StraighttothePoint

The good news is..... If you are filling in a P85 then assume that you will be registering for tax here in Oz? If that the the case the base tax rates may be higher here depending on your income(s). The initial threshold is $18k. http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.aspx?doc=/content/12333.htm&mnu=42583&mfp=001/002 All income regardless of where derived then has to be declared via your Ozzie tax assessment (return). Good news you say? Well possibly Elf has told you this via the PM but bear in mind that when you have a rental tax is only on the gain (the net income not it all), i.e. you can deduct fees for expenses and maintenance from the income you receive thus netting you a lower monthly income figure so not all doom and gloom. Have a look here on the link for more details. It also tells you what happens if you sell it when here and gives you access to the other pages re Oz tax. http://www.ato.gov.au/corporate/content.aspx?doc=/content/00262404.htm&page=14&H14

Totally dreaming I am afraid and also not a lot of streetlights either that was what got me!! No pavements and no light smart eh?

Sounds like a real case of homesickness so sorry to hear that because it is a rotten feeling. The problem with this site that I find is that are not that many folk who come on here who have returned, a couple now and again, so hopefully somebody can help. It would be good to hear from them more because it would perhaps give the threads / posts some better balanced view points. Not to make it more negative just feedback so people can understand the up's and downs of it all as they prepare, deceide to move. Anyway ask yourself, and sure you have down this, why you came here in the first place? If you can try and focus on those reasons then may be you can work it through. If you cannot over time then do not hesitate, leave. Your wellbeing, and state of mind, is important.

Foot in mouth disease perhaps?

Bringing no kids helps..... Good post for folk to get an idea of life in the slow lane.....

I searched and searched...... Then of course all you do is look right at the bottom of this page and there it is a link to "Forum Rules" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So many more marks Possibly not the reason as to why there has been a resignation so we all wait with bated breath........ Was she pushed, was she sanctioned, was she caught, what did what find out, .... So many questions, so few answers The teaser of course is the thread title......

Any specific reason? How does somebody resign from a forum apart from either deleting their user account or just stop visiting the site - just curious...........

http://www.immi.gov.au/ Should get visa costs from this site. Send me a PM with your e-mail address and I will send you a Excel spreadsheet that should help with general costs.

The great thing is that it does not last long here.

Jeepers I think us lot need to meet up because think we are very close in thinking and.... Knew of course that you were not challenging and was just retorting to prompt more information. Information and comment of all sorts should add value to these threads because I think people are, in a lot of cases, in my humble opinion perhaps asking too many simplistic questions and I really do not know what they expect as answers so widening the debate can hopefully only be helpful to them. More Clement Freud than Freudian theory but hey ho..... Anway similar to you, when we arrived we went there is a house and oh look a school near it so that will do. No deep and meaningful thought, no deep analysis of the school, just a guess and gut feel on suburb location, house and school. All fine and worked out so cannot complain. If the school had been poor then we would have simply sorted out another plan of action. No biggie. Like your son mine does what his mind tells hims rather than worry about anything. He is now doing an honours year in writing with his disertation subject being how do average characters end up becoming comic book super heros!! Yep, sad but true Now as for Frightened Rabbit what a coincidence as both me, at my age which is a worry, and my son were into them since they started playing in their local village hall in Selkirk, Scotland away back in the early 2000's. They were very underground for a while but now seem to doing ok for themselves. The band named because of the singers chronic shyness - he is just like a wee Frightened Rabbit. Anyway sorry to blether folks and back to topic from now on - promise:biggrin:

I bought a return ticket instead of a single one when we came here first and went back the following year for my first "holiday" Do that and then you will have something to look forward to in 12 months time!!

I totally agree Porty however folk need to start somewhere and stats and related information re the school in the official sites is a good first stop. The problem with anything else is that is can become anecdotal. Nothing wrong with that I suppose but it can cloud the issue and add more worry to the process depending on the types of comments. (For example I am guessing you may only have found out all of the above re the schools you mention after being here? - Not sure but if true then how did you pick the first school your 7 year old end up at that one? Suburb choice, school after initial research choice or just by luck?) Once folk have narrowed down their choices on paper then they can start to dig deeper as you suggest. It then also allows folk to start to arrange temporory accommodation based on their pick(s). Then, as you rightly say, if they arrive and it all goes bell end for whatever reason in their current suburb they can move before they long term rent or buy. In fact they can move again if need be, depending on circumstance, because nothing should be set in stone. I am not trying to justify that my suggested process is correct by a long chalk , just that unless folk start somewhere they will just keep going round in circles.

As I said on another thread schools here are what they are..... If you choose a suburb because that is what you want then you also choose the catchment area by default. If you on the otherhand you choose a suburb, based on a catchment area for a particular state school, then you may end up having to re-budget your finances to suit that need. Vicious circle. Suppose you possibly need to make an early decision, assuming you cannot finance both, and either have the school or suburb as your number one priority and then plan accordingly. As for Clarkson High School I am sure there are hundreds of well balanced kids that go there, that do well and go on to do well in life. Many of these kids will be family members of Brits who have emigrated here in the recent past and so as I say it is what it is.

A good starting point would be review the high school results for NOR and then if you like the look of the school research the suburb and see if it is in your budget. Any suburb really from or near, Kinross (Currambine) down to probably Stirling fits in terms of your budget although some of them, e.g. Connelly a hidden gem I always thought, and which is excellent, may just be too much for you. Any further from the city north of Kinross you will be able to afford but state high schools are few and far between. Alternatively if you want to do it the other way you can review the suburbs, short list those and then check the high schools out. However that all being said and done it is also down to where you need to be for work unless one of you is a FIFO? If I was doing this now, after all these years of being here, then Connelly, Joondalup and Duncraig would be three picks. I never like to say which suburbs are less appealing because it may offend some people reading, and/or who contribute to this site. As in both cases, good and bad, we all have our own views and my preferred picks or avoids would not be somebody elses for example. Education and School Lists http://www.det.wa.edu.au/ http://bettereducation.com.au/results/WA/all.aspx http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Publications/Reports/Statistical_Reports/School_Comparison_Statistics What Suburb http://www.viacorp.com/perth-suburbs-compared.html

Once you start to watch freeveiw over here then after a few months you will be up the wall and be begging in the street to get the money for Foxtel Also wait and see the internet connections here as well. Slow. My 85 year old mum gets across the road quicker In some suburbs it is still dial up!! I gave up trying to watch a football game here on the Internet after 5 minutes and signed up for Foxtel and Setanta. Look all of this is irrelevant because as Porty says it is all about attitude. You will be fine. Nae money but sunshine. At the moment if you pay up front for the annual uni fees you get a discount however the current government is trying to stop that. Uni fees are based on what courses they take. My son thankfully has just done a professional writing degree and it was only, I say only, $5k a year plus. However if your eldest goes for a "real" degree, (my son says his is a pretend one), like engineering or medicine then sit down and take two painkillers immediately as that type of study is horrendously expensive. And yes you can get student loans. Let them rack up the debt!!

I know eh...... Although the principal of the research is sound the flaming examples they choose are a hoot. Mosman Park blooming heck. They must have downsized from about a $1m property so they are not feral that's for sure

Blooming heck I have been preaching that for ages on here like a mantra!! I know - smart xxse!! Living near better infrastructure and suburbs with good quality schools far outweighs living "near the beach" in my book. Obviously if you afford it all, then good luck to you go for it but if you need to make some smart choices and are budgeting then don't fall into the "I am going to Oz and I need to be by the beach" trap. It is not necessary. Most of us, even those out towards the hills, are close to beaches because they are everywhere. Also think winter and most of us are never on them between late May and October. Seaweed, freezing winds and crashing waves. Buy near the beach and then add on tens of thousands to your purchase cost, increase your rental costs substantially and then not having some leeway in your budget to pay for it all. Nope think smart, think kids education and think about getting to and from work easily. Far more important especially now the way this city is going. As I say though if you afford it and possibly if you do not have commute or schooling concerns then go for it.

I've worked out that my house outgoings at the moment are a smidge under $60,000 - without food, entertaining/socialising, holidays, fuel, etc. Just to give the readers of this thread some clarity around what you are saying here.... If your house outgoings are circa $60k per annum and you have to add on all those other things you mention, (say $200 per week food, $150 week spending, $50 a week petrol,one annual holiday of say circa $5k and an emergency fund of say $5k = circa $30k per annum), then before tax folk would require a wage or household income of circa $110k per annum to achieve similar to this lifestyle? (I am simply taking the total outgoings figure and adding 30% tax onto it to get the "top of the line pre-tax" figure. Is that correct do you think? (Assuming my maths is correct but please anyone change it if I am wrong.) If it is then this $110k per annum figure is the one that currently crops up as the target income on many of these posts as one which would give folk a very good lifestyle here. Interesting if it is. The only other parts of the jigsaw that are missing from having the complete picture I suppose is you do not say if you have kids or not and also how much arrival / set up costs did you have to use? Only thinking that if somebody has kids then the Foxtel for an example would be a luxury item and one that they could possibly ill afford. Good picture though of someones thoughts on the issue.

If it was me then I would now have a conversation with a registered Migration Services Agent. You should get the first 30 minutes free as a sales chat. Let them know the research you have done so far, the background and what you think your options are and they should confirm everything for you. I would doubt you can apply for any visa where skills related requirments come into it without your having your qualification because part of the visa process will be to provide evidence of success and not necessarily evidence of current activity. Not sure though. As for your girlfriend if you were to come out on skills visa then she could be included as your partner I presume but again their will be set criteria you need to match, e.g. proof of an ongoing relationship over time, living together, joint bank accounts, etc. This is why it is possibly best to have a chat with an agent and they will clarify things exactly for you. In saying all that why do you not just both come out on a working visa once you are qualified and see how you both go? Have a bit of an adventure and work it out from there.

Good luck with that plan.......

http://www.immi.gov.au/visawizard/ First of all you start by investigating the types of visa that you can apply for. There may be some based on your fathers citizenship and some based on skills shortages. Then of course there will be the situation with your girlfrined to consider in terms of her qualifications and the status of your relationship at the point of visa application.

Yep I still have a flat back in Fife and my last quarter's gas account ws 4 quid in debt. This has been the first time, as long as I can remember, that the account has been in debit but the provider automatically increased my monthly payments by 50%!! I had an online Live Chat with them, (great way for folk out here to contact service providers by the way), and asked how they worked that out and why they did not just either leave it or increase it by a small percentage based on historic balances and payments. Obviously I must have been speaking to a 10 year old because that question was too hard for them to answer. Anyway no big dramas and they simply made the monthly payment what I requested, two quid more per month!! The reason they must be playing this trick is to probably get more cash into their systems for cash flow purposes, i.e. in order to cover all the non payers debts and to get some additional bank interest. The extra cash flow and interest will then in turn help them pay the big fines they are being hit with in relation to false selling they got caught for - the x##$44's As for keeping the baby warm... When I was a lad in Edinburgh when we woke up to frost inside the windows we just put another jersey on!! Stop molly coddling the wean and just give it a bigger blanket or two It will grow up soft like most of the folk these days

200 quid a month, blooming heck !! What are you trying to heat, a dope farm???

6, 13, 23, 34, 35 and 40..... There don't say I am not good to you, here are next week's lottery numbers!! On a more serious note as Yorkie suggests it ain't even begun so if you are struggling now suggest you may need to re-consider and / or take more time to think and plan it through.