Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

These are some of the options we've been looking at. Not France, but looking at Sweden and Spain. Sweden is quite an expensive place to live, but the houses are dirt cheap if you don't live in a big city. Spain we can buy somewhere pretty cheap, though not as cheap in the parts we are looking at.

Our mortgage here is almost paid. We've worked out we can retire early if we buy a cheap "holiday home" and live there permanently for a couple of years. We could then live off a combination of savings and rental income from uk house, then move back when we have full access to all of our pensions.

Through a friend of mine who is a pretty prodigious traveler I have met several people who have saved hard and retired or mostly retired to the Third World or emerging countries like Thailand and India.

These days with the health passport and freedom of movement it is trivially easy to go to live in a cheap part of France or Spain.

vivatifosi

The sticking point for me is my parents. I would not move away from them and leave caring burden to my brother. We are 100% looking at owning abroad though. The reason we have looked at Sweden is it is not as prone to Eurozone crises as like us, has its own currency. Also you can buy a really nice house there for less than £70k. Healthcare is excellent too.

PasturesNew

Spirit wrote: »

My licence is being issued today or tomorrow.

Congrats, you're back in the game!

Spirit wrote: »

Thanks for listening to my whinging.:j

You were a serious lightweight in that dept to be honest

michaels

Spirit wrote: »

Spoke to DVLa this afternoon. My licence is being issued today or tomorrow.

Applied 10th Sept 2015, revoked 9th Nov, Provisional 12th Jan, Test 13th April.

It feels longer

Virtual beers for all NP, :beer:.Thanks for listening to my whinging.:j

Congratulations Spirit. Do feel free to drop in for a cup of tea if you are driving past.

No sign of PN back from the pub yet. Heres hoping she pulled

Edit: take it all back, cross-posted.

zagubov

I'd love to visit Sweden, but where I grew up, the word "Baltic" was the standard adjective for weather that was, shall we say, sub-optimal.

bugslet

Spirit :j:j, great to hear about the driving license. I hope it makes your life easier now you can get out and about on your own.

zagubov wrote: »

On other threads people have noted that the number of deaths of celebrities is higher than in previous years. I wonder if that means they have risen against people of similar ages in the non-famous population IYSWIM.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36108133

Yes just age and more people are celebrity's really - had to happen sooner or later.

vivatifosi wrote: »

Gutted to hear Prince has died. He was epic in concert.

Am now kicking myself that I never saw him live.:(

silvercar wrote: »

Very luckily for them, they will have gained by a long period of house price inflation. Of course, they may say they haven't been able to save due to house prices.

One of the benefits of living in the North is that house prices are lower in some areas. I took a decision a long time ago to live in an average place in a decent house and have more money in the pension than a posh house in a trendy area and no pension/savings.

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

Fuming.

We've been in our house nearly 10 years. Today a letter arrives to the previous owner requiring a repayment plan to an outstanding loan of over £20k. Why is he using our address? He went bankrupt shortly after moving, so this debt must be since then, when he no longer lived here.

Hmm, or it's a mistake on the part of the loan company? They haven't recorded the bankruptcy, and this is the only address they have for him?

SingleSue

PasturesNew wrote: »

Once you've got a "golden ticket" the ride's assured.

I was informed recently that somebody's milking the system. Couple, had been relying on child benefits/top ups to provide them with their lavish lifestyle. She never "bothered" to work much. Then the kids got to Uni age, so the husband went "on the sick" and she put in a claim to be his carer. Now he's back in the building trade and still claiming some disability benefits and she's still getting income as his carer.

The person who knows this is one of the couple's "close friends" and, as a single/working person feels REALLY aggrieved at the way they're falsifying things to create themselves a bit of a fortune in income stream through the 'disability' Golden Ticket route. Seeing a couple milk the system is particularly galling if you're single as the sums involved are so disproportionately MASSIVE compared to a single's income.

In short, there's "nothing wrong with him" and she's doing no "caring". They've just worked out what/how to claim and are milking it.

Unfortunately, I don't feel as if I have a golden ticket, think I would much rather be able to do the things I used to do than get the blue badge and the money.

My sister in law told me I was a jammy begger because I have a motability car, yeah so jammy I can no longer go shopping on my own, or have sex without something dislocating, or go for a nice walk on the sea front, post stuff in the post box, jump in the car and just drive, go to the loo without aids...hell get around the house without aids.

I'd give anything to be back like I used to be.

I have a neighbour who thinks I am milking it, or that there is nothing wrong with me, I can't tell you how much that upsets me.

GDB2222

DW points to a recipe and says "This looks like something even you could make."

mystic_trev

Generali wrote: »

It is why I am secularly bearish on house prices. There are going to be a lot of people who are living in half-million pound houses without a pot to wee in. Selling up and moving to a nice, cheap bit of France, Spain or England must be very tempting.

One of these:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57825557.html

Would buy you one of these in Normandy and put £400,000 in your pocket:

http://www.french-property.com/vp/nv/ds/lower-normandy-orne-argentan-house/id/588891/

Just shows the madness of the current market. That house you referred to in Sevenoaks was sold for £320,000 last year.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/TN13-3NJ.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Ffind.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DPOSTCODE%255E866978%26minPrice%3D425000%26maxPrice%3D550000%26minBedrooms%3D3%26radius%3D0.5


Whack on a small extension then sell it for 50% more a year later!

I complete on my move today. If I wanted to sell it it would make (easily) 10% more than I offered, all in the space of 4 months! It's absolute madness here in parts of the SE. Hardly a rational or stable market.