Moving back into Wellington.
Filed under: Cost of living, Jobs & Work, Property & General Investing
The one thing you can pretty much be sure of when you emigrate, is that things don’t always go quite to plan.
Hubby’s redundancy has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works, in that he can’t work at home. The contracts he’s on mean he has to be in the office, so it’s getting difficult to maintain a life in the Wairarapa and keep stress levels down. So we have been renting a Studio apartment in town, which he lives in during the week, sometimes with me there as well.
Unfortunately its too small for both of us, so we were stuck with living apart most of the time, and that’s just not exactly the “lifestyle” we were after when we emigrated.
So we have bitten the bullet and rented a full size two bed apartment in the centre of the city. We actually own an apartment in the same block, but its tenanted – and besides – it would actually cost us a lot more to live in our own apartment.
I say full size because New Zealand cities (Particularly Auckland and now Wellington is following) are notorious for “shoe box” apartments. That’s fine if you are renting studios or 1 beds for just a single person, but I saw some brand new 2 bed apartments the other week that were about half the size of ours (and only a bit less in price). It pays to be aware of this if you are renting – don’t rent anything without seeing it first – you will probably get a shock.
So we are going to actually become the kind of “trendy wellingtonians” who live in the city during the week, and descend en masse to the Wairarapa at the weekends. Because I know full well that I cant live in town full time – its too crowded and noisy for me. I intend to make the most of city living – it will be nice to get back to going to the movies regularly for example, but I know I need to be able to get away from it as well.
And to be honest we live in such a stunning place – I just don’t really think giving up the big house in the country with the pool is an option.
So – I may be writing some slightly different blog posts – more stuff about Wellington and less about living in the back of beyond.
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When are you too old to emigrate?
Filed under: Getting to New Zealand, Hubby's Views, Life in New Zealand
I’ve had a number of conversations with people over the last few months about whether they are too old to emigrate to NZ.
For those after the executive summary;
The answer is never
- What are you waiting for?
- Do you have your passport handy?
- Mines an Earl Gray tea, decaf Americano for Avalon – thank you
- The projected 3rd quarter benefit of taking on this challenge more than outweighs the possible opportunity cost, or indeed the potential to maximise productivity enhancements with your current strategy.
- There are tax advantages
- You can use a cool AirNZ iPhone application
While of course there are age limits if you want to come in on the skilled migrant stream (56 at the moment), you can still apply under the ‘investor’ category if you’ve got enough cash, or an adult child living in NZ.
So how old is too old?
There was quite a bit of coverage the other year when Eric King-Turner (102 at the time), emigrated from the UK to NZ, with his Kiwi wife (87). His rationale is quoted as being;
“What’s important is that, when I’m 105, I don’t want to be thinking `I wish I had moved to the other side of the world when I was 102’”
Of course in this case he had the advantage of a Kiwi wife, and I’ve no doubt the very bad publicity NZ & INZ would have got if they refused him. So on the face of it, you’re only as old as the man (or woman) you feel.
For us, that sentiment of regret was something we had heard from a number of people while we were still in the UK looking at our options. It served as a good motivator. Of course, you can always look back and regret not visiting NZ five years before, or regret not just jacking everything in and taking a risk. Any course of action that you didn’t take when you had the opportunity can be a source of regret. I believe it’s better to look at the time since then as a source of learning.
For some people they may not be at a stage in their own lives to emigrate. At least investigating it and considering the options is taking action and getting yourself on the way to moving. Or not, as the case may be. There are certainly a few people we know of who came to NZ, only to really dislike it, head back to the UK and find that they loved it again.
Moving away to find that you were really at home where you were may seem like an expensive circular journey. Or possibly a triathlon – going round in a very big circle, being exhausted and 20 pounds lighter at the end of it. It’s much better than living with the possible regret if you’d not taken that circular journey though. (For the record those people, sometimes known as ‘ping pong poms’ are in the minority.) Most people we know who have moved out of the UK and then returned for a holiday/business trip have hated the UK to varying degrees, and been really grateful to return to their new home.
Personally I found that was simply perspective. I’m used to less traffic, less people, empty beaches, friendly people and so on. The prospect of spending the day at a 500+ shop indoor shopping mega complex with 50,000 other people just turns my brain to jelly now.
From the backlog of parent applications with INZ, again there’s plenty of people mid-life who are looking to up sticks and move to NZ. It’ll take time with the expected two year wait, again that time can be used productively. So you feel at least two years younger when you then get on the first stage of the Immigration hoop jumping exercise. (Did I say triathlon? it’s more like a decathlon with mandatory gymnastics disciplines too)
So as with Eric, I think it’s better to get organised and take action than worry about what you might have done previously. Or indeed how old you may be today. Emigrating is more about open minds than any perceived ability to do a triathlon.
The Power of Networking; Social & Drinking
It took coming to NZ five years ago before I really started doing the coffee (well, tea – Earl Grey) socialising thing.
Just over 18 months ago I joined Facebook, about a year ago I joined LinkedIn. I’d sort of avoided the whole internet social networking thing up until that point – being paid to think about risks of identity theft meant I’d kept a low profile. But Avalon was on there, and kinda cajoled me into it. You try arguing with her is all I can say!
In the last couple of weeks I’ve come to benefit from all the networking.
- You’re very welcome – Avalon
As soon as I came out of the first ‘your role is possibly redundant’ meeting, having been ambushed with the news that I had 3 days to consider my options – I was not crying in my tea – I was on the phone setting up coffee meetings for the next morning with other people who do similar jobs in different companies. We all know each other, regularly meet up and we all keep an eye on what’s happening with different companies.
So in less than 24 hours, I’m finding out what options are available, and getting new names to contact about possible jobs. (And somehow I still managed to find the time to fix yet another management screw-up and get an important piece of work done to meet a deadline while 5 managers who were not losing their jobs were nowhere to be found. Some things never change.)
The day I had my official ‘your role is definitely redundant’ meeting, there was an article about redundancy rumours in the paper. This meant Avalon could officially blog about it, without revealing anything that wasn’t public knowledge.
So that evening two things happened, Avalon’s blog post was published, it automatically fed through to LinkedIn and Facebook page via a nifty widget, plus lots of other sites like Technorati. I also updated my LinkedIn status with just five words.
Within an hour I’d had contact from someone about contracting work.
Another contact having read the blog put me in touch with their companies recruitment specialist.
By the morning three emails arrived to meet up for coffee. Two more emails followed that afternoon.
I had a call from someone pointing me to three different jobs he knew were going in the field, and checking whether I knew the people who were recruiting. (The next day he rang back about a role at his current organisation too).
That evening a former manager, currently travelling in Europe, had made contact. He’d find something.
The coffee chats resulted in two further options for contracting work.
Emails were asking if I wanted a job in Sydney, or Melbourne.
My as yet not updated CV was heading off to a variety of contacts in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Christchurch, Auckland, Singapore and of course Wellington – all of whom know someone who is interested in my skills & experience. This included a couple of people who are moving on to new jobs of their own choice, and are putting me in touch with their soon to be former employers. That’s quite a recommendation, “I’m leaving, but here’s someone good enough to replace me”.
And this is before I actually update my CV and proactively send it out to recruitment agencies, or respond to job adverts that I actually see on TradeMe or Seek.
All within two days of formally being told my services are no longer required by my current employer.
Who funnily enough, is competing in the market place for exactly the same custom from the same clients that most of the opportunities I’ve been told about are also looking to win.
Then one of Avalon’s contacts also wants to hear from me – he can put me in contact with a lot of his fellow business owners.
It’s now taken me two weeks to get my CV updated properly. I firmly believe it’s worth getting feedback from others on your CV, and taking the time to look at it with a fresh mind and different perspective. It may seem a little superfluous, since I’ve already had all these meetings and I’m likely to find out from people I know that roles are available.
You never know though, a friend of a friend who has just been passed your CV could be that fantastic new opportunity you didn’t realise you were looking for.
The life and times of a Swimming Pool
Pools- lovely to look, but you have to clean them if you want to use them. Not that we have used ours this year yet – because the summer has been a very long way away.
This is how it starts off at the end of winter. The water is slightly green, murky and full of leaves (even with a pool cover you can’t quite stop all the leaves getting in).
So the first step is to dump some Chlorine in to get rid of the green murk.
But this still has crud in the bottom – so a bot of hoovering, filtering and backwashing is in order:
And then you end up with a clean sparkly pool all ready to play in:
With water the most stunning colour in the sunlight:
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Stars
We were in Wellington last night, I looked out the window around 11pm and was most surprised.
To see stars.
Not something I’d expected when in the middle of the CBD. My feeling was very much encapsulated by the phrase “OMG, it’s full of stars”.
Most cities I’ve been in over the years have no real night sky, since it’s all drowned out by light pollution. So seeing the stars last night was a pleasant surprise.
Holiday in NZ vs. Here for good
Filed under: Cost of living, Getting to New Zealand, Hubby's Views, Life in New Zealand
A friend from the UK came to visit yesterday. He’s been holidaying in NZ on an almost annual basis for the past two decades. Before we emigrated out here, he was one of the few people I knew who had really spent any significant time in NZ – so he was a great source of information, places to go, what NZ was really like etc.
This time, he is in NZ for six months after he left his former employer with enough cash in hand to tide him over for a year or so. {nope, he’s not one of the Westpac fugitives}.
So as you do when you’re young(ish) and single, he’s spending six months travelling around NZ, staying with various friends, and enjoying being away from the UK winter. And UK politics (until today – sorry D!)
He’s found this trip quite a revelation. Where as on previous holidays he’s been ‘right which restaurant shall we head to this evening?”, ‘cos you do when you’re on holiday and NZ restaurants are (relatively) inexpensive. Only this time, with no job and much longer here, he’s been to the supermarkets – and looked at the actual cost of living here.
So I asked him, what did he find as the major differences on the extended trip? In order of immediate response he said;
Bloody hell, the cost of [supermarket] food is high
I can’t believe the [high] cost of electricity
OMG, Kiwi’s don’t know how to drive, they’re lethal on the roads
Enough said.
Now it sounds (to us) like he’s living it up here, some motorcycling, off to get his glider pilots license, more biking, horse riding, more motorcycling and the odd biking race, plenty of outdoorsy stuff that is what NZ does best. The joys of free time and no domestic obligations, but he’s shocked at the cost of living.
For example, his UK electricity costs for three months equate to different friends average NZ monthly electricity costs.
For all that he’s spent plenty of time riding the roads of NZ previously, it’s only now that he’s absorbing how poorly some Kiwi’s drive. We’re all still undecided whether this is because;
- People are (relatively) inexperienced, compared to driving in and around London on a weekly basis. Or long stretches of packed motorways for hours on end. Or stuck in half hour traffic jams during a morning rush hour to get into some middle market town for work/shopping/whatever
Or
- With the slower speeds and lower levels of traffic, people are more relaxed, and there really is time to pull out right in front of other cars because they’re only traveling at 50 kph. And besides, the other guy can always stop if he gets too close or almost hits me.
Not that any of this seriously colours his perspective on Quality of Life vs Standard of Living. The Standard of Living may be higher in the UK, but you have to work harder or longer to achieve that, and then work even more to maintain it. The cost of servicing a BMW M3 can be a bugger.
He still see’s that NZ has a better Quality of Life, even if traffic has grown a lot in 20 years. Now he (had) a really good job, with high pay, good bonuses and plenty of perks. So he’s used to spending plenty of money on things as required. The cost of living is still a shock, which is at least reassuring for us that we’ve not got a uniquely daft perspective.
It’s interesting to hear from someone with a long term love affair with NZ, that he see’s the same stuff we did five years ago when we arrived.
And that it’s still worth being here.
Avalon’s Money Thread – Will you have to take a lower wage?
We also had to take a large pay cut when we first came here – but it didn’t take us long to find out that Hubby had been ripped-off because we were not Kiwi’s. Apparently the lady who hired Hubby was dancing around the office because “she had got this really great guy dead cheap!” It was pointed out to her that if he were that great – it wouldn’t take long for him to leave! But the theory is that if they hire a migrant – they have got your loyalty for at least a year. So, on the basis that we knew the value of his experience – we went shopping for better offers, and got 3! All of which would pay nearly the old UK rate!
You CAN make decent money over here. It’s just not true to say that it can’t be done. OK, so not everyone can earn big bucks, but then that’s the same anywhere. We were earning good money compared to most people in the UK, and we are here too.
I honestly do not believe that you have to earn less to be happy or that by taking a lower salary you are somehow automatically gaining a “lifestyle”. Why can’t you have both? What you may have to do is spend less than you earn!
I can and have been very happy on no money, and I’ve been miserable and very poor while earning very good money. However, I also manage to be pretty contented and happy while earning a decent and fair wage. It’s just wrong to pay a migrant less than a Kiwi for doing the same job. The same as its wrong to pay men and women different wages for doing the same job.
Any company will pay its employees the least it can get away with. (Sometimes its called exploitation – why do we accept it?) It doesn’t mean we have to take it if there’s a better choice elsewhere. I feel (imho only – its just a feeling – not based on ANY factual evidence – just what I’ve picked up) that there’s quite a con going on in convincing migrants that they will have to take massive pay cuts to come here. Whether its because you “have no NZ experience” or “we cant afford high wages here”. Fine – we have no NZ experience – but hey – we have UK experience and by and large – if you want to be a “world player” you need that experience – so pay for it! In Hubby’s job for example – NZ experience just means you know the worst way of doing the job. UK experience means you may have some idea of how it’s SUPPOSED to be done!
NZ has apparently got a booming economy and a surplus of cash (edited to add – even now that it doesnt – we can afford to pay our MP’s a salary in excess of $100k plus upto $50k in tax free “expenses”). Why should the shareholders be the only ones getting a cut? The workers should be fairly and equitably paid. I hope one day that migrants will get paid a fair wage for doing the job and not get talked into “necessarily” earning lower wages than they deserve.
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Oh The Irony :)
Mum and dad have just received a lovely welcoming letter from our local MP John Hayes, which is a standard letter sent to all new constituents to the area (we received one when we moved here).
In it he says:
As your member of parliament my job is to represent all people in the Wairarapa regardless of who they vote for. I am here to help with any issue or constituency enquiry that you may have.
Funny – the one time we asked him for help – he all but told us to bugger off. And he made it quite clear that it was NOT his job to represent us. Oddly enough, we do know that he helped another potential migrant – who was not his constituent. I wonder if he has a problem with younger people?
Tosser!
Oh well, it gave us a real laygh yesterday – so thank you Mr Hayes – you were at least good for something!
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Beach report – Riversdale 26th July
Since one of our favoured past times since we got to NZ is bumming around on the beach, I figured it was time to start an ongoing series of beach reports.
So today, having spent weeks working our butts off with a variety of issues, I decided it was time to take a day out and head to Riversdale.
So, I can report today that;
1. The beach was busy – there was at least 20 people I saw on the beach while we were there
2. It was bloody cold! Fortunately the wind wasn’t strong enough to whip up sand into the face, it was still darn cold requiring a blanket to sit on the beach despite the glorious sunshine.
3. The waves were pretty shallow, and not that huge or choppy. And there was no one in the water, not even the singular hardy surfer.
4. It looks like there has been some storm erosion of the dunes, which means that instead of the nice slopes going down to the beach proper. The dunes are like they have had a slice taken off, just like the slips on the side of hills pouring mud down onto roads, rail tracks etc.
Still, it was gloriously sunny and the air was fresh, so we felt quite relaxed while we were there.
Being able to head to the beach is one of those things which helped Avalon with the home sickness. While I was never much of a beach person in the UK – lack of swimming ability being one area of caution – I’ve grown to really enjoy being at the beach. On honeymoon we started touring round some of the beaches, and I rather enjoy being in the choppy waves at Riversdale now.
Another water baby converted by NZ’s beaches.
Watch those School “Donations” when you move to New Zealand.
I blogged about the rather mis-named school donations a while back, and how for many parents it is not the voluntary donation it should be. Well now it seems that some schools are going even further to try to force parents to pay up.
It seems that some schools are now reporting unpaid donations to the Credit agency to Baycorp, the credit agency -which now means that some parents will have problems with credit scoring. Worse – there are also schools who have passed on the “debt” to debt collection agencies.
This is so far out of order it just isn’t funny. We all know that schools don’t get enough money – but hey – parents don’t either, and screwing up their credit rating is just appalling. Pulling a stunt like this is just not on. It’s dishonest and unethical at best.
“Principals say the tactic shows that schools are under-funded and want the Government to stop “playing games”.”
I agree – the government should pull all funding to schools that try and extort “donations” out of parents and blackmail them by using credit agencies and debt collectors.
Just take care when you move here – the free education is getting less free as time goes on, and you need to be aware of the situation and ready for it. Make sure you budget for it – and make sure you find out what the fees will be for any schools you are considering for you family.
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