jdad84

I have no intention of trying to dodge the debt and do think that it would be a good idea to pay back while the exchange rate is favourable. Deferring for the first year seems like the best plan as we can then make a 'one off' payment at some point during the year when the exchange rate favours us. Even if they 'set' the exchange rate for one off payments...surely I could transfer from AUD to GBP myself and pay from a UK account. If it comes down to it and I don't get employment straight away then I'll have a year without the SLC breathing down my neck. Thanks for the contributions.

Well I thought it made sense too. I suspect wed benefit from clearing my wife's Loan and deferring my loan (as Ill be without a job for 3 months). I did the calculation for mine (assuming I start on 60k AUD and it works out at £180 per month) which is around £100 more than I pay currently. On the plus side since I qualified recently as a pharmacist my wage has gone entirely towards saving for oz so I think we'll still be better off!

I think I understand. My wife is still at the negotiation phase and its a rather large telecoms company so perhaps there's scope to negotiate some benefits. Thanks, J

So, from a little research (ok, a quick google) I see that: Public Benevolent Institutions (PBI) Public and Private Hospitals Health Promotion Charities (HPC) Benefit from salary packaging for things such as: Car lease, laptop, mortgage etc. I wondered, from private companies who are not part of the above list, are there any other tax-efficient 'salary packaging' schemes or is it just the above?? Thanks, J SOURCES: 1. http://www.cbb.com.au/salary-packaging/for-employees 2. http://careers.shpa.org.au/Hospital-Pharmacy/Salaries-and-Conditions

We are migrating soon (90% sure of a visa for my wife, awaiting contracts) and previously to some musings last night we had never thought of repaying our loans past what is taken by PAYE anyway. For information: I have a UK student loan of £24000 My wife has a student loan of £9000 £33000 = $56000 ($1.69 to £1) If the exchange rate were to increase to $2 to £1 or even greater $3 to £1 the actual repayment we'd make would be substantially more - $66000 ($2 to £1) $99000 ($3 to £1) We of course don't know how the exchange rate will fluctuate, but using 10 years of historic data from xe.com the lowest exchange rate has sat just below 1.5 and the highest just above 2.5. It seems like we would be foolish to not overpay whilst it is relatively 'cheap' to do so...how have others approached their student loans? Apologies if this topic has been talked to death before. J

Hey, We're looking to bring with us our BMW 325i manual with us 2006 (06) Mileage 95,000 miles approx uk value £6500 Australian value = $25,000 - $28,000 I hope it's worthwhile despite our high mileage! Jay