We're seriously considering moving to NZ with my wife. The only drawback is being in the opposite side of the globe from our families, but hey, they can afford to fly.
The benefits are immense:
- A lot nicer climate, no -20?C winter months (in Auckland at least), land that isn't flat and climates ranging from tropical rainforest to proper snowtopped mountains.
None of the nasty snow and ice and slush we have to put up with half of the year in Finland.
- A lot smaller taxes, while I can get paid better as an M.Sc engineer (my line of work is in the skills shortage list). 1000-1500 e/month MORE and 15-20% less taxes mean a hell of a lot better standard of living.
- Everything's considerably cheaper, a basic 100 m2 apartment in Finland is over 200.000 e, and a 150+ m2 house is over 350.000 e. For 200.000 e you can get a nice townhouse in Auckland, or a bigger and better one somewhere else.
Cars, don't even get me started. 30.000 e will get you a 1.8 Toyota Avensis in Finland, while that gets you a Holden Commodore SV8 with a 5.7 l V8 in NZ.
Also, fuel costs a lot less than our 1.30 euros/liter, and a statistical "shopping basket" is ~40% cheaper.
All this, and I'd get paid better and taxed less?
- No Russia next door. No chance I'd risk my neck for a patch of flat turf home to insane taxes and crappy weather.
- Statistically roughly the same land area and population as in Finland, same size cities too. A LOT safer, with much much lower crime rates, especially violent crime.
All I need now is a few years of work experience before migrating, and figuring out exactly how to handle the logistics of the thing. Expenses of ~15.000 euros projected.
We'd easily be upper middle class in Finland with Audis and Porsches, but all those AND a big house and a 40-foot yacht?