manky

Hi, my wife and I are looking into moving to NZ with our two children, we are trying to find out how much (or little) money in real terms should we be looking at taking with us. This will be after all moving costs ect are taken into account.

Thanks

Genesis

Some people do it on a shoestring Kate and I did it with 20 years of UK housing equity. I think if you tell us what you have and what you will be earning we will be able to give you an idea of what you will be able to do.

Had i been significantly younger and without kids I am sure I would have been happy to scrimp and save..maybe.

grantanddebs

If I were you I would do some maths and work out how much you need to live on for say... 3 months.

add up your living costs - (roughly for family of 4 - South Island)

Food - ( 200-300 per week)
Rent - (rent 350-450 per week)
Car costs (80 -150 per week)
Start up costs - (property bond, power company bonds etc etc)

etc

then work it out for 3 months and give yourself plenty left over.

Thats the way I would do it!!

Lynne sinclair

Good luck with move, were about to also take the plunge! We are about to sell our house so will have some money to take which we will keep aside for a deposit on a house, although we will rent first of all. It may cost us £4k for freight, another £3-4k for flights and any stop-over, may stop in H.K. ( I lived there a while back and the kids would love Disney!) Are you planning on North or south Island?

manky

Hi Lynne, we are planning on North Island, not too sure where( still need to do some more research).
Hope your move goes well.

teeym

Are you into the process yet or just starting out? Either way, the very best of luck!

We have been speaking to a couple of people who have come back from NZ and West Island and both have given us the same bit of advice - take as little with you as possible! By all means take enough to get you on your feet and set up as grantandebs recommend, but if it is going to be a "new life" then make sure it is just that and is capable of being completely self funding. Ring-fence any surplus cash you have in the UK either by keeping property or investing it in other ways and forget you ever had it - that way should you ever need/want to come back, you have a fund to fall back on and if you don't then later down the road, you'll have a substantial lump sum to enjoy. One of our ex-expat friends was very much of the opinion that if you miss out on a little scrimping and "that'll do-ology" then you have lost a big part of the Kiwi experience. Although I appreciate that the important word in that sentence is "opinion"!

We've seen some friends lose an awful lot in a move (admittedly to France) where they threw everything they owned into it and for reasons completely beyond their control (actually that isn't entirely true - some might say having a good grasp of French before arriving may have helped them) it just didn't work out. And while I'm not looking forward to going through the social-life-crushing exercise that is saving for a mortgage deposit again, I reckon I'll be a LOT less stressy knowing all the eggs aren't in one basket.

lapsed kiwi

Sorry, but I think that's totally rubbish advice. Effectively you're suggesting that people disregard all their hard work and savings and any progress up the property ladder, and start off as if they're just leaving school - but presumably with the burden of dependent children and raised expectations having lived a more comfortable life since moving out of student digs

This is just a recipe to be unhappy and fail in your new life overseas. If you want to succeed, you need to commit - financially and emotionally - and leaving all your equity in UK is totally not doing this.

simonsi

Hmmm, but as they are peeps who have repatriated it probably worked for them, not sure that is a sensible move for anyone else. Trouble is you can't predict the future... but I'm sure in hindsight having everything they had left in the UK here when they got back was a bonza move.

Browner_

Dunno how much money you have got, or what work you might get.

But do you want to be a poor person in NZ? There are plenty of those already, and they earn peanuts, drink lots, play pokies, smoke dope, live in a noisy wooden shack and never go abroad on holiday. Is that what you want?

Justcol

How long is a piece of string ???

How much do you think you might be able to pull together?

teeym

Well you're entitled to your opinion - I only brought it up as it was near as damn it identical advice given by two completely seperate sets of people. Whether people want to do it is completely up to them, but to straight out write off an option that gives you either a provision for the future or a genuine safety net as "totally rubbish" is - IMHO you must understand - a bit dull.

What is being suggested is not disregarding all previous hard work at all, but rather protecting it until a point where you are absolutely certain you've done the right thing and not risk investing - and even worse losing - it in something that isn't right for you. Let's be honest, no matter how much you commit, you cannot guarantee that a move to a whole new life will work for everyone.

I agree the trade off of this is that you might have to lower your living standards a bit, depending on what you are used to (although we're not talking student digs), but you don't get something for nothing in this world and if you are going to NZ for a new life, then surely you should be living to the means of that life and not a false standard set by eating into your savings which will, eventually, (unless you're loaded, in which case this debate probably doesn't apply to you) run out?

lapsed kiwi

... both of whom had failed in their attempt to settle in their new country. So for them, leaving assets in UK would be good - but for most people, who settle successfully in their new country (75% for NZ apparently?), it would be better to take your assets. Especially as by taking your assets, you are more likely to be in the 75%, not the 25%.

I think leaving your assets in UK is likely to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You'll have a poor life style in NZ, won't enjoy it, will move back to UK complaining bitterly how all the houses were horrible, wages not high enough etc. Then you'll be glad you left your nest-egg behind.

Genesis

We did the bridge burning thing..only way to do it in my opinion. We left a tiny, tiny % of our capital in the Uk for logistical reasons..that turned out to be a very good idea. But we moved in every other way lock stock and barrel. I wanted to cut my ties with the UK. We now have an inheritance in the UK and it really irks me that the money is currently 'stuck' there.

pestman

I agree leaving a 'what if' fund in the UK when you are ment to be coming here to start a new life says to me the 'new life' you are coming over to start is nothing more than a game.

If you are the type who is risk adverse then I would say be prepared for a bumpy ride as moving here to the other side of the world probably wont be for you.

If you are that worried then maybe you should rent your UK property out for a year and do a working holiday to see how things fit with the things you want out of life.

What planet are you on to think that moving here with a minimum amount and then struggling to get sorted will do anything more than doom you to fail from the start.

Build your house on sand and fall down it will.

What a crazy thing to do move to the other side of the world and do that with the attitude that to struggle will make it work.

good luck with that!

george

simonsi

Yes but I guess the point is that they had already decided to return hence it obviously made it easier for them - but could quite easily have contributed to their return in the first place. After all based on that sample everyone returns so should keep everything in the UK....

There is a big difference between living within your (new) means in NZ - which I think everyone should do - and taking or disregarding all capital gain up to the move - which I think is nonsense. If that works so well why don't peeps do that even in their "normal" life in the UK??? Try doing that, cash in any property/asset gain in your working life, ringfence the cash/assets and start again - would be a tad difficult wouldn't it? Same "logic" applies when migrating...