Kenfrapin

UK are far more mature in that manner. Very easy to start your own SIPP and invest in whatever you like, in terms of equities. The paperwork isnt complicated either as its all centralised. I read a little about SMSF here and man, there is a lot of hoops to get through plus the few providers who give this option charge a lot. We'd need to be an expert and make good investment bets to make it worthy going down this route. For now, the two of us have stuck to some of the top super providers, maybe in a few years will venture into SMSF KnK

One of the ways to open international accounts, in banking terms, is via local banks here. Citibank and HSBC both let residents open a foreign account and keep money in any of the openly traded currencies. This is only useful if you are playing the currency fluctuation market or keeping money aside to make a property investment in that currency. Still, for most people, say 99% of us, I dont think the fees involved for such accounts is even worth considering it, as fees far outstrip traditional returns from any country If you want to invest in the global markets then thats readily available from most traders in Aus, and thats exactly what we are doing I am pretty sure you can open a standard investment account in the UK through companies like AJ Bell or Hargreaves but no clue what the tax implications are. These companies wont know either and expect the investor to understand all tax laws applicable to them Cheers KnK

Never said I was moving them across. UK investments are in older ISAs and we are allowed to just leave even if no longer UK resident. Starting new ones in Australia, the more we diversify plus throw in forex as a component, the better we will fare

Thanks for that, doesnt look at all. And agree that a new investor is better staying away. We all know we can never trust any company these days so if in doubt look elsewhere Really hope they dont go under as they do produce nice articles and tips and research Stockspot operates the same way as Investsmart does. You can chose one of their portfolios but we pay them for active rebalancing based on market trends. On another forum, people slated Stockspot because they essentially invest in trackers which we can do ourselves and avoid paying their management fee. However, over the last 12 months, they invested a bigger portion in gold and AU trackers, and each of it returned 18%, while global stocks, emerging stocks and bonds/others were in single digits. So I am very happy to pay their fees and sit on a 12% return overall in 1 year KnK

They have been around the longest and are actually quite good so you wont go wrong with them. I've been a member of their UK website for many years. Also, Investsmart dont hold anything. Everything is bought and registered in your name and with a custodian trader so if Investsmart goes bust, your entire savings are left alone and you can easily access it. Never invest in anything where the units arent in your name, if you want to avoid the riskier, unknown investment firms Best of luck KnK

Very similar to how folks with their own companies are treated in the UK. Luckily when we got contract/temp roles it was through a recruitment agency who treated us as their own full time employee, so we did not need an ABN and were paid as a normal PAYE. This really helped us because even though we were contracting we managed to get a mortgage with 3 months payslips

Hey there We've left our ISAs as is back in the UK. You are allowed to keep your ISA when you leave UK but cant invest new money if you arent a UK resident for tax purposes As its money we dont really need, it can continue to grow until a time we want to use it in Oz. Havent checked tax implications but it is tax free in the UK, which is the whole concept of an ISA wrapper. There is a tax arrangement between UK and Aus as well so we arent double taxed. You've paid UK tax on the money before it went into the ISA, there are no capital gains on this when you sell as per UK tax laws What we havent checked is if we sell it when we are in Aus, then is this considered as income by Aus? Pretty sure if we leave Aus and move back to the UK and sell it then it wont be taxed, as we are no longer resident in Aus for tax purposes Cheers KnK

Nic and Nick beat me to it But there are no surprises at all and the govt isnt double taxing. There is a similar provision in the UK too, not sure if the timeframe has changed, but if you changed jobs within 2 years you could get back your pension contributions, which I did just once way back in 2014. But it gets taxed exactly the same way its taxed here too, it will be taxed at your current income tax level which makes total sense. The lower tax of 15% going into the pension is because you cant access it for a long time. If you want to access it well then you just need to pay the right tax before you can use it

Is it probably the tax that your previously saved and is now being taken from it as you are getting your money back before retirement? Money going into a super is taxed at 15% It could be that now you are taking it out, there is more tax to pay which is set at your current income. So if you pay, say, 30% tax but perhaps thats the difference and thats why it looks like a big amount? Not sure without more details KnK

A quick answer to the OPs questions Unlike UK, most rentals do not cover the mortgage plus agent plus landlord costs unless you put a really big deposit and have a small mortgage (less than 60%). Value in the market here is the land appreciating over time and making use of negative gearing in the initial years to offset your income tax Need to chose the right spot with amenities close by to ensure continuous rentals. There are so many houses on the market in every suburb. A quick look on realestate.com will give you a good idea Unless you are experts and know the Aussie market as well as city trends, its a big risk for your first investment to be in a place you hardly know about Best of luck KnK

It will be 3 years this Christmas since we moved over, what a ride its been so far! I thought of sharing some experiences when it came to investment options and how it went for us. It will be great to hear from others too so I too can learn and improve I used to invest a lot in Investment Trusts back home but out here there are only a very few available. I looked into Managed Funds, and there are a lot of those around, but it isnt as smooth or linked up everywhere as the UK. Some of the well known ones are here too like Fidelity, First Colonial etc but most feel they are still stuck in the middle ages in terms of technology. Paper forms have to be filled for literally everything and online websites arent great either. There is a huge initial investment of $10k to $20k AUD and above, very rare to find lower initial deposits followed by systematic investment plans There doesnt exist a provider similar to Hargreaves & Lansdowne or others back home where you can invest in Managed funds, Investment Trusts, Shares etc under on umbrella, and that really made things more difficult for me The common choice here are standard trading houses and well known ones with good Apps tend to be CommBank (CBA), IG Trading and even AG Bell. Most trading platforms only come with Australian trading as standard, buying overseas shares is an additional feature with its own rules, delays and charges. Futures and commodities trading seems to be a big thing here A lot of the common person's money goes into their pension, which is called super out here, with 9.5% being the standard amount deducted, and we can add more if needed. The choice of Super providers is mind boggling but very interesting to read up as there is a lot of material. You have a few flashy, expensive ones with phone apps and good online systems and then the simple no nonsense ones that lets you chose from a small set of investment choices. Supers mainly invest into funds which are not available to retail. And once your Super balance goes above a certain threshold, you can switch to a Self Managed Super Fund which lets you invest directly into shares, funds and properties as well. Oh, and many people tend to buy life and permanent disability insurance from their super itself. We have done that too and its at a really good rate compared to going to a normal provider outside of your super Some of the trading platforms have tied up with Managed Funds to provide an mFund settlement service. This allows you to buy a fund through the trader rather than contacting the fund house and doing the paper work. But once you dig deeper you find out that they only let you buy so its under the one trading account. Any changes you need to make have to be discussed directly with the Fund house! So you still end up with the same amount of paper work in the long run So, what did we end up doing? We started a monthly investment plan into Spaceship, an online only fund investing in technology companies across the globe. Its going great and their app is brilliant, so also are their weekly articles - returns of 13% to date Another online one is Stockspot but they literally have a mix of few options (balanced, growth, equity etc) thats made up of ETFs. I can do it directly through a share trading site but decided to use them. Very impressed with their app and experience too - returns of 10% to date There is InvestSmart but they need a minimum of $10k to get started so I've held back but will jump in soon We opened a trading account with IG Trading and have a very small amount in few American stocks Property investment is way easier to get into here compared to back home. We have just started to dabble into that and purchased our first investment property. When I say purchased, its an empty block of land in the sticks yet to title/register in our names followed by actual construction of the house to rent out. So its a while away but good to get our basics in place We still have our pensions and SIPP invested with H&L back home, and wont be touching that for a long long time :-) How have others fared with their investment plans out here? Disclaimer, I am not an expert in trading or the markets, and have mainly been a systematic investor in funds and ITs to grow our wealth gradually over the years Cheers KnK

Wow, my last post was in May 2017 but somehow I have a feeling I posted more recently than that All settled in our new home and, as we love to do crazy things, also got our 2 boxer boys the weekend we moved in. 3 months in and the 4 of us are well settled and enjoying true Aussie life. I've never done so much gardening in 4 years in the UK as compared to 3 months here. Bunnings is my new church and I an improving DIYer, actually managed to get grass cover over our huge backyard all alone (pat my back) Still waiting for summer to start in Melbourne and getting ready for the XMas break. We continue to enjoy UK tele thanks to ingenious methods and Netflix continues to eat more into our nightly TV routine. After a year and a half of saving up for home with no travelling, we make our first getaway to Bali for Easter 2019 followed by a trip somewhere in Queensland in July/Aug but just havent decided where. Both of us have changed jobs a few times but the market is fantastic and we havent yet had any difficulties in getting decent wages. Overpaying our mortgages the most and also managed to buy another small piece of land up north as an investment. Again, never ever possible in the UK Our only gripe at the moment is crossing the West Gate Bridge into Melbourne CBD. An additional 2 hours in traffic now everyday, with 5:45am wake ups instead of 7am when we used to live in the city. But hey ho, we knew what we were getting into and those extra 2 hours is totally worth the location and money spent on getting the home we wanted Finally, as a treat, here are our 2 boys that only Australia could gift us. Say hi to Marco (brindle) and Polo (white), our baby boys

Read this with interest and couldn't stop myself. Of course the OP is long disappeared but still It is unfair to work/live in a country for 30 odd years and assume the money made there would be sufficient in another country. That alone is the root cause of the OP's issue. Wages in UK are good to live and retire there. Spending your working years in Australia, getting a mortgage and saving up to then retire works, wait for it, in Australia The OP assumed after leaving at 21 and returning 30 years later, after getting used to UK, that the benefits would be same the same and pound for pound, they would get similar benefits here. Totally wrong and miscalculated move with very little research before making such a big move And in general, extremely low wage people will have a tough time in any country, more so if they move countries when they are older and with no wages at all. It is harsh but if you are on a low wage your entire life means you havent moved up or learnt new skills to earn more (whatever the circumstances) and it is likely to not be able to get a low wage job as you get older

Hi Phillip, Now that we've been here for over a year, with some local experience and advice, I can add some more to this Along with Feb/Mar and Jul/Aug bursts, we noticed a spike in jobs in Oct, could be specific to our line of work ( I am a PM/PgM and missus a Project Finance Analyst) Comparing specifically to the UK, there always seem to be a lot more roles available here. These arent phantom non existant roles by recruitment agents. There are literally a lot more roles out here for us than UK. If we lower our day rates then there are even more roles Timing and your area of expertise both play a factor in how quickly you get a role. Not that everything shuts down over XMas and pretty much most of Jan. so mid Dec to early Feb is all but a write off Lot more tech jobs in Sydney than Melbourne. I applied to a few jobs mid - Jan and got called the day I applied to schedule interviews with start dates in Feb You do have Sept and Oct to get the jobs you want, or worse case get a slightly junior role to get the experience going and in 6 months you will be fine. Unlike the UK, just because you go for a lower paying job now doesnt mean you cant move to a much better paying role as you always have a valid excuse (you took the first job available to start working and get local experience) Best of luck!

This data is a little confusing as it seems to be missing some sectors. Also, by saying taxable income do they discount the first $18200 plus whatever else is included as expenses etc? As an example, because I work in the sector, quite a few Program Managers, IT Project Managers, IT architects, senior programmes, IT Managers, Finance Analysts etc have starting salaries from $160k going all the way to $220k, with some touching close to $250k, all benefits included. General and Executive Managers earn well in excess of $250k, again including benefits And this is just for permanent staff. And if you think about contractor day rates for most IT skills, then yearly package for most professions mentioned above are around the $200k mark going all the way up to $300k KnK