How much are you prepared to sacrifice?

[heidi]

It's probably a given, we all know we will have to sacrfice central heating,double glazed windows, Sunday suppers with grandma, and probably mixers on taps (until we change those!)

But financially what are you prepared to sacrifice?...

1-sacrifice up to 50% of the salary I'm used to getting

2-sacrifice above 50% of the salary I'm used to getting.

3-sacrifice all the benefits (pension, dental etc) that I'm used to getting but not salary

4-sacrifice some of the standard of living I'm used to, but not salary

5-sacrifice staying at home with the kids to become a two-wage family

6-sacrifice nothing I honestly expect income and lifestyle to improve

7-haven't given it a thought really, I'll see when I get there, besides perceived lifestyle gains make up for any potential financial loss

[nickydwuk]

From a personal point of view we have done our research and got a lot of advice from people on this forum and friends who have made the move. We will be sacrificing having our 2 older children with us as they will remain in the UK. We are lucky and will have about ?100k as a deposit for a property so would only need a small mortgage a we don't have aspirations of a large house. We will be sacrificing about 50% of our salary as my OH will not be working - at least to start with and we understand that we will have to sacrifice some benefits such as work based pension, free health care etc.. We are aware that financially we will not have as much disposable income as we have now but we will be living in a less crowded country with a slightly better ( if not, much better) lifestyle than we currently have. However I feel a move of this magnitude to a country such as NZ is not about the financial losses or gains - although these do have an impact on how well you settle in but is is more about a lifestyle change. Sometimes people get in a rut and it might take something such as a complete change of environment to get out of it. This is not a move we have taken lightly - we have taken a year of research before finally submitting our EOI and it is not necessarily the right move for other people. Best of luck to all who make the move

[ebianca]

An interesting topic you have started here.

We too (like Nicky) have spent over a year researching and looking into the big move to NZ. We are not moving there to be rich but to have a better quality of life and I hope it is what we ar ehoping for.

We wil be sacraficing wage for my OH- he will be on a lower wage than he could get in the UK but as he has said- moving to NZ is not a carreer move. I don't currently work as we have 2 young children (4 and 2) but will look at building up a carreer for myself once in NZ so after we have been there a couple of years and I start working we should be better off financially than we are here at the moment and hopefully have a better lifestyle to go with it.

I know even with all the research you won't know what NZ has to offer or if you like it until you actually get there but 'nothing ventured nothing gained'.

[alan&moyra]

We arrived here in NZ in October 2007 so we are pretty new and can still remember easily the sacrifices we made but

Well on your question of sacrifice we did sacrifice our salary but not as much as we were led to believe, id reckon we both took a cut of about 20 - 30% which bearing in mind the other costs is not too bad.
Yes you can say you miss out on free health service but is it really free ?? we all pay national insurance and still pay for prescriptions.
Here you pay for the appointment with a doctor (around $25) this includes a prescription to be written if you need one, and the cost of the prescription is .................. $3.00 so way less than the UK, so is our health service the pilot of all health services ?? I'd really debate that........

We had a deposit of around 90k (gbp) for a house which in Chch would actually buy you a house outright if you wanted to but we decided to have a mortgage and have a house that would be comparable to what we had in UK if not even better, house prices here in South island are much less than North so you will get more for your money here.

Cars are cheaper, but fuel is expensive $1.75 per L ( but if you convert the UK price to Kiwi it would be almost $6 a L)

food is so so for price, you soon learn where to shop.

Our biggest sacrifice was friends.............. saying goodbye was hard, but they are always on the end of a phone and we are getting our first visit next November (08)

As Nicky says this is not a move to make lightly but I do firmly believe that the positives of NZ far outweigh the negatives, great outdoor lifestyle, better weather, lower crime, actually pleasant shope assistants !!!!, a much more relaxed stress free life.

Nurses are in huge demand here both in North island and South, my wife actually got her job 4 months before we arrived via telephone interview and I got a job after 2 weeks........... so things are good.

we all have to make sacrifices in our life at different stages it all depends an what you want to fight for in making them

Alan

[Glenda]

It has to be an extremely good idea to consider what sacrifices you would have to make to emigrate to NZ, especially if you are already reasonably content, have a good lifestyle and satisfactory well-paying job.

It may be that a good holiday or adventure is what is needed rather than a move to another country.

I think that those who make it here are those that are tired of their present life, who are prepared to accept that life will be different in NZ, that there will be sacrifices "but hey we can rise above those", and most of all be able to cease comparing the two countries.

[kokopeli]

Glenda raises a good point.

Moving to another country is a major step, so it's worth taking time to think through the issues you might face. Unfortunately, it isn't always possible to predict what these issues might be with any certainty. You can have a good guess, but you won't know for sure until you've been living in NZ for a while.

It's easy to get carried away and focus on the tangibles and the negatives without thinking about the intangibles and the benefits. If you keep making comparisons between NZ and your original home, you will no doubt find a thousand and one things that were better 'back home'. If you keep at it for long enough, you will probably be able to convince yourself that NZ isn't for you. If you do that before you get here, you'll save yourself a lot of money, time and heartache. If you do it while you're here, you'll probably want to go home and won't get the most out of NZ.

FWIW, I would say that we're slightly worse off financially than we were in the UK (lower wages, higher interest rates), but we're richer in a million other ways. Trite, but true.

[heidi]

I think its natural to make comparisons to assess whether its a smart move.

We lived in nz seven years ago on a similiar salary we are contemplating this time (half of what OH earns here due to this being a career change/downgrade). 7 yrs ago our nz house was $100/week to rent (and we thought it was a palace, freezing cold, but palatial with gorgeous gardens) and overall other costs balanced out (some things cost more some less but change in lifestyle balanced it all out). We tried to buy our rental at the time (outbid by wealthy aussies) and it sold for a third of what it would sell for now in the same town. The cost of renting has gone up at least three times as well. We had 2 kids 7 yrs ago, and 3 now (one made in nz!) which adds to the 'now' costs.

Dear old friends of ours in nz have advised us not to return that nz isn't the same as my fond memories (with failing infrastructure, environmental issues etc) I'm honestly not looking for the negatives, just some measure of
self-protection perhaps, but I know I shouldn't close my ears to them either.

So...back to the math. Costing out basic cost of living (food, heat, insurance, dental, taxes, mortgage etc) our halved salary won't pay all the bills (one child with braces doesn't help). We would take it as a given our standard of living would change, fine with that. Our wish was that our higher dollar and 7 yrs of equity built up here would offset higher start-up costs in nz--but sadly no.

So I guess I'm back to the saner plan of getting OH to push the eoi button, try to get PR, get the house on the market.. and then apply for positions that are similiar to what he is doing now. Given a more even playing field (salary) we would sacrifice pension/benefits, and cut our lifestyle (downsize house) to meet higher housing costs. Hopefully by then the nz housing market will correct itself too!

There have been some excellent money threads on another nz immi forum, from reading those posts I am tempering my 'nz at any cost/sacrifice, just get me back there' feelings--well trying to for the family's sake. If we went down 'just on holiday' OH is genuinely worried I wouldn't join him on the return flight.

Comparing what it costs to live here vs there is really necessary for me, because otherwise I'd lead with my heart, and as big as that is, I'm not prepared to serve it for dinner ( ha ha)