Should we leave the UK?

[BookishKitten]

I'm getting more and more disappointed with the quality of life here in the UK, things are always so hard, and it's bonkers as both my partner and I earn enough for our outgoings.
I'm not talking about money per se, but I'm wondering about:

• we both have to travel for work on a daily basis, in my case 3h in total (no point telling me to move because we can't afford to live closer and still have access to good schools...)
• everything is so expensive here: home, car, trains, food, access to culture, any extracurricular activities for our only child (!) - we ended up giving up on something we really liked him to continue because it was basically no money left at the end of the month
• healthcare: it's so so so hard to get a specialist appointment for anything
• work/ life balance
• quality of life in old age (public pensions are basically crap, and our work pension funds are giving us less and less, and we're only in our early 40s...)
• the weather (yes, I know.....)

..... All of this has left me wondering if we wouldn't be better off just going somewhere else whilst our child is young enough to adapt with minimal disruption (he's not yet in school). For those who have left the UK for another country in the European continent for the same reasons, where are you happy? It would have to be somewhere fairly international, where we could get work first and then learn the language as we go. As it happens DP and I speak a bit of French, but we're open to learning anything that isn't ridiculously difficult (like Hungarian.....).

I would be delighted to hear your stories and your thoughts!

I guess it depends if you can move somewhere that your skills are in demand? Somewhere you can get a visa to work. Where healthcare and schooling make is more economic to live abroad.

I found by moving out of London and taking a local job, yes, I took a pay cut but removing the cost of commuting, extra childcare and stress, and with housing being much cheaper, I was no worse off and quality of life was much better.

It can depend on wether you both have transferable skills. Do you?

What languages do you speak?

What in demand industry do you work in? IT or healthcare are always in demand, but many office jobs won't get you far without fluent language skills in your destination country and provable transferable qualifications .

You don't sound as though you're thinking practically, and a move with the motivational factors you list is likely to land your family in a "same shit, different bucket" scenario.

If you're serious you need to think in far more concrete terms about where you could move to, starting by checking where your profession and qualifications are in demand and whether your qualifications are recognised as equivalent.

europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/education/university/recognition/index_en.htm

ec.europa.eu/ploteus/en/compare

You have to be very proactive and practical to make a success of emigration.

Bookishkitten
It is now three/four days since your first post.
So sorry you are in such a bad place.
Good luck

Thanks everyone for your replies!

I work in HE but in a Humanities area where demand may not be there in other countries but I’m hoping that a PhD in a reputable institution and experience of the sector may be beneficial and certainly transferable.
DH is an analyst so I think we’re both OK for transferable skills.

As I said, we both speak French as a foreign language but we would definitely need language classes to get the oral skills and more formal writing skills up to scratch. I can also read Spanish and Italian, but DH doesn’t.

At the moment the political situation here and the way the quality of public services is going downhill I worry for the future of my only child...
I read the other day that Copenhagen and Bern were ranked the top cities for quality of life. Any other suggestions?

Has anyone signed up with employment portals in European countries? Or headhunting/ employment consultancy agencies? Any suggestions?

Thanks so much!

Have a look at at Luxembourg. I think it has a great quality of family life. However the high salaries are balanced by VERY high accommodation costs.
The local Schools are very good but also there is a lot of choice with International Schools.

I doubt there is somewhere that will tick all your boxes, if there were they'd be queuing out the door to get in. (like they are for the UK...)

sounds like you may have a bad case of London. There are alternatives but you'll need to downsize spending and expectations commensurate with lower salaries.

it is pissing with rain all over the UK today, not unreasonable in Mid-February. There are good microclimate spots all over the country and bad ones too; again, look at the news today to see where those are, at least one always comes up on MN as an idyllic place to live..

good luck with your changes.

Have you considered the French speaking part of Switzerland?

Having moved back last year after 13 years abroad, I have to tell you that abroad is often the same shit in a different place, in various different languages.

Food, utility bills, car insurance and tax are way cheaper in the UK than they were where we lived abroad, ditto clothes, books, access to culture (no free museums or art galleries), vets bills, prescription medicine. Have a very close look at pension provision as well, as some countries don't have the state and employment pensions that we do here; you get one pension, as opposed to the several you could have in the UK.

There is a lot to be said for living somewhere where you understand how it all hangs together.