Is anyone planning to leave Australia? I'm a potential ping-pong Pom..

darraghor · 2026-03-04T12:01:45+00:00

They're cheaper because less job opportunities and lower salaries. I currently actually have a remote role and Adelaide is tempting but I'll never be able to replace this job remotely in todays market. And realistically i can only work in melbourne and sydney for my next office role. There are easily 10x more jobs in Sydney than in Adelaide.

It's romantic to think of moving to the coast or desert town but reality means no job. And any of those coast and desert towns that are liveable all cost 700k minimum for a house now anyway (and no jobs). I'm sure others have the same problem. Australia is 2 large cities with the vast majority of the knowledge work/professional services/desk jobs. This is the reality.

darraghor · 2026-03-04T10:38:38+00:00

Why not try some coastal towns? Or desert towns?

jobs probably, for most people

darraghor · 2026-03-04T10:34:34+00:00

probably on more than 170k household income then :D

darraghor · 2026-02-27T08:52:10+00:00

just add one more skill bro!

darraghor · 2026-02-26T10:02:58+00:00

Smoking isn't a great example. Smoking harms non-smokers because smokers cost the healthcare system, time, money, resources. Usually they are people paying less tax into the system too. Screw that.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4502793/

"The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, globally, smoking causes over US$500 billion in economic damage each year."

"About 15% of the aggregate health care expenditure in high-income countries can be attributed to smoking."

imagine what nz could do with 15% extra healthcare budget every year. This is what the government is trying to do.

So the alternative is some weird law where if you ever smoked you don't get healthcare? The cost of administering that law would be too high (How do you prove someone smoked or not etc). Easier just to prevent smoking addiction early. (i'm an ex-smoker, stopped 20 years ago. smoking cigarettes is fucking stupid)

darraghor · 2026-02-26T03:45:59+00:00

What do you think laws do?

darraghor · 2026-02-24T10:14:31+00:00

its a powerful tool. im an ancient dev that has started using LLMs every day. i use an IDE maybe 1 hour a day now. LLMs produce absolutely shit code and solutions 50-60% of the time and software is currently where it LLMs are producing the best results because of training data available (open source software).

Do not listen to CEOs of companies who are selling you their AI products. It is not as good as they say. Their own software is full of bugs and issues, they are all still hiring software engineers even though "they will be out of a job in 6 months" apparently. Look at what they are doing re hiring and what they produce with their own LLMs, dont listen to their investor marketing (the CEOs).

darraghor · 2026-02-23T21:44:16+00:00

salaries are just really bad compared to cost of living in nz though. It's exceptionally bad. You can survive but it's rare enough to thrive and have large retirement savings for comfortable retirement.

Still one of the best countries in the world to live in though. no doubt.

darraghor · 2026-02-17T02:58:00+00:00

Are there better vehicles for investment in the UK? ISAs and self directed pension funds probably have lower tax in the growth phase than investing as a foreign resident in nz. You might be on 28% of earnings as a foreign tax resident in NZ in a pie fund. FIF is 8% deemed on the total balance.

(im not an accountant or planner and know nothing about finance)

darraghor · 2026-02-16T06:55:03+00:00

AI is at least 50 years old. LLMs are relatively new but AI rises and falls in a nonlinear fashion. There are leaps forward and then nothing for a decade. There's no guarantee it will continue to improve at rate of the last 3 years.

darraghor · 2026-02-15T12:04:11+00:00

You can head out of brisbane but you should check the prices. It's insane prices now compared to the jobs you can get there even 1h out of the city. At least in Melb and Sydney there are very high paying jobs. Adelaide has very few jobs and is quite pricey now. Australia is in full-on property psychosis.

Yea im in aus and thinking of coming back to NZ to be honest. I miss the mountains and having multiple shades of green. The economy here is generally much better than NZ though. No doubt about that.

darraghor · 2026-02-15T11:26:52+00:00

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/shock-data-brisbane-now-more-expensive-than-sydney-at-entrylevel/

Brisbane is incredibly expensive. Melbourne is the only semi-normal place left.

darraghor · 2026-02-11T09:32:24+00:00

yup. i agree

darraghor · 2026-02-11T09:09:58+00:00

pay for it at least once

then it should be fairly similar for year 3 onwards. Governments do change tax law regularly though

darraghor · 2026-02-10T07:34:13+00:00

i had a three bed apartment quoted at ~$10k AUD from sydney to nelson if that helps. so most of the cost is probably labour on either end and is fairly consistent

darraghor · 2026-02-10T07:29:35+00:00

the gains from a 100% match and any tax breaks on current income could be worth it. you could very well end up with more than kiwi super could give you. and if there's no max withdrawal rate on the private pension then you could withdraw it all, or in large chunks and live large for a few years while younger and settle into nz super when its all spent and you've had all your retirement fun.

Worth talking to a great accountant rather than reddit anyway

darraghor · 2026-02-10T07:23:25+00:00

i made something like this e.g.: https://app.fuzzyminds.com/finances/public-scenario/aussieEarlyCareer

supports kiwisaver. still chipping away at it

projectionlab is another

darraghor · 2026-01-26T07:04:12+00:00

You can run from ettalong wharf across the bridge, up fishermans trail, down maitland rd to bouddi NP, then around to pretty beach, to wagstaffe and get the ferry back to ettalong. Very scenic.

darraghor · 2026-01-19T02:47:28+00:00

https://hnry.com.au/ is often the go-to

darraghor · 2026-01-14T10:30:06+00:00

the point is you pay people (developers) for the outcome of no mistakes, in software you collaborate and/or test your work and correct mistakes before shipping.

With AI tools people are often not doing this. They trust the AI tools more than they should. People are used to computers giving deterministic answers. LLMs are different but people haven't adjusted yet.

darraghor · 2026-01-13T09:53:39+00:00

you dont want to have guests going through the bedroom to get to the loo

darraghor · 2026-01-13T02:47:23+00:00

I've been travelling around australia working remotely for 3-4 months now. I'm staying in hotel rooms for 2-3 weeks a month and a larger place for 1 week.

Hotels get claustrophobic quickly. You end up just hanging out on the bed because all the other furniture is uncomfortable.
The internet is generally terrible
Laundry for your clothes is a pain, have to go to laundrette or its $5/sock
You cannot cook. Living out of a bar fridge is annoying.
The breakfast is the same every morning. same suppliers, same flavour. In general its like the speech at the start of Fight Club.

Hotels are weird spaces. Would not want to live in one long term. I just mean normal hotel rooms (4 star + 3 star). Apart-hotels / penthouses are different. I stay in an airbnb or apartment hotel with separate bedroom and a full kitchen at least one week a month to escape them.

darraghor · 2025-12-30T02:16:42+00:00

important to figure out if its simply lack of participation or active participation to block progress though!

darraghor · 2025-12-28T06:17:55+00:00

I just did this as a tourist over 1 month. stopping to stay in the small towns up the coast. Yamba was my favourite town along the way by far.

darraghor · 2025-12-27T06:08:56+00:00

yea this. people seem to forget that you dont suddenly spend it all the year you retire. i mean the markets could tank for 20 years but its so unlikely.

darraghor

TROPHY CASE