Post by Banjo on Nov 12, 2014 7:43:51 GMT 7
Inflation fugitives fleeing to cheaper shores
Australia is the G20's most expensive economy. According to a World Bank study, the cost of goods and services here hovers at the level of pricey European states including Switzerland thanks, among other dynamics, to the mining boom.
Emigration from Australia has grown sharply since the mid-1990s – 92,000 people reported that they left forever between 2012 and 2013, according to the Government: typically, it says, the reason was economic, which will come as no surprise to many. Meet Ho Chi Minh-based economic migrant Ross Stewart, 37, who before he moved to Vietnam worked here in IT and the arts, also managing bands and events, yet earned barely enough to cover his costs.
Worse, he felt pressured to prosper. "I guess with Australia being a fairly isolated nation, the focus is generally internal, and everything was more about what I had, what I earned, where I lived, who I knew. So keeping up with everyone was a huge pressure," Stewart says.
Eventually he realised that, unless he took action, he might become stuck in a suburban rat race rut. Instead, at 26 he moved to Vietnam and took a 20-hour-a-week teaching job that earned him $15,000 a year – half what he earned as a Melbourne information technology company account manager. Yet he could afford to pay rent, go out when he wanted, eat and drink what he wanted and save enough cash to travel.
Now a creative director for a social enterprise, he cannot see himself going back, because of Australia's ruinously high living costs. He has no regrets about migration, which he describes as "exhilarating and liberating".
Travel industry entrepreneur Natalie Smith also portrays leaving Australia as a great move. When she and her partner became full-time house sitters and travellers almost two years back, they realised how costly Australia is compared with the rest of the world.
Their first year of full-time world travel cost a third of what living in Australia did, and they were visiting a different country almost every month. On their odyssey, they hopped from continental Europe to Britain, the Americas and the Caribbean, also visiting Dubai.
"Australia is by far the most expensive country where we have lived," Smith says. Costs including groceries, petrol, parking, tolls, taxes, entertainment, and dining out are far greater in Australia than elsewhere. Even France, which Smith expected to be super-expensive, cost less. Ditto Dubai. So she and her partner also have no regrets about going.
"We have absolutely no desire to return to Australia – even for a visit, to be honest," she says, citing massive flight costs among other disincentives.
Lure of the Big Apple
Digital communication strategist Jayde Lovell looks equally unlikely to return in a hurry. "The cost of rent and living in Melbourne was just too high, so I went to live in a cheaper city – New York!" says Lovell, who left early in 2013.
In New York City, she can rent a two-bedroom unit for less than a one-bedroom North Melbourne unit. "Crazy, right?" she says.
She adds that, before, she paid $A2200 per month for a cramped, two-bedroom Melbourne townhouse she shared with a friend. Now, she and her housemate pay just under $US2000. "And we have a lot more space, to boot!" she says.
Better yet, she's better paid: more than $A100,000 instead of less than $A80,000 in Melbourne. Yet New York, being larger, offers more opportunity.
Plus, she pays less for transport, and food is far cheaper. "Melbourne food in the city is often limited to snobby cafes that charge you 12 bucks for a baguette and a coffee," she says.
Professional showman Jim Dailakis left Australia long before the likes of Lovell – back in 1996 – again for New York. Spurred by ambition instead of pressure, Dailakis soon became painfully, terminally aware of what it would cost to move back.
"After being away the first five years, I was flabbergasted at how expensive it had become upon my first return." Whenever he revisits, prices have soared. In particular, clothes, food, flights and rentals, cost far more. "Rents, especially in Perth, are astronomical," he adds. "It blows my mind that I'm comparing Perth to New York!" he adds.
Yes, rent in New York is also ridiculous, but happily he has found a wonderful and spacious place to rent, he says, adding that he pays $US900 a month for a one-bed unit affording access to two bathrooms.
Many times, he has tallied disparities to see if he could live as he does in New York back home. "Every time I do, I always conclude that it would be much, much more expensive to sustain a living over there than it is over here," he says, intent on staying put in New York.
Unless a miracle happens and Australia's living costs plunge, the economic diaspora trend looks set to continue. Despite its Lucky Country label, Australia can seem distinctly unfortunate – uninhabitable even. As a perverse result, the nation may be becoming somewhere you emigrate from rather than to in search of prosperity.
Read more: www.brisbanetimes.com.au/money/saving/inflation-fugitives-fleeing-to-cheaper-shores-20141105-11h9bh.html#ixzz3IoJHYMWU
Australia is the G20's most expensive economy. According to a World Bank study, the cost of goods and services here hovers at the level of pricey European states including Switzerland thanks, among other dynamics, to the mining boom.
Emigration from Australia has grown sharply since the mid-1990s – 92,000 people reported that they left forever between 2012 and 2013, according to the Government: typically, it says, the reason was economic, which will come as no surprise to many. Meet Ho Chi Minh-based economic migrant Ross Stewart, 37, who before he moved to Vietnam worked here in IT and the arts, also managing bands and events, yet earned barely enough to cover his costs.
Worse, he felt pressured to prosper. "I guess with Australia being a fairly isolated nation, the focus is generally internal, and everything was more about what I had, what I earned, where I lived, who I knew. So keeping up with everyone was a huge pressure," Stewart says.
Eventually he realised that, unless he took action, he might become stuck in a suburban rat race rut. Instead, at 26 he moved to Vietnam and took a 20-hour-a-week teaching job that earned him $15,000 a year – half what he earned as a Melbourne information technology company account manager. Yet he could afford to pay rent, go out when he wanted, eat and drink what he wanted and save enough cash to travel.
Now a creative director for a social enterprise, he cannot see himself going back, because of Australia's ruinously high living costs. He has no regrets about migration, which he describes as "exhilarating and liberating".
Travel industry entrepreneur Natalie Smith also portrays leaving Australia as a great move. When she and her partner became full-time house sitters and travellers almost two years back, they realised how costly Australia is compared with the rest of the world.
Their first year of full-time world travel cost a third of what living in Australia did, and they were visiting a different country almost every month. On their odyssey, they hopped from continental Europe to Britain, the Americas and the Caribbean, also visiting Dubai.
"Australia is by far the most expensive country where we have lived," Smith says. Costs including groceries, petrol, parking, tolls, taxes, entertainment, and dining out are far greater in Australia than elsewhere. Even France, which Smith expected to be super-expensive, cost less. Ditto Dubai. So she and her partner also have no regrets about going.
"We have absolutely no desire to return to Australia – even for a visit, to be honest," she says, citing massive flight costs among other disincentives.
Lure of the Big Apple
Digital communication strategist Jayde Lovell looks equally unlikely to return in a hurry. "The cost of rent and living in Melbourne was just too high, so I went to live in a cheaper city – New York!" says Lovell, who left early in 2013.
In New York City, she can rent a two-bedroom unit for less than a one-bedroom North Melbourne unit. "Crazy, right?" she says.
She adds that, before, she paid $A2200 per month for a cramped, two-bedroom Melbourne townhouse she shared with a friend. Now, she and her housemate pay just under $US2000. "And we have a lot more space, to boot!" she says.
Better yet, she's better paid: more than $A100,000 instead of less than $A80,000 in Melbourne. Yet New York, being larger, offers more opportunity.
Plus, she pays less for transport, and food is far cheaper. "Melbourne food in the city is often limited to snobby cafes that charge you 12 bucks for a baguette and a coffee," she says.
Professional showman Jim Dailakis left Australia long before the likes of Lovell – back in 1996 – again for New York. Spurred by ambition instead of pressure, Dailakis soon became painfully, terminally aware of what it would cost to move back.
"After being away the first five years, I was flabbergasted at how expensive it had become upon my first return." Whenever he revisits, prices have soared. In particular, clothes, food, flights and rentals, cost far more. "Rents, especially in Perth, are astronomical," he adds. "It blows my mind that I'm comparing Perth to New York!" he adds.
Yes, rent in New York is also ridiculous, but happily he has found a wonderful and spacious place to rent, he says, adding that he pays $US900 a month for a one-bed unit affording access to two bathrooms.
Many times, he has tallied disparities to see if he could live as he does in New York back home. "Every time I do, I always conclude that it would be much, much more expensive to sustain a living over there than it is over here," he says, intent on staying put in New York.
Unless a miracle happens and Australia's living costs plunge, the economic diaspora trend looks set to continue. Despite its Lucky Country label, Australia can seem distinctly unfortunate – uninhabitable even. As a perverse result, the nation may be becoming somewhere you emigrate from rather than to in search of prosperity.
Read more: www.brisbanetimes.com.au/money/saving/inflation-fugitives-fleeing-to-cheaper-shores-20141105-11h9bh.html#ixzz3IoJHYMWU