Ausvisitor

Not retired but a quick Google

Nine highest UK providers with more than 10,000 students for the proportion of private school students with Imperial in 5th at 32.4% (behind Durham, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Exeter) followed by UCL (32.4%), Oxford (31.4%), LSE (30.4%) and Cambridge (30.0%)

I'm not saying it's right (if anything I'm agreeing with you that it's a bit disagreeable).

However all the top law firms and the elite consultancies are paying over £50k starting salaries this year plus £5-£10k signing bonuses. (the magic circle law firms are the biggest offenders at around £120k for some graduates - mainly Oxbridge)

I agree that there is a price to entry but I don't think it always comes in the form of cash or the bank of Mummy and Daddy.

I went to Oxford, it's bloody hard work, I was doing 5 times the work of my brother (who went to York) to walk out with (on paper) the same degree. But I got interviews and he got many less.

We both went to one of the worst state schools in the country, one where less than 10% went on to do more education after 16 (yes I'm old enough for 16+ study to be optional). Neither of us had a penny from our parents when we were at uni (they didn't have anything to give us), so I get a bit annoyed when people say Oxford grads are just entitled rich kids.

That said it was private schools all the way when it came to educating my kids, they aren't going to have to grasp the bottom of the rung and haul themselves up like I had to if I can help them get on at the 10th floor just by using my own money.

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Public housing in Australia isn't managed by councils.  In each state, it's looked after by a Housing Commission that manages the whole state.  Here's the info for Queensland:

https://www.qld.gov.au/housing/public-community-housing

Public housing is rare in Australia.  There's only 50,000 dwellings in the whole of Queensland.   I'm sure she'll have transferable skills though.

In the UK there is one social house for every 16 people (based on 4.4m social houses and 67.3m people).

I'm QLD there is one social house for every 110 people (50k houses and almost 6m people)

That means that QLD has (per capita) nearly 10 times less social housing than the UK so the need for management will be lower.

Basically QLD has 1% of the social housing of the UK, so think about how many people are employed managing that and get rid of 99 out of every 100 employees, that's how many staff QLD needs to manage its stock 

13 hours ago, Cheery Thistle said:

Wee bit of a reality check as to what the ‘average’ salary is in the UK I think. 
This is nabbed from my LinkedIn and is only about Scotland but gives a good snapshot on the tax take and brackets (which reflects earnings).
£57k is almost double the national average salary. 

 

Median salary is a better indicator than average (average includes people (like young teens) who just work 4 hours a week in the supermarket for pocket money)

That said the median is £34,900 so still well below what many top graduates will earn straight out of university this year

On 30/12/2023 at 16:27, The Gees said:

I have a 491 and am planning to arrive in Australia by May 24. Just looking at teaching jobs on Seek and various agencies. Can anyone offer me insight into what is a respectable wage? I have been teaching 20 years (secondary) with management / subject leadership and also act as subject lead tutor for a university accredited teacher training provider. Current salary is roughly £49k here in the UK and obviously I’d be very happy to improve on that in terms of disposable income in Australia !

I’ve seen a post advertised at 130k AUD - any feedback on that salary?  

Also interested in thoughts on teaching in public vs private sector as we currently have a child in private so would like to maintain that for them.. . (though open minded - will go with what is best fit for them). Do teachers get reduction on fees or places for children? 
 I understand the school year starts in January and I may therefore have to do supply / relief for a while if we are arriving mid- year. 

Flipping heck I thought teachers were paid more than £49k with your level of experience

We have graduates joining the UK office of the company I work for on £57k with absolutely no prior work experience

The world has gone mad...

5 hours ago, Cheery Thistle said:

Hmm yeah I don’t really want to get into it but I’m not really ‘feeling’ any politicians at the moment. As you age you start to realise that none of them seem to have made things much better for the average person. SNP are making a huge mess just now. It’s definitely a case of choose your poison at the moment! 
I can’t quite put into words how bad Glasgow has got, especially if (like me) you remember how it was 20 years ago. It’s not just the shops, it’s the social problems too. They may have always been there, just more diluted but I do think that has also got worse. I can’t really see how it will recover, but I hope it does. 

The social problems have always been just under the surface in Glasgow, the huge amounts of money spent on the Glasgow infrastructure in the 1990s and 2000s (and the relative feel-good economy) meant they could be "papered-over", but they were arguably worse then because they were under the radar.

I do agree though I had many a good day (and night) on good old Sauchiehall Street (or as our US friends would say saucyhall street)

8 hours ago, BendigoBoy said:

Heartbreaking, in a way. I used to spend a fair bit of time on Sauchiehall Street, 20 years ago.

Maybe if there hadn't been that last minute swing after that lying sod Cameron told them the only way to stay in the EU was to stay in the UK back in 2014, it might be different. Doubt it, though. The SNP haven't exactly shown strong credentials in honesty and good economic governance.

They've made their bed over the years. They'll just have to lie in it.

Just glad my bed is Down Under.

You might not like Dave, but he didn't lie about Scotland and Europe.

The European union came out at the time and said as a "new" nation Scotland would have to apply for admittance to the EU.

Look at how long that is taking, they are about to admit two new members but they applied before the 2014 referendum so Scotland would still be waiting, and guess what based on Scotland's GDP and the debt they would have taken as their share of UK debt on independence they would almost certainly have failed the financial stress test.

But the truth isn't as much fun as having a go at a politician is it???

I'm in the UK for XMAS this year and can't wait to get back on the plane.

It's wet, cold, depressing and just not as nice as Australia.

I know others say no matter how long they spend in Oz they know they are home when they get back to England, I can see what they mean, I know I'm home I also know that with every fibre in my being I'd rather be elsewhere

Happy New Year all

On 26/12/2023 at 10:18, Cheery Thistle said:

Lenders are also funny about you renting to family members so you’d want to think about that. 

First thanks everyone who has given advice, lots to think about.

Bit of clarity in my ask.

The properties in the UK are all owned outright at the moment. Due to the pull of London for our about to graduate kid, they will be living in London.

We are about £100k short of buying something in London outright, and thought we could remortgage one of the already let properties to release that £100k.

Can then gift the cash to the kid to buy outright in London (it would be easier to get a mortgage on the new property but as it will be in their name not ours we can't do that - and as they are not yet even employed {have job to go to but haven't graduated yet} they can't get one in their name either)

The rent on the exiting property would more than cover the repayments and we realise we would have to live 7 years or there might be some fun & games on tax due on the cash gift (but not planning on checking out anytime soon)

As rammygirl says, I would look for other career codes that more correctly reflect your experience and the role you will be doing.

The ICT Manager career codes is a very technology hands-on role and it sounds like the role you are looking to do isn't that.

It's to release cash to buy in the UK for family member still over there. Otherwise I'd agree on it makes more sense here

Ok looking for a bit of advice on where to start looking (as a Google search always says - of course we can - right up until you've filled out the form!)

So we have some properties in the UK (owned outright - no mortgage or other finance on them).

We want to raise about £100k from one of them (it's worth about £190k).

Who would entertain a buy to let mortgage application from an Aussie resident based on the rental return? (For clarity the person owning the property has no income other than rental income, whereas the other partner - who isn't on the deed - has the job)

(Realise this is probably in the specialist advice needed category, but looking for where to start which could be talking to the right person)

29 minutes ago, InnerVoice said:

Oooh... shots fired!

And returned, it's quite easy when the first salvo fired was blanks rather than real ammo!

2 hours ago, Cheery Thistle said:

Good for you. You’d think such high fliers would be able to do a less than 5 item list accurately! Mwahahaha

I mean if you check and read my post carefully (actually it doesn't need much careful reading it's all there in back and white) you will see there are indeed 3 points in it (and they are numbered).

If you can't discern that from reading the text that isn't my fault, maybe have a word with your school teachers

Oh we care about your degree class, unless you've got cast iron global experience going back 15+ years you aren't getting into the company I work with without a first, and we check. 

Think big 4, and you'll have a 25% chance of being correct (although they all have the same rules and they all employ background checkers to make sure)

2 hours ago, DrDougster said:

We didn't have a probationary period. They were happy with just a couple of months payslips to demonstrate income.

The bank (it was NAB) was happy with a contract and payslip for the smaller amount but once the 6 months, or the period mentioned in your contract of employment if different,(most Aussie corporates are 6 months) passed they became more generous

In the end we found something we liked and bought it in cash without a mortgage so didn't need to actually go through with the full application 

51 minutes ago, InnerVoice said:

That would be well above the 28/36 rule unless the borrower had absolutely no other debt, and wouldn't leave then much disposable income.

On the bright side, interest rates are more likely to fall than rise in the foreseeable future so at least their repayments should fall.

It was CBA that was offering that on their calculator - I mean I guess that is no guarantee they'd actually let you borrow that much though 

Australian banks are much more averse than UK banks. They also work very stringently to probationary periods (usually 6 months). When we looked to buy they would offer 350k as a mortgage, as soon as I got through the probation they were happy to go to $1.5m

Nothing changed except been in job 6 months 

Just remember (like in the UK) the amount you can borrow is only half the equation, you have to add in how much it costs to repay too. $750k over 30 years is nearly $5k a month in repayments at the moment that's 47% of your pay after tax gone on a mortgage (assuming one of you earns $115 and the other $50 - which is the minimum you'll need with most banks to get close to being allowed to borrow $750)

1 hour ago, paulhand said:

To be fair to my lower rent colleagues, there were plenty of invites at 65 points in teaching professions at the last 189 invitation round in May.

True!

Hi 

Length of time passed isn't a good indicator here. There are a lot of variables at play. The three biggest are 

1) number of visas available

2) average family size

4) your points score 

So in order 

1) in 2023/24 just over 30,000 skilled independent visas are available, of that it looks like around 15000 are allocated to state sponsorship (190 or 491) leaving 15k for 189 visas

2) average family size, so the largest group of people applying for visas are coming as a couple (one applicant with a partner accompanying). There are lots of families with kids as well though so the average 189 application is for 3 people (2 adults and a child). As each person needs a visa, this takes the available pot down to 5000 applications that can be successful (across the entire globe)

Now whilst it isn't staggered completely evenly across the year, they don't make all awards in July and then nothing else until May the following year it is broadly spread, so we can assume they will give out 400 189 awards a month (using 1200 visas based on the family size discussion)

3) your points, this is a competition, Australia wants the best so it will always invite the people with highest points first (say 100 points) and then if any spaces left that month move down the list of EOI until eventually (if they haven't reached their target they get to people with 65 points). In each points category the time in queue matters so within the 65 point group as you stay there longer you will get to the top of that queue, but if there are always 400 higher scoring EIO each month you will never get invited.

If you know which state you want to live in why not apply for a 190, the states don't follow these competitive rules they can select on their own criteria (and if you know where you want to live there is little difference between a 189 and a 190)

The official statements (and some of the lower rent migration agents - not the good ones) make it seem like 65 points is a ticket to the land in the sun 

It isn't, think about it like a job that needs a degree, if you haven't got one you needn't both applying but if you've got a third and 5000 people apply with firsts, you aren't getting the job even though you met the mandatory conditions.

On 14/11/2023 at 22:03, InnerVoice said:

I totally agree, that's what I'd do - but I wouldn't advise someone else to go ahead and do anything that might result in tax evasion.

If I had complex financial affairs involving double taxation scenarios then I'd be happy to pay the small amount of money for professional advice rather than trying to wing it.

If it was a small amount I'd agree with you, but often it's vastly over values for generally sub-par information that most could get from a simple read of the documents. Almost always this advice is caveated to the moon and back so even after paying you are still the one on the hook for it actually being the correct course of action

It will be classed as taxable income, whether they tax you on it will depend on if it takes you over the tax threshold for income.

A forces pension is just a "better entitlement" UK governmental pension so it counts as income in the same way the state pension does

On the landlord insurance question, directline are perfectly happy providing landlord insurance for a UK property to an overseas landlord (so long as they have the right to reside in the UK)

Thanks!