Tjsmum

On 14/04/2023 at 17:54, Marisawright said:

Ah, OK.  Steve (and most others) were talking about a private pension, so ignore all that.  

You cannot transfer your UK govt pension to Australia.  The money you've paid in isn't wasted,  because you'll still get the pension when you retire, provided you've already paid at least 10 years' contributions. 

The nice thing is that the UK pension isn't means-tested.  So when you reach retirement age, they'll just start paying it.  Make sure you keep HMRC advised of your  address, and then when you retire, they'll send you a letter asking for your bank details.  You can then decide whether to have it paid straight into your Aussie bank account (I do), or have it paid to a UK bank account (which can be a handy way to build a kitty for holidays, Xmas presents etc).  

The Australian government will take your British pension into account when assessing how much Australian pension to give you.  However it's not dollar-for-dollar, so you'll still be better off having the two pensions.  

 

@Marisawright Thank you for the info, much appreciated 

19 hours ago, Marisawright said:

That's the UK government pension, not a private pension.  Which one did you want to know about?

@Marisawright my apologies, I thought everyone in the UK received the Govt pension, I didn’t realise there was a private fund like Aus has (superannuation).

I would like to know about my UK govt pension that I was making voluntary contributions into 

On 11/04/2023 at 19:45, Marisawright said:

I don't think it 's a deliberate ploy to deter people.  It's just that the two systems are totally different and not designed to transfer between each other. 

It's not like you've lost the money in the UK pension anyway.  It will still be there, increasing in value and eventually you'll be able to collect it.

@Marisawright, from what I understand, you have to have paid a certain amount into your UK pension to be able to access it?

My mum’s best friend finally hit retirement age and was told she didn’t contribute during x , y, z years therefore she didn’t have enough to be able to receive her pension ?!?!

Those years she didn’t contribute because she wasn’t working, she was doing motherhood duties 

On 12/04/2023 at 09:26, Steve Elliott said:

From a person currently moving my own pension to Australia from the UK, I can honestly state that "in my opinion", the fees involved are only one of several issues you need to consider. Unless you decide to establish your own SMSF, it is very likely  you will not be able to roll it into your Australian Super fund. Also bear in mind, the general difference  in UK vs Australian Super is that in the UK, pensions are taxable, whereas in Australia, pensions are generally tax free. In Australia, your Super also does not form part of your estate when you die, so in effect you can stipulate who receives your super balance when you die. There are many other issues to consider. In my opinion , too many people focus on fees and exclude other important matters when making the decision. I'm ore than happy to pay professional fees and tax, if I believe I will be better off in the long term.

Thank you for your input, please keep me informed of how the who process goes for you

8 minutes ago, InnerVoice said:

@Tjsmum I looked it into this 10 years ago and received (free) independent financial advice from two different IFAs, both here and in the UK. They both stated that it wasn't worth transferring it due to the fees involved, unless I had a huge pension pot (which I don't). It was good advice as far as I'm concerned and I suggest you seek the same, as it's a complicated matter.

@InnerVoice

Thank  you for the info,..

Its sad that the fees have to be high, I suppose it’s to deter people from withdrawing?

Sadly mine isn’t a small fortune either, doesn’t sound like it’s worth the hassle, I was hoping to recover what I had sunk into it over the past few years that I had been doing overseas payments 

Afternoon group, 

Does anyone know if it’s possible and how to transfer Uk pension to Aus superannuation?

I stopped paying into my Uk pension around 9months ago as I had decided I would never move back home…

Now I’m wondering if and how to do it? 

I am an Aus/Uk citizen and have lived in Australia for over 10 years surely this would be grounds enough for them to release what I have paid into my Uk pension to transfer to my Aus super 

Many thanks 

40 minutes ago, InnerVoice said:

From your original post I got the impression that you were in one of those hell-hole towns inland from Mackay or Townsville, but when I read through the thread yesterday I noticed that you're in Atherton. I've always thought that Atherton was a lovely little town in a beautiful setting, and with it being roughly 800m above sea-level it's usually about 5C cooler than down here in Cairns. I wouldn't describe the climate there as 'cool' by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a lot cooler than anywhere else in FNQ. We stopped overnight once in winter and I recall it getting down to almost single digits!

@InnerVoice I have to say TSV is one of the worst places to live according to my friend who moved away from here to there, crime is insane and it’s Soooooo dry! Brownsville they call it.

I don’t live in Atherton per se, I live in a town on the Atherton tablelands and it does get lovely and cool there in the winter but it’s still uncomfortably hot the rest of the seasons, I prefer Atheron weather to cairns that’s for sure! 
 

It’s so bleh! Every time I go down there, the humidity is constant, day and night…. 

21 hours ago, rammygirl said:

Sure you need sunscreen in summer I check the UV ratings usually worse between 10 and 4. At this time of year I rarely use sunscreen though.  Hats and tops to cover neck and shoulders are good. 

@rammygirl I’ve always got sunscreen on! It makes it even hotter sadly, but I can see the sun damage on several parts of my body, I can’t handle wearing long clothes for the majority of my short lived trips outside, mainly driving for less than 10mins, but if I don’t wear sunscreen my skin sizzles like bacon! 

21 hours ago, Marisawright said:

It's not a weird question. That sizzling feeling isn't the heat, it's the UV.  UV levels are much higher in most of Australia than in the UK and most of Europe.  It's the UV that burns and it can burn just as fast on a cool day as a hot one.  Here's a map of the UV levels in spring in Australia:

My husband is at high risk for skin cancer, which is caused by high UV exposure.  So that explains why we chose Victoria to live in.   From these maps you can see that Victoria is much lower for UV most of the time.   Tasmania would be even better, but not by much.  

@Marisawright

Thank you for the map, yes Tas does look perfect for avoiding the severe UV but we have crossed Tas off the list altogether (sad face) 

Yes, every morning I listen to the news on the radio and it mentions the UV index will reach 13> which is extreme and I sigh! 
Over my decade and a bit here my skin has definitely gotten damaged, silly me didn’t wear much sunscreen in my first 2 years here, back the the UV didn’t affect me, however now I’m always wearing sunscreen, I’m pretty sure I’ve even worn it in winter, mainly in and out fo the car several Times a day for no more than 10mins and if I fail to put on sunscreen my skin sizzles! 

2 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

 

I just mentioned Brazil because it has a high crime rate and begins with a 'B' like Ballarat, so the sentence flowed. I visited Ballarat about 20 years ago and recall it was a nice little town with lots of pretty buildings, and a very good gold mine tour that we did at the time. I was just surprised that it suffers from antisocial behaviour of that nature, but then I guess a lot can change in 20 years.

We have had the same situation in our town, Times change, society changes…. 
 

Some people I know who have lived in my town all their lives (60+ years) have said that as our town has expressed so has the criminal behaviour, it is everywhere sadly, no where is exempt, for us it is best to gauge which behaviour is the “worst” and how high the status show as for it to be a common occurrence.

I have watched prospective residents as about our crime stats on our local community page, and most of us are honest, crime has sky rocketed in the past 2 years, with break and enter and car theft being the highest, this scares off some, others have moved here, I have been victim to theft 3x in those 2 years, but I am grateful it was petty theft, however they once tried to steal our quad which was chained to the carport shelf, by dragging it, I don’t think they had many brain cells, ha ha.

Rhere have also been many nights where I’ve left the car unlocked with purse on display (doh!) and It’s still been there the next day… as this was before we got the dog. 

I would rather live in a town with petty theft than people running around off their face on drugs trying to break into my house to murder me

10 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

Good grief! I can't imagine living in a place where cars being torched was a common occurrence, and I'd consider having to pay for secure parking to avoid it an imposition. At least anywhere in Australia - it's Ballarat, not Brazil!

Where we live we’re used to cars being stolen and on the occasion, torched to “destroy” evidence but hearing that a car parked in a hotel getting torched makes me rather concerned..

21 hours ago, Bulya said:

Gets hotter than 43 in South Australia.  Far less humidity than Nth Queensland 

I reckon I could handle the dry heat better than the humid heat of up here, I work a physical job so the moisture in the air adds more to heat and I sweat stacks more….

We will eventually take holidays down there in the “worst” of the seasons, summer and winter to see if it’s “doable” and is the better choice weather wise 

On 30/03/2023 at 08:41, rammygirl said:

Regarding heat. I can go out on 40 degree heat here in Adelaide and feel fine as it is dry heat. I feel more uncomfortable at 30 degrees in humidity. 
We live inThe hills so cooler than the plains. Even in summer at night we usually open up the house as the air is cool then. We very rarely need any aircon overnight unlike when we lived in the city. 
The point is that microclimates exist everywhere. We get frost on cold mornings in winter but our friends a couple of km away never do. 
 

@rammygirl Thank you for your input, I’ve been in dry heat and Uluṟu, it was nicer than up here in FNQ! 

Is the Adelaide heat a skin burning heat? I know it’s a weird question to ask but it feels like withibk 5mins of me being outside (without sunscreen on) my skin is sizzling!

I’m hoping to escape that, for the past 2 summers we’ve had up-to 43*c and it’s oppressive!

Can’t be outside for 5 mins without sunscreen, can’t really be outside from 8am-4pm becuase the sun is insane! 
 

Cold mornings sound nice to me! 

On 17/03/2023 at 14:57, Bulya said:

Shep.  Can’t think of many places in the country with a worse reputation 

@Bulya At first I thought “I’m sure it can’t be that bad, we’ve had a spike in crime here in the past 2 years” then I googled Shep’s crime stats and saw that whilst their crime has dropped by 4% in a year, the worst crime is at its highest in Shep, it’s top 5 crimes are all something I couldn’t handle at the rate they have, Shep is definitely off the list 

5 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I agree.  If you're looking at inland cities, you need to look for ones that are in the hills or mountains.  Cities that are down on the lower land get hot in summer (though it's not a humid, sticky heat like Queensland,  so I don't mind it that much).  For instance, if I had to choose between Bendigo and Ballarat to live, I'd probably choose Bendigo except that I prefer the cooler weather. 

@Marisawright Bendigo isn’t an area I’ve looked into yet, thank you for the suggestion, if you’ve lived in Ballarat, what would you say is the difference in the weather? Other than hotter or cooler? Much rain? Dry summers? 

7 hours ago, Skani said:

Not  a good place if you are trying to avoid heat.  Being so far inland it can get very hot in summer:  January and February averages are over 30C and it has had extremes into the 40s in recent years, in every month between November and March.   

@Skani Every summer without fail here it’s the best part of 30*c just a month ago we had 2weeks of 40+ so we are used to it but it’s not the kind of weather we want to live in

As others have said, Shep is a flood prone area so we will be avoiding it altogether, but thank you for the info I appreciate all the insider information I can get  

18 hours ago, Bulya said:

Nasty place (crime, drugs).  Give it a wide berth 

@Bulya Shep or Ballarat? 

20 hours ago, Quoll said:

They've never mentioned it. Only time I ever saw it was a flash flood on the Creswick road which came and went. It was an odd year last year though and I vaguely recall a bit of flooding in Delacombe but my DH lived in Alfredton for years and never had any problems. Creswick had a flood problem but it seemed to have recovered by Christmas. It's not like Benalla or Albury which regularly get flooded. The rellies that still live there are outside the town and more concerned about bushfires than floods.  

@Quoll this is good to know, thanks!

I’ve got a list of the most bushfire prone areas

9 hours ago, Marisawright said:

When someone says a place is "flood prone", it doesn't mean the whole city goes underwater.   It means that certain suburbs, or even just certain streets, might get flooded sometimes.  

To give you an example, PART of the Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong had a huge flood recently which indundated hundreds of homes.  All the surrounding suburbs stayed completely dry, because they're all on higher land. 

@Marisawright thank you, our best bet is to find parts of country Vic that are atop of a mountain, where we live in Atherton tablelands is atop a mountain,  we do get local flooding but it isn’t in Brisbane’s scale, our bridges go over, certain low lying roads go over but nothing high enough to reach the front door step or drown the cars.

I will make it part of our trips next year to figure out where is the least disaster prone, yet affordable and not remote places to live in tas and Vic 

Our good friends are moving down to country Vic at the beginning of next year, yay! At least we won’t be on our own, where they are moving to isn’t known yet but we will hope to move near them.

19 hours ago, calNgary said:

Using Greater Brisbane as a guide, lots of areas that are listed as flood risk might just get some flash flooding that blocks low lying roads for a few hours, but not necessarily flooded enough damage to homes and property. I had a quick read for Ballarat and it say to avoid areas near Gnarr Creek ???? , so im guessing its the creek that is maybe prone to flooding.

This is the council page for that area - https://www.ses.vic.gov.au/plan-and-stay-safe/flood-guides/ballarat-city-council

Cal x

@calNgary thank you for the link, I’ve found this very useful, comparing affordable houses to where the flood areas are/waterways. 
 

I feel for people living in brissy, they don’t seem to catch a break with floods, and yet their housing prices are phenomenal! And their flooding isn’t just a bridge going over it’s houses fully submerged 

8 hours ago, Quoll said:

Yup, I asked my husband whether he thought Ballarat was flood prone and he was surprised I would think of asking! I think it is just the odd suburb on rare occasions.  

@Quoll I can’t find the article where I read Ballarat had flooding but I found this one: https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/before-and-after-aerial-imagery-reveals-early-impact-of-victorian-floods-20221018-p5bqos.html

Shepparton is another place we are looking at but it has floods last year too 

On 13/03/2023 at 08:04, Quoll said:

A few years ago we went to visit the rellies in Ballarat and the thermometer in Sturt St said 41°C, the next day the max was 13°C - that was one heck of a cool change. Ballarat certainly does extremes - I remember it sleeting on Christmas Day one year! 

@Quoll Ballarat is one of the places where we’d like to move to, but it’s flood prone and has flooded in the past year, I don’t fancy moving to flood prone areas, could you please ask your rellies how often it’s flooded since they’ve lived there? 

On 13/03/2023 at 09:03, Marisawright said:

Funnily enough, that's one of the things I love about living in Victoria.  Of course you get the odd day in the high 30s, like everywhere else in Australia.  However, even on those days, it's cool and fresh in the morning until about 11, and then cools down again in the evening.  Whereas when I lived in Sydney, on a hot day it would be sticky by 10, and it wouldn't cool down in the evening unless there was a thunderstorm. 

@Marisawright The weather in Vic sounds like my kind of weather! Cool and fresh! I’ve seen the list of places to not live due to bushfires but looking on the flood map seems like all the places we like and are affordable are flood prone and have flooded recently. 

On 12/03/2023 at 19:18, Skani said:

Definitely not as hot as country Victoria.  We have the odd 30+ day in parts of Tasmania - not the northwest where Toots lives - but it only lasts a day or two.  We've had a total of 7   30+C days in Hobart this summer - but the average max. for both January and February was only 23C.

@Skani Could you describe the difference between the two? Dry heat, humid heat? 

I just want to thank everyone for their input thus far, I guess the next steps from here are:

1. Which state has the cooler weather all year round?

2. What areas are “safest” (crime wise) to live in in each state? 

3.Job availability, and schooling

4. Which towns are closest to the airport in each state. 
 

So far country Vic is looking most affordable for renting.