Mse Home or abroad - moving away for better quality of living on less money

grey_lady

I've been thinking that Britain seems to be getting more and more expensive to live in, food, fuel and utilities bills seems to have shot up in the last few years even though inflation has been 'allegedly' low.
Work seems more and more stressful, even for those of us lucky enough to be in work a situation which we all know that could change at the drop of a hat.
Food and petrol are more costly than ever and interest rates / rent or mortgage repayments will soon go up and stealth taxes everywhere - doesnt seem very MSE.

So... has anyone looked into moving abroad for a better quality of life for their family even though their income would be less? I'm just thinking of the usual places, Spain, Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand etc

milliebear00001

I think this would depend on what things give you 'quality of life'. I know several people who live in Oz, and a couple who live in Spain and France. All love them, but for very different reasons and I've never heard any of them cite finances among those reasons! People often talk about places like Spain (for example) being much cheaper, but don't take into account the difference in pay. The might talk about other countries being cheaper, but not take into account other things like having to pay for healthcare (or other services) separately. The people I know who love living overseas, love those places because of things like 'weather/outdoor lifestyle/job opportunities/culture/food/neighbourliness' etc. All of them though, are skilled and reasonably well paid - being poor in ANY country is pretty miserable!

Savvy_Sue

Before you decide 'abroad' is cheaper, you need to have a look at the Living Abroad thread on Silver Savers.

BTW, anyone is welcome there, we have some non-Silver Savers joining in there!

tara747

I (and OH) often think about emigrating, mainly due to our awful weather, we both love the outdoor life. Only my wonderful family keeps me here, I would miss my friends too but would still go.

It is very tempting and I shall be following this thread with interest.

milliebear00001

The biggest factor keeping people 'at home' I think - family and friends. My quality of life would be pretty rubbish without them being nearby.

tara747

Exactly. The things that give OH and me quality of life are:

Family
Friends
Good weather
Proximity to the sea
Enough money not to have to worry about paying the bills
I'm sue there are more, if I think of them I'll add them!

Spirit_2

I think sociall networks are more important than we give credit for:

two of my colleagues have daughters who have moved abroad in the last 2 years:

Family 1 - moved to central France, renovated a house with lots of land, young chldren who have assimilated well. Mum & Dad learning french, dad commuting back to England to top up income (he is an electrician) work hard to get without very good french, capital from UK house sale now depleted,she she is expecting baby number 3 . They want to make a go of it, better housing and environment, but it is hard - her mum & dad are visiting very regularly as she is missing family and friends. Her mum's view is that they could have achieved pretty much the same if they had moved to the north of England.

Family 2 - Moved to Oz - both working, better housing, environment and schools but they have the 'blues' as they miss family and close friends here.

A close friend 'retired' to Canada with her husband so that they could be near their only son and his family. Moved there at his request otherwise son & his wife thought that they may need to move back. It is a better way of life for them . All very settled now

lynzpower

I honestly think it depends on what your relationships are like with freinds & family here.

I have a great realtionship with my parents, love them to peices but see them about twice a year, they are up north, me here in London. Grandparents/ aunties/ uncles/ cousins- again see them pretty infrequently, but have a good relationship with them via email/ facebook/ phone calls/ the family messengers. OH is quite the same, although we do see his family more like 4 times a year as they do live a bit closer. We have sisters we probalby speak to weekly, but if we dont speak for afew weeks, no one is concerned by that, we are just all so busy really.

So you wonder what the point is, everyones so busy, they have no time to see the family they do have here in the same country. As long as we have a phone and enough money to make calls on it, then I couldnt see our life in realtion to ourt family being much different- if we had a nice house in a hot country Id expect wed see more of our family- not less

I tend to socialise at the moment pretty infreqnently, its taken me months to catch up with an old friend who lives two tube stops away- we just have very busy lives, again we keep in contact using phones/ internet etc. Is working 50 hours a week, plus the commute worth it? I often dont get home till 7.,I leave home at 7 go to the gym, then start work at8.30

Answer- I dont even think its about the money, its about the time you dont have while makign that money that you need to survive on.

joshieg3011

For a Spanish prospective - We have a holiday home in Spain and went over there in April of this year. We couldn't believe how expensive everything was! Don't know if it's the bad Euro exchange rate but the Spanish seem to have put their prices up too. I went to the local supermarket for ingredients to make spaghetti carbonara - the parmesam cheese for this was 6.50 euros (around £6.00). I worked out that it would have cost me around 20 euros for all the ingredients and put everything back! Even a lunch for two adults and two children was 40 euros - and that was only for omelettes!

Also the work situation is bad in Spain. Unless you speak fluent Spanish it's difficult to get a job anywhere (and even then I think it's poorly paid). We spoke to an English bloke who had managed to get a job in a large hypermarket and he said thought himself very lucky to have been given a job there. He said that if a 90-year old Spanish woman had come in in a wheelchair applying for the job, they would have given it to her! They are very much for "their own" IYKWIM.

I know a few people who have lived out there for a few years are now trying to sell up and come back (or have to travel back to the UK to look for work).

Hope this helps and good luck with whatever you decide - remember it's different actually living there than just being on holiday.

Horasio

I agree, a place can be nice to go on holiday but to live there is very different.

In my 20s, my OH and I were seriously thinking about emigrating to either Australia or the USA.

We visited to Australia and had a good holiday. Whilst we were there, imagined living there. We didn't like it enough to live there. Financially they were in a bad recession and the morale was very low. We also felt the English were not 'really' liked. The ex pat Brits were the only people who were friendly.

We love visiting the US but the work culture in the US is very different to here. Their low holiday entitlement and long hours means you never see each other. There are many more extras that need to be paid for, including healthcare.

My OH got a job in Edinburgh years ago and I went up there on holiday and decided to relocate. Again, it was different being on holiday to actually living there. Edinburgh also underwent some huge changes in the 15 years we were there.

We are down south again in a holiday area and have seen some changes since I was younger.

My advice is if you like it as a holiday place, great, but imagine the realities of living in these places full time when the weather isn't so nice, people are wary of you because you are an outsider, the different billing systems, extra/different costs, slower or less efficient bureaucracy.

SugarSpun

I live in southern Germany - I was offered a job here and took it.

We have a great quality of life. It's more expensive than in other areas of Germany, but it's clean and beautiful, we're close to the Alps, to Austria, to Italy, crime is incredibly low and wages tend to be higher so the cost of living isn't too painful.

A working knowledge of the language is essential, as is the ability to be flexible and relaxed and to make the most of any opportunity. I only have three German friends, all the others are also expats living here - it's almost impossible to break into the German closed social circles.

It's not easy to emigrate, but the rewards can absolutely outweigh the negatives if you work at it. I know plenty of people who've turned up here and expected everything to fall into their laps. It doesn't work that way.