Nasher – where in Italy are you?

even in the US the cost of living is higher than the UK, weirdly

It can be, but it need not be. Stay out of the more expensive cities.

ebygomm – Member

I think a lot of people think they need to move to another country for a different lifestyle when in fact they could just change their lifestyle in the country they’re in.

Many people also equate the UK with London, many of the UK negatives are London negatives and don’t really apply across the country.

I think the problem with the UK is that you have to make a fair amount of money to stand still. I earn the average wage pretty much, repair my own car, (which is cheap on fuel), live a frugal life but would struggle to afford to live in even a modest house on my own, (south coast). If I lived in a cheaper part of the country, either wages would probably be less or I wouldn’t even be-able to get a job going what I do and would end up in a near minimum waged job.

What do you do then that keeps you tied to the south coast ?

Tootall its too true – id like to live in bakerfield, california – it has its problem but i really liked it when i was there working.

Id be able to get a job and its only a few hours from big bear , the beach and a day or so from utah

Cost of living was cheap vs wages in my line of work there being high

Nothing ties me to the south coast, (I probably could find work in Manchester as its a big city), but places with jobs are not cheap. I do programming, but I’m not good enough, or just maybe not general enough to be freelance and live anywhere and work from home, so will like most people need to be near an area of significant economic activity => not cheap.

Never say never The Brick. I have fairly specialist skills and thought I’d be tied to London in order to work in audio. Employed in Salisbury for 10 years now, for one of the best Hi-fi companies in the world. I do have a young family now though and would find a similar move a bit daunting.

I’m over in Perth and have been here for getting on 6 months now. We’re loving it, our son’s loving school and I think that the whole atmosphere is a bit lighter than in teh UK at present – I guess the effects of the economic situation make themselves felt slowly over time and you don’t realise how much you’ve been worrying about job security/getting a bigger hosue etc. We’re only renting over here and it would require quite a big mortgage to buy a house at present in the area we rent in. Living costs are certainly higher when looking at exchange rate cost comparisons but I tend to look at how long I have to work to buy something as a better comparison.

As perthmtb said, you can do a lot of things over here for little or no money. I think it depends on what profession you’re in but if it’s a skill in demand you’ll be earning mor ethan in the UK with an opportunity to save a lot of money as well.

Who knows how long we’ll be out here, there are things I miss about the UK, but I’m glad we’ve done this as it’s something that would have been a big regret if we’d have passed it over, it just so happened that the economics of it all made the decision easier.

I emigrated 10 years ago to Switzerland. Moved to Norway 5 years ago and have no plans to move back to the UK

Although it might happen sometime in the future

I tried to move out to Canada for a while but couldn’t get a job. All the jobs round Whistler are bartender/waiter type roles and I don’t have any experience in them and they all seem to require at least a years’ experience. Would love to go back and try again but I think I’d need a job sorted before I went out there.