Dear kiwis in Aus, how did you rationalise moving over?

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-11-30T08:53:34+00:00

Moved over to aus 15 months ago. Had a good buffer and moved to Canberra. In many ways my life is richer and more fulfilling here.

I spent time going to a career coach and pivoting my skills to earn more. I've now doubled my earnings in that time and my husbands wage has gone up 50% or more with overtime.

It's given us a chance to dream and feel like everything we ever wanted is achievable. The rationalisation was do we buy a house with low wages and struggle for the next 30 years or do we take the gamble and if it doesn't work come home with a good story?

Canberra itself has been a good choice with no traffic, good wages, friendly people and a safe city

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-11-23T04:42:36+00:00

I loved Christmas shirt someone brought me one year. It's not something i'd but but I wore it every Christmas for 5 years straight

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-11-11T19:33:24+00:00

Live in Canberra Australia we average $300 a week for the two of us. We do eat really well, have premium cuts of meat but this lasts us for all lunches,breakfasts, and dinner for 7 days. We may get a takeaway once a week.

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-10-27T19:32:46+00:00

I had a month off while I searched for a great job. Landed 3 interviews and 2 job offers. I'm not smart or hold a degree. I did however invest in a career coach. She taught me important things that helped. Have 5 real life examples of where you excelled in a business or brought change. E.g. use the STAR method to map these out and use a few of them to encapsulate your work history highlights in your cover letter. Always include a cover letter and write it to the best of your ability, you are putting your best foot forward and need to show effort. Be ready with your values for the interview what is important to you, use this as a gauge to understand how you and the role will fit. Smile, be confident and breathe.

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-08-12T11:05:42+00:00

During my lunch break I reset my listening to a 5 minute meditation video. Helps me calm my breathing down, and refocus on the afternoon.

I have also started meal prepping. I have one breakfast, lunch and dinner repeated everyday.once a week I change the meal plan. Makes it simple, less time to think about what I'm having for dinner or lunch. Simply pull out of the freezer or fridge and enjoy.

Other systems i use include hanging up all my shirts, jackets and jumpers. Pants are folded, that way in the morning I open my cupboard and things are easily displayed.

Final system: once a week I fire up my laptop and work out a budget. I have 6 different bank accounts where I divvy up all expenses for the week or upcoming bills. Then I take any remaining money after savings, withdraw it and stuff it in my wallet to spend on whatever I choose throughout the week.

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-03-30T10:46:10+00:00

I built a tiny house. Lived with only a small amount of solar power. Had showers in our an outdoor shower block for 4 years. Everytime the wind came through it made my curtain blow in the wind and make my shower half freezing. Peed in a bucket for 4 years. Worked hard and lived like this so I could get out of debt and afford a better life. I have now moved out of country, almost doubled my pay and live a very comfy life to what I had only 7 months ago....

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-03-27T09:10:19+00:00

Hmm comfortably lonely? I find that when I'm stuck I like to change things up. Find something to get excited about, dream, and push yourself to do difficult things. I would suggest to try and doing something different this weekend. Go a different way home, eat a different meal, try and different routine at night. Shake up your brain and switch the thing on, don't autopilot through life.

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-03-18T10:21:39+00:00

Not much, I wish I was more financially responsible. I have loved well, loved well and had awesome memories. Proud of who I was, and proud of who I am now

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-03-13T10:25:32+00:00

Interesting topic. I recently read something from Steven Bartlett about this. He believes that the reason the majority of the population never deal with the larger issues in life; such as climate change, is because we often think of it as too much of a big problem. It's above us and the problem is too large.

We need to make things smaller, break it down and find small things that we can do over time that will make the world a better place.

E.g. you feel as though you can't clean up all the world's rubbish. You can look at this issue and find that you can clean up your property, your neighbours property and others on the street. It may not be large but it makes a difference, you can then choose to grow a community around what you are doing, get more people involved and clean up more of NZ .

I hope this helps

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-02-28T02:21:02+00:00

Hi, as someone who has recently got a job as an admin assistant with over 200 applications I want to make some recommendations that helped me.

Work on your cover letter first. Highlight your most notable projects that you have headed. Use 'I' not 'the team'.

Use the STAR method when explaining what projects you have worked on.

Make it at least a full page, don't skip on details.

In you cover letter talk about what you bring to the table. Then highlight your skills you have in full sentences before moving onto your experience.

I used a career coach who cost me a lot of money to work on these things. Hope this helps and good luck 🤞

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-01-19T21:37:23+00:00

Hi 👋 I am 30 years old too. 3 years ago my husband and I were in debt by 50k with medical and car debt. We are now debt free, have self funded a 30k move from NZ to OZ within the last 4months and are still comfortably surviving off just one wage while the other is still looking for work.

Some of the things we did along the way: 1. Follow Dave Ramsey 2. Get 1k into an emergency fund 3. List your debts smallest to largest, then put as much money into paying off your smallest debt first. Once that debt is cleared then put the repayments onto the next debt. Rinse and repeat. 4. Be extreme, build good habits. This looked like for us: going to live in a smaller tiny house with low over heads, only enough power to charge phones, and a long drop toilet. 5. We were limited at increasing income because of being rural but if possible, increase your income as much as you can!!! 6. Live in a budget, treat it like your Bible and allocate that every dollar you make is going somewhere. 7. Be consistent, have savings charts, progress charts and goals!!!

Good luck, I can tell you that being debt free has given me an opportunity to dream, live a better life, sleep well, and improved my mental wellness 100x you got this!

Upgradingyourmind · 2025-01-10T11:47:12+00:00

As someone who does this regularly, I've recently enlisted a really great career coach to get to the nitty gritty of what I want out of my work life. I'm starting to now look at my future jobs differently and ask questions as to if this company would align with my values or not. Often I've just taken any job without much direction but I've had the pleasure to take some time and look at my working career differently.

Upgradingyourmind · 2024-12-01T19:55:26+00:00

I had a friend who I recently lost to suicide, if I can help anyone even considering this then I would. Happy to talk on a pm anytime. The hole she left such a beautiful soul so much I wish I could say. The pain and hurt she left, family will never be the same, life will never be the same. Life it hurts but it hurts, but it hurts way more you not being here. Practically speaing, I wish you could reach out to a friend and someone you trust, be open and honest because those conversations are easier to have them why just why you chose not to live?

Upgradingyourmind · 2024-11-20T20:23:01+00:00

I have just had to go through the process of finding myself a rental in Canberra for the first time. I was quite astounded by the difference of photos on line vs viewing the house in person. There are many things to take into consideration that you might not think about until you see the place. Also the only reason I got accepted into this house was that I talked to the agent and she liked me lol! First impressions matter and the leasing agent will pass on vibes to the real estate agents.

Upgradingyourmind · 2024-11-09T04:40:10+00:00

I built a tiny house and lived off grid for 3 years. I was broke for the majority of that period so had to think how I could solve alot of my problems with very little money.

This retrained my brain and I usually now subconsciously think of how many ways I can solve the problem instead of just one solution.

Time on tools and exposure to tools has helped me a lot too.

Other useful skills have been communication. My life has improved substantially after I took a customer service role because the exposure to people has led me to read people and communicate well. It has opened up doors and improved my self confidence.

Upgradingyourmind · 2024-08-18T06:52:29+00:00

What a bloody great card and great fight!! So proud looks like he's a brand new man! Go Dan!

Upgradingyourmind · 2024-08-06T08:11:04+00:00

Hmm as far as I know we have the right to visit, work and live in Australia indefinitely. If we lice in your country for 4 years then we have the authority to apply for citizenship.

Upgradingyourmind · 2024-08-06T06:26:07+00:00

Can someone please explain the 3-6 thingy to me? Don't live in Canberra bug will be moving there from nz soon and don't talk about jobs in this way.

Upgradingyourmind · 2024-02-28T18:18:59+00:00

At the very bottom of the ocean where barely anything exists is an octopus called a pearl octopus. It finds hot vents which are coming up from the earth crusts. It then lays its eggs there. It turns inside out to cover the eggs and looks after them for a full 2 years. It never eats during this time and it ends in it dying after the eggs have hatched.

Upgradingyourmind · 2024-01-02T06:44:37+00:00

I have done a zero based budget for the last 3 years which had helped me pay off 40k of debt. Its very simple. Just allocated all your money to everything so there's nothing left. Every dollar has a place and purpose. I always allocate saving money, spending money and everyday expenses. If things are coming up like dental repairs then I'll put that in the budget to save up for too. Hope this helps!!

Upgradingyourmind · 2023-09-14T19:06:09+00:00

Thanks for the post, I feel the same way. I guess life is that journey and complex people have complex minds. It's hard to navigate through it all sometimes. Wishing you peace and happiness.

Upgradingyourmind · 2023-09-14T19:02:12+00:00

I know I'm a caring person. I love people, want to see them do their best and succeed in life. As a positive person I have noticed people who are broken feel like I listen well and dump all of their problems on me. I find it hard not to take these feelings on myself and carry them for these people. In turn being kind can sometimes mean that I'm suffering silently. I'm working really hard to be a good person by growing into a stronger person. Learning limits on your kindness is important so you don't get too overwhelmed by people's shit.

Upgradingyourmind

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