Getting Out Of Uk

[Vagabond]

Excellent points and anyone thinking of leaving the UK should put some time into considering those points, not just your words, but the underlying points which is kind of individual to all of us, not a 'one size fits all'

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you and do you reckon you have benefited from your time abroad aka Had some great experiences?

I'm 30. Left when I was 24. Without doubt I've benefitted from my time abroad. I've had extreme experiences both good and bad but they've all been eye-opening and personally they've shaped me more than anything could have (IMO) in the UK.

I'd avidse anyone to get out if possible, just to see what you take for granted about the UK and to appreciate what you have there a lot more. Whether you stay somewhere else or not will depend on my previous points but you'll gain some perspective about what you can gain or go back to and thats (again, IMO) invaluable.

[Jumbojet]

There is never a truer saying than the Grass is always greener !

I first left the Uk to travel long term in 77.

Six months of that gave me the travel bug.

Couple of years later I went to NZ and Australia and ended up staying for nearly all of the 80s.

Got citizenship in Oz, married, responsible job blah blah.....however life was pretty much the same as here except the sun shone more.

You still had to work, pay the mortgage etc, there was plenty of crime and government scandal..... But the sun shone.

The biggest difference was friends and family not being part of daily life. I did make some great friends there but they are never as close as the ones

you grow up with.

Actually, I didn't mean to emigrate, it wasn't planned as such, it just happened and I went with the flow.

I came back to the Uk to do some work and had intended to stay here for a year then return to Oz - that was 11 years ago !

I've also lived in Cyprus and Africa for several years.

All of these places were great, exciting initially, and I had wonderful experiences... But, I also experienced the same old shit that everyone here describes

About the Uk. They all had social problems, dodgy politics, bad infrastructure etc..

The fact is there is no utopia on this planet. There are good and bad points about every country. We complain here about crappy wet weather, well,

in parts of Australia and Africa they have constant hot weather, very little variety in the way of seasons and just scorched earth.

I gues what I'm trying to say is that in my experience there is a big, wonderful exciting world out there and if you've got the money and the desire

go and try it - some may never return here but the majority will.

What you will find though is that once you've experienced other places thoroughly over a decent amount of time you will realise that maybe the grass is a bit greener

and the UK maybe has problems, but it's not that bad and better than most.

[swissy_fit]

You need to make a plan!

If you would like to leave the UK but have no money (believe me I know!) then rushing off somewhere is a bad plan

If you need to save up or get some extra training to set yourself up before you go, it will probably take a few years?

But at least you have a plan

I’m being very simplistic, but for the sake of example, Australia needed Brit plumbers a few years back (this may have changed, use the Internet, research and be ahead of the curve)

Within reason anyone can become a plumber given a bit of time, even if you have to do an extra job in a restaurant to pay for the course, etc.

I can’t stress enough, I am not saying its easy and frankly if you are over a certain age, its almost impossible, but if you are young enough and not happy in the UK, what do you have to lose?

PS "The what do you have to lose" is not aimed at you = generalisation

My suggested plan for bright young people without big money behind them :

Get yourself the biggest student loans you can get and get a marketable qualification, get a relevant job for some experience, as big a salary as possible to permit maximum credit access. Max out as many credit cards as you can buying stuff you can resell and stashing it, declare yourself bankrupt, then skip the country to somewhere with opportunities on the proceeds of reselling the stash.

Not very honourable but nothing compared to the bankers theft.

[ccc]

If you are under 30 you can go to oz,nz and canada for at least one year each no strings attached and basically do whatever you want - personally i think anyone in the uk not doing this today who complains about no jobs, boredom and the rest of it needs a good smack in the puss to wake them up

[moneyscam]

What you will find though is that once you've experienced other places thoroughly over a decent amount of time you will realise that maybe the grass is a bit greener

and the UK maybe has problems, but it's not that bad and better than most.

I have lived in 9 countries so far and would echo that sentiment, it is all relative. For example I find Switzerland better than UK but Ireland and Greece worse.

Someone else stated that if you can afford a comfortable middle class lifestyle then the UK can be quite a pleasant place to live as you can avoid a lot of the shite, and I found this to be very true when I moved from a low to a decent income.

I have moved since I was a child so changing countries for me is easy. However I have seen young Brits who always lived in the UK emigrate here over the last 2 years and they all adapted pretty well as long as they made the effort by learning the language and local customs.

For those thinking of it you can come to Switzerland as an EU citizen and look for work for 3 months. Unemployment here is 3% so you can 'try before you buy' if you're not sure about making the big move.

[88Crash]

My suggested plan for bright young people without big money behind them :

Get yourself the biggest student loans you can get and get a marketable qualification, get a relevant job for some experience, as big a salary as possible to permit maximum credit access. Max out as many credit cards as you can buying stuff you can resell and stashing it, declare yourself bankrupt, then skip the country to somewhere with opportunities on the proceeds of reselling the stash.

Not very honourable but nothing compared to the bankers theft.

Thats a plan!

It fact playing the same game as the bankers, if you think about it i.e. abusing the system

But then that abuse is factored in i.e. High APR on credit cards allows for this

I hazard a guess that a plan such as the above, over a reasonable time frame, could easily net you over 100K cash - plus whatever your education would otherwise have cost

[Realistbear]

4 years on and I am still here. My get out if it gets appalling here (UKIP don't get enough seats to force the Lib-Lab-Con block to change their ways) I still have the US option but not feeling it yet.

Wouldn't consider OZ (especially now that so many are returning because of the lack of any culture whatsoever--even bad culture, the Hogan factor wore off years ago). TFO for NZ and its too far away frm everyone and everything. I like Portugal A LOT--but itsd a bit foreign and don't know a soul there. The DM have a farticle in today's paper saying Portugal is a great buy at the moment. Fabulous country IMO and the Douro win is excellent.

[marcusthe]

I run a business that can be relocated very easily and with every passing year I am thinking of a permanent life overseas. I travel a lot already and have lived overseas before, there is a grass is greener thing going on for sure, but I fear for the future of the UK, and to be honest the whole of Europe. Whenever I come back to the UK I am almost instantly depressed when I see the miserable faces staring back at me.

The only thing that keeps me here are a friends and family and favourable corporation taxes. If I was an employee I'd have long gone. Technology has made it much easier now to relocate and stay in touch, much easier.

I am always shocked how friendly other countries are, particularly the ones that are perceived as poor or third world! People just seem more upbeat and positive which is the opposite to here, and I partly blame the media for making everyone miserable, the BBC is one of the worst at this and I am sick of the organisations being run by champagne socialists.

The only people who benefit from living in the UK are the very wealthy or the very poor. I have long given up buying a house in my home city, the only affordable ones are in areas where you need a bodyguard or you'll end up living with immigrants and scroungers.

So where to?

America is looking West these days over the pacific and the future I think is very much the pacific rim and if I ever had a family i'd want my children to grow up in that part of the world and not here. Lots of articles recently about other Europeans fleeing to countries in S.America / Australia / Asia too so it's a pan-European feeling. Who wants to support the greedy older people in their old age while they sit in massive houses paid for by their luck?

There must be lots on this forum who are considering fleeing this sinking ship. The Captain has already fled, so whats stopping you?

[MarkG]

I seriously, and objectively, considered leaving the UK, but all the evidence I found suggests that the grass isn't really greener on the other side.

Yes it is.

Obviously it depends on what you're looking for, but I'm sure there's somewhere on the planet better than Britain for 99% of people who live there. The only time in my life when Britain was worth living in was the mid-80s to mid-90s, and if Labour hadn't trashed it I might still be there (similarly, if not for Thatcher I'd have emigrated as soon as I left university). But today Britain is just another administrative division of the EU, and you'll find more British culture abroad than you will in most of Britain.

Financially I'm much better off. I make 10k pounds more a year, work less hours and pay less tax, our kitchen is twice the size of the log cabin I used to rent in the UK, and the mortgage is about the same as the rent used to be. If I did come back tomorrow I'd have about 90k pounds more than I brought with me.

About the only things I could say are that I miss squash, scotch eggs and curry and the drivers here make me wish I was still driving in London. Some days when I'm shovelling snow at fifty below zero I miss the weather too.

[mpprh]

I left in 1990 and lived in Belgium, Sweden and France.

Canada, Oz, NZ, US are easier because of the language but more remote if you have family in UK.

Sticking to EU helps with tax, pension etc because structures are similar and there are many agreements in place.

Now semi retired in South France, I miss some UK aspects (friends, country pubs, etc) but wouldn't want to live there full time.

I'm thinking of getting an apt in UK and splitting my time between the two.

[STRboomer07]

I left in 1990 and lived in Belgium, Sweden and France.

Canada, Oz, NZ, US are easier because of the language but more remote if you have family in UK.

Sticking to EU helps with tax, pension etc because structures are similar and there are many agreements in place.

Now semi retired in South France, I miss some UK aspects (friends, country pubs, etc) but wouldn't want to live there full time.

I'm thinking of getting an apt in UK and splitting my time between the two.

Quite agree, and oh, a motorhome is pretty convenient for popping back to Blighty, even have room for our shopping (regretably we haven't found BOGOF's in the French supermarkets) before catching a ferry from UK.