Thinking of moving from the UK to Oz for a year

[user1483968327]

Hello! Me and my husband are thinking of moving to Oz for a year. We have 2 year old son and own a house here (which we can rent out and cover the mortgage on) I work in TV on a good wage and he is a car mechanic on a not so good wage! My husband is pretty fed up in his current job and on a rubbish salary and we've seen his industry pays far better out there. I'm 29 and he's 30. We would love to bring home some cash really so although we want the adventure we want to use this experience as a saving opportunity before our son would start school in 2019. Finding jobs ASAP is essential and child care! Are we totally mad? We would just like to rent somewhere in Sydney, enjoy a years adventure if we were to get a working visa approved. I have been to Sydney before and have a good friend out there, he hasn't.... ANY advice good or bad please share. We have a meeting with Let's Go! tomorrow to discuss our assessment so any tips on whether they are good do let me know. Oh and we'd like to be out there for November this year!!! (you're probably screaming at your computer by now....) TIA

Sydney's expensive. You won't save. Like any major city, housing is costly - especially renting. You'll pay for GP appointments, dentistry, medicines etc. Good quality food and wine. Flying back is expensive. Your LO will need their own seat on your return. If you rent out your own house in the UK, there will be tax implications. Have you a well-paying job lined up?

Ultimately, I would say a year is too short a time (probably okay if you treat it as a holiday but you seem to think it'll give you money to save). We went for 18 months although it was a long time ago. We found we had a better quality of life in the UK, tbh but then we live in the frozen north

It's a long way and a hell of a lot of money for just a year...

Sydney is expensive. Saving is unlikely. The visa process alone can cost thousands.

Are you going for a long holiday or to start a new life? What would you want out there? You still have to go to work, pay the bills, do the washing and cleaning. OK so the weather is better in many ways and it's a different way of life but from your OP I don't really get why you want to go. If its just to have a jolly for a year before your son starts school then OK, but be prepared to shell out a lot of money and maybe come home with very little.

I agree that a year's not long enough to save anything that will make a difference to your life here, because you've got all the start-up costs to take into account - visa, flights, rent + deposit - all of which will be thousands before you earn a penny. If you both had well-paying jobs lined up then you could do the sums before you go and work out whether it's going to be financially viable, but to go with the hope of finding better paying work is such a gamble. Plus, as others have said, Sydney is very expensive. I had several Aussie friends and they all say how expensive life is in Oz now. Don't let rose-tinted thoughts of sunshine and beaches (so tempting in the depths of gloomy January in England), make you rush into something that could make you much poorer in the long run.

*have friends, not had

if you want the experience I completely understand
but I'm not clear from your post what you are after

if you want to return with savings after just one year, you may not - but you are the one who can do the maths. You also need to factor in a worst case scenario and see if that scenario is worth the adventure. I wish I'd worked abroad in the past, I can totally see why you want to.

Thank you everyone - really appreciate the honesty and will be feeding back to my husband! Doesn't sound like we would get what we want from it although still prepared to do the maths. We'd only want to rent a small apartment and from the rental prices I've looked at, although expensive we 'could' afford if we were to get the jobs we want. BUT huge risk and definitely not something we can rush into. Given me food for thought so appreciate it hugely.

I don't think you'll save anything ,isn't food 3x the price it is here or something outrageous?

Do you fit the criteria to work there?

My sister left London for Melbourne 6 years ago. She wanted a better quality of life and not to have to work so much to pay the mortgage.

They are happy but it's honestly not that different cost-wise as London! Housing is not cheap and cars and clothes in particular are much more expensive than here.

Have a look again at visas. Working holiday visas used to be only available if you had no dependants Has this changed?

I'm not sure why you think that a year in Australia would enable you to save? . It will cost you money for visas, for flights, for rental deposits. Plus you will have no support network over there and will therefore need to pay for things like childcare. You will lose your entitlement to things like tax credits and child benefit while over there, and you also need to take into account the exchange rate when you come backk, because likelihood is that your dollars won't be worth a saving in pounds iyswim.

I totally see the need to want an adventure before your DS starts school, but the words "adventure" and "save money" just don't go together in the same sentence. You'll be far better off looking to see what costs you can cut over here.

the other thing i'd say is could you live there permanently?

if you think you'd like a permanent move the whole thing is a completely different kettle of fish surely?

a friend of mine is moving to Melbourne quite soon - she has been surprised by the equivalent house price swap because she thought London to Melbourne would buy her a lot more space. It doesn't buy as much as she originally thought, but the real issue for her is quality of life, that's why she's going.

working holiday visa - no chance with a kid. Other work visas, possibly. But may mean just swapping one office for another.