Quoll

Oh yeah, I'd certainly remove the early retirement goal. Some of us certainly managed it but those were different times! Re your kids, don't be in the least suprised if they go overseas and make their lives thousands of Miles away from you - it's what you did to your family so it's the model they are used to after all.

Yup, wherever you go, there you are! For this friend, at least, it was more a case of trying to appease others and believing the hype that its a magical place.

I have a friend who came, went, came back, went home, came back and went home again and has been there for nearly 10 years quite happily now. I think we all tend to compare the good of the then with the bad of the now if we are unsettled and that's never a fair comparison. It really is a matter of whether you feel you "belong" and that's a very ephemeral feeling. Good luck with whatever you do.

Good luck with your move forward, it sounds like you have made a very measured decision and Herefordshire is lovely, I hate to say it, but better than Nottinghamshire!!! I hope you got to see a bit of the country (you should have at least visited the national capital but I am prejudiced!). I am toying with the idea of going back in April for a holiday - there is a particularly nice wool show just across the border in Wales LOL For me it will be a wake up on Monday and think I will fly out on Wednesday kinda thing, that's what usually happens. All the best with the move!

Shep

They're miles away from Ballarat! - a good 3 - 4 hour drive.

Shep is prone to floods - you've only got to look at the big rivers - Campaspe, Goulburn, Murray and Ovens and they regularly flood and impact the towns along their routes so Wangaratta, Benalla, Shepparton, Seymour, etc all cop it regularly. Ballarat is south of them in the hilly area and not on the flood plains of the big rivers.

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.

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.

I have two sons. One emigrated accidentally back to UK, he's doing very nicely. The other was, sadly, led by "love" away from a full medical scholarship which should have seen him do very nicely. Since then, he's built a couple of homes in the bush (ie nobody's planning regulations) which subsequently burned in a bushfire despite all his elaborate precautions. The "Love" decided she fancied her best friends husband (his best mate) and her incessant need to control their daughters has been and continues to be horrific. He was fortunate that my father left both of my sons a good amount of money which has enabled him to buy a country property outright. He had our granny flat in town when he needed it. He's always managed to find work but it's not a career and he's not bothered by that. He's got a reputation for being an intelligent and very hard working chap - doesn't pay much but he seems happy. We are having to help him with legal fees because his ex has kidnapped his kids - fortunately we can manage that but he wouldn't be able to do it without our help. I think if you are prepared to work hard, do anything and maybe eschew materialism you can make a go of it. I've friends whose kids have slotted into the public service ok, others have kids who've done apprenticeships and they're doing nicely, most are still renting but a few have had a leg up from parents or inheritances and been able to buy/get a mortgage. A couple have kids with serious mental health issues and they're struggling with non functional kids still at home in their 30/40s and no end in sight. Son #2 wouldn't have had enough to have bought in Canberra but hours away from nowhere, the land is cheaper! Son #1 has a good job, as does his wife and they've been able to buy a nice place in London. Must say, I wouldn't like to be trying to get on the property ladder here at the moment. It's certainly the topic of conversation in my social groups - one friend was recently helping her daughter find a new place. The $500k mortgage she thought she could muster wouldn't even buy a decent size single bed unit and she was depressed about that.

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!

It was snowing on the top of Ben Nevis in July when we walked up for our 45th wedding anniversary! T shirt weather down in the valley though!

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

You havent noticed????

LOL yes, one of my earliest memories is being stuck outside in my pram, I wouldnt have been very old but I can certainly picture it.

They've always been warmer than we give them credit for - the year I was born, there was a period over a month where the mercury was hovering in the low 30s. I think we are just brainwashed into thinking that Britain has never had hot summers. Admittedly, 3 years later the annual max was only 26.7. It only takes one Saharan blast to rake the temperatures up and one Beast from the East to knock them right down low!

I agree with you too - days on end spent inside with the windows and curtains closed to keep the heat out, no wonder my weight ballooned here!

Don't need to, fortunately.

Blimey, my financial adviser told me $500k - but that may have been before people were allowed to take money out for mortgages over Covid

Be aware that your DH may struggle. Australia is a very ageist country and over 50 is over the hill even though he may think he is super qualified - as a gas engineer he would have to re-certify in whichever state you might want to work and then start at the bottom again. Most people are winding down by 50 and you are going to struggle to have amassed a reasonable superannuation pot by the time you are thinking about retiring - the average super pot is around the $500k mark and that is borderline beans on toast territory when you retire and you'd be struggling to get that in the next 10 years (for your DH). It'd have to be something stunning, surely, to give up a nice house with a low mortgage and a good job and a good life. Your husband's now adult sons are likely to give him grandkids before too long - wont he want to be around for them? I can see you want an adventure but adventures require pretty deep pockets these days and when you are comfortably off then you spend a whole lot with little to show for it and discover you are no longer comfortably off it gets a bit wearing.

LOL, I thought we were slacking, been back 3 years in a couple of weeks time and we still have unopened boxes

Best place to make friends is amongst interest groups - if you are into knitting (I am) then find a knitting group, kick boxing then find a kick boxing class, Fine art appreciation then sign up for a fine art appreciation workshop - you get the idea. Going "just" to make friends, in my experience never works. Work acquaintances are often a good avenue but if you are single and all about you are married, then you are at a disadvantage right from the word go. Volunteering is another vehicle for meeting folk - sign up to be a Lifeline counsellor or join the SES or similar. Think about the kind of people you generally gel with - are they the gung ho, hang from cables and abseil kind or are they the lounge around in coffee shop kind and target those sorts of environments. However, you may want to revise your idea of what constitutes a friend and aim a bit lower than the "call at 4am for a whinge" buddy and just go for an acquaintance who might like to have the odd coffee with you. I dont have the same kind of friends as I have in UK even after 40 years - most of my acquaintance are just that. I barely see any that I used to work with and go for months without interacting with any of them at all beyond Words with Friends! I see my knitting mates at meetings each week but have not been to the home of any, had lunch with any or anything outside the knitting world.

Lol, the one thing she doesn't need to bring is her bed! Beds are different sizes here so sheets are different sizes.

Have you thought about moving back to help care for her, should she need it? We did that. Mine were 87 when we did it, mum had the beginnings of dementia and all of a sudden dad needed heart stents then had a stroke. They had the chance to live in Australia as they came every year for 6 months and had a good social network here but they really valued their independence and own connections, so they stayed in UK and it worked out well for them. Had they decided that they would go into supported accommodation we would probably not have done it but, as it was, we took such good care of them we were there for 9 years during which time mum died and then dad decided off his own bat to go into a care home. Being old in Australia is not a picnic - nor is it anywhere I suppose but even just medically, I would be hesitant about relying on reciprocal medicare. Around here, elective surgeries are hard enough to get on Medicare if you are a long standing citizen so to run the risk of being a reciprocal would be very uncomfortable. Remember that everyone loves a holiday, however actually resettling in a foreign country far away from your established social network can be challenging and you may find that you dont establish those casual social links that you maybe took for granted. Some people get lucky, others get isolated - it's a coin toss. If she is extremely wealthy then she probably wouldnt have much to lose.

Yes, essentially that. You would have to visit Australia to validate your visa within the time frame for first entry - usually 12 months - but then, once validated you have 5 years from date of issue to actually make the move. You dont even need to stay in Australia, just arrive, validate visa and depart - you could do it in a long weekend if you didnt mind the jet lag.