Moving to south east england as an IT contractor.

Eric_Cartman

16 February 2020 19:54:32

So Ireland is becoming far too tax heavy. Owning a vehicle , let alone 3 is becoming harder, accommodation is becoming mad money, Im 30, single and fancy a bit of a change.

Id like to know how costly / realistically it is to replicate my existance here .
To get a start id like to know where is best for me to go and the costs involved.

Looking at south east england because of the moderately improved weather over Ireland, Ideally id like to live somewhere that has access easy to a city (likely london) for work prospects but provides a smaller town setting. I don't really do housing estates so somewhere with detached semi rural / rural housing would be best. If I could walk to the pub and the shop and there was a nearby petrol station to buy smokes that would be all id really need.

for work Im an IT consultant in Ireland and usually get contract work for €400-600 per day. Id like to get as close to that as I could but understand as the cost of living is lower, so are sallaries.

One of the biggest deals is my cars, currently have 3 cars, 2 petrol and 1 diesel, all over 3.5 litre engines, adore my range rover and would buy another one upon landing.

trying to work out what id need to do in this order really :

1. Location and accomodation, somewhere that renting a rural / semi rural house near a village is reasonable in price, not one for expecting modern kitchens etc... space and broadband speed are really the key requirements here.

2. Cars , any advice on multi car insurance, any taxes or other things I need to be concerned about , does location have much of an impact on insurance

3. Work - if I was to register as self employed for contracting again, what do I need to do, any advice for agencies for contracting, is there any good accountants / tax advisors that can help keep more money in my pocket.

4. Cost of living - what am I likely to find is more expensive, what am I likely to find cheaper.

Also just as a note, if somebody is reading this from some other country with low taxation, a good command of the english language and not an anti-car attitude, im open to suggestions.

ladivo779

17 February 2020 02:36:42

I happen to be reading your post and have a good command of English and I am living in Indonesia where the cost of living is extremely cheap.

The problem with Southeast England is that outside of London it is one of the most expensive part of the UK that you could have chosen. However, it is easy to commute into London from places such as Brighton and Hove, Hastings, Lewes etc, and anywhere on the Brighton to London line such as Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath etc and Bexhill-on-Sea, Eastbourne, Rye etc in East Sussex. The countryside here is beautiful. but the cost of living and renting or buying a home is expensive and going up.

My brother was doing something similar to your job, a Consultant Systems Support Specialist and earning around £500 per day working in Central London, mostly working for global corporations like UBS and Amex and other major finance companies. He bought a flat in Islington in London but that was a long time ago and he retired young and moved into the countryside.

You do need a good tax consultant to avoid discovering years later that you owe a heap of money. And you also need to invest your money carefully. Property investment is always good too, but while Southeast England is nice, you might want to consider some of the areas west and north of London which might be less expensive.

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