Re: Quiz: retiring overseas

My other half and i have discussed going out to Spain when we retire and we would love to live somewhere where you can mainly guarantee on sunshine to finally take it easy.

We have got about 6 years before this could possibly happen.

His and my parents are no longer with us and we dont have children so there would be nothing keeping us here.

So in the meantime we dream about the time and how soon it could happen..

Re: Quiz: retiring overseas

good thinking I would do the same

Re: Quiz: retiring overseas

Aren't we a funny lot. So many Brits wanting to go elsewhere and we would like to be able to come back to the UK . I was brought here by my parents as a migrant when I was 8 and it seemed OK till I was older, had children, and began to see the rest of the world.

It's a dream but not financially possible as house prices in Tasmania means we couldn't afford anything decent there plus our children and grandchildren are here. Tasmania is small, isolated, poor economy, high unemployment, brain drain of our best young people to the mainland and going down the gurgler generally.

I don't hate it but we come back to England now every year and have a dose of history, culture and diversity to last us till the next time.

Re: Quiz: retiring overseas

That's quite a refreshing post. There are some migrants in Aus who seem to adopt the attitude that everything Australian is the best in the world. Good for them that they are happy there, but I personally could not live there for a number of reasons.
Sorry that you would rather not be there now, but glad you are able to get your annual trip and culture!

Re: Quiz: retiring overseas

my husband and I lived in Spain for two years and loved it but had to come back to England. The medical healthcare system wouldn't insure me because of my high bp, they said my medication was too high and I was too high a risk. It was fine for the first 2 years because the British government paid my healthcare for that period but when the 2 years were up we had to apply for private medical healthcare because we were only in our 40s. My husband got it no problem but I was refused and we were devastated but we could not live in a country where we weren't covered medically so reluctantly we came back. However, once we retire we are going to go back because then the British government will cover us medically. We will rent rather than buy though because we lost a huge amount of money when we had to sell up and come back. We love Spain, especialy the climate.

Re: Quiz: retiring overseas

Private medical insurance is somewhat of a minefield I think. I don't think any private company will cover you for pre existing conditions. When we lived in Africa we were insured with AAR but they wouldn't cover my husband's asthma as it was a pre existing condition. When we moved to Spain I took out private medical insurance, which was fine but of course all prescriptions are then private prescriptions and have to be paid for in full. The insurance also went up 4% a year regardless of whether it was used or not. I cancelled the private insurance a couple of years ago as we are both now registered with the Spanish version of NHS, which is absolutely fine. However because of all the fraud that was occurring here, i.e. people coming here to live but not deregistering with their doctors in UK and the UK refusing to pay for the health care they received here because their doctors in UK were still being paid for them, the system changed quite drastically. People of pensionable age still get their treatment free of course but we now have to pay 10% of each prescription charge. If the charges come to over 18 euros a month (I think) then you can claim the money back. Also each regular prescription has printed on it exactly how much the full price of the medication is and how much it is per year.