Saving for the Australian dream

[Minime]

Hi Guys

 

So as most of you know we are attempting the Big move to the land down under and I was wondering what you guys do to save some money?

 

How is everyone planning on financing this?

 

Also do you still have debt that you need to pay, like for instance those credit cards that is going to be red hot from the visa costs?

 

I think our plan is to save as much as we can and then put the rest on the credit cards, but I feel so guilty about this for some reason. We unfortunately don''t have the backing of  a property that  we can sell.

 

Will be nice to hear what the rest of you people do to come up with cash.

[TinaB]

We were lucky enough to have a house to sell although it wasn't at an emormous profit because we'd only owned it four years.  Basically, we made R300k.  That's is everything we own and have in this world.  We didn't have any debt and have no cars to pay off.  Last year I sold my bigger car that was expensive on fuel and bought an i10, so another small monthly saving on fuel for us.

After selling the house we moved into a rental unit.  Half the house - same price as our bond BUT, we save about R2000 a month on electricity and maintenance so another small saving.  We put the house money into an Investec account and have had excellent returns as well. Much better than a standard savings account at the banks.

 

That house money has so far paid for our agent and visa fees and obviously any bonuses or extra money we get we put into that account.  Basically we sell off stuff every now and then to finance things but luckily we have no debt and we are keeping our heads above water.  We have worked out that with pension pay out, and selling this little car, we'll have about AUD25000 to start our new lives in Oz.  Not alot at all when we have no family or friends in Oz so we'll have to restart our lives on our own with very little.  Again I ask "are we mad?"

 

I'd suggest you clear the credit card debt before saving.  You pay more on interest than you earn on savings so that should be a priority.  And then cut back (I know I know - not easy when everything goes up every month), maybe less treats or eating out, simpler food, (eating only fresh food is cheaper than any convenience pre-packaged food that is really bad for you anyway), cut back on entertainment and birthday gifts, sell things you don't need or won't need when you move, jsut basically keep the end goal in mind - IMMIGRATION, and don't worry about all the "stuff" you have here.  It's not important.

 

Good luck - this is a tough road with hopefully a wonderful result at the end.

[Chrissieb27]

We are also lucky with regards to having a property to sell, and using the profit to basically pay off the debt we are making now for the immigration costs.  Both our cars are paid off so it will only be this debt and the bond that needs to be settled before we leave.  Then we both have our Provident funds' pay-out that we want to invest in Oz.  Sometimes you have to "bite the bullet" and make the decision with a bigger goal in mind, although you may feel a bit scared, like we do as well.

 

Hope this helps?

 

Good luck!!

[SurferMan]

Go get em tiger!