Martinbjulieb

Do you actually have to stop working at 60 to claim your super is you no longer live in Australia?

Our son is planning a trip to Australia either the end of 2023 or 2024. His Australian passport expired last year. He was 13 when he got this one so from reading up on this I know he cannot renew it online, he has to go to the Embassy in London. My question is this. He has booked an appointment in February. Does he now have to do anything else or just go to his appointment, presumably with his passport, other identification documents and his Citizenship Certificate? Hoping someone can advise. Thanks.

Can anyone advise? My 19 year old wants to go back to Australia for a couple of years to work/travel. He has Citizenship and up to date passport. Can he just go? Does he have to fulfil a criteria?? Thanks.

We used a company called HIFX, both in 2007 moving out and 2017 moving back. I don’t remember the fees exactly but they must have been good as we used them twice. I think you can go on their website and get a quote.

We used a company called HIFX, both in 2007 moving out and 2017 moving back. I don’t remember the fees exactly but they must have been good as we used them twice. I think you can go on their website and get a quote.

My husband has a possible opportunity to work back in Australia for 3 years before he retires. I would stay in the UK as our children are at uni and college. Would it be possible for him to travel back 2/3 times per year and then re enter Australia? I am specifically thinking of Covid. He has had his vaccinations. We are all Australian citizens and lived in Perth between 2007-2017. Any advice?? TIA.

What I meant was that our advisor in Perth fully knows the ins and outs of our super accounts as we have been with them since 2009 and they look after our investments still. BUT as they are Australian they don’t fully understand the UK tax implications so they recommended a firm that specialise in both countries so we could get the full picture. However I was only getting some free advice from them so spoke in very general terms to get some advice on tax etc.

I understand what you are saying. I work 3 days and the idea was that my husband would drop to 4 days for a year or two and then 3 and we would use our super to top up our salary. I can see that an annuity is not the way though! I have just had my appointment with a company who specialise in Australia/U.K. pensions and now we need to discuss this with our advisor in Perth as they know our situation so will hopefully be able to advise on the Australian side of things whereas they don’t know about the U.K. side!

Thank you @Marisawright I have a financial planning meeting soon so I will be discussing it then. Initial thoughts would be to only convert one of our funds and leave the other one so we could access lump sums if required.

Is an income stream or allocated pension different?

Spoils it for the sensible ones then!! I don’t consider 56 to be too early to semi retire.

Why not? We want to access our super earlier than the Australian government allows (our money so not quite sure why you have wait until they say!) so this may be a way of doing it. Obviously I am going to take financial advice I just wondered if it was possible first.

Does anyone know can you buy an annuity with your Super funds before the age of 60? TIA.

They might haggle about claims though! If I remember correctly our belongings were insured for 60 days after they went into storage as we didn’t know where we were ending up at that time.

We used Chess. Britannia at this end and they were amazing!! Don’t get your insurance through them though. We used Letton Percival. I think they are mentioned on here somewhere. Good luck!

We used HiFx one way to Australia and on the way back. They were great.

We used Chess too and they were fantastic. Along with things others have mentioned also keep some bank statements handy for reference purposes for mortgage/rentals etc. Keep a no fee bank account open ready for when you need to access your super later down the line. Get Doctor/Dental/Optical records if you can. Good luck!! I remembered I did a post about paperwork NOT to pack in the container when we were moving. I have pasted it below for info. Birth certificates Marriage certificate NHS cards UK tax info NI number etc Children's immunisation records 1 year of school reports Last year of Australian tax return Evidence of no claims for contents, building and car insurance Rabies certificate (dog, not us!!) Container insurance certificate Shipping info and contacts UK driving licences including paper section All passports (!!!) Evidence of deposits from house sale to our U.K. bank.

We used HiFx and they were good

We used Chess who were amazing

That’s correct. Council funded but with the ability to make own decisions on some things.

We didn’t pay 6 months. Just the standard one month as a bond. I think it is very much dependent on the Landlord, it isn’t set in stone.

We moved to Perth in 2007 when our children were 4 and 2. They are both June birthdays, being 5th (youngest) and 28th (eldest) so they were the youngest in their year groups in Australia. We moved back in March 2017, no house, no jobs, two kids, one dog and no idea where we would end up living. We rented a holiday cottage for three weeks in the Peak District and ended up staying three months and the owners of that cottage are one of our closest friends, we just clicked right away. Our children went to a school temporarily whilst we were there but that council would not put our eldest back a year. Well they WOULD but it was a very strict guideline and we knew it was a temporary school so didn’t really bother. By time they had started school in the April, after Easter there was only one term left anyway! Anyway 3 months later my husband had found work and we rented a beautiful old farmhouse in a village in Nottinghamshire. We picked a very central part of the country deliberately, knowing we could get most places easily and also keeping in mind after 10 years away the construction industry had changed massively and we wanted to be centrally located for other work opportunities should it not pan out. so after we moved to the village we picked one of the two schools in the next town based on the Ofsted report. As it happens it was an Academy and they have a say in how they enrol students. There were very accommodating and understood our desire to have our son stay back a year. Our daughter was fine though and she slotted straight into year 8 that September. Although it was a necessity we felt to have our son held back a year for curriculum purposes I cannot pretend that it has all been plain sailing for him socially, and being 6 foot 5 and in year 9 didn’t really help!! It was also frustrating for him from a sporting perspective, as he was in year 9 but technically a year 10 he wasn’t able to play in any of the inter school sports games for his school year!! A minor issue I know but important to him. We have now bought our own house in the same village and are settled. To give you an idea of bills on a 4 bed house we pay £60 Per month electricity, we have oil central heating and that pro ratas at about £50 per month, council tax is £200 per month, phone and internet, super fast, with anytime calls to landline and mobiles is £39 (special offer from SKY) water is about £60 per quarter. Home insurance for buildings and contents is around £25 per month. Food shopping for 4 including wine etc and fresh stuff is around £100-£120 per week depending on what I am buying. Petrol is probably the most expensive thing at around £1.25 per litre. Clothes shopping is pretty good with lots of choice and good quality items. lots to think about for you. Good luck in your decision making and if you want any more specific information feel free to PM me!! Julie

We moved in the March so our kids had literally just started years 9 and 7. Obviously by March in the U.K. the school year is three quarters over. We were able to have our son (eldest) go into year 8 for the remainder of that school year and start year 9 from the beginning in the September. Our daughter was less of a worry as year 7 is more of a transition year and she has had more time to catch up if required and obviously they don’t start the GCSE coursework in year 7 anyway. If you do want to hold back a year though it has to be done through the council UNLESS the school is an Academy (which ours was) and then they can make their own decisions. Good luck. Any questions just ask.

We moved in the March so our kids had literally just started years 9 and 7. Obviously by March in the U.K. the school year is three quarters over. We were able to have our son (eldest) go into year 8 for the remainder of that school year and start year 9 from the beginning in the September. Our daughter was less of a worry as year 7 is more of a transition year and she has had more time to catch up if required and obviously they don’t start the GCSE coursework in year 7 anyway. If you do want to hold back a year though it has to be done through the council UNLESS the school is an Academy (which ours was) and then they can make their own decisions. Good luck. Any questions just ask.

We all got Australian passports to come back on holiday in 2016 (Citizens since 2011 but never got passports) and they wouldn’t scan at the check in desk, luckily we had our British ones with us!! When we left for good in 2017 we came out on our British ones.