[Tia Maria]

When we first organised coming to New Zealand, we decided to set aside an emergency fund for if anything went wrong. And I've just realised its taken us approx 9 months to spend it!

Our main emergencies were:

1) We were unable to find a rental, so we had to spend a lot of extra money on temporary accommodation.

2) I've had a miserable pregnancy. So for the last few weeks of it, and for the first few once the baby is born - we've had a Nanny-Share to help look after our other 2 children. Obviously if we'd been in the UK, we'd have used their real Nanny! Or OH would have been able to take more time off, because he wasn't new to the job.

It made me wonder if anyone else had an 'emergency fund', if so is it still in tact or have you spent it? Or did you not have one and wished you had because of something that happened?

Thought this might be of help to those in the UK, so they can see the kind of things to plan for once here.

Cheers

Tia

[Smiler]

Yep bit different though in that we now have an emergency fund in NZ$$ and UK pounds. i.e. Money in banks in both countries. We didn't when we came, we just had our money and our credit cards. This is something we've done separate to savings, mainly just to make me feel better about emergencies. OH is good at winging it, as an obsessive, complusive planner, I'm not.

At first it was my safety net, I could fly home if, in my little head, I couldn't cope or if my little boy missed me enough to fly out here.

Now it's there if we need to fly to the UK or USA for said emergency mainly, although my OH says thats what we have credit cards for. But when my son had an accident at work, it was nice to know it was there if I wanted to go back, even though I didn't use it.

Stuff you have used yours for sounds a very sensible reasons, specially with the baby due etc. :nice1

PS I forgot to say, I've also put money cash in our earthquake kit, just incase.

[Diny]

Yes we had an emergency fund - still do have it. It was the one thing I insisted on when we made the move ...... no emergency fund - no move - simple as that.

It's a great comfort to know that if anything should go wrong or (God forbid) we get a dreaded call from home with bad news that I/we can just jump on a plane and be home in the blink of an eye.

It's something I would strongly recommend.

Diny

[Avalon]

PS I forgot to say, I've also put money cash in our earthquake kit, just incase.
Must add to "to do" list - thats a fantastic idea!

We have a fund. Until we bought the house - it was in the uK and it was essectailly the money from the house sale. When we bought funds over to buy our house - we set aside $5000 to start the fund, and since then we add $175 to it every month. Currently we have enough to cover hubby being off work for 1 month, or 1.5 if we didnt add to our savings that month.

Its a great idea - and a great releif to know that we dont have to staright into debt if something goes wrong.

Need to keep adding to it though - need enough to let hubby take 3 months off, or to buy air tickets if we need to.

[Nienke]

Yes, we have an emergency fund as well. As the others, we want to be able to book tickets to Holland in case of emergencies, we don't want to be 'stuck' here for lack of money when family needs us.

Tha't a great tip, cash money in the earthquake kit!

[diforsyth]

I'll definately have one - leaving money in UK and set aside some in NZ. I prefer to call it Safety Net as I don't like to think of going into a state of Emergency. Maybe it's just my interpretation of the word and the scenarios it conjures up in my head. :(

[kiwidebs]

We've done it too. A small amount here for emergency trips back to UK (enough for hubby to go - if we all need to make the trip we'll be breaking out the credit card!!) and a very small amount in the UK as well. It actually helps us both feel better in that we can go if we need to without worrying too much about where the cash is coming from.

Debs

[jo-and-jeff]

When Jeff got a job offer and we started seriously considering the move, we sat down and drew up a budget of the expenses we knew we would have.

Our cars were 8 and 10 years old, so we'd known we were going to have to buy new ones at some point, anyway. We decided we wanted to buy brand-new in NZ to avoid ongoing maintenance expenses, and estimated an amount for 2 new cars.

Jeff's employer-to-be had Allied come do a survey and estimate the cost of moving our belongings.

We added in NZIS fees, fees for Jeff's Professional Certification, cat veterinary, transport, and quarantine fees.

We considered that we would probably need $3500 for rent and utility bonds to set up a rental here. We also estimated what insurance would be for the 2 new cars for the first year, and what health insurance for both of us for the first year would cost. Then we added in several thousand for "cush".

That gave us what we called a "drop-dead" target; i.e., the total amount in the bank we would need to have to make the move feasible, so that we would end up with at least a little bit of money for a safety net once the move was completed.

Then we got a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis, or what sale price we could expect for our house) from our Real Estate Agent, figured what our profit would be after paying off the mortgage, and subtracted Realtor's commission and sales taxes, and added what was left to what we already had in the bank. We were just over the drop-dead target amount.

As it turned out, Jeff's employer picked up some of his professional fees, and we had over-estimated items enough that we came through it okay.

But for those of you considering moving to New Zealand, I do encourage doing such an analysis; it's not an inexpensive endeavor.

Jo

[jubjub]

Initially we left enough behind from the house sale to cover the cost of a complete return, inc container! But now we have bought most of it over, or spent it on our UK trip, and, like most of you, have enough for at least one flight.

The other things we have ended up dipping into it for have been baby set up expenses, just could not get all we needed out of wages at the time, and a major car repair that we had no savings to cover.

We are now working towards a fund of about three months wages, to get locked away somewhere just in case... its taking a while though!

[Tia Maria]

Yes, I probably should have called it something less dramatic than an emergency fund - what with all the concern over Earthquake kits etc ..... maybe a rainy day fund. It just seemed our rainy days came a lot quicker than for most.

I was expecting to hear a few more stories of 'not finding work straight away', or 'breaking a leg', or 'having to go back 'home (UK/USA etc)' earlier than expected - because everyone decided to get married, have babies etc etc'.

Obviously things have progressed more smoothly for most, than it has for us!

Cheers

Tia

[baboonworld]

ours has mostly gone now - we were hoping to put an ensuite in our new house - but it isnt looking too hopeful (apart from the fact i have phoned 10 plumbers to get a quote on an infinity and only one has - after 6 weeks - given me a price! - and even then still waiting for revised price - could take 12 mths to get work done!!)

extra costs like MAF (which i had been told were unlikely to check our container - but aparently check all containers), extortionate motorcycle repairs cos the bike got damaged in transit and needs work doing to it now to get WOF, HIGH cost of living (cant believe the high elec & gas prices)

I would put cigarettes in earthquake kit (dont smoke - but i bet they make a great bartering tool! What good will money do???)

[Albertz]

I was expecting to hear a few more stories of 'not finding work straight away', or 'breaking a leg', or 'having to go back 'home (UK/USA etc)' earlier than expected - because everyone decided to get married, have babies etc etc'.



We have a small fund set aside for a flight home to the UK (if needed for my wife), i'm not going back!, spent all what we budgeted on to set us up here.
We spent more on a car then we had hoped but all that has meant is that our house deposit is smaller than we had hoped :wah but that will remain untouched regardless of what happens, im still not working despite about 20 applications within 3 weeks, (going back on the tools is looking favourite) :yes so we're living frugally within our means but I've heard Hawkes Bay is more of a word of mouth place regarding jobs so im waiting for my word to get around :laugh.
Sometimes when I look at our bank balance I think were rich, however a trip to the supermarket usually put paid to that notion, having said that now that we have set oursleves up a bit and some things are relatively expensive but apart from food & gas I can't find too much to spend our cash on :o so our earned money just might last a bit longer, or until we get a mortgage !!

Sorry its went a bit OT