Breaking Through, Travelling On

Goldiegirl

ZTD wrote: »

Having a bunch of your friends swinging - is no safer...



:wave:

Snigger




Have a lovely time, KC!

gallygirl

Karmacat wrote: »

Isn't it fantastic? The day I found moneysavingexpert was a very lucky one for me, truly.

And so say all of us :T. If only Martin had the foresight to start it 20 years ago :rotfl:.

Karmacat wrote: »

Previous plan was to sell the house, buy two flats, one to rent out, one to live in, but that gets me into capital gains tax etc eventually, and I'm not sure I fancy learning about that in my 70s (the French flat has been such a bad investment, I don't think I'll have enough capital gains to declare, though I'll check, of course).



New plan
Use pension funds, rent out the house, gross income poss £18k p.a. while travelling about slowly in van, renting a flat here and there (in the south of Spain, flats rent for E250-300 per month). Assume the best, that I don't get ill any more,

My tuppence worth now .

I agree with others that the French apartment drains you. If you can break even then sell now.

About your plans. My concern is re keeping your house and renting it out:
1. What if your health fails? Where will you live? It could take you months to get your house back and then you obviously wouldn't have any income from it.
2. What if you have problems with the house? You're relying on it for the majority of your income. If the tenants stop paying then again it could take months to get them out - what would you live on in the meantime? Would your other income/savings be adequate on a short-term basis (yes, if you sold the French apartment and didn't tie it all up), plus it would be very stressful for your health.

I'm concerned you are putting a lot of your eggs in one basket. I wouldn't let capital gains tax put you off buying two flats. For starters, you only pay CGT if you sell and you may never do that. And if one became your home you wouldn't want to sell that anyway.

When you were thinking of buying two flats, where were you thinking of? Where you are now or near your sister or mother? Howe are the prices there? If your mother's health failed would it not be helpful to have a base you could move to? And if yours did then being near your sister would be helpful?

Great to have lots of options and be thinking about it so much :T.

Karmacat

Morning all :hello:
Lovely lunch out yesterday; I was shattered, of course, but we had such a good time together

Gally, thanks for your detailed input, I really appreciate it. Snipping through ...

gallygirl wrote: »

My tuppence worth now .

I agree with others that the French apartment drains you. If you can break even then sell now.

Agreed. When all my year-end admin is finished, by end of January probably, that will be the main priority.

About your plans. My concern is re keeping your house and renting it out:
1. What if your health fails? Where will you live? It could take you months to get your house back and then you obviously wouldn't have any income from it.

I've managed to avoid thinking about that. But you're absolutely right to raise it. If my health failed, and I had to return to a permanent base and stay there, and couldn't get access to my house immediately I needed it (which is a near-certainty, lets face it) ... I'd probably stay with my mother (she has a 3 bed house). There's a slight chance I'd stay with my sister, after something she asked recently, but her priority is her kids, quite rightly, I wouldn't rely on that.

2. What if you have problems with the house? You're relying on it for the majority of your income. If the tenants stop paying then again it could take months to get them out - what would you live on in the meantime? Would your other income/savings be adequate on a short-term basis (yes, if you sold the French apartment and didn't tie it all up), plus it would be very stressful for your health.

Mmmm, another good question. Yes, I think I'd have enough in the short term to get them out. Especially as, in that situation, I think my sister would have fewer qualms about putting me up (we only live about 15 miles apart, so it would be handy in all sorts of ways). I'll run the figures, though.

I'm concerned you are putting a lot of your eggs in one basket. I wouldn't let capital gains tax put you off buying two flats. For starters, you only pay CGT if you sell and you may never do that. And if one became your home you wouldn't want to sell that anyway.

The reason for buying two flats *was* the thing about not putting all my eggs in one basket. A problem that I'm only just acknowledging to myself, is that it may take a while to sell this place - its a semi, and the peeps on the other side of the party wall aren't terribly attractive as neighbours. Nothing horrendous, just messy and a bit loud.

When you were thinking of buying two flats, where were you thinking of? Where you are now or near your sister or mother? Howe are the prices there? If your mother's health failed would it not be helpful to have a base you could move to? And if yours did then being near your sister would be helpful?

I'll do the answers in points
- the reasons for buying flats, as above, eggs in a couple of baskets. Cap gains: I'd actually thought of moving into one when I return to this country, live in it long enough to downsize the cap gains charge, sell it and move into the other one. But if the other one is always managed by a rental agency, which I'd want if I was in my 70s/80s whatever, then its appropriate to keep two, as you say.
- location of the flats, I was thinking of several places, but really, near my sister, which means Sussex, as she'll probably stay here. Mother and brother live in the northwest of England. Mother, I definitely don't want to buy round her, too low lying and too near the toxic relatives. She has space for both my sister and I to stay to help her, no problem. Brother, there's a couple of small towns nearby that are lovely, but they don't seem to have many flats, or a rental market for them. And though we share a love of gardening and the outdoors, mmm, there'd be problems. So its Sussex.

Just used "Sussex" as the search term in Rightmove - non-shared ownership, non-retirement flats, max price of £100k, there's currently 758! Okay, that gives me choice.

Great to have lots of options and be thinking about it so much :T.

It certainly is! I'm very conscious that I have options - it can feel like a burden to make the choices, but how much more burdensome would it feel to not have options at all!

Thank you gally :kisses3:

Goldiegirl

You do have a lot of choices, and it can feel burdensome to go through all the options.

But generally, when faced with a decision, I normally have a lightbulb moment and everything falls in to place and makes sense, so the decision normally ends up being almost easy. Like deciding to finish work this year - the old Menieres came along, and it suddenly seemed like the only thing to do.

Also, you have time - you don't have to make any decisions right now, so you don't have to put yourself under pressure to make your decision.

I must admit, the idea of getting rid of the French property appeals - you'd probably feel a lot better if that went.

Glad you had a good lunch out yesterday:)

Karmacat

Those are good points, Goldie, I agree with all of them - and I'm absolutely firm on getting rid of the French property. My only concern is whether anyone will want it. Though I'd let it go even at a big discount. I can't do any detailed work on it right now, though (I'm not teasing, honest ).

I've just had a meeting where I told somebody I was retiring in just under 2 years - I love it when I shock people with that, cos I look too young I can be so evil sometimes :j:D:j

Goldiegirl

Karmacat wrote: »

I've just had a meeting where I told somebody I was retiring in just under 2 years - I love it when I shock people with that, cos I look too young I can be so evil sometimes :j:D:j

Oooh, love it when that sort of thing happens.

It's been a while since I opened the front door to a salesman, only to be asked if my mum was in, or inadvertently got in to a museum on a child's ticket, but that sort of thing happened quite often until my early 30's.

I like to think I'm still not bad for my age, so I'm hoping for some sort of disbelief when people find out I'm retired. If they accept it without raising any eyebrows I'll be miffed!:rotfl:

edinburgher

I'll be starting work early tomorrow KC, so here's an advance cake for your big day!

:bdaycake:

Karmacat

Aww, thank you ed, have a decaff coffee to take with you now :coffee:

Goldie - thats it exactly, I was offered half fare on buses and museum admissions when I was in my late 20s - I looked the same for about 20 years, as I was going into pubs when I was 15 or so :rotfl:

You'll be fine - especially as you have a good haircut people just won't believe you.

I love it in the States - I got carded 10 years ago :rotfl: I'm sure they just do it for the tourists. I told the bartender I loved him which went down well.

I transferred my busy Wednesday to today so I can have tomorrow free; I've been slogging it, plus sent some Christmas cards. I have 7 or 8 left to do - I'm prepared to do one tomorrow because thats my Norfolk rellies that I love, but the rest can wait till the day after.

ahem_47

:j:j heureux soixantieme anniversaries KC :j:j

Have a good one x

rtandon27

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KC!!!!!

Much love from OH and me!