Mortgage free by moving abroad?

memecoughlin

Hello,

I'm very interested to know if anyone has either entertained the idea or gone ahead with the idea of moving abroad in order to become mortgage free and pursue a different lifestyle.

We are a family of four (children aged 3 and 2) and we live in a 2 up 2 down. Our older boy sleeps in our bedroom . Our garden is a very small courtyard. So we would really like to move to a 3 bedroom house with a little more space. Converting our own house is not an option as the loft is too small and a landing/ staircase would eat into our second bedroom and so we would still end up with a 2 bedroom house. We are both self employed and know that securing another mortgage for a bigger house in the UK will not only be difficult but the extra repayments will put a lot of extra stress on us.

We are interested in looking at opportunities in Europe- say France or Italy, where the houses are still affordable (and the food is good). If we sold our house in UK we would have £140K to spend (minus 12% legal fees).

Our fears are:
- Lack of knowledge regarding living costs in those countries- utility bills, taxes, price of fuel. Has anyone lived in France recently?
- Generating income whilst living in a different country. What have others done?
- Burning our bridges in the UK- not being able to afford to come back if we wanted/ needed to.

We are eager to learn from others but we are also prepared to make some mistakes along the way...Just as long as they are not too expensive!

Any thoughts/ suggestions/ advice would be much appreciated!

Many thanks.

downsizer3

Hi!
I don't have personal experience but friends of mine sold up and moved to France several years ago. Her business had gone bust and he was stuck in a job rut ( she was also French!) - so they sold up and bought a wee place to do up over there. He did the physical graft and she got a wee job whilst her daughter was at school.
French laws on development taxes changed and they didn't make much if any profit despite all their efforts and to cut a long story short they are back - and he's working in London. They kept a wee place over there and rent here.
They also said they had never argued till they threw themselves in unknown waters...........then again - they tried it!!
No real pearls of wisdom there but I suppose I'm saying to watch out for local red tape / protocol etc - it may not be as simple as you may think ( language differences aside).
Good luck though - I feel your self-employed pain!!! We are considered untouchable by the mortgage lenders just now - especially if there is any down-turn in your profits. Maybe worth checking out though - just in case?
Good luck.

Sepa74

My brother relocated to Italy, and has made a good living teaching English over the years. He loves it, and is now married to an Italian and has bought a house there.

However Italy is challenging to live in because there is endless red tape. They are also very lax when it comes to paying wages and salaries, particularly if you are in your 20s / early 30s. There is an assumption that anyone this age is still living with their parents and thus their salary is 'pocket money'. People get paid months late, and young Italians often get suckered into working for free for 'experience', although that wouldn't happen to you.

Having said that my brother loves the lifestyle and definitely wouldn't move to the UK (we're from Oz originally). He has endless patience, so the red tape frustrates him, but he deals with it.

Moving to Italy would not be a quick route to mortgage freedom, but it is doable. My other piece of advice is to move somewhere that isn't fashionable (ie NOT tuscany!!) so there are fewer English teachers! University towns are good because you will get lots of private students as Faculty have to have good English these days.

I hope this helps!

sarahevie

The parents of my best frend relocated from Barnsley to Portugal in 2002, as empty nesters, the moved back in 2009.

They grew to miss friends, family, UK really. Their main problem was financial they sold their mortgage free home for £250K, just before prices shot up. Bought a cheap flat in Portugal for £90K and had the rest as 'savings'. They also both have good pensions.

Yet when they moved back their old home was on the market for £350 as prices had short up, so they are now living in a 2 bedroom cottage in a village outside Barnsley that they paid £169K for. They have downsized from a large Victorian place to the cottage. Their biggest regret not keeping a foothold on the English property market

evi3000

Try it but don't sell up here. Rent out your house and rent a small place in your chosen country. Burning your bridges by selling up is a bad plan. I know several people who have done this and have lived to regret it. They far outnumber the people I know who sold up and lived happily ever after abroad.
Good luck.

angelil

I live in France; I moved here in 2008. Ashamedly I don't know exactly how much our utilities etc are as they are all in my French husband's name and I just give him a certain amount every month (€500 or so a month to cover all of my share of the rent and bills). I then food shop on top of that. However, even though I find food shopping here (just outside of Paris) expensive, we recoup costs elsewhere (for instance, my travelcard for my 5-day-a-week, 2.5hr-a-day commute is only €97 a month). My mother also says she doesn't know how I live on my income, which could suggest money goes further here in general. I appreciate though that things are easier as a twosome and that on my income alone I would be as poor as a church mouse

In terms of generating income I work as a teacher in an international school and do a bit of journalism and translation on the side. I can't say I'd recommend coming here if your French is bad, as I do speak it (10-15 years of learning the language before coming) and it is hard enough to settle in and find work if you do speak it (the French are NOT sympathetic on the whole although maybe that is just a Paris area thing ).

I cannot speak on whether I would be able to afford to come back if I needed to because I came to France fresh out of university, at the start of my career, so I have nothing to compare it to.

Let me know if you have any more questions about living in France