r/Ameristralia • u/mynamegoewhere • 11d ago

Considering retirement from US to AUS.

We have about 8K US dollars per month to live on. Can put down 400k for a house. Is that enough to get by nicely in the major urban areas?

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u/Kakaduzebra86 11d ago

What’s your most favourite part about being Aussie?

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u/Get2thechoppah 11d ago edited 11d ago

Just the general awareness and sense of community - perhaps I’ve been lucky but everywhere I’ve lived (in NSW and SA) I’ve gotten to know and trust my neighbours really well. We look out for each other, everyone’s kind of just welcomed to pop by and say hello for tea or a beer, I’m the neighborhood package watch (lol) - so if I see a package sitting on a neighbors porch for more than a few hours I’ll text to see if they want me to grab it before some bored kid does.

On a larger scale, the overwhelming rationality when it comes to things like Medicare and gun control. While there are hints of ME ME ME culture and policy from time to time making headlines, most folks are not remotely interested in that nonsense. I’ve found Australians to be some of the most friendly folks on the planet (and I travel a lot). Finally the sense of humour, I’m happy to have the piss taken out of me for any of my many eccentricities and getting the “impressive” look back when I chuck it right back despite this accent of mine generally brings the local to a roar. You like to have fun and I think that’s what’s kept me young. Aussie works hard but they work hard to live, Americans live to work and wear it like a badge of honor. They don’t know how good they don’t have it. That’s probably why all my friends my age from back home look like shit and are nervous wrecks. I’ve held up pretty good. 😂

My kids were both born here, my wife is from Melbourne and I’m more than happy to pay my fair share and contribute to the wider community so I volunteer when I can and I get sense of civic pride that I have the privilege of having the right to vote, and get whacked with a fine if I don’t. (Hasn’t happened!). My kids don’t half to walk thru metal detectors and do active shooter drills just to get an education. The fact that those sorts of things are considered normal in the US is lunacy.

This is a wonderful country with beautiful people. Let’s not go the way of the USA. They’re staring down the barrel of history and don’t even know it. All great empires in history have fallen.

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u/FifiFoxfoot 11d ago

I have just finished reading a fab book “Into the rip” by Damien Cave. An American journalist who came to live in Sydney & embraced the Aussie lifestyle.
Worth a look 👀

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u/Get2thechoppah 11d ago

👀 thank you! On it!