Work in London / Edinburgh and benefit from Sterling's strength

Hi,
My partner and I are returning from an extended break abroad, and are in the (un)fortunate position of having no job in Ireland. Although we see our long term future in Ireland, we are thinking of heading to the UK (likely London, or I believe Edinburgh has good financial services industry too) and working there for between 12 months and 2 years.

We haven't really made up our mind yet. Both of us work in Project Management (mixing between business and IT) and are accountants.

The UK market seems to be in a bit of a downturn (but then again so is Ireland). Anyone any advice / suggestions - much appreciated.

Thanks.

But sterling has weakened over the past 6 months by about 10%.

Currency still makes significant impact even now...
70,000.00 GBP = 93,932.20 EUR

That logic only works if you're earning in England and spending in Ireland which presumably is not the case. What you need to look at is cost of living in London and Edinburgh. You are both accountants, surely this is bread and butter to you.

On the other hand if you reacon you can save more across the water and are 100% committed to returning here, then when you do return you might have more in your pocket (dpeending on currency movement)

lazing said:

Currency still makes significant impact even now...
70,000.00 GBP = 93,932.20 EUR

Click to expand...

That has absolutely no meaning - its like saying 1 apple = 500 oranges.

Using your logic, why not earn in Edinburgh but spend in say Bangkok? 70,000 GBP = 4,322,483 Thai Baht...

Thanks for the insightful comment Sherman.
Camel, yes the intention is to definitely return to Ireland within a 1 to 2 year period. The idea is that we will have some surplus income (after usual living expenses), and take this with us to Ireland. We would lodge this into our Irish bank account at intervals, and hopefully benefitting from the currency difference.
My question was really directed at anyone who might have done this already, or who was considering doing so. I know of one couple who have done it (and are back) and just wanted to get some other views. Thanks.

Edinburgh is a beautiful city, but quite expensive to live in: I was living there last year, and fairly standard accommodation (2 bedroom 'flat') and council tax alone came to over £1000, that including a single supplement, which reduced my council tax liability:i.e. so higher again for a couple. Despite earning a good salary there,I found the general cost of living was quite high.
Just a word of warning: if you are planning to rent there, there are many beautiful 'tenement' buildings, which are very pleasing to look at outside: however, the internal sound proofing is appalling, i.e., to the extend of being able to hear neighbours snore(!).
Nicola

Hey ,
My girlfriend and I moved to London in Dec' 06. Main reasons were for the CV and GBP. We are here for the med - long term. We love London to date and are working towards buying a 2 bed in London end of this yr. For me the FX rate at the moment is not a major worry. Each month however we send home money to top-up our mortgage back home. Its such a small amount that the FX has no real impact.

We find living in London cheaper than Dublin. We both have more expendable income after bills and therefore can save a lot more each month ( Saving 2800 GBP per month ) .

We are in the same mind frame as yourself. We plan to move back to Ireland in the future, however the opportunities just don't exist in Dublin , for earning power etc.

On future FX , that's a whole different thread . However for earning power,saving more and coming home with more cash - you'll do it in London.

Cheers

Thanks NicolaM and CBEF - very helpful. Will update the board with what we do.

We would lodge this into our Irish bank account at intervals, and hopefully benefitting from the currency difference.

Click to expand...

Am I missing something here? Sterling is getting weaker & losing ground against the Euro and is expected to continue to do so for the forseeable future. Also, though the cost of living may be higher in Ireland, wages in Ireland are higher than those in the UK.

I'm with csirl on this one. Your Pounds are worth less Euros than they were six months ago and most prediict this trend will continue. Sterling is weak at the moment and the UK is on the verge of (or some say in) a recession. I'm staggered that an accountant cannot see this.

Actually its not as simple as saying that sterling is weak or strong (and for the record, yes it is currently very weak against the euro (fact) and may get weaker (speculation), so the title of the thread is not very good).

The bottom line is that you are thinking of going to a major UK city to earn and save as much as possible (I think).

As someone who has been there, I can tell you the following:

1. London can be expensive if you are not careful, rent and entertainment can cost you loads, the sky is the limit. But the same can be said for Dublin. I would say that for the same lifestyle in Dublin and London you will pay the same in euro equivalent. And if you are smart and want to save, you can cut right back on those anyway. You will prob have to budget some for flights and calls home, not huge tho.

2. Salaries are higher in London. Whoever said they are higher in Ireland - get a grip!! Opportunities are much better in terms of CV. Even allowing for the current weak pound you will be earning more.

3. So you should save more. At the end of the day you should have more euro in the bank than if you stay in Ireland.

4. Use a good moneychange service e.g. moneycorp.com or many others. Consider sending money back regularly to hedge against further sterling deterioration. If you want to gamble, wait and hope it goes back up! Up to you. I fed my cash back at regular 6 month or so intervals when the rate was good. I got a lot back at around 1.50, and i'd say on average I got about 1.47 or more. Keep any eye on the rate.

5. If you buy a place, remember you might suffer a poor rate when you go to sell and bring back equity. I am prob going to suffer from this. However, I hedged against this by releasing as much equity as possible, moving it back at a good rate, and going interest only on my place which is now let out to cover the mortgage. May not apply to you.

6. I think 2 years is the minimum to make this worthwhile unless you are contracting or something. You may end up staying longer than you plan tho ;-)

I think you know what you are doing even tho the title of your thread is wrong ;-)

Go for it.

Agree with the last poster's comments, evidently someone who has lived through the London experience.

I lived in Edinburgh and worked in FS. Edinburgh is not called the 'graveyard of ambition' for nothing. It's a nice place but would lag behind Dublin in terms of earning power and opportunities. Also it's quite parochial.

If I had my time back I would have put up with the downsides of London (traffic, tubes, dirt, living in England and all that entails) and maximised my earnings there rather than working/living in a more relaxed place like Edinburgh.

The stg/euro exchange is pretty bad - I saw that stg was 1.31 on a credit card statement I got recently. Great for us in Ireland buying stuff off UK websites but terrible if you are bringing back stg to euroland.

PS one final thing - IMO quality of life for a DINKY couple is better in London than Dublin.

Main reason - they have a transport system. The tube may be a pain but it gets you there, and means many opportunites are within a decent commuting range. Also the overground train service means you may not have to spend too much time in the tube - but choose carefully where you live to allow flexibility for both of you in terms of work location.