Letter to Sydney & Australia: Why I left

July 29, 2018 / M L Byrd / Leave a comment

Bittersweet? An opportunity missed?

What if? Was the time spent worth it?

Those are some of the questions that ramble through my mind after reflecting on my time down under.

After a little over 2 years and 2 months of experiencing the Australian life, Sanna and I have decided to try our luck back in Europe.

We of course don’t make this type of move without a lot of consideration. We made the big decision to uproot ourselves and migrate to Australia from England. At this point and time, Sanna and I have established a stable life financially and professionally.

However, if you take a nuanced and honest view at our current lifestyle plus if you truly know me and Sanna then you will see our “stability” built in Sydney as a safe form of professional and personal complacency.

We had been there for over two years, however we never quite got the chance to fully settle down. Professionally and logistically we accomplished what was needed. We found a place to stay and jobs to work. Yet, that was how far we were able to go.

We couldn’t fully foresee a permanent base there for a multitude of reasons.

Sanna and I agree that Sydney (and Australia for that matter) didn’t work out for specific reasons but Sanna and I differ on our feelings about Australia after our time here. I will not speak on her behalf as Sanna is quite eloquent with her thoughts on Australia and Australian culture if requested. So I will just offer you reasons, rationale and feelings behind our departure from my perspective.

Before I begin, let me rewind the clock a little bit. Maybe taking a moment to explain the whole move to Sydney to begin with and this should help clarify why we are leaving Australia.

Shrewsbury is a nice little town but was tough for young professionals. (Photo Source: Wikipedia)

It was early 2016 and Sanna and I were living in Shrewsbury which is a quaint little market town in England.

Honestly, we were doing alright. We had a nice centrally located flat near the train station and in front of the Shrewsbury Castle. We had secure jobs that paid the bills and allowed us to start the repayment of our graduate school debts. We traveled here and there including being able to visit home in either Sweden or Florida. We were technically in a good spot.

However, we were still lacking some amenities of a typical married couple of young professionals who wanted to start a family, but also have opportunities for upward professional mobility.

We were good, but we couldn’t really afford a house. Or start a family. Or really get my career going. Or really make a dent into our collective debt (my graduate school loan is the real financial threat here compared to Sanna’s but as Sanna states: your debt is my debt and my debt is your debt).

So, after some time, we decided to look for a place were we could possibly accomplish those goals. Sanna and I then started the deliberation of where to go to next.

USA?

No. Can’t happen. Sanna’s visa was not completed at the time and I was not (and frankly still not) ready to move back to the US.

I do miss home. I miss my friends, family and the amenities of home however I am still don’t want to go back home permanently. (Photo Source: Google Search)

Sweden?

Getting my visa would be very slow in combination with the strong chance that I would have to settle on my current role as an IT professional. In other words, I would continue working as a computer technician until I get the chance to pivot out of that role.

I didn’t want that.

Where then? Where can Sanna and I go that might present the best place to grow our careers and family?

After some thought (and research), we came to the choice of Sydney and decided to give it a try. Sanna could do an internal transfer within her company and I could hopefully find better career prospects.

Now fast forward two years and we are on the move again. But why?

The reasons for leaving are quite simple. You can break down our break up with Australia into these areas: Career, Money & Visas.

Career

I am ambitious. I will put that out there and make sure it’s known. I have dreams and aspirations plus the drive to pursue them. That’s why I do the things I do including, get an education, obtain strong and respectable work experience and overall develop the credentials for better career opportunities.

I am currently looking to either work up or out of my field. I have been attempting this feat for a little while now with no luck. Don’t get me wrong, I am good at what I do however I don’t enjoy it like I use to. I enjoyed my craft years ago when I knew it was useful for building my fledgling CV and it was new to me. Moreover, I was satisfied earlier in my career with the knowledge that this work is a vital stepping stone in my career. But it was a stepping stone nonetheless.

Unfortunately, I have been stagnant on this stepping stone for far too long leaving me honestly frustrated and anxious.

I left England for Australia for the possibility for better opportunities. That was the thinking that I would arrive with the right experience, attitude and work ethic then I should really see my professional trajectory improve.

Well, after biting the bullet and continuing to work in the same role, it seems that I can’t break the ceiling that has been firmly placed over my professional head.

Because of that, I decided to quickly think of another plan.

Hopefully Copenhagen can yield better career opportunities after two years in Australia.

Money

Can money buy happiness?

No, not directly. However money can buy the things that bring happiness.

Like a place of your own. Right now on average it will take 8 years to buy a house in Sydney with a twenty percent down deposit. It would be even longer for us since for us to stay in the country that long we would need to pay a lot money pay for a long term visa (I will explain that later). Plus, we still have that pesky graduate school loan hanging over us.

Lastly, I fail to mention costs like childcare in the event of Sanna and I having children which would be higher since we don’t have either of our parents (or extended family) to assist us.

Money is the most lucid and obvious reason for staying or leaving. Explicitly, we’d have needed more money if we really wanted to stay in Australia.

Visa

The Temporary Work (Skilled) (Subclass 457) Visa.

Or simply the 457 Visa. That is the visa Sanna and I obtained for us work in Australia. To be precise, Sanna was the holder of the that visa and myself being the spouse to the visa holder and thus being granted the same rights of 457 visa as well.

Also, this visa is (or at least was) a direct pathway to a permanent residency visa which leads to an eventual Australian citizenship.

Sounds straight forward, right? But there is more to it. Also, this visa doesn’t even exist anymore as it was recently abolished.

But the main issue we had with our visa setup is that it prevented us from considering to have children. Sanna as the primary visa holder was only allowed to have 3 months of maternity leave and that’s it. Australian citizens (and permanent residents) are given little over 4 months in paid maternity leave. Beyond the 3 months maternity leave as the visa holder, Sanna is required to return to work as her visa is dependent on her working a certain number of months in any given year.

That wasn’t going to fly with me and Sanna. Plus, there is only 2 weeks of paternity leave for me as well which is not that great.

This goes back to the whole topic of needing more money.

For us to have children here in Australia, I would have needed be well paid and sponsored but that never came in fruition.

Even if we had children and decided to stay, the next hurdle would be to fork out at least $10,000 AUD in lawyer and visa fees and wait for a long time for a permanent residency.

One of the crowning achievements of my time in Australia was being able to host my family.

Overall, the calculus for us to staying and truly settling in Sydney didn’t add up. Because of that, we couldn’t justify staying here let alone staying somewhere so far away from both of our families.

If we were going to stay, I need a better job that paid very well and sponsored me. If that happened, we would have been able to save for a house, have children and justify being so far away from everybody.

However, it was not meant to be. Now we’ve departed Sydney looking for the next locale that might yield better results for us.

That destination we think is Denmark. I will be studying for my second graduate degree at Copenhagen Business School while Sanna continues to work full time. We think pragmatically that this plan is the best move in regards to us advancing our careers, moving closer to our families and eventually start a family.

What are my thoughts about Australia?

I would have been happy to stay in Australia. Even with the distance from both of our families. I envisioned buying a home, starting a family and seeing me and Sanna’s careers take off. But it just didn’t happen that way. Which is unfortunate.

Fortunately, I have had the chance to meet some great people through my work and Sanna’s work. Those relationships that were nurtured here will continue to be with me even if I am back in Europe. Introspectively, I think I have grown more as well and my perspective on life naturally has become more layered and thoughtful. Or least I hope it did.

Australia will yield mixed emotions like every other place I have lived abroad.

Do I have ill feelings about Australia?

Not really.

I think Australia is very similar to the US as Australia can negatively react to honest external criticism. Either to the ongoing fraught situation of the aboriginal people or human rights violations occurring offshore near Australia orchestrated by the Australian government.

Sydney can be a great place to live. From my perspective, I would advise that if you want to succeed here as a young couple, then you need the husband to be the visa holder. In addition to that, make sure you have enough salary to quickly save for a house and permanent residency while being able to pay for the high overall cost of living.

If you can do that then give Australia a go and god speed.

The Expat Life: Taxin’ Season

April 19, 2018 / M L Byrd / Leave a comment

The only things guaranteed in life are death and taxes.

Unfortunately for American expats, taxes is double the trouble on a yearly basis. Luckily, death is still a singular occurrence no matter where you live. I think nobody wants to experience death more than once but I digress.

But yes, American expats experience the pleasure of taxes of back home and the country of residence. The United States is one of two countries (the other being world power Eritrea) that “double tax” it’s companies and citizens. A great example of that good ole “American Exceptionalism”.

However, the recent tax bill passed by congress removed the double taxation on companies but not on citizens and green-card holders who live abroad.

Even Meghan Markle will be in the cross-hairs of the IRS every year she files taxes while living in the United Kingdom as a member of the British Royal Family.

And that is not just filing tax returns on income. Any asset you have including property, bank accounts and private or public pensions have to be reported to the IRS. This is the main area where it gets tricky as you will be wise to account for anything and everything in your name.

And that includes any assets shared between you and a non-American spouse. That is where it is most complex and Megan will have to account for that due to her future marriage to Prince Harry.

My marriage is nowhere near as high profile but I am in the same situation due to my marriage to my Swedish wife Sanna.

Only a few days ago I sent this year’s tax filing in the mail from here in Sydney to the designated location for tax filers abroad which is in Austin Texas. Just in shipping alone I had to spend 41 Australian Dollars (roughly 32 American Dollars) to meet my legal requirement of filing taxes for the year while also proving that I am not making enough money to owe the US Government and also disclosing every single account or asset I have outside of America to ensure Uncle Sam that I am not hiding any money Panama Papers-style.

This was the thickness before I included records of my British bank accounts which was roughly another 20 pages.

This year’s tax filing was over 100 pages and weighed almost 1 Kilo (2 lbs) and took hours of time to make sure I did it correctly.

Meanwhile, Sanna doesn’t have to worry about the Swedish taxes and can solely focus on the Aussie tax season since her home country and it’s tax law has a lot more sense than mine.

The question though is why. I have asked my self a few times while I make sure I have a copy of every single payslip from the previous year since the idea of a W-2 is foreign to foreign countries. Since most countries do the calculating for you, all you need to do is make sure the government got the math correct. It’s called return-free filing but I will get to that a little later.

I have learned the expat filing process the hard way through trial and error, and a lot research online. Some people go to accountants, but I stubbornly refuse to due to the principle of not paying someone to file my taxes to prove that I don’t make enough money to pay taxes back home. I can prove that fact by myself. Maybe when I become a millionaire/billionaire (or even a hundred thousandnaire), I will consider paying a third party to either make sure I pay my fair share to the US Treasury or make sure I don’t pay a dime (once again, Panama Papers-style).

Back to the why. Why does the US Government including Congress (creator of the current laws) and the Treasury (enforcer of the laws) have such a desire to waste everybody’s time including their own? Based on the news of the IRS website crashing on tax day, maybe information technology should be a higher priority than a few million expats, many of whom mostly are not making outrageous incomes and/or trying to hide vast amounts of valuable assets.

This is not a good look.

Again, why though?

To not lose out on much needed tax income?

To ensure Americans are not hiding hoards of money off-shore at a Swiss, Cayman or Bahamian bank account?

To keep all Americans on the grid?

Or all of the above?

I really haven’t found a complete answer. I am curious of the past and current reasons for the US being the only “developed” nation to double tax its citizens. America is considered a “developed” or “advanced” nation but examples like our antiquated tax policy reminds us that we are not as developed as we would think.

I do have a solution of my own. How about expats be valued like American corporations and eliminate double taxation? If that is not a motivation, then how about join the rest of the world in regards to common sense income tax law.

If you are concerned about lost tax revenue and you rely on 10 million American expats to fill the gap, then I suggest you actually take a closer look at the current tax code and maybe raise taxes instead of the current slashing of corporate and high income tax. Just an idea.

In regards to the disclosure of any off shore financial holdings, the sheer consumption of time and energy needed for this exercise actually incentives secrecy more than anything else. Instead, the IRS should focus on countries and/or companies (including banks specifically like HSBC) they believe, and have been proven, to have assisted Americans both in the US and abroad who actually practiced different forms of tax evasion and/or fraud.

Now back to the whole process of filing taxes in general. I will safely assume an easy majority of Americans both home and away can agree that the government can and should do the taxes for us.

I only foresee a strange fringe section of people who think letting the government do their taxes is surrendering control to the big bad government. Or they make money off of the third party filing companies like TurboTax. Or they really really like filling out forms.

However, I think most people would rather go with the idea of return-free filing. I think Adam does a great job at blowing a hole in the current status quo and lay out the reasons for considering such a filling system.

Yes, it can be that easy. I live in Sydney and the experience of doing taxes here and doing taxes for home are night and day. It might sound like a hyperbole, but filing taxes for the US while abroad can be months in the making. Especially if you forget to constantly make copies of important documents and you realize later that you need them and thus forced to frantically backtrack and locate your vital missing paperwork.

Meanwhile, filing my taxes (or lodging your taxes as it’s referred to here in Australia) took me no more than 30 minutes which most of that time was me learning the Australian Tax Office website and process of lodging my taxes via the MyGov website. Also, the whole thing was done online with the option to print stuff off for your own records.

I have written different people of congress about the elimination of double taxing and/or the need to consider improving the process of filing taxes in general but my words of persuasion has gone unheard.

Even if you disagree with me on how we can make the procedure of filing taxes better, I surely believe you agree with the fact that we need to modernize our tax system.

Kiwi Byrds: Hanmer Springs and Christchurch

April 18, 2018 / M L Byrd / Leave a comment

Soreness. Stiffness. Dead legs.

That would be sufficient terms to describe the state of mine and my wife’s legs after our long hike the day before.

We slowly got out of bed and meandered into Greymouth. We had a great breakfast at Maggie’s Kitchen where we got a homestyle breakfast and I had the french toast with bacon while Sanna had pancakes.

After that we walked around downtown Greymouth which included a look around the seawall and the old Greymouth Clock Tower.

Another attraction of Greymouth is Monteith’s Brewery Company which is headquartered in Greymouth and represents the beer scene on the west coast of South Island.

For my valiant efforts the day before with the hike up Roberts Point, Sanna surprised me with a tour of the brewery and a beer tasting session.

To be totally honest, I am not the biggest beer drinker nor will I ever say I am a beer connoisseur. However, I am nerd and any chance learn about the process of anything let alone get insight into production, logistics and history of a company, I am game. So the tour was interesting and enlightening to say the least.

Sanna and I indulged ourselves with 6 different beers produced by Monteith’s including an American Pale Ale that was pretty nice. But, I think the highlight of the whole experience was that Sanna discovered a beer that she actually likes and can imagine herself ordering if she remotely had a taste for beer. For the record, that beer was called “The Radler“.

Since I did the drinking, I let Sanna do the driving. From Greymouth we drove across the island and stopped in Hanmer Springs.

Other than Milford Sound, the another attraction we highlighted while planning for New Zealand was the thermal springs in Hanmer Springs. Frankly we modified the itinerary to ensure we stopped there.

We arrived in Hanmer Springs in the early evening and after we quickly checked into our hotel and walked (in a stiff and slightly painful manner) to the nearby hot springs.

We went to the hot springs because we have never experienced them. The other godsend about our decision to stop and check out the hot springs was that we were so sore from the previous day’s hike, the relaxing evening at the hot springs took on a therapeutic feel.

The next day we had a nice breakfast before we casually drove to Christchurch where we found our hotel and returned our rental car at the Christchurch Airport.

Luckily our hotel was in a central Christchurch and made it easy for us to stroll around. We didn’t have any set schedule. We just explored around town. We purchased gifts for the kids including our newborn nephew Theo. Also, I did my obligatory postcards and sent them out to family and friends.

One observation Sanna and I made about Christchurch is that the city is still recovering and rebuilding after the severe earthquakes that hit the city in 2010 and 2016. The most emblematic example of the earthquake damage is the Christchurch Cathedral which still stands in disrepair.

Otherwise, Christchurch gives us the feeling of a hipster and artistic city and gave a nice atmosphere.

In Summation, New Zealand and South Island to be specific is simply magical. You can literally drive pretty much any stretch of road and find a picturesque environment. New Zealand feels clean and fresh as simple as it sounds. South Island is wild and mostly untouched. Probably due to the rough and mountainous terrain of the island. I suggest, if you can, take a good chunk of time, get a car and just drive and enjoy the view.

Top things I learned from South Island.

One way bridges can be tricky
There is sheep. Everywhere
Fergburger is worth it. Get Fergburger in your life. Full stop.
Take a cruise while at Milford Sound. Plus stay dry
Kill possums and buy the fur by products to support the conservation of natural kiwi birds
Hanmer Springs is nice but the food is very expensive for what it is
Rugby runs through the blood of New Zealand
Don’t drive crazy around the turns in the mountains unless you want to test your fate (and car)

Kiwi Byrds: Lake Wanaka and Franz Josef Glacier

April 8, 2018April 9, 2018 / M L Byrd / Leave a comment

We woke up in Te Anau after an amazing cruise around Milford Sound. Today would be a lot of driving as we travel up to Franz Josef Glacier. We had an idea that even though we won’t really stop anywhere, there should be an abundance of picturesque views on on this drive to Glacier Country.

We got up and got breakfast before we got in the car, synced up our podcasts plus the most diverse road trip play list you can think of, and hit the road.

Like I said, more driving than stopping this day, but from the pictures, you will see that pictures does all of talking at this point. We did stop at Lake Wanaka for lunch and stroll around the lake that gives the town its name before continuing the migration to the west coast of the South Island and heading north.

We made it to Glacier Country after dark and arrived into the small town named after the Franz Josef Glacier where we quickly checked into our hostel room and had dinner. We called it a night as soon as possible as we knew tomorrow would be an eventful day in more ways than one.

We woke up and knew today was important.

The main reason is that today, March 28, is our fourth year wedding anniversary. So, you know what that means…..

That classic will be played a few times throughout the day.

Another reason, was that Sanna and I would hike for 11 kilometers and go up over 600 meters to get a good view of Franz Josef Glacier.

Sanna and I have learned already that we are sometimes foolishly stubborn. Our excursion up to Roberts Point on our anniversary would be an excellent example of this self assessment.

The Roberts Point trail was hailed and warned as a trail for “experienced” and “mature” hikers. We thought to ourselves, well we have hiked before and we consider ourselves pretty mature and experienced so we should have no trouble with this trail.

Boy we were in for a rude awakening. The estimated return time for this hike was 5 hours. We did it in 7 hours. 7 hours due to the amount times we had to stop because we were either exhausted on the way up or experiencing muscle cramps and spasms on the way back down.

Let’s just say after we were done, we got our fill of hiking for a short while. However, it was worth it.

Behind those smiles were tired and sweaty existences. Moreover, the thought of the pending doom of our trek back down lingered heavily on our minds while we were up there.

The timely and arduous trail didn’t give us much time to drive up to Greymouth for a nice anniversary dinner.

We got some amazing shots on the drive north on west coast north of Franz Josef towards Greymouth.

So, we did what we could. As a result, we had a romantic dinner in our accommodation which was two pizzas from dominoes and water. That meal oozed with intimacy and romanticism as we ate 5 dollar pizzas on the cardboard it came in.

But it was nice to calm down after a lot walking (including some actual climbing) and some driving and just laugh at our inherent ability to ignore the warning signs then show a funny and blinded faith in our ability. Case in point for our grueling hike up a mountain because we didn’t want to be defeated and to retreat plus we had the desire to get a great view of a glacier which are not that common outside of Arctic environments.

Lastly, it is just another adventure that continues to forge us together on this journey we are exploring together as a married couple. Love my Sanna Byrd.

Changed Perspective: From the Expat Looking In

March 2, 2018March 2, 2018 / M L Byrd / Leave a comment

Here is a letter I wrote to the editor of my hometown newspaper, The Gainesville Sun.

I wrote this letter as an expat observing the infancy of the Trump Administration and overall explaining my feelings on America as it is in the global community.

This is my letter below (here is the link of the letter on the newspaper site):

I have had the amazing opportunity to live abroad in multiple countries including my current residence in Australia. If you talk to anybody who has lived outside of the US for a decent period of time, you will notice that person’s American identity has forever been warped and changed. Your viewpoint of the perceived “greatness” of America changes and a brutally honest perspective is formed.

Then again, America’s greatness has always been limited. Ask any minority group.

President Trump is a caricature of the societal norm of the ruthless and heartless Individualistic Capitalism parading as “American Exceptionalism”. If you really look at the history of the US, there are stories of soaring greatness in both achievements and atrocities. However, I am still a proud American and after seeing some of the World, I know America can be truly exceptional if we are willing to change our thinking as a nation.

Michael L. Byrd, Gainesville (Sydney)

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