Huge salary gap?

Sounds like an excellent plan. It might be worth looking into the tax implications of your new situation before you move. It can get complicated!

My wife's an accountant; she's looking into the taxes as there's a market for American accountants/accountants who know US tax laws for expats.
Hoping Brexit (if it goes down) will make for a better tax situation, the UK will have to re-negotiate its US tax treaty and there's talk of reducing the double taxation of American incomes.
I think our timing is excellent; top of the market for selling our house, and as my wife and I are both 50 we could be working long enough in the UK to stay as residents and collect a pension when we retire there. I get a pension from my current job, have our own retirement savings and with any luck there may still be money left for us to get Social Security payments.
Or a spectacular failure, either way it's worth a shot. 

I'm certainly no expert on taxes and financial stuff, so take what I say with a grain of salt. 

There have been some recent tax changes by the government to make it a lot less attractive for people to  "buy to let".  10 or 15 years ago it would have been a great idea, now it's not so much for complicated tax reasons.  Your wife will probably be able to understand better than me, but do some research on the buy to let market in the last two years. 

I'd also consider renting a place for a year or so.  This will give you a chance to know where you want to live and what you want in a house before making any commitments.  You also might find that house prices are actually falling and it would be bad to buy while they are going down.  This is certainly the case for some types of property in London, Newcastle might well be different. 

Buying a house here is amazingly complicated and takes forever. 

I've been stewing about this over my lunch and now I'm ready for a good old rant. 

I can't believe the NHS would only value radiologists at £20k per year.  That's barely minimum wage and perhaps not even a living wage.  That's disgusting.  And you wonder why the NHS needs radiologists? 

This morning I heard a report about how the NHS was literally shut down by a ransomware attack over the summer.  It didn't happen to many people or other companies because you were protected if you took the most basic precautions. It was an absolute failure of management, many of whom you can be sure are earning over £100k per year.  This ransomware attack showed that not only were the computers neglectfully left vulnerable, but the operators had no idea what to do or who to call when it happened.  Still, we are told that the real problem here is the Spanish radiologist with the funny accent working for minimum wage. 

Mole, is there any other way you can get a fair wage for your skills?  Can you work remotely for an American company?  Work outside the NHS?  Commute to Switzerland or Dubai?  You may think the last one is a joke, but commuting costs are so high here that it is possible for people to commute to Zurich cheaper than London.  Or at least it will be until Brexit...I feel another rant..,,

As you plan to come on a Tier 2 visa, I fear that at your expected salary level it would be a temporary move.  To be able to settle permanently in the UK, you would have to be a higher earner.

The UK is VERY anti-immigration and is "all about the money".

I've been stewing about this over my lunch and now I'm ready for a good old rant. 

I can't believe the NHS would only value radiologists at £20k per year.  That's barely minimum wage and perhaps not even a living wage.  That's disgusting.  And you wonder why the NHS needs radiologists? 

This morning I heard a report about how the NHS was literally shut down by a ransomware attack over the summer.  It didn't happen to many people or other companies because you were protected if you took the most basic precautions. It was an absolute failure of management, many of whom you can be sure are earning over £100k per year.  This ransomware attack showed that not only were the computers neglectfully left vulnerable, but the operators had no idea what to do or who to call when it happened.  Still, we are told that the real problem here is the Spanish radiologist with the funny accent working for minimum wage. 

Mole, is there any other way you can get a fair wage for your skills?  Can you work remotely for an American company?  Work outside the NHS?  Commute to Switzerland or Dubai?  You may think the last one is a joke, but commuting costs are so high here that it is possible for people to commute to Zurich cheaper than London.  Or at least it will be until Breitbart...I feel another rant..,,

Did you see the recent appeal to USA educated Physician Assistants?  The UK has realised what a valuable asset they are. 

They are willing to pay them £30k a year and a whopping £1k move allowance....   

This is an eye-opener.  That PA salary is horrid in comparison, especially considering they are in demand there. When I saw what UK solicitors make on average (compared to US counterparts), I was surprised. 


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Management in this country is absolutely horrific though - they wonder why there is a productivity gap? Look at management. Doesn't matter where you go or what you are doing, these people can't plan beyond tomorrow, effectively manage resources, or encourage workers without demeaning them in some way. If you get up into that higher level you sit back and look at those even higher above you and throw your hands up - the problems are too big and the managers too thick to actively work at fixing any of the myriad of problems to any level. And so they persist and folks on high wages deflect their incompetence by making scapegoats out of everything else.

If Brexit goes through there are going to be some hard realisations that this country is not nearly as rich, well regarded, capable, or educated as they would like to believe.

I've been stewing about this over my lunch and now I'm ready for a good old rant. 

I can't believe the NHS would only value radiologists at £20k per year.  That's barely minimum wage and perhaps not even a living wage.  That's disgusting.  And you wonder why the NHS needs radiologists? 

This morning I heard a report about how the NHS was literally shut down by a ransomware attack over the summer.  It didn't happen to many people or other companies because you were protected if you took the most basic precautions. It was an absolute failure of management, many of whom you can be sure are earning over £100k per year.  This ransomware attack showed that not only were the computers neglectfully left vulnerable, but the operators had no idea what to do or who to call when it happened.  Still, we are told that the real problem here is the Spanish radiologist with the funny accent working for minimum wage. 

The kicker is that radiologists can make or break a diagnosis too. I've encountered more radiology errors than I care to mention because of having a rare disease. Other patients have found them looking at the scans because doctors never review the images and most don't know how until you finally get to a surgeon (but the radiologist's report is the gateway). You want to attract and retain the good ones!

I also don't think the NHS pays IT well enough so that could easily be part of the issue ... but equifax proved that incompetent management can lead to a breach of personal data for millions so salaries don't mean much!


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Bertine, you are so right.  As a contractor, I work in lots of different companies and the things I see from people pretending to manage is shocking.  I don't know if the US is actually different, but here they just seem to pick whoever volunteers and make them a manager, with no additional training or any idea of what to do.  Then those people just move higher up the ranks by attrition until real actual morons are running the company. 

I've been stewing about this over my lunch and now I'm ready for a good old rant. 

I can't believe the NHS would only value radiologists at £20k per year.  That's barely minimum wage and perhaps not even a living wage.  That's disgusting.  And you wonder why the NHS needs radiologists? 

This morning I heard a report about how the NHS was literally shut down by a ransomware attack over the summer.  It didn't happen to many people or other companies because you were protected if you took the most basic precautions. It was an absolute failure of management, many of whom you can be sure are earning over £100k per year.  This ransomware attack showed that not only were the computers neglectfully left vulnerable, but the operators had no idea what to do or who to call when it happened.  Still, we are told that the real problem here is the Spanish radiologist with the funny accent working for minimum wage. 

Mole, is there any other way you can get a fair wage for your skills?  Can you work remotely for an American company?  Work outside the NHS?  Commute to Switzerland or Dubai?  You may think the last one is a joke, but commuting costs are so high here that it is possible for people to commute to Zurich cheaper than London.  Or at least it will be until Brexit...I feel another rant..,,

I'm a radiographer, not a radiologist; they read the x-rays, I take them. Sorry for the confusion. British say Radiographer, Yanks say X-ray Tech.
Still, £20k/year is a big drop from $120k/year.
We'll still have less money in hand each month but travel to continental Europe will be much cheaper, and season tickets for Newcastle United would be like heaven.

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I'm a radiographer, not a radiologist; they read the x-rays, I take them. Sorry for the confusion. British say Radiographer, Yanks say X-ray Tech.
Still, £20k/year is a big drop from $120k/year.
We'll still have less money in hand each month but travel to continental Europe will be much cheaper, and season tickets for Newcastle United would be like heaven.

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Sorry, I was a little loose with my job descriptions.  I was getting slobber in my eyes since I was ranting so hard. 

You've got the right attitude about the salary and all that.  You can't put a price on travelling to Europe for the day, or just basically feeling like you are on holiday every day of the year. 

How about Newcastle Brown Ale?  I  love that stuff.  Don't tell the beer people on this forum.

Sorry, I was a little loose with my job descriptions.  I was getting slobber in my eyes since I was ranting so hard. 

You've got the right attitude about the salary and all that.  You can't put a price on travelling to Europe for the day, or just basically feeling like you are on holiday every day of the year. 

How about Newcastle Brown Ale?  I  love that stuff.  Don't tell the beer people on this forum.

The Broon was bought by Heineken a few years back; they shut the brewery in Newcastle down, laid off 200 Geordies and moved to Yorkshire. So it's not as popular in the Toon as it once was. I like it.

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Sounds like that bastard Dyson, who shut down his profit making UK factory and moved everything somewhere cheaper.  For no reason than he could make even more money.  Still, he's worshipped here like a God.

Just catching up with this.  Interesting reading. I guess I will just have to write a bestselling novel instead....