Three spending surprises

Bostonerimus1

Silvertabby said:

Bostonerimus1 said:

Consumer3 said:

@Silvertabby
Half my family are in the US and similar to the UK, the older ones own and the younger ones rent. 

However the difference is although some properties have been owned since the 1950’s, some of them constantly remortgage to pay large medical bills. Taxes on properties are different to UK council tax and vary from state to state. 

The US equivalent of council taxes are real estate taxes and you pay these locally. They vary from town to town. Right now RE taxes are my single largest expense at almost $9k a year. But the amount depends on the value of your property and where you live and the level of services provided by the town.

Assuming you aren't a millionaire living in a mansion, $9K a year is a horrendous amount to pay for anyone, not just a pensioner.  Our 4 bed detached (ok, probably small by US standards but still a decent size) is worth about £400K and our council tax is £2,400 a year.   Hmmm - hope this doesn't put ideas into a certain someone's head !

And, while our NHS isn't perfect, we don't have to constantly remortgage to to keep on top of medical bills.  

I live in an expensive town with high house prices that is building a beautiful new High School and my house is also a two family with a separate flat on the ground floor so that all helps to push the price up. But many US retirees pay similar levels of RE taxes. 

It's very dangerous to compare spending across countries particularly because of the vastly different level of services and how they are financed. You point about medical services is well taken. In the US the level of insurance coverage and medical services provided varies greatly with where you live and who you work for - it's a stupid way to provide health care. Retirees get Federal Medicare insurance that they must pay $200/month for that and it doesn't cover everything so people pay for supplemental coverage. When I go on that insurance Medicare plus supplemental policy will cost me about $400/month.

Silvertabby

Bostonerimus1 said:

Silvertabby said:

Bostonerimus1 said:

Consumer3 said:

@Silvertabby
Half my family are in the US and similar to the UK, the older ones own and the younger ones rent. 

However the difference is although some properties have been owned since the 1950’s, some of them constantly remortgage to pay large medical bills. Taxes on properties are different to UK council tax and vary from state to state. 

The US equivalent of council taxes are real estate taxes and you pay these locally. They vary from town to town. Right now RE taxes are my single largest expense at almost $9k a year. But the amount depends on the value of your property and where you live and the level of services provided by the town.

Assuming you aren't a millionaire living in a mansion, $9K a year is a horrendous amount to pay for anyone, not just a pensioner.  Our 4 bed detached (ok, probably small by US standards but still a decent size) is worth about £400K and our council tax is £2,400 a year.   Hmmm - hope this doesn't put ideas into a certain someone's head !

And, while our NHS isn't perfect, we don't have to constantly remortgage to to keep on top of medical bills.  

I live in an expensive town with high house prices that is building a beautiful new High School and my house is also a two family with a separate flat on the ground floor so that all helps to push the price up. But many US retirees pay similar levels of RE taxes. 

It's very dangerous to compare spending across countries particularly because of the vastly different level of services and how they are financed. You point about medical services is well taken. In the US the level of insurance coverage and medical services provided varies greatly with where you live and who you work for.

I know.  It does annoy me when people cherry pick the best bits of life in certain countries, while happily ignoring the rest.  Take European State pensions, for example.  How many times have we read about how much more State pensioners in Spain etc get than UK State pensioners............while ignoring the fact that most Euro pensions are hybrid schemes, part State and part private, with both employers and employees paying in way more than we do in just NI.