Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

ManAtHome

Let us know how you get on Brenda - hopefully going for it myself next year (when the customers stop offering me money..). Have been looking around the 24-26ft range - very impressed with the Merc Sprinter based models, but if you find anything blinding...

Anyway, hope it all works for you - and you're not mad (IMHO).

missile

Hi Rachael,
Obviously speaking even a little spanish will help, but it is not true that one cannot get employment unless you are fluent. I have several friends and aquaintences who work for spanish firms and many more work for expat firms. It is perhaps more important that you have some skills to offer, or your employment opportunities will be severely limited. There are any number of foreign nationals looking for unskilled jobs, those from hispannic countries are fluent in spanish.

No idea about Valencia, but many of the local schools in Alicante region offer spanish for foreigners as part of their carriculum. Our local town hall offers free spanish lesson for older foreigners.

Rental prices vary depending on your requirements. Many rental properties are advertised on the internet, do a search eg "property rental in Valencia" yielded 10 pages of hits on Yahoo.

seven-day-weekend

missile wrote: »

Hi Rachael,
Obviously speaking even a little spanish will help, but it is not true that one cannot get employment unless you are fluent. I have several friends and aquaintences who work for spanish firms and many more work for expat firms. It is perhaps more important that you have some skills to offer, or your employment opportunities will be severely limited. There are any number of foreign nationals looking for unskilled jobs, those from hispannic countries are fluent in spanish.

No idea about Valencia, but many of the local schools in Alicante region offer spanish for foreigners as part of their carriculum. Our local town hall offers free spanish lesson for older foreigners.

Rental prices vary depending on your requirements. Many rental properties are advertised on the internet, do a search eg "property rental in Valencia" yielded 10 pages of hits on Yahoo.

This is true where I live, in Spanish businesses. There is limited work amongst expats. This is not a huge expat area like on the Costas.

I do not want to destroy anyone's dream, I am just counselling caution and research before committing, as I have seen so meany dreams fail because of lack of these two things.

Hope it works out for them.

missile

She is talking about moving to Valencia, where there is a sizeable foreign community and I would suggest the employment prospects will be very similar to Alicante region.

As you suggest, in rural spain employment prospects are quite limited - even for spanish nationals.

donny-gal

Rachael

Please listen to what is being said they are not scaremongering, it is fact. One out of about 100 make it. The Alicante (Torrevieja) area is certain well established for ex-pats. You may find work in bars at 5€ an hour in the peak months. Be prepared to work, and work damn hard. The only people I know who have succeeded have done this, taking any work, painting, building, house cleaning, gardening, and ofter both man and wife work, until eventually getting real jobs, which then covers the medical costs. Your E111 (whatever it is called now) will give your approx 2 years cover for basic medical cover at a local doctor.

Look at http://www.costablanca-news.com/classified/propmart.htm weekly, I agree with the renting first option too. There are too many properties about for sale and to rent. Allow at least £50 a week to rent a house, an apartment may be less. Take some warm clothes with you the houses often are not centrally heated and not designed to keep in the warmth. Food is cheap, use the markets not supermarkets, fresher and cheaper.

We bought a house there 5 years ago, and are over the moon with, but it is for our retirement, and we do not need to earn. The local schools give the children extra Spanish lessons when the locals are doing English. The children will be fine, and they will be speaking Spanish in no time. It is you who will struggle, along with your husband who needs Spanish too.

PM me if you have any questions

droopsnout

OK - so some vacancies may be suitable for Rachel in some ex-pat-owned businesses.What proportion of businesses in Valencia are owned by UK ex-pats? 1%?? (Stab in the dark). What proportion of posts would be suitable for Rachel in her own UK world? 5%?? (Probably less). How many of those posts would she realistically be appointed to, if applying? 30%?? (Guesswork).

If those figures are not outrageously stupid (and I admit they could be - I was trying to use just common sense and intelligent guesswork), she would have a chance of a job in only a tiny, infinitesimal number of advertised vacancies.

It is safer, perhaps, to say that it is almost impossible to obtain a job without a decent command of Spanish than to offer too much hope of success.

I live within one hour's travel time of Toulouse. Maybe that's comparable to Valencia in terms of employment. I don't know of any Brits who work there. I do know of an odd airline pilot who has a home round here. But he couldn't be said to work here.

I do know of Brits who settled round here, convinced that they would get jobs in the aviation industry and who ended up going back to the UK very hurt, very disappointed and very much worse off financially.

But once again, the reality is that Rachel should get over to Valencia and speak to the people who MIGHT be able to offer her a position.

missile

I am not in disagreement with you, Rachael and her husband will find it hard, but certainly not impossible to find work. I would suggest it is far easier for those who have a skill to offer.

I would suggest that it will be easier to find work in Spain than in any comparible region in France. The only Brits I know who have found work in France are ski guides, a musician, a massueur and two who run their own guest houses - their clientelle are almost exclusively Brits.

brenda50

Thanks Man

I may be going over sooner than I thought. I have been offered a unit on a complex which will be great so I can take my time sorting out a van. Will keep in touch.

donny-gal

Rachael

You may want to look at this site
http://www.costablancauncovered.com/making-a-living/jobs-in-Spain.html

Regards
DG

novice-saver

If you are thinking of "retiring" to France before normal retirement age, read this article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/03/wsarko103.xml

Thousands of Britons who have taken early retirement and moved to France are to lose free health care under radical reforms introduced by France's new president..


Thanks, Droopsnout, for your link which works.

You say the point I was trying to make about being careful taking early retirement abroad.