[ndheah]

Hello,

My wife and I are just starting out in A) Life B) Considering the move to NZ.
We're both 21-I've already graduated college, and am putting money in the bank. While she, still has 1.3 years to go (Next May). We would like to make this move within 4-6 years from now, putting us around 25-27 in age, allowing us to be out of school for a few years, get my student loans paid off ($30k), and allow us to get more money in the bank.

Originally, my ideal goal was to have about 15k in the bank after all 'moving' expenses are paid, but I am starting to think we should at least double that, which wouldn't be hard with her future, and my current salary.

Do you think $25,000-30,000(31-38NZD) is a decent amount of money for us to make sure all our eggs are in a basket once we move over there. This is ignoring the roughly 10k moving costs that would occure to us. Or are we totally nuts only going over there with that much money? Mind you, we would not move there w/o her having a job as she would be the person to file the paperwork as she is more wanted than I am to NZ :-( (Sad, I know) and me, being in the IT field, I don't think it would be too hard. We also would not being buying a house right away, we'd rent.

[BkyMonster]

When I was in this position (a bit older than you maybe) 4-5 years ago we bought a house and are using the equity from that as our major means of finance in getting us there. If only it would sell. :(
I think you would be fine with that amount of money, though who knows how much each dollar will be worth in that amount of time, or even if the skill shortages will stay the same.
You might be fine with even less though. People certainly do it on a shoestring.

[akp713]

It all depends on how you are expecting to live when you arrive. If you expect to put the down-payment on a house you'll need more savings than if you plan to rent for awhile. Also it will depend on the salaries of the jobs you've secured in NZ.

Personally, I'm a 22 year old and I'll be moving to Auckland in less than 2 weeks to do a graduate degree that will take a year. I've saved up US$13K and I plan to live on that, without working, for most of the year. Of course I'll have flat-mates and a rent of only NZ$160/week. By the way, I'll have US$31,000 in student loans when I finish this degree.

I think the best way to price the cost of everyday life in NZ is to look at the store web sites. The site for Foodtown supermarket has an online shopping section showing all the current food prices and the Warehouse web site has their circular with the costs of electronics, cell phones, basically everything a Walmart would sell.

But it really all depends on the professions you go into and the pay they have.

[TheDude]

I'm in a similar position as you right now. I'm fresh out of college with about 26k in student loan debt, not to mention about 5k in credit card debt. Though I won't have the cash that you have saved up, my salary will be considerably higher.

I'm in contract negotiations with my prospective employer in NZ now. I'm making the move with no money saved. I plan on saving what cash I can between now and May but it won't be much.

I was by no means planning on moving to New Zealand. This job opportunity fell into my lap one day. I felt like it was too good of an opportunity to pass up so I'm taking a big risk by moving with little cash. Luckily I have some family members that would probably support me if something detrimental were to happen.

I'm selling all of my possessions and moving with only clothing. I plan on renting a furnished apartment when I arrive.

I'll keep the message board updated with how my relocations goes.