Originally Posted by
Dell
They are trying to decide where to move to. The primary reason for relocating is quality of education for the kids. They live in a state that is ranked among the lowest in the U.S. for quality of education. They're considering Austin, Texas, L.A. area of California, New Zealand or Australia. According to this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datab...cience-reading
New Zealand is much higher on the list than the U.S. and the University of Auckland ranks in the top 100 universities in the world.
I'm elated that they're considering NZ!
I've given my son a list of the negatives:
Higher cost of food
Expensive for DIL to visit family in the U.S
Higher cost of furniture, etc.
Colder houses (according to some of you here!)
Positives:
Cost of health care
Free dental for kids
Better education
University education much less expensive
Access to beaches, etc.
Safer place for kids
Having US/NZ citizenship will open up more opportunities for the kids when they're older.
Dell, we live in CA and the reason we want to leave is that it is such a rat race here. WE are tired of working all the time, and spending the money to send our boys to private school, because our school district isn't good. We too want to let our kids be kids for longer, and hopefully spend some quality time with their Papa and Nana.
As for furniture, if they decide to ship a container over, they can buy their furniture ahead of time at IKEA or wherever else they choose. Or we have found some great deals for furniture, cars etc. on Trademe.co.nz. So, I think there are reasonable deals out there if you spend the time looking.
I am definitely not concerned about the colder houses, but that can be an issue. We live outside of SF, CA and we don't have central heat and our house is drafty and always cold. It was built in 1925 so I can't expect much. But we just bundle up and put on a fire in the wintertime etc. We also bought oil column heaters for our bedrooms, which helps a ton. And they can always buy heat pumps, we have looked up those and they aren't that expensive at all.
And there is always skype for keeping in touch with family and friends if flights are too expensive.
Good luck.