Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

carrots

There's an interesting analysis of factors affecting the pound's exchange rate on Reuters:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKN2149441820090122

seven-day-weekend

Well... my new friend Meiko (who is half Japanese and half Filipino and speaks eight languages:eek:) has taken me out for a drink at Bar Donaire this afternoon. Disastrous! I have had far too much vino tinto. :beer:

Found out that the Donaire daughter Lupe speaks excellent English, after I have struggled for months to talk to her in my pidgin Spanish. Her father Amador, the owner of Bar Donaire who has a huge expansive personality, came into the bar after an hour to find me, Meiko and two other English women in his bar. 'Ah!' he exclaimed in his accurate but heavily accented English. 'So many beautiful women come to see me! What would you all like to dreenk?':rotfl::rotfl:

Well that's an offer you can't refuse if ever I heard one.

Anyway, the point I was going to make was that I happened to mention that in a year's time I would get my State Pension from the UK and it would be about £100 a week. To which the other three women pulled a face and said 'what a pittance!'. Now I know by the standards of other European countries it's quite low, but to us it is a lot of money! How much do these other people have I wonder?

I really feel that to most of the people on this particular board it would be classed as a lot of money. Or is it just me??

donny-gal

If you consider that is the amount of money a single person, must cloth, house, and pay utilities and eat from, then it is a pittance. Supplementing a private pension then they start to look better. We have to remember than anyone with less than £10k in the bank (I think it is that figure) and on their own, it is an income of £5200 a year! so they have to start the Pension Credit route. In other words our pensions are means tested.

DG

carrots

Hello, SDW! :hello:

No, I don't think it's just you. But it's all relative, isn't it? I have about the same as you and your husband, but there's only one of me. (However, I no longer have a house in the UK.) I remember remarking to you a couple of years ago how much easier it would be for you when the State Pension kicks in. Am I right in thinking it will give you more than a 50% increase in your income? So from your point of view - and mine - it's a lot.

But in absolute terms, let's face it, it's a pittance, and further eroded by the terrible drop in the exchange rate. Personally, though, I'd rather be broke and living on the breadline in France than in the UK.

seven-day-weekend

Yes carrots, 50% increase in our income.

I know in absolute terms it's not much and if it is your only income and you are in the UK then it is a pittance and you would be eligible for Pension Credits. But I was, I suppose. addressing my query specifically to expats who have already lived on a fixed income (in our case my husband's Teachers' Pension) for a few years and found it eroded by the exchange rate. To us it IS a lot of money.

My friends are obviously a lot richer than me!!

droopsnout

I think carrots could be earning a supplementary income by doing a memory act!! I'm sure it would go down a storm in the Loire Valley bars!!

What I do know here (as I have no idea when it comes to entitlements, allowances, etc., unless it affects us here personally) is that an additional income of £400 a month would totally transform our lives. Oh, even 400 euros. Oh, same thing! Well, anyway, an extra 400 euros would put us half-way back to where we should be, financially speaking, if the exchange rate were where it was when we moved here! That is, I am at present 700 euros down on my pension compared to what I would have if the old rate applied.

To return to the point, though, the UK State pension IS a pittance. In fact, I'd go much further and say that it is a total disgrace. I've just been searching the web and came across this comparison chart:



Draw your own conclusions.

carrots

Good grief! Look at the Netherlands!!!

No wonder MerryWidow is so merry! :rotfl:

seven-day-weekend

Wow! I didn't realise the UK were THAT much lower than the others!

I agree, Merry Widow must be smiling!

donny-gal

Also our new Dutch neighbours, they are the ones buying at the moment.
DG

Parisien

Droopsnout........

"To return to the point, though, the UK State pension IS a pittance. In fact, I'd go much further and say that it is a total disgrace. I've just been searching the web and came across this comparison chart:"

Source for same?

thanks!