Ex-pat looking to come home

O

oldexpat

Guest
Not sure this is the right forum but here goes:

Age: 31
Spouse’s/Partner's age: None

Income from employment or profession: ~70,000 Euro

Type of employment: Procurement

In general are you:
Saving but not as much as I should

Rough estimate of value of home: Zero
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: Zero
What interest rate are you paying? N/A

Other borrowings: Zero

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes

Savings and investments: Savings - Offshore bank account - 120,000 Euro

Do you have a pension scheme? None

Do you own any investment or other property? No

Ages of children: None

Life insurance: None

What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I have been working abroad for the better part of 4 years and I'm looking for a change of lifestyle and to possibly come home. I have no roots at all, only a bag of clothes, a laptop and my savings. (Earning less than 1%)

If I come home my salary will be a lot less and my out goings a lot more. How do I maximize what I have saved to compensate for the potential drop in Salary? What are the tax implications of bring the money earned abroad home?
 
Firstly you are not old!
Secondly you are in good financial shape.
You could make your savings sweat considerably more.
Check out the best buy threads on this site. Anglo Irish I think offers the best interest rate on deposits.

Have you got a job lined up?
If not the is a risk you might not get one.
Can you hold onto the one you have until you have one to come to?
Might require some expense in terms of return flights etc...but might be worth it. My Dad told me 500 people applied for a job in a new McDonald's including 3 architects.

I am living abroad to and planning on heading home in the autumn.
I have done this twice before and found that it takes me 2 years to settle back in. At the moment I have a job lined up...but could go belly up too!
 
I live abroad as well. They are all telling me to stay where I am as there are no jobs currently in Ireland and it's all doom and gloom. If you have a good job (and 70k is very good) why would you come back right now? I will eventually go back when I have enough saved in order to be able to afford living comfortably in Ireland.
 
Pope John 11 said:
but does anyone know the best place to live & work at the moment
Click to expand...

That's too subjective a question PJ
If you are single in your 20s you'd probably wither and die where I live, but 30 something with family...it can't be beat...but the wages are about 50% those in Ireland and property is expensive.
Personally I don't think you are going to escape the crisis anywhere.
So answer is very dependant on your skill set and marketability.
 
I'm thinking of coming home too so in the same boat. There is a tonne of negativity out there, it's ironic as for years friends and family were on at me to come home and now when I want to I feel they are not very welcoming.
It's not a great feeling :( . It's the herd mentality and it's really a pain in the ass.

I don't think Ireland will recover quickly which is one of the reasons anyway so if you are thinking of waiting until it gets better you could be waiting a long time. I'm not going to play that game which is just delaying your own life.

If you can get a job in Ireland it actually pays better than most countries around the world, it's getting the job part that's tricky. It really depends on which industry or how much experience you have.
 
Pope John 11 said:
Sorry for hijacking the thread. but does anyone know the best place to live & work at the moment
Click to expand...

I have two friends living overseas who question this recession. One lives in Malaysia working for Petronas and has lived in Malaysia for the last 8 years and absolutely loves it - constant 25 degrees all year round. The other lives in Cape Town and wouldn't dream of ever coming back to Ireland. Both countries are not in a recession.
 
Start your job-hunting online from abroad, so you'll get a good feel for the market before you make any serious decisions. Procurement is a fairly narrow category, so the opportunities there may be few and far between.
 
mainasia said:
I'm thinking of coming home too so in the same boat. There is a tonne of negativity out there, it's ironic as for years friends and family were on at me to come home and now when I want to I feel they are not very welcoming.
Click to expand...

I have exactly the same experience.
everyone saying we are NUTS to be coming home.
Everyone in Ireland seems to be totally caught up in the doom and gloom.
I think they are only trying to warn and protect us.
So don't take it personally!
 
Mommah, You're right they are just trying to protect you! Ireland in a recession is not a pleasant place, before I get beaten up I do acknowledge that there are worse places!

Personally I am hoping to move to either Spain or Portugal in the next while (could be months but could be years) for the lifestyle and climate, plus the easy access back to Ireland for visits. Where are you guys all based? LS.
 
having lived in London for 22 years, we are moving back end of July 2010 recession or not to the Midlands area. our self build house in ireland is well on the way to completion. my eldest daughter will finish primary school in July 2010 and then do a year in primary in Ireland and then off to the local convent secondary school. our main reasons for moving back are secondary schools, quality of life, s p a c e, family and lots of other stuff we like too. we wont be loaded but we will be ok and my husband will probably continue to work in London and pop over every 2 weeks and school hols. kids are well adjusted to the idea of moving there as we spend all our school hols there anyway and they have lots of friends there.
 
OP - how on earth did you save 120k so young?

lightswitch - unemployment in spain is 18%, no jobs there AT ALL

mosstown - what kind of a life do you expect if you will only see your husband every two weeks ? surely staying in the UK and seeing your partner every day is a better life

jobs are scarce in ireland but there are a few out there, i would bombard the companies with my cv and call them up. dont waste your time with crappy recruitment agencies who will only lie to you anyway
 
spursfan1234, we dont have any problem with this option. we would probably only do it for a year or two just till we settle in and get the house and gardens completely finished. we will still have to visit London from time to time anyway as we will still be keeping our house in London. flights are so cheap we can move between ireland and london very easily. only an hour and fifteen minutes from our house in the midlands to knock airport so dead handy and our house in London is only 35 mins from Stansted airport. all will be good in the end and we both put the kids as top priority. the state of the secondary schools here is enough to make anyone move to the other end of the world !
 
Mosstown I want to congratulate you for doing so much for your kids.
But I do want to reiterate some concerns about the perils of a long distance marriage.

I worked in the middle east with alot of men who commuted to families back home (I know alot further than IRL/UK) but the risks to a marriage are great. All I can say is good luck with it.

I have other friends whose husbands go away for 3 or 4 months at a time...or month on month off. Somehow these don't seem so risky.

Maybe cos the guys are on oil rigs or in central africa in a military compound ! :rolleyes:
 
Hi Mommah, to be honest, i am not really worried about these type of issues. life is too short for that and i want to get on with the next stage rather than using all sorts of excuses not to. my husband is just a bit anxious about the work situation in ireland and finds it harder to deal with change more so than me so we have agreed that if he still feels the same come July next year then he can stay on for a year or two in London and then i guess what will be will be but i am not ever returning to London once i move back home. live begins at 40 and all that stuff !
 
Spursfan, I'm multi-talented, breathtakingly beautiful and filthy rich.

18% unemployment is just another way of saying 82% employment. Sounds better my way :)

Just kidding, still if things get really bad and I have to be poor I'd rather be poor in the Sun than freezing here.
 
lightswitch - fair enough. i am just back from holidays myself (usa) and i cant believe the doom and gloom here in ireland. there is nothing llike it going on in the USA and that is supposed to be the centre of the subprime mess and house price declines etc.

the mood here and the media is just so negative, if you factor in the weather then this small island of ours is becoming a terrible place to live in my opinion. i have a house and g/friend but we are starting to think about at least a year away some where in the future (she is a teacher so we have to wait two yrs so we can milk the system i.e. her job to be kept for her if she takes time off).
 
i moved back to Ireland last year. Great to get back and see people but its in terrible shape and you're dreaming in your head that you will enjoy it. Making a very good salary but cant afford anything other than eating, buying jumpers, heating the house and watching the Late Late show.
A couple of beers and a taxi will give your wallet a big hangover. Wages are going to drop, taxes are going up.
 
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