Want2Move

If you have the choice to live permanently in the following countries, which one would be your no. 1 choice and why? There are no criteria to follow.

Australia
Canada
New Zealand
USA

suzi n steve

Tough one really. Although I would discount USA straight away, don't know why though. Would love to go to Canada, but OH against it. That leaves Australia and NZ. I have immediate family in Australia which should be a big draw. But it is NZ which wins for us. Great scenery, fanstastic lifestyle for us and the kids if we work at it, the opportunity to do what we want to do and really make a good life for ourselves, just over the water from Australia, plus I don't do creepy crawlies whatsoever. So in a nutshell NEW ZEALAND

Maz

New Zealand for us, we're staying put!

I lived in the US for 12 years, and discount it straightaway. It would take too long an essay to explain all the ins and outs. Hubby was born and raised there, and is happier here.

Canada - too cold and too influenced by the US.

Australia - too hot and full of Aussies

Maz

I have family, but more distant, in Sydney. Still have no desire to move there.

Genesis

Canada appeals but I do not like extremes of either hot or cold so that stuuffs that....Oz too. Also I like to live in a country that is of a 'reasonable' size to get around. The distances in the other 3 countires to get anywhere would freak me out..I don't travel well!!

NZ is really awesome. Ticks all our boxes and many more..even with the whole gamut of problems that exist here. The pros FAR outwiegh the cons.

We have everything here we could not achieve in the UK.

Want2Move

Thank you everybody.

NZ sounds like a great country to live. Only concern I have now is if I am going to be able to find a decent paying job.

I am in IT field (Systems Analyst, Database Admin, Network Support, IT Support) and if you have any idea about IT jobs in NZ and pay scale, please send those info to me and your help will be greatly appreciated.

Maz

Check out seek.co.nz for a general idea on jobs and pay scales. Where are you looking to move to? There's an opening where I work, for a Senior Analyst Programmer, if you're well-versed in C++ in a Unix environment... but from the looks of it, that's not your area of expertise.

Genesis

If you want to buy a house eventually the key is how much can you bring for your kiwi home when the time comes for you to buy.

It seems that most people struggle with the mortgage payments unless of course they earn an exceedingly good wage.

I know of people who pay around $3k a month..thats my wifes 35hr take home pay!!

We earn in total about $70k gross and have a small draw down morgage for now. We do not consider ourselves way well off and all our money goes. No kids at private school, no debt to service, run 2 nice cars (all paid for) one small cat and a penchant for CHEAP wine. Point is life is expensive over here....allour money goes on day to day living. Granted we have a good standard of living. We are better off in NZ (than we were in the UK) earning less but in the last year everything has sky rocketed.

Our UK eqiuty was the secret of our success I beleive...and lots of hard work.

A year ago I used to bang on how affordable NZ is. It is not anymore. I believe housing is good value BUT from a 'I bought equity from europe' standpoint.

House prices in relation to NZ wages are astronomical!!

Hope you get your info on wages. Good luck.

asiatic

Hey, for IT in Wellington look no further than...
http://www.wellies.org.nz/
take a look at the salary surveys page
[ROAR]

Want2Move

Thanks. It was very helpful website. The salary does not seem that bad too. Only question is how hard is it to find IT jobs in Wellington area?

I have sent you a PM.

Want2Move

I am not planning on buying a house right away. How bad is the rental price? I would like to rent a nice Condo with a preferably 3 bedrooms and 2 baths in a good neighborhood, but I can manage with 2 beds and 2 baths.

The city I will be moving to will be the one that has the most IT jobs and I have not figured out what city that would be as somebody needs to tell me from that side of the world.

I have not saved very much money as I recently started working full-time after many years of college. I will be bringing about US$50K if I move within a year. If I can wait a little longer, than I can bring little bit more. I will be the breadwinner in our family as I have two little children and my wife will be stay home mom and we do not want our kids in daycare.

Thanks.

Want2Move

Thanks for your message. I have no idea where I should move to. I would like to move to the city that has the most IT jobs. I do not do any programmings even though I am familiar with few of them (Java, VB etc). I want to be a System or Business Analyst or Database Admin.

RobClubley

I completely agree

Littletoe

My husband is working as a Business Analyst - kind of by accident really. We didn't know there was such a great demand for Business Analysts. There is some variation about what a BA actually does. Steve will be drawing up software but also analysing data to quite an extreme degree (his Masters in economics is what has allowed him into this arena, not his computer skills). He has seen a few agencies and currently the going hourly rate for a contractor to work as a BA is around $75 - $100 an hour PLUS gst. Although with contracting comes the possibility that the work could end at any time, there is such a lot of work here in Welly, that most people contract back to back and usually earn around $250k per year. The money is more - the risk is more. I would strongly suggest checking out seek.co.nz and making interviews with agencies. Also check out the IRD (inland revenue) for some advice on becoming gst registered. Good luck!

Littletoe

Oh, and to answer your original question

Canada
Australia - have lived there before and enjoyed it
USA - tough one! Like the country - just not the occupants! Would move to the right part for the right price! Did spend a lot of time working and living in LA previously, but definitely a world of its own!
New Zealand - Here. Don't want to be. Nuff said really!