Emigration....... Are people serious

Cicero said:
Lets face it, everything revolves around rent in the UK, everything else is pretty cheap in relation to your salary.
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Actually, rent is reasonable in many places outside London/SE England. London is not the place to live unless you're earning 80K+ a year, and already have a sizable deposit to buy property. If you have the deposit, it's still way cheaper to buy than rent, which just shows you how screwed up the property market is.
 
SauRoNZA said:
And if you are only making R20 000 in the UK in converted terms...
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Minimum wage in the UK equates to around R22000 at today's rate.


loc said:
I've been trying very hard to get a bank account, it's not that easy until you have proof of residence, and not easy to get that without a bank account! I should have it sorted this week. One thing I will say, I think FNB has many of the big banks here beat in terms of service. To open an account at Lloyds I have to wait 1-2 weeks for an appointment, which they cancelled without telling me
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Have you tried HSBC? They seem more geared towards expats. From a personal POV, I've found Halifax to be the most flexible at getting around problems (and they pay me £5 a month just to bank with them ;))

Pavan said:
@loc - I managed to open a natwest offshore bank account before moving over to London, with the help of the company I work for. I do agree with your though, from a retail banking perspective, SA is miles ahead! I lol @ these card readers we have to use (similar to digitags) to make payments to new recipients - they haven't reached the OTP security milestone yet :)
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My main UK bank uses OTP for all authorisations and transactions that need it, my secondary account uses smartphone authorisation via an app, I suppose it depends on the bank.
 
Pavan said:
It depends. The rand is depreciating against international currencies at a worrying rate. However, the yield on your investments locally could far outperform the currency depreciation. However, for more secure low-risk investments, rather move these funds across while they're still worth something. Keep high-risk high-return investments in SA, at your own peril of course :D
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Yeah, my thinking is that if you're earning $/£/whatever it'll be quite easy to pump lots of money into a South African investment, but long term I don't think it'll be a good idea. It'll just simply be worth less, and if one doesn't plan on retiring in SA it could be problematic.
 
cerebus said:
What's wrong with escaping from problems, if problems are real and causing you to suffer? People just want to offer the best life that they can for themselves and their families. My brother in law just found out that his farm near Brackenfell is going to be seized by the government on a very flimsy pretext. That's a real problem for him.
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Like you said IF problems are real and making you suffer.

Often I find people are fleeing for potential problems not real ones.

Seized or is he maybe bankrupt and letting it go to them on a deal and doesn't want to admit it?

There's plenty of farm land around here and I know some owners and people in the business and know nothing about any such "seizures".
 
SauRoNZA said:
Like you said IF problems are real and making you suffer.

Often I find people are fleeing for potential problems not real ones.
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Crime is one of those things where waiting for it to become "real" can mean it's too late. And why wait for something like that to happen?

The rand depreciating like crazy, infrastructure problems, cost of living increasing etc. also aren't distant "ifs", they're very real and current problems, with no sign in sight that it's going to cease being one.
 
I used to get $2000 abroad and managed to save more than half. Then I got back and couldn't save a penny earning basically the same amount I used to spend. I suppose it depends if you're buying Nespresso machines left and right. I suppose having a raucous social life is easier too. But you are less likely to be murdered in cold blood at the very least. I like to push the pedal the metal so UK probably not an option for me.
 
OrbitalDawn said:
Crime is one of those things where waiting for it to become "real" can mean it's too late. And why wait for something like that to happen?

The rand depreciating like crazy, infrastructure problems, cost of living increasing etc. also aren't distant "ifs", they're very real and current problems, with no sign in sight that it's going to cease being one.
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It could also never happen.

The rand could recover, power problems could be resolved in a year or three etc.

We just don't know either way which is the right and which is the wrong.

Those who stay could find themselves with their arses in the butter if things take an uptrend, while those who go could struggle to "make" it.

Had a friend try Australia for almost two years and came back recently believe it or not, because the racism was so rampant there that when he got a new option back on this side he packed all his stuff up again to come back to SA.

You also never answered my question earlier. Are you from Jo'burg? Because it's a very different place.
 
SauRoNZA said:
It could also never happen.

The rand could recover, power problems could be resolved in a year or three etc.

We just don't know either way which is the right and which is the wrong.

Those who stay could find themselves with their arses in the butter if things take an uptrend, while those who go could struggle to "make" it.

Had a friend try Australia for almost two years and came back recently believe it or not, because the racism was so rampant there that when he got a new option back on this side he packed all his stuff up again to come back to SA.

You also never answered my question earlier. Are you from Jo'burg? Because it's a very different place.
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In a world where all probabilities are 50/50, this would be correct, but since we aren't, this reasoning is dead wrong.
 
loc said:
From here I can get a plane to Europe for £30, whereas I would have paid R11000 in SA
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Yeah that part blew me away. Norway return ticket for 50 pounds. Unreal. :wtf:

Cicero said:
Lets face it, everything revolves around rent in the UK, everything else is pretty cheap in relation to your salary.
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Yup. Was initially freaked by how much of my salary goes towards rent, but there isn't really all that much else I need to pay.

SauRoNZA said:
It could also never happen.
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Its ultimately a decision made in the face of uncertainty either way & the exact details will be very specific to the person in question.
 
cguy said:
In a world where all probabilities are 50/50, this would be correct, but since we aren't, this reasoning is dead wrong.
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Want to hear something more crazy?

I'd be more inclined to move to another African country than a European, Asian or American one.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Want to hear something more crazy?

I'd be more inclined to move to another African country than a European, Asian or American one.
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Any reason in particular? (apart from the fact that you seem to be of the mind that spending your life savings on lottery tickets is a good idea, because you know, you might win :p).
 
cguy said:
Any reason in particular? (apart from the fact that you seem to be of the mind that spending your life savings on lottery tickets is a good idea, because you know, you might win :p).
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The people mostly.

I've never found people to be so self-centred and self-important as they are in the first world.
 
SauRoNZA said:
The rand could recover, power problems could be resolved in a year or three etc.

We just don't know either way which is the right and which is the wrong.
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You're an optimist. Things are not going to get better, the power thing is gonna take way more than 3yrs, after that we are gonna get swamped under trillions of rand of debt with the nuclear power stations that will take ages to build, the water infrastructure is on the point of collapse very soon, vat I suspect is gonna get increased soon. Jobs are being shed across all industries. The currency is not going to recover as we are hell bent on destroying the economy.

Lets have this conversation again in 5-10yrs time, I'd be happy to be wrong but everything tells me it ain't gonna come up roses.
 
SauRoNZA said:
The people mostly.

I've never found people to be so self-centred and self-important as they are in the first world.
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Generalize much? Overall you seem to have a terrible logical foundation for making decisions. Good luck with that.
 
cguy said:
Generalize much? Overall you seem to have a terrible logical foundation for making decisions. Good luck with that.
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Actually I'm not making any decision. Think about it.

Africans are the happiest most easy to please people I've found amongst all the other nations I've dealt with.

I might retire somewhere like Thailand though.
 
ponder said:
:D

Seriously it's nice to be optimistic but one also has to look at the situation, trends & history at which point reality kicks in.
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How much you are worth makes all the difference.
 
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