kirston

We are at the very early stages of what we hope will be a wonderful journey.We have just had an extention done on our house here in the UK,so we dont have massive amounts of equity in our house.I dont really expect to be selling up ( if they will have us!! ) Till at least the end of next year.
Thing is we obviously be needing to live somewhere so are we best to save big style and try and go out with a huge lump of money,or do we rent our house here and rent in nz.
What does everybody think is a reasonable amount to go with?
Many Thanks
Kirston xx

mazi

No idea what's reasonable but I went with £3000

brissie-here-we-come

we are going to auz with 2 adults and 2 kids and taking around 5000,so not that much but as long as you are willing to take up work as soon as you get there,then you can get by till your properly sorted.

kiwi_child

I'd strongly recommend you rent your house out in UK. You could end up one of the families who migrate only to return to their homeland. Rent a place in NZ until you are sure it's for you then look at buying. If you can I'd continue renting the UK property out long term as it is an asset that will only accrue in value. Better than money in the bank IMO.

Genesis

In my humble opinion sell, sell, sell!! The more cash you have over here the easier it is (ain't that always the way!!). We were not utterly loaded but cashed in virtually everything in order to give us the best start. No regrets inspite of having gotten a shite exchange rate for all our hard earned.

I have heard way too many stories of people packing up and going home because of fiscal hardship.....what you contemplate doing is to take on quite a heavy burden, actually doing the move, the culture shock, missing friends, rellies and familiar places..... its also fun, exciting, adventurous but never the less a heavy load to undertake, financial problems are the LAST thing you need. Not having them made our move soooooooooooooooo much easier. So the answer is take as much as you can beg, borrow of hock!!!! Good luck!! Over the 2 year mark and it just gets better, inspite of what Mazi says about how crap she thought most of her 3 years here were!!!!!

We love it and think its the dog's nuts for us and our 3 children who are having a REAL childhood in relation to what we think we would have given them in Northampton had we stayed. For us NZ rocks..for others its hell!!

mazi

Ooh you thing, you! I haven't mentioned how crap it was on this thread - and besides, I never said most of the three years were crap - I said ALL!

kiwi_child

That's not a lot for a family of four. Not saying it can't be done, but please check thoroughly your best locations for finding work in your qualified areas. 5000 pounds is around $12,500 Aussie, maybe enough for a family for 3-4 months, possibly a bit longer if you're frugal. Have you friends or rellies you can stay with when you arrive, till you get on your feet? if you can, try to line up a job before you leave though for many I realise that's not possible.

Best of luck

Genesis

Pants on fire....... you said the first 6 were okay, you wish you'd been true to yourself about the last 30 months which were pants for you!!!! The latter in reply to a posting about ping-pong-poms.

KIRSTIE

hi

we are hopefully going to sell our house before we go (if all goes well) and with the equity we will have about £50,000, paul is going to work and for a while i am going to be a full time house wife , then after a few months get a part time job. We also have money which is in an account where we cannot touch it for another 3 years, so that will come in handy a bit further down the line

we want to be able to put quite a large deposit down for a house and will also need to buy a car etc,

with regards

kirstie

kiwi_child

Firstly your pound will go further in NZ than in OZ. Secondly, you need enough to live frugally for about 6 months incase it takes a while to get work. You'll need to research this a bit to find a figure that you think works for you (everyone and their situation is different really).
Thirdly you need enough in the bank to fly back if it all goes pear shaped. Or else have open return tickets that you can get the refund on unused portion if you stay in NZ.

brissie-here-we-come

yes we are staying with my sis for a few weeks,so we can have a look around to see where we want to rent and my brother inlaw, is an electrician like my hubby and has said he can virtually walk strait into a job,so might be quite lucky there too,as it is, the licence he needs he might be able to get that sorted too before we go,if not there are quicker options than there used to be.thanks for that,we would have thought 5000 would have lasted us no time ,as we have to buy a car,pay for hubbies licences,rent and bond,and all the other bits and bobs ,could have got away with taking more but unfortunatly gonna pay off our loan here first,

kiwi_child

IMHO this is BAD advice. I'm glad it worked for you BUT there are many stories around this site of peopel who wished they had never sold their property and now are returning broke and with no home to go to. It's not such a big deal if you are only lookign after yourselves but when decisions involve the welfare of children, then one needs to be a bit more conservative IMO.

kiwi_child

As an electrician he should get work easy enough BUT as your BIL will be aware there can be mindnumbing paperwork and verification to go through before his quals are recognised.

I'd leave getting a car till you have work sorted and a place of your own (as your bringing a minimal amount of money for a family migrating). Just make sure you're close to public transport. Also your kids will probably need uniforms for school (even primary school). Many schools are involved in a secondhand uniform scheme. It's worth asking about as it could save heaps on buying new.

brissie-here-we-come

thanks for your advice,my sis has told us about uniforms and books etc to pay out for.yeah bil had to go to college again from oct to april to get him self sorted ,but has said now you can go on a course that only last a couple of saturdays and you qualifiy as the same as he did,so my hubby may have it a little easier.but like you say the car may not be needed strait away.im not gonna be working so it'll be for getting around at wekends mostly,as kids can walk to school.etc

Genesis

Its not bad OR good advice..its just advice..the only way you will know what is right is trying it out. Whilst it may have been better for some people to hang on to their houses for us it would have not been right. we wante dto burn all our bridges..our decision and fortunately we got it right.

I have heard of others who really had a hard time trying to keep houses on while they were 12000 miles away with no/awful tennants and crap agents. I was asked how much they should take. I simply replied with what I consider to be what worked for us.

This type of move is potentially fiscally and emotionally onerous, yes you can do damage limitation by keeping this and doing that. We might have been somewhat cavalier about selling up lock stock and barrel, but I genuinely thought it was the best way for us. I miss shed loads about my old life and the UK, it has not been an easy move for me personally. But life works well for me in NZ and has been worth all the effort.