apparently, is a very good one and you should consider whether of not to move your husbands, for what it is worth I have left mine in the UK

As far as buying land and then building it is a common concept in NZ, and the beauty for you is that you can build it to your own specification with large double glazed windows, central heating etc etc

As has been stated on this shallow web site many times, do not use a consultant...........excellent advise!!!

Some people have become croppers with many extras offered by consultants at extortionate prices and it becomes then good money after bad.

Good luck and sending you some stitch-in-time karma.

NG

Mar 5th 2008, 7:06 am

#19

to-go-or-not-to-go

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Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

Thanks for that NG, very helpful. I wondered if because he would e going to work in a government health authority there was away of just keeping paying into it so we get what has already been predicted? if you know what I mean.

Mar 5th 2008, 11:01 am

#20

Nice Guy

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HR = Human Remains

Yes I know what you mean, you need to speak to your Human Resources (HR) people or better still the Head of Payroll.

I believe you can buy extra years and indeed I wish I had!

Good luck

NG

Mar 5th 2008, 12:12 pm

#21

sunshine n jim

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Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

Hi there TGONTO Welcome.
Dont worry about being confused and new, I have been on here for a little while now and am still not sure now it all works. LOL. We too are a family of 5 + our pooch (toy yorkie).
I will however say one thing and thats the people on here are sooooooo helpful, just ask and someone will answer, help or advise you or send you in the right direction, they even reserch for you, aswell as give you great links, advice and share there experiences. Thanks to everyone who does!
We went to a couple of expos and found them really helpfull. We had a long list of questions that we got answered (the list will keep growing, you just need to keep getting the answers). We found removal company, pet courier, good areas to live(best to suit our needs), banks and a good idea of the costs that are attached to them.
Keep your eye on the exchange rate, you need to change your money up when its good if yo are in a position to do so, as there can be a differents of thousands of pounds.
All the best to you and good luck with your adventure.
If you dicide to build you own place my husband is a very good builder, gets work from his reputation

so maybe he could do it for you, then that would be his job offer(that we need)LOL.
all jokes aside, take care keep us updated
natalie

Mar 30th 2008, 1:08 am

#22

alyj

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Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

Quote:

Originally Posted by to-go-or-not-to-go

Hi

Thanks for reading this. We are a happy, healthy family of five + dog starting on this adventure. We have made the decision we want to go (double checked our reasoning) and now just need to get on with it. As with most I guess we would just like to click our fingers and be there.

We have a few initial worries. My husband is a surgeon and we should pretty much be able to get in but not until we get a job offer. Without a job offer we won't my husband is just over 50 so we don't get many points there. I really need to know if we should employ an agent. I know that we can't talk about individual businesses but I'm really worried of wasting time (feeling impatitient I guess). I want the best help and am happy to pay for it - but are they all just rip-off merchant? (positive stories would be welcome aswell as neg!) We can spend hours trawling through health authority vacancy lists but someone on the inside would be really helpful to us.

Hi
we are in the process of putting all the info to the NZ gov via an agent they are very honest, take a lot of stress of us and are not 'money making' infact they go out of their way to help reduce the financial strain, I would reccommend their services they are from the UK and living in NZ and have been through the same 'hassle' as anyone else. If you need any other info just let me know, I have the same worries but I do believe NZ is a beautiful place to live in.
Alyson

We are also scared to death of how to get everything tied up at the same time (impossible I know). We don't want to go without selling our house, but don't want to miss jobs because we can't leave the house. One of our children is in school so unfortunately we haven't got the option of taking a long holiday to find work as he has to be 'in school'.

My husband has a super annuation pension to come upon retirement, but we would want to keep it up at the same rate in order to reap the benefits that we worked for - can we do it? how do we transfer it? How does it get taxed? AAARgh

help!! - I think we should employ an agent don't you?

I'm sure everyone can guess most of my worries as you've all been there, and I'm sure most of you have answered all of the questions loads of time so I apologise for the repetition in advance. I lokk forward to getting to know you and hope that this is a happy ever after story and next year I'll be helping others in my position now. Thanks x

Hi
we are in the process of putting all the info to the NZ gov via an agent they are very honest, take a lot of stress of us and are not 'money making' infact they go out of their way to help reduce the financial strain, I would reccommend their services they are from the UK and living in NZ and have been through the same 'hassle' as anyone else. If you need any other info just let me know, I have the same worries but I do believe NZ is a beautiful place to live in.
Alyson

Mar 30th 2008, 4:48 am

#23

bourbon-biscuit

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Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

Quote:

Originally Posted by to-go-or-not-to-go

I've been looking at Hawkes Bay and H.Lock north and it does look lovely <snip>

What about property - ther are some beautiful houses out there but what about buying a section and buildng or do you think that would be taking on too much?

lots of love to everyone who has offered me help so far thank you.

You can't go wrong buying property in Havelock North- I'm sure you won't be disappointed

There are some lovely plots in HN at the moment- we were driving around looking last weekend

Mar 31st 2008, 6:03 pm

#24

to-go-or-not-to-go

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Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

Havelock NOrth sounds great - can't wait for the ball to get rolling. Seen as you've been driving round those areas what sort of size plots and cost are you talking? Thanks

Apr 3rd 2008, 6:02 am

#25

bourbon-biscuit

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Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

Here are the sections in HN on trademe atm:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Cate...&49=0&x=74&y=6

We were looking at these
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Pr...htm?key=690428

(but only because we were picnicking in the gorgeous Tainui reserve, which the sections spill onto and would be your front garden

. They don't look much, but the potential is awesome and the location is top notch. Loads of choice in HN though, but we really liked that you could just pop out from your front door into the wooded reserve. Birdsong would be great too. In winter you'd have the view of the Ruahines covered in snow

Apr 3rd 2008, 9:45 am

#26

to-go-or-not-to-go

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Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

Wow they are fantastic, lot 1 looks like it could be the one for us. We live backing out onto a forest now and the kids often go 'ferrell' they would miss this house but not the uk if we left so the house has to be just right - this seems perfect.

Thanks for your help, wish we could just buy it now but knowing our luck the job would fall through and we'd end up with a job in auckland or something silly.

If you aren't getting too bored of me, could I ask what you think about building in New zealand. We have got some great ideas and know what we want so we think that with the right plot it is the thing for us. Are contractors reliable? Is it cheaper than buying an alreay exsiting house as is the case in the UK? Could you sit down with an architect and design something and then they would project manage it through to the end? Let me know what you think if you have the time. Or if anybody else has the self build experience in New Zealand would love to hear about it. Thanks x

Last edited by to-go-or-not-to-go; Apr 3rd 2008 at 9:49 am. Reason: spelling and tweaking!

Apr 3rd 2008, 10:10 am

#27

tehori

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For utter beaty

For a place of utter beauty could I mention
Central Otago.
http://images.google.co.nz/images?q=...f&start=0&sa=N

Kia kaha (stay strong)

Apr 3rd 2008, 8:03 pm

#28

bourbon-biscuit

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Joined: Jun 2007

Posts: 2,994

Re: Hi all, yet another confused newbie!

You've got many choices re building here- from off the peg kitset plans to hiring an architect to design exactly what you want. Really depends upon budget. those sections are good value because the services are ready to go- ours needed bringing up to the house from a hundred plus meters away adn that adds considerably. Also you've got town water and waste water in HN, so you're laughing really.

Just remember to factor in passive solar heating (ie remind the architect or project manager that you want the house sited for the sun rather than the roadside!!!), go all out on insulation (we opted for soundproof batts throughout and expol underfloor insulation too) but in Hawkes Bay double glazing would, imo, be too great a cost for too little gain.

The well known build companies are (click the links- the company names underlined and in blue below)

A1 Kitset (you can just buy plans from them if you see something you like and it's very easy to get them to make alterations- quite a cost effective way- nice plans to look at on website)
GJ Gardener
Jennian
Golden Homes
Lockwood
Signature Homes
Energy Efficient Homes

plus lots of others that perhaps other people can think of!!!

Golden Homes is probably about the cheapest, then A1 and Signature. Lockwood are very well respected higher end, EEH have the most gorgeous plans but I know little else of them (other than that they were out of budget) and Jennian and GJ Gardener are also popular and well respected.

Have Fun!