Is it time for Emigration again?

bambam

Hi all,

I'm really fecked off with relocating back to Dublin. Quick bit of background - belfast (6mon), edinburgh(13 mon) then Sydney (18mon) + 6 mon travelling.

So here I am back in Dublin living with the better half - and I am starting to feel physically sick with the whole monetary experience. Rent for a modest apartment cost E850, salary is around E42 (IT - java/j2ee), I was on more than this two years ago - and it wasn't a hyped up figure. Everything is twice the price of Australia. And bear in mind that Oz has about the same population as London. I mean food, beer, lifestyle, insurance, housing...

We looked into getting a place of our own : apartment around town 200 - 250, a 3 bed house in lusk,rush =250 ish. I mean what the fark! does anyone else find it unrealistic to be paying around E1600/month on a mortgage.

I get talking to a friend mine in Edinburgh. He's just bought an apartment for around 100k sterling and its on an interest only mortgage. Living is considerable cheaper, wages are quite a bit higher also.

Not very clear my point (its late..) but we came back to Dublin expecting it to be difficult to set ourselves up - but this is just taking the p#ss. I think we're going to pack it in and head to Scotland / UK and aim for a reasonable quality of life. -

What do others think, is Ireland / Dublin a lost cause, should we all bail ?

mollser

Hey Bambam

I'm having the same dilemma

I left Eire before the last elections, cos I was getting so f**kd off with the traffic, and felt like pastures new. So here I am in Sydney, with my bird putting enormous pressure on me to go home, cos she's homesick. Only problem is, not many people are advising me to head back to Dublin, rent, property, insurance, drink, traffic, just a few of the myriad of reasons people say not to. All my mates, if given a sniff of an opportunity, would be jumping on the 4 yr visa I've got to stay here.

I actually hate giving out about my hometown, but now that I've had a taste of what a well run city is like, the quality of life in Dublin is piss poor. What it does have is an awesome nightlife, but unfortunately even that seems under threat by thugs and new legislation, not to mention the cost of enjoying it

Major problem with Sydney? So bloody far away from everything, so its not ideal, you do want to be near family and friends at the end of the day.

So when I return back to Europe, I think the UK it is. I agree with you with Edinburgh, have visited many times and love it, but it is frightfully cold up there....

Life is too short to be spending 3 hours a day stuck in traffic, living miles and miles away front he city, and spending the majority of your income on just surviving.

And just a thought, given that there are redundancies all over the place, and if the govt had any control over the economy, will have to raise income taxes, how long can the property market keep increasing???? Pure economics tells me that the long awaited crash should soon be here?? Unless people are paying mortgages until they're 80 years old (have heard of it - 50 yr mortgages - spells trouble for retirement)

Anyway

Rant over - cheers!

(oh yeah - gonna get the ferry accross the harbour back to my waterfront modern one bedder in Manly, eur700 a month - get better than that in Dublin - and I'm being ripped off here apparantly!)

It hurts me to say, but Dublin, RIP. Blame noone else but the ministers and FF for not sorting it all out when they had all the money in the world and the opportunities.

fisty

I for one plan to up and leave this ****hole of a city the minute I have some money saved.

bambam

Hey Mollser,

My advice - stay as long as you can in Sydney, you should make / save a packet. I hope your claiming the living away from home allowance, then your tax refund and finally claim your Super back when you get home.

We were thinking the same as you - brilliant place but too far away from everyone. But on getting back and looking at thinks from this side I wish I'd stayed the four years and saved as much money as possible.

Funny I looked online for a car insurance quote last night : circa E 3000 for a wee fiesta on a full licence aged 27... I had an old van and insurance in Sydney for about AUD1000.

Regarding housing - yeah I hear ya, we had an apartment in Sth Coogee overlooking the beach, right beside an outdoor 50m pool.. sigh!

As for the Dublin nightlife - can't afford it (well much of it) - E4-5 for a beer - ahh... for a jug of New in a beer-garden

Silvera

Stop guys ! you're p&**&$g me off with all the talk of the cheap cost of living down under

(Actually, I'm hoping to go there next year on a one-year working visa).

The cost of living in Ireland is just plain stupid. We are being r*&e bare back !
And yet does anything really change here - NO.
Will it ever change ?
Not for a long time to come I reckon
:mad:

Silvera.

mollser

cheers Bambam - you've confirmed my thoughts!

yep - claiming all those allowances, although they've clamped down on giving tax refunds to travellers here big time

Now just to tell the bird - this will be fun!

Funny, read in the indo today about the property bubble - doesn't take a genius.....

[URL=http://]http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=984249&issue_id=9278[/URL]



Silvera, what are you waiting for?? Go now! Along with every other sensible sod!

cheers guys - any more bitching comments welcome - gotta convince the bird!

The Corinthian

Of course the question that would have to be asked is where to go?

Ireland still has, AFAIK, the highest growth rate in the EU. Even the UK, that has been performing relatively strongly, is not looking great for the future. The rest of the EU, of course, is just a non-starter.

Meanwhile, the US is a mess, Australia is still coming out of the doldrums, and the less said about Canada or New Zealand, the better.

This is just my opinion on the state of the greener fields out there and I’m open to correction. However, as much as we may complain about Ireland, one does have to ask whether there are greener fields to go to in the first place.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by The Corinthian
Ireland still has, AFAIK, the highest growth rate in the EU. Even the UK, that has been performing relatively strongly, is not looking great for the future. The rest of the EU, of course, is just a non-starter.

Meanwhile, the US is a mess, Australia is still coming out of the doldrums, and the less said about Canada or New Zealand, the better.

This is just my opinion on the state of the greener fields out there and I’m open to correction. However, as much as we may complain about Ireland, one does have to ask whether there are greener fields to go to in the first place.

A lot of the growth in Ireland is related to multinationals who run profits through Irelands low tax regime and then repatriate them. This is why there's a big gap between our GDP and GNP figures.

37% of Irish exports are in the pharmachem sector yet this sector only directly employs around 20,000 people. I'm not sure what the figure is for the IT industry but I would not be surprised if it makes up much of the remainder while still employing relatively small numbers of poeple. Ireland leads the world in the 'manufacturing' (but not developing) of software.

Both of these industries seem to depend on intelectual property created abroad at large expense with the final production being done in Irelands low tax regime.

The general growth in employment during the boom years was mainly in much lower paid service jobs.

What has happened is that we now have an unusual economy with quite high growth on paper yet rising unemployment. If, say, Britain had GDP growth of 4% it would be considered a massive boom. Similarly with the US and other countries. Yet here, we are concerned with falling tax revenue and infrastructure deficits.

Silvera

Hey mollser,

Whats the job situation like in OZ at the present ?

I applied for my visa last week. Won't have confirmation for a month or so I reckon.

What is the - "living away from home allowance", " tax refund" and "Super" ?
Are these Aussie tax breaks ?

I've only heard that there is some way to claim back income tax when you return to Ireland.

Cheers,
Silvera.

bambam

Silvera, I'll give you a quick explanation, this info was still current when I left Oz last Sept. My situation over there was contracting in I.T working under an umbrella company (lesters). These guys basically sponsor you (you pay for it) and do your tax returns as long as your secure a job that pays a certain min amount per hour.


living away from home allowance: I claimed this once I got my 457 business visa by being sponsored by Lesters. It is supposed to cover the rent and costs of maintaining a house back home while you are away on business in OZ. This was worth about $700 a week into my hand.

Tax Refund: I believe that the gov have really clamped down on this with backpackers. You don't seem to be affected if you are a professional and sponsored. If you are getting casual labour then you won't get much back and in some cases end up owing when you make you tax return. There is the other option of going to a less than straight tax consultant and lying through your teeth. A few people I know done this and got a tidy sum back. This of course is pretty dodgy and up to yourself.
If you go though lesters you can buy stuff like a laptop and save thousands on it.


Super: this is a mandatory pension/fund thingie. Recently the gov have allowed travellers to claim it back when the leave Oz permanetly. they take about 30% cut, as you originally paided into it tax free.

Yes, you can claim tax back in Ireland, but I'm sure its cheaper doing it from Oz (if possible). There are loads of places over there that'll do it for you. Ask around the backpacker community and they'll generally know of the 'good' ones.

mollser

cheers Bambam - saved me typing all that out!

My bro just arrived out here on Sat for a quick holiday, and believe me he is very comfortable at home, but he's telling me i'd be bonkers to go home. He knows what he's talking about...

Corinthian, good points RE where to go, the facts do look like Ire is doing comparatively well. But i'm starting to realise it should be about quality of life, and any of those mentioned countries, for the average jo soap, has better than Ireland. (although I could never live in the US).

Now this is all provided you can get a job of course, and Silvera, the job market in Oz is reasonable, not booming but far from bust either, with Rugger WC coming up though there will be plenty of casual opportunities, be sure of that. Its great for accountants, not so hot for IT, couldn't tell you of much else. However, if you came over with 5k euro, you could probably make that stretch quite some time, so plenty of time to laze around on beaches.

Economy here is very steady at the moment, they seem to be shrugging off sars, droughts, war and whatever else is thrown at them with ease, its pretty impressive

But anyway guys, I hope you all had a good bank holiday weekend and forgot about all the sh*te!

Later