Marisawright

Before I even consider forking out £130 for a osprey backpack with wheels do backback with wheels no hurt a bit.. I imagine the wheels might dig into your back?

I wouldn't buy a backpack with wheels. The wheels add extra weight so that's going to make it heavier to carry - but the biggest problem is toppling over.

I had a duffle bag on wheels which someone recommended to me, and I hated it. Get a strong suitcase and it should sit happily on its wheels without toppling over - get something soft-sided like a backpack or duffel bag and it will topple over when you let it go.

Thats what depreciation is, the loss of value of a business asset over time.

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Yes I know what it is, parley. I'm just pointing out that if you buy an apartment or a house, in practice when you claim depreciation, you are claiming a deduction for money you will never, ever spend. Yes strictly speaking you spent that money when you bought the house, but that's not relevant. You are still getting a very nice tax deduction each year for money you're not actually spending that year.

What that meant for me in practice was that the rent on my investment property paid the mortgage and actual expenses, and the depreciation deduction offset the tax on my salary, so I used to get a tax refund of $5,000 to $6,000 every year.

Actually they don't Marissa.

It is the land that appreciates, not the house.

 

The house depreciates and obviously the fixtures and fittings, carpets etc depreciate over time.

Well yes I suppose it does strictly speaking - but the fact is that while I owned my rental properties, I claimed thousands of dollars for "depreciation" which I never, ever spent.

Then when I did have to spend a few hundred on renovating one of the flats, that didn't come out of the "depreciation" I'd already claimed - I was able to add it on and start claiming for that too!

This report is somewhat bogus. Of course renting makes more sense over a 7 year period. Most of us though would hope to need a roof over our head which we sre responsible for, for an average of 50 years (age 25-75). They should do a side by side comparison for 50 years and even allowing for moving house 2 or 3 times in that period I am confident buying would come out on top.

I think this is true. I've never had a life that's predictable enough to commit for that long (thank goodness!), so although I have owned my home a few times in the past, it would probably have been cheaper if I'd rented, in theory. However there is another factor - enforced saving. When money is in the bank there's always a temptation to nibble away at it for the odd luxury here and there, and before you know it you can make quite a dent. When it's tied up in a house, you don't think about it.

But to take advantage of negative gearing you are likely to be losing money on the rental property.

Not at all! That's what so crazy about the Australian negative gearing system. Most of the negative gearing comes from claiming depreciation, which is mad considering that homes appreciate over time. So you're claiming for a loss which is purely on paper.

As for losing money when it's untenanted - that comes down to choosing your property carefully so it's in a place where rentals are in demand. I've had four rental properties over the years (three in Sydney) and never had a property vacant for more than a month. My fourth property was a DHA property, for which Defence pays the rent regardless of whether they have a tenant for it or not.

How are things going in Southampton? Having been brought up there from (almost) birth in 1954 to 1978 (in Blackfield), when I first came to Oz, and then living there again from 1996 to 2008 (in Marchwood), Soton and surrounds are always in my thoughts. Do you have your own links with the area?

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It's a love-hate relationship now! We absolutely adore our one-bedroom flat: we left all our books, DVD's, ornaments etc in Australia so it's plenty big enough (and in fact, I'm loving livig without all that clutter). This is the view:

I still find Southampton's CBD and Woolston (our suburb) utterly depressing - I think the problem is that everyone who can afford it lives in the New Forest and commutes, leaving only the poor and the disabled in the inner ring. I've never seen so many people with crutches and wheelchairs. However my spirits lift every time I get home and look out at the view!

We've also managed to find some ballroom dancing classes so we're not totally isolated any more. We've given up our Sydney habit of going out for breakfast or dinner but again, it's not so bad staying home when you have such a great view to look out at. During the day, the river is alive with sailboats, scullers and working boats going up and down, and we also see the cruise ships coming in.

His only choice is travel insurance, which he needs to buy in the US.

We've been looking into how to build our credit rating and as Que Sera Sera says, it has nothing to do with having a bank account. It's the credit card that matters. We could hold a bank account here for years and it will make no difference unless we have a credit card that we use - and of course we can't get one because we've got no credit rating!

I guess it is possible that maintaining a bank account with a UK address means you continue to exist on their databases and therefore your original credit rating survives - but I'm not confident of that!

Yes, we bought a king size and our Australian queen size sheets fit.

There's only one railway line from Sydney to Wollongong and it stops at every small town, so just look at the station names and you've got it. Sydney CBD to Wollongong is two hours on the train, I can't imagine commuting further than that!

The South Coast is lovely but generally a lot more expensive for housing than the Central Coast, until you get past Wollongong.

If you're not getting anywhere with this,try Googling concierge services in Melbourne. They do all kinds of jobs for people, here's one:

http://givemeyourlist.com.au/

We're currently living back with my parents, which is nice & we've valued all the extra time we've been able to spend with them, but at the same time I think it's going to be harder to leave them & when we have gone the house will no doubt feel very empty & lonely for them!

 

How did everybody else feel & cope in those final weeks??

If I had been so close to my parents/friends that I was distressed at the mere idea of leaving them, I wouldn't have gone through with migrating at all. When I migrated, I was already accustomed to living at the other end of the country from my relatives and childhood friends, so it wasn't such a huge change.

I know this puts me at odds with what others have said, but my opinion is that Oz is infinitely better than the UK in just about every respect. Quality of life - for me, at least - is off the scale compared to the UK... The "it's not better... it's just different" thing hasn't been my experience at all.

What you have to bear in mind is that you migrated six years ago, and even in that time, quite a lot has changed in both countries. If someone had asked me even ten or fifteen years ago, I'd have been saying Australia offered several advantages over the UK. It's less clear-cut now.

Chiropractic dominates the market in Sydney - most people wouldn't even know what an osteopath is. Best plan is to look up osteopathic practices on Google and approach them directly. The one I went to in Leichardt had several British practitioners because Aussies don't tend to train as osteos.

What was the thought behind getting the visa in the first place ? Was there a time that everyone wanted to go to Oz or was it you pushing the agenda from the start ?

 

If it was the former, then a honest conversation on what it was you and the family were hoping to get from a new life in Oz a few years ago and what has changed now sounds like a good place to start.

 

Good luck whichever way you decide to go...

+1

Migrating is an extremely stressful process even when you're all 100% committed to it. If you drag your family with you, every time you hit a setback (and you will), they'll be blaming you and resenting you for forcing them into it. Can you hear it? "I never wanted to come anyway", "Look what you've got us into", "Do you realise how much money you've cost us?"

Nagging a family to come with you is a recipe for relationship breakups. I know that sounds dramatic but trust me - no one who's ever been through a divorce thought it could happen to them, me included!

Things have changed in Australia - I wouldn't say quality of life is better or worse than the UK, it's just different. An awful lot depends on what kind of lifestyle you lead, where you are in the UK, and what your job is (the economy is in a downturn in Australia and likely to remain so, so career prospects are not as good in Australia as in the UK).

So Marisa - is Ozzie pension means tested? If you stayed in Australia long enough to claim the pension and then went back to UK, would your other income streams affect what you would receive or would your status when you left Australia remain the same? If you get an Ozzie pension does this mean you have to do a tax return in Oz? Sorry for questions - but I think you are a bit of an expert on this?

I wouldn't say I was an expert, but here's what I know. Yes, the Ozzie pension is means-tested. As far as I'm aware, if your financial or residential circumstances change you are obliged by law to notify Centrelink - so yes, other income streams would affect what you receive.

Plus of course, your pension may be cut back pro rata (you only need 10 years' residence to get the full pension if resident in Oz, but you need 35 years to get the full pension if living overseas).

I don't know about a tax return. I haven't looked into that because we would still have money invested in Australia so will need to do a tax return anyway.

So a waste of money then.

So you never insure anything, @parleycross?

Sorry I'm a little uncertain about some things... If I was to come over on a WHV and I'm not on the skilled occupation list, would I still have the chance to move permanently? Or is it if your not on that list then you can't move over?

If you come over on a WHV, then you go home again at the end of that time (either one or two years). Then you decide whether to apply to migrate. At that time, if you're not on the skilled occupation list, then you can't move over. And be aware that it's not just the qualifications you need, you need several years' work experience too.

Have you ever been to Australia on a WHV (working holiday visa)? If not, I suggest you do that first. It's very difficult to get a visa to live in Australia permanently and who knows, you might never qualify - but you CAN get a working holiday visa easily at your age. So take the opportunity now, before you get too old to apply.

A year or two in Oz now means you'll have a much better idea what you're coming to, if you do migrate, and you may make some good contacts too. Some people think that if you come on a WHV you have to do bartending or fruit picking, but many people just continue doing their normal occupation - which means you get an idea of what working permanently would be like.

Can you get IPS to cover existing illness after a waiting period? I can't get travel nor life insurance at the moment.

There's usually a medical with IPS and if they do accept a pre-existing illness, you'll pay a higher premium.

Another reason, actually, to take out your own IPS: I took out IPS when I first arrived in Oz and got it easily, because at that point my childhood asthma hadn't recurred and I got a clean bill of health. Fast forward only 5 years and my asthma was back with a vengeance - but the conditions of the IPS was that I didn't have to do any further medicals, so I kept that cover all the way through to age 60.

Why would insurance be tax deductible.. of course it is not, no more than your car insurance is..

 

But the situation is not as dire as you would think. Firstly you accumulate sick leave, so as long as you are not using up your ten days with a day here and there it will soon add up in order to cover the more prolonged illness. Also superannuation is compulsory in Australia and this would normally have some sickness related insurance that will pay out an income to cover lost earnings in the case of extended illness.

Income Protection Insurance is most definitely tax deductible.

Yes you accumulate sick leave, but that doesn't help in the early years - you can always cancel the insurance once you feel you have a comfortable buffer.

The income protection insurance offered along with your super isn't always adequate: it may cover disability only, for instance.

Is income protection insurance tax-deductible ? - yes, it is.

How common is it in Australia/Sydney to take out such an insurance ? -it's not all that common, but that's only because people think "it won't happen to me"

Do you still get sickness allowance paid if you have taken out such an insurance ? - possibly, it depends how long the waiting period is before it kicks in.

It seems to me it's nearly mandatory in Sydney if you're serious about personal risk management, particularly if you have to pay a rent/mortgage.

The thing with income protection is that once active, it normally continues to pay until retirement age - so it would be silly to worry about whether it will affect sickness alllowance in the short term. And yes, I agree that any sensible person should take out income protection insurance, either direct or through their superannuation fund. Sometimes the cover through the super fund is quite limited so it's always worth checking the detail.

No, you're not missing anything. Sensible people take out Income Protection Insurance to cover for that eventuality.

Why do you think you need a lawyer?

http://www.maa.nsw.gov.au/about-us/forms/claims

We see so many ads on TV that it's easy to get the impression you'll get nothing unless you hire one. That's not the case and even if you use a no-win, no-fee one, it's quite possible you'll end up with less than if you'd just gone the DIY route (because their fee for success is generally 50% of the award).