Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice! Wynnvegas aiming for the big house

wynnvegas

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

We are going for the second option, for family reasons. But I so wish I had been more clued up at your age. Better late than never though. We will have a few more years of freedom than if we had just carried on the expected path. Oh is ten years younger than David Bowie and led a similarly hedonistic youth, so we are packing it in while we can!

More power to you both Squirrel. Look forward to following along your jaunts!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Evening All,

Things progressing slowly but surely here. Application and evidence packet is in the processing phase now having eventually arrived in Phoenix. Now 9 jobs in 4 different school districts local to where we plan to live so that side is picking up nicely.

Hope everyone is grand.

Cheers,

Billy

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

What fun. I love a good bit of sorting through and chucking out. Enjoy!

unhappy_shopper

Welcome back, Billy :-)
(I post rarely these days and have just caught up with all your postings made recently).

Good luck with your plans to move to US. I think going on a J1 visa is the right thing to do, as it is possible for the partner/spouse to work. It is not the same with H1B though; just relating from my experiences eons ago. If I remember right, there used to be a 2-year time limit for the J1 visa. May be they have recently removed that bar; so, please check Billy.

Glad for another MSEr who is proof of the freedom that MF brings :-)

wynnvegas

unhappy_shopper wrote: »

Welcome back, Billy :-)
(I post rarely these days and have just caught up with all your postings made recently).

Good luck with your plans to move to US. I think going on a J1 visa is the right thing to do, as it is possible for the partner/spouse to work. It is not the same with H1B though; just relating from my experiences eons ago. If I remember right, there used to be a 2-year time limit for the J1 visa. May be they have recently removed that bar; so, please check Billy.

Glad for another MSEr who is proof of the freedom that MF brings :-)

Hi US,

Cheers for that. J1 has a limit of 3 years now.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Afternoon All,

Still in a holding pattern with the teaching license. The good news is that another couple of jobs have appeared for Moyra and, in my search for Phoenix, there are more than 400 ideal jobs. We get daily email updates from our realtor on properties that match our criteria - the big issue there is that I can't bring myself to jump in when the dollar rate is so rubbish.

As a result, we're looking at possibly renting a place for six months or so (if August is our go date as intended) in the hope that the dollar does something decent in that time. Seeing a lot of macroeconomic doom and gloom being forecast which, if it goes the same way as 2008, hammered the American housing market and pushed the dollar to over $2/£1. That would be a fairly superb recurrence if it got anywhere remotely close to that. In an election year, the dollar normally slides a bit as well so fingers crossed.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Evening All,


Busy old month. In the last four weeks, Moyra has successfully gained her teaching license for Arizona, has completed three remote interviews and has three interviews plus a job fair lined up for early April when we're over in the States so all systems go for a summer move.


Time then for me to kick off my professional development as I need a job when we go over as well. It'll cost a cool $1,000 to get appropriately certified in American terms for my level of skill and experience but there are literally hundreds of jobs available so it's a no brainer. Will likely need about 8 weeks of study so time to get cracking on that.


Other than the ever plummeting £/$ rate (we're going to try and scrape this latest trip on the dollars we have as a tourist rate of $1.35 is about as bad as we've ever seen), the money side is going pretty well. The latest two BTL remortgages look like they'll generate a cheeky £38k which is nice as we had budgeted for £20k. Find of the month has been Airbnb - what a fantastic idea! Between the half decent hotel for a week in Phoenix and a good airbnb, the difference is £400.


Hope everyone is grand and the remaining mortgages are being hammered down.


Cheers,


Billy

newgirly

Glad all is going well for you both Billy and Moyra has her license

gallygirl

Great stuff Billy - and I'm sure you'll find the airbnb hosts will be really helpful :T.

jodles16

Yay this is amazing news! So pleased Moyra has her licence and that you should be able to convert your skills even if it takes a few thousand pennies and 8 weeks! I really hope you will keep telling us about your amazing life in Phoenix after you move!

Jodles