… To be considering leaving the UK?

[globalnomad25]

We have been considering leaving, even if only for a few years. Many of our clients have already gone or are planning it, and some of our friends too.

I’m not sure where we’d go: UAE, Portugal, Jersey, Ireland, Canada, Australia? We don’t currently want to move to the US, even though that would probably make the most sense from a business/client point of view.

For those out there who have already left, how has it gone? Was it a horrible mistake or are you glad you did it?

For those also thinking about it, where would you go?

Kids are school-aged and smart and used to international travel as our work already takes us all over, although they’d miss their friends (as would we). We aren’t English so our family is already based all over the place, although we visit them frequently.

In Western Canada. I was also very surprised as had assumed the schools would be really good but the mum has told me that the maths in particular is a long way behind what they were doing here, and the children (who are all bright and academic) have been very bored at school.

You are clearly commentating from a position of great ignorance.

Can you point me to where we pay people NOT to work?

As its strange that the UK still has over 26 million people in FT employment, with a further 8m in PT work.

With just 1.2million unemployed, most of those are churn, between jobs, with only 350k long term unemployed many of whom will be unemployable.

Yet according to your oracle, we pay everyone to sit at home.... 😂

Oh on potential care/nursery workers? no they left the sector to work in other areas.
Long term unemployed? no thanks, our elderly and children deserve better than people who are unemployable.

My friends live in Vancouver - same age as my DT’s. At high school age the Canadians could run rings around my DT’s in math - who were at a high achieving private London school and got A’s each week.
Unfortunately there are good and bad schools in every country

This- our unemployment rates are hugely better than France, Italy, Spain, Canada and on a par with the US and Australia.

Many thank, this is good advice. We are all ok on the passport front.

Thank you, I will look more into it! I’ve not researched the requirements to live there yet, but we’ve been there on holidays there and loved it.

In America 60% of people pay tax compared to 50% here.

Long term unemployed? no thanks, our elderly and children deserve better than people who are unemployable.

Oh, joy, so now we're identifying people who don't have to work at all, and wondering why we have Labour shortages in some sectors. 🤦‍♂️

I'm leaving the last word to others, we've derailed this thread too much already.

This is really helpful, thank you! We do speak varying levels of German (albeit not Swiss German) and Spanish (but not Portuguese) already so either Switzerland or Portugal sounds excellent. I had only briefly looked into Switzerland but wasn’t sure about the visa requirements but will look again.

I also need to understand better the UAE requirements re children post-16 education, as that could be a big blocker, although at this point I assume they will all do further education.

I like the idea of either Australia or NZ and we know some people there - mainly in the bigger cities like Sydney and Auckland. My only concern is that they are so far away from the rest of our friends and family, but perhaps that distance is a bonus if war looks likely over here in Europe/UK!

My understanding is there is no tax free allowance so even those on the lowest incomes pay tax. You really want those in the uk under minimum wage to pay tax so those at the top pay less?Then you get the fact that so many don’t have health cover. Why would anybody aspire to that?

Err because it makes it clear that people pay into a system as well as withdrawing from it, when they can?

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to write and apologies to anyone I didn’t manage to reply to directly.

I now have a list of things to check and it’s been really helpful to hear your views and thoughts about each country - good AND negative points.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend and I’ll try to remember to update when we make a decision!

I'm sure I read somewhere, that a move should be a pull to somewhere you want to go not a push from somewhere you want to get away from. The latter are far more likely to be unsuccessful.

Many US states pay far more minimum wage than we do and there is a big tipping culture on top. If we roll out a much higher minimum wage those on the lowest incomes would be in a far better position to pay tax.

Well your schadenfreude aside, Canada certainly isn’t in the hot seat.

Lighten up, Canada is a great country. (Well the people are, I can’t say I agree with the political leadership)

It’s the equivalent of the teacher’s pet in class that never gets in trouble.

It doesn’t matter how much you explain it, some people still consider that living off other people’s earnings somehow makes them morally superior to the people who they are living off. Plain lunacy.

Hi, I agree with you about the UK education system (the worst bit is in Scotland, using the Curriculum for Excellence which is full of skills and competencies but has no actual knowledge base). And teachers are overburdened with paperwork because the system of accountability is managerial and technocratic. It stifles education and 'teaching to the test' is the antithesis of learning.
But 'explicit teaching' is not 'teaching to the test'. It is making sure by explaining and showing the students how to do what they are learning and leading them in doing it and letting them become independent. Tests are to discover knowledge of the concepts taught. 'I do, we do, you do' with lots of interaction, teacher and student talk achieves this unlike discovery/progressive methods which allow the students to 'productively fail' - if you keep productively failing with maths or science you will cease to be interested; if you productively fail at writing history essays and are fed a diet of snippets to analyse instead of learning and discussing who did the event, what they were thinking (as far as we can know) why they did it, when did it (context) and what was the outcome, one is likely to end up not liking history.
The phonics check - so hated by my union - is not a 'test'/exam either, but what it says: a check on whether a child can decode English phonics (a complex lot, but learnable). There is no need to 'teach' to that test, but just to teach phonics properly - so that the young reader can decode any word (at year 1 that is limited to the phonics then known, of course, but those who reach the benchmark are going to be good readers).
I wish more people went to university in the UK and I wish we taught every child a secure knowledge base so that they can look critically about them and analyse what is being done to them and find ways to improve the lot of us all. Without knowledge you can think.

If you choose to live abroad I don't see why you should expect your DC to get student loans in the UK. Basing eligibility on residence seems reasonable - and 3 years' residence in an area of the UK has always been the criteria for grants and loans, even in the long years ago when I went to university. My local authority gave me a grant. I had to live in that authority and to have done so for a number of years.

It’s a common theme on here. How is it even sustainable

I would look at Montenegro!

I think life in the UK can be great if you have the funds for it, we used to talk about moving abroad for a while (with my job we could as Diplomats) but our youngest has a few more years left in school and i would love to do a few tours before i retire just to experience it. I think it would just be a lot of hassle with all the kids so we may as well wait.

However, im a bit like you, i really like the UK (im originally from an EU country) and if we werent in a financial position that we are in now that would be the only reason to leave. Life is expensive!

UK Nationals do not need any visas or residency permits to live, work or study in Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey due to the Common Travel Area agreement.

There is no official tax free bracket in the US when you look at the tables. However there is a standard deduction that you take (unless you make enough to itemise) and lower income working people benefit from the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is refundable. That is, you can get back more than you paid in. And there is a child tax credit as well. So in practice low earners do not pay federal income tax.

Everyone pays Medicaid/FICA of 6.2% up to the income cap, however. (Double if self-employed.)

I certainly wouldn’t be looking at a hotter country the way the climate is going!

Bloomberg reports that Europe is tightening its immigration requirements for US applicants

If I left it would be a Nordic country, Switzerland or Canada I think.