Ash UK/US

Me too, esp when I could not work and knew no one other than my husband. It got to the point where I would vaccum the floor and have all the lines going in same direction!

If it had not been for the internet and cheap phone calls back to the UK I think I would have left within the first year.

Now I have my girls (one of them in school) and have worked at the same company for the last 6 years, I have made friends, that was a long slow process, but as time went on it got easier and I was more happy.

Giantaxe

I don't think retirement is the biggest issue regarding healthcare. Assuming Medicare is still around and you qualify for it, access to healthcare is pretty good, even with the costs that Medicare doesn't pick up. What concerns me more is the period from, say, 50 to 65, where people start to be much more vulnerable to significant health care issues, and where you essentially become screwed absent employer-provided insurance. This is the scary window, imo, and the one where I would leave the US if I wasn't insured. Additionally, anyone with children should be concerned as to what healthcare access they have once they are adults and/or have left college. Graduate unemployment is horrific right now, and many who do find employment have jobs that don't provide health insurance.

robin1234

Agreed. So long as you sign up for Medicare and Medicare part B at age 65, you're set for life, with access to very good healthcare (limited only by where you live & where you are prepared to travel to.) The important thing is that you shouldn't need to budget more than a finite amount for it either; the retirement planners recommend $5,000 per year ($1,000 a year for the Part B premium, $4,000 for prescriptions, deductibles, other premiums etc.)

I also agree about the 50-65 years. If you want to retire early, your only safe option is to become resident in the UK at least until age 65, then reconsider. My employer will cover my healthcare from age 62 till age 65 if I choose to retire three years early.

TimFountain

Been here 7 years now. Nowhere feels like home. Everytime I go back to the UK I see how crowded it is and how petty a lot of things seem. Paying for everything in USD makes it expensive. I don't truly feel "at home" in TX; I appreciate the freedom and weather (most of the time), the space and lack of interference. I do hate the materialistic attitude and the lack of true healthcare and support if you fall on hard times.

Home is the place where my family are, nothing more or less.

We live a bit of a hermits life, cooking at home and eating out maybe once every couple of months. All TV is recorded or via the web. I do worry about how my kids are growing up and some of the things they are exposed to at school.

Overall I measure my happiness as "whether I would do it again?" I guess the answer is yes I would do it again, you only live once and my parents always regretted not moving to Australia when they had the chance back in the 60's.

- Tim

Englishtart

It's a hard question to answer really, there are things that make me happy here, my family first, realistically, they wouldn't move back to the Uk, so it's hard to see us being happy back there full time. One thing that has recently got me worrying about staying here long term, is health insurance...not for hubby and I, as we are covered pretty well by his military insurance(thank goodness!)...but for our 17 yr old Son, he has type 1 diabetes and I worry about him getting good coverage after ours drops him. That could be the one thing I can see (right now) that would tip the scales.Hopefuly, it won't be an issue.

Wouldn't bother me to go home, I have thought about it more recently, hubby could get a transfer to a base there if he really wanted too, I guess we are lucky right now in that we don't have to make a choice. I honestly don't know how I would feel about it if we didn't have one though

As for the whingeing, I don't think it's a Brit/OZ/US/NZ thing, I have met people all over the World that whinge about one thing or another, nobody is happy 100% of the time, wherever they are

Nutmegger

Sprouts on special for $2.99/lb this week; tomatoes on the vine (the best of a bad deal in the winter) $1.99. Time for a road trip down 84!

Sally Redux

Some of it comes down to financial security, I get the impression that British people in Oz and NZ are finding it harder than it used to be on that score.

I would not say I'm happy here, I'm putting up with it.

tonrob

Isn't that still expensive though? Mind you, what better reason for a road trip than sprouts?

(Road trip after sprouts could be kinda fun too....)

Nutmegger

I was happy, but I defer to your sprout expertise. I liked the fact that they had a mountain of loose sprouts to dig through -- hate it when all they have are the little round pre-packaged cardboard containers, and they've hidden some less than perfect specimens in the bottom layer.

Bob

Food in MA costs way the pluck more than back in blighty unless you go to places like Hay Market...you have much more fluctuation of cost depending on season and locality of crops than you do in the UK. Cost of food really does depend on where you end up, I could get a bakers dozen of corn for $1 up in Maine, but a half dozen would cost $3 in MA.

Anyway, the main difference people have is probably due to who actually moves, it's generally for family in the US or because they're pretty senior positions within a company, so usually in a better financial position than joe bloggs the handy man moving to Oz, so completely different kind of family issues.

Bob

in the summer, they're great quality, well the stuff they get from Maine, rest of the year, they're just wet bags of mushy shite.

mamasue

That's exactly the window I'm in now!
My friends in the UK find it difficult to believe the healthcare situation here.... working part-time, with no health insurance!
We try to eat healthily.... exercise regularly.... but every day I'm aware of the fact that I'm not insured!
Private insurance isn't an option.... as a 13-year cancer survivor, insurance companies won't touch me... and if they did, it would be unaffordable!
I'm just counting the birthdays to 65 and Medicare!
BUT..... I love living in Georgia... property prices are affordable, and people are more friendly than the UK.

md95065

That's a pretty extreme statement - sure there is plenty of junk food in CA (just like everywhere else) but there is a also a very wide choice of extremely good food to be had and it isn't even hard to find ...

nettlebed

Next month it will be eight years for me in the Seattle are, but I have previously spent a number of years in NJ, CA and NY. It took about five years this time to feel at home (and I had some terrible moments, missing the UK so much it was almost physical, but that was partly due to missing friends, my horse, and being unhappy in my job), but now this is home, and the UK just happens to be where I was born and grew up.

youngman2999

I am happy in the US. The main reason being I have achieved more here in a shorter time than I did in the UK. I have lived in the UK for over twenty years but have only been in the US about five years.

Let there be no mistake, in the US I find it fast paced and without a doubt you will work longer hours (particularly in management), harder and off course less time off. There is no "british hospitality" here in the workplace. At the sametime do not get me wrong I have met some very kind, educated and respectful people here.

As a previous post infers it is what your expectations are when you come here.

Both UK and US are great countries. Nonetheless, the world's economy is in turmoil and a large number of people are jobless, losing homes on both sides of the pond so for those who read this if you are chasing the american dream make sure you are qualified with atleast a masters degree and be prepared to adapt and adjust here. Even with your flexibility and education there are no garantees in building your career.

God bless and be happy wherever you are or go.

Youngman2999