Silver Savers

System

I'm self employed in the Fiji Islands and have been for 30 years+ and still on a British passport . I'm 55 and still have a couple of thou" ticking over in Barclays for "emergencies". I'm unlikely to live in UK again and now I can see the end to the first flush of youth I'm starting to wonder what benefits I, or my family would be entitled to if and when I decided to retire. Any ideas?

Pal

Almost certainly nothing, which is understandable really as you have not paid any tax in the UK to help pay for any benefits.

That said you would be entitled to benefits (income support etc) if you returned to the UK. Perhaps worth considering when you need some NHS treatment in your old age!

Lewis_Gerolemou

SAGA may not be very good for motor insurance but they saved me nearly£10 a month on building and contents insurance- worth getting a quote
Lewis

System

SAGA motor insurance in my experiance over the last 4years has been extremely competitive whereas they have not been so good for house & contents cover.

robthomas_2

help please,
my mum-in-law, aged 60, has got about £24k sitting in an a savings acct, that gives her less than 3% a year.

she wants to re-invest it and wants a no-risk deal. She's happy to lock it up for 5 years.

Any suggestions?

alared

Why tie it up when you can get 4.3% gross with ING Direct.
Does she pay tax?

josand

Dont quite know where to ask this question so as we are over 50 thought it would be an appropriate place to try.
We have a property paid for and are at a crossroads with three options and would like anyones opinion on which would be best financially. My husband is retired and 62years old, I am 59 we have a small pension which is not covering our outgoings so are slowly dwindling our savings, what to do?
1. to downsize our property to release £100,000 equity and invest proceeds?
2. to downsize further to release £200,000 equity, invest £100,000 and perhaps buy property abroad as investment/holiday home?
3. to stay put and release equity by having a loan?

Any good advice would be greatly appreciated.

josand

Galstonian

To truly release equity you have to sell. Borrowing more on the notional value of your property risks the value falling and the cost of borrowing rising - there are warnings around that both these things may happen. If you have other reasons to move (house too big, cheaper bills etc..) I'd say move but that is just my opinion.

lisyloo

I would definitely go for downsizing for 2 reasons.
Firstly a loan will be much more expensive than using your own money.
Secondly, property prices are very high at the moment so (in my opinion) it's a great time to downsize (the financial gap between your property and the next one down is now large - if house prices fall, the gap will be smaller and you'll get less cash in the move).

Are there any other reasons for moving - to be closer to children/granchildren? to reduce maintenance and bills?

Presumably you have the freedom to move where you want which means you can move to a less expensive are if you wish as you don't need to be close to employment.

josand

Thanks for your replies re: equity release.
Main reasons are lower maintenance ( we have three & half acres to maintain) reduce bills and have cash to supplement private pension as we do not get any government help. any thoughts on investing in property abroad as an income supplement.

josand