Weekend reading: North America through the eyes of a European

                                          Episode 2: Going it alone

Our businesses were hit, our contemporary Danish furniture stores were hit and the belts began to tighten Europe-wide.

Worse still, my husbands company decided to put the development of new countries on hold. They needed to look after existing countries that were struggling before going out and spending to develop new markets.

A morally sound decision we couldn't argue with, but one that had potentially big repercussions on our life. Our move was off!

Or was it?....

Decision time. To move or not to move Continents...Without the safety net of an executive relocation? 

For those of you who have had the chance to do a company move you'll know what I'm talking about. All expenses paid: removals, housing, schooling, transport etc, etc... (oh my god, were we actually thinking of moving without all of this! Were we totally certifiable?)

But somewhere along the line we had mentally made the decision. Montreal seemed to offer a unique environment where our children could actively use both their languages and experience life on a new continent.

So we got out the calculator and started to count...

Our main home, our stores and our cars, could be sold. Our businesses could be transferred and we'd find a way to cope with a reduced, core clientele of French clients. The income from our rental properties would keep expenses ticking over and maybe, just maybe, we could manage to fund a family move ourselves. But just how much would we need?

As always, there are two ways to do things, the cheaper, DIY route, or the supported route, and not being “footloose and fancy free” youngsters we decided to take the more comfortable, more expensive option. Relocation expenses would reduce the money available, but we saw them as a wise investment. 

Getting financing across continents can be challenging when European assets don't get taken into account, (although we later found that the HSBC Premium system can be useful if you bank with HSBC in your home country, and although we were premium customers in France, it wasn't with HSBC...) so all our initial purchases were made in cash, and paid up front.

We were financially obliged to “swap” our European, “top-end living” for solid, safe dependability, reverting to pre-owned vehicles and becoming renters for the first time in our housing history (did you know that without a permanent residents visa you pay a 35% deposit as opposed to potentially 5% when buying a home? Not a wise investment!)

As spending mounted up we were starting to wonder just how deep our pockets would have to be...