puddings

I left the UK 10 years ago on a 2 year contract and stayed a decade! I am on a Caribbean island which can be lovely but it does have its faults. I am considering a move back to the UK and I am having enormous problems deciding whether to make the move back!! I am earning excellent money and have a job which I don't hate, live in nice surroundings but I constantly feel like my life is passing me by. I do have friends here but increasingly find that I lack the motivation to do anything socially. I am saving good amounts of money which will be great for the future. How much cash is enough, and at what point do I just throw in the towel and go home?

Any advice welcomed!

tartanrock

depends on how fed up you are? how long you can survive on your savings? Do you want to go back for the company to retire or do something else in the UK? Can you return for say 3 months and see what is like ie take a sabbatical or 3 months unpaid? then decide

puddings

Thanks for the good advice.

However, the job I have is offshore for tax reasons. Once I leave the island, my employer will have to find a replacement, therefore a temporary move is not an option unfortunately.

I don't fancy another high level job in the UK. I can't afford to retire yet. Maybe I could get a job at the Tescos checkout or a postman?!

It's hard to describe the level of "fed up" but I feel lonely to be honest and sadly, this place is zenophobic and rather unfriendly - these issues will not improve in the near term as the recession deepens and locals lose their jobs.

However, I have been lucky to travel a lot with work recently and so the rock fever has not yet come back!

Have you ever been in a "cash trap"? Or a job which you like but the location just lost its sparkle somehow?

Any advice is welcome. Many thanks

tartanrock

neither but if you have enough to buy somewhere in the UK without a mortgage you can always make plans whilst out there to start your own business when you get back ?

what about distance selling from where you are worldwide some of the unique products made there?

puddings

I love the idea of starting my own business, but I haven't had the "aha!" moment of the kind of business. Sadly, nothing is made locally here but I do like your thinking. Maybe I need to concentrate properly on this and do some research for ideas...

tartanrock

hobbies into a business ? something that can be made with local materials ?

Paracletus

My father is in a somewhat similar position, went out for a short contract and is still out there on the island over a decade later. He loves it though and knows coming home is not an option, too old to be hired. The money could probably be better, but he managed somehow to get his own company on its feet a couple of years ago. He essentially managed to become the seller to those he used to work as a buyer for. He now says he should have had the guts to do it 20 years ago.

puddings

Many thanks for the responses.

Everything is imported on this island - cars, furniture, food and even the fish! The only locally made products are rum and banana dolls (made from palm fronds) - want to buy one?!

Well done Paracletus' father. That takes guts.

I think I need a new adventure as I am stuck in a rut. Luckily, I have a few more business trips coming up which will physically move me from the inertia and xenophobia!

Panhandle

There are things you could do to start the ball rolling. If you are making a good living at the moment why not buy some property in the UK, once you have a reason to be there then you can start taking more steps.
This can be done while you still hold down your job etc.
Even if you dont eventually return back to the UK you will at least have a property as an investment.

As for working at tesco or posting letters, I would seriously not consider these options.

The UK is overrun by cheap labour, even the pleb jobs are fought over!

Domino

well you have a customer here for a decent rum

if you feel stuck in a rut then yes you need to get out of it. However, it may just be a perception rather than a truth.
if you can't drum up the interest in thinking of starting your own business you are probably not suited for it. But, would a hobby/sideline prove enough to allow you to expand the mind in directions you haven't been in for many years.?

As to returning home, well, lets be honest, there are almost as many formerly high paid in the dole queue as there are low paid. You are too young to retire and if you do then panic may set in and you will start something you are not suited for.

When I started leaving home for 12-18month trips I suddenly realised on my return that the roads I kept thinking about were much smaller than I remembered. The people much greyer than I remembered. They had all moved on from what and where I remembered.

Look out at the future not the past, make that future and stick to it.

Hope this in some small way helps
rgds
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HighCountry

Your personal happiness and well-being is worth more than money. If you keep saving, you'll never have "enough". I've seen too many people go to an early grave or become stuck in a miserable life because of the quest for more money.

Don't look at the UK with rose tinted glasses, though. Think carefully about what you want, but don't let money stop you.

scot47

I saw lots of people in the Middle East wearing "golden handcuffs". Their employers paid them so much money that they were trapped.

Go and make a life for yourself elsewhere before it is too late.

Gordon Barlow

Puddings, you may well be on the same Island as I'm on! We came here for three years in 1978 and are still here! The main reason we stayed, was that we couldn't think of a better place to bring up our young son; we still think we made the right choice there. I got on the wrong side of the local political and bureaucratic establishment when I opened the Chamber of Commerce Office here, and have had to fight deportation ever since. But even so we reckon it's too comfortable a place to leave - marginally, anyway.

You're a lot younger than I am, but I've been in your position, and if I were you I would stay on and spend my fat salary visiting every country in the region that takes my fancy. (We did that in Nassau, when we lived there, and never regretted it.) Ask yourself this: if you moved back to the UK, would you be able to afford to take the same vacations you can afford to take here? Probably not, you know.

Last point... It always used to be said that three years was the longest time one could live away from Britain and still get employment back home: that after three years employers reckoned you had forgotten all the laws and ways of doing business "in a proper work environment", and that you weren't a desirably employee any more. That may still apply.

uk_grenada

Move to another caribbean island?

Im enjoying Grenada and Tobago enormously

Gordon Barlow

Puddings. Don't leave us in suspenders. Tell us what you decided.

I'd also be interested to know which island you were/are on. My island (Grand Cayman) has serious government-incompetence problems, and the crime-situation is deteriorating. BUT the weather's great, and there's no Income Tax, and the lifestyle is comfortable, still. We're in our 70s now, but so far there's nowhere we'd rather be. (We came while in our late 30s.)