Wanderer Returns

I was thinking that too, @Marisawright but didn't want to come across the wrong way! I believe you own a property in Sydney and one in the south-east UK @MARYROSE02? Wouldn't it be better to sell your Sydney home off first and live in the UK one for a year or so, then sell that and return to Australia, to avoid a huge capital gains tax bill?

I think a lot of expats have this dream, but the reality is unsustainable financially and ultimately more trouble than it's worth. Unless you're minted, you'd need to be able to rent out each property for 6 months, and that isn't as easy as it sounds because most tenants want to stay longer than that. Unless you were renting your place out fully-furnished, you would also need to put all your belongings in storage every 6 months, and get them out again, which would be a right faff. Then there's the tax issue, as you could find yourself being taxed at higher rates by both countries. Quite hard to maintain tax residency when your out of the country for that length of time. You'd have a primary residence in each country, so both countries could claim that you were normally tax resident there. It could become quite complicated - and expensive. If I was ever thinking about returning to the UK, I'd probably only go back for 3 months (June to September) and hire/buy a campervan. You'd probably see/do a lot more in your retirement years than if you returned to a single place of residence.

There was a time when you could get those benefits without being means tested. Nowadays if you're eligible for disability or sickness benefit, you probably really do need it.

It'd be interesting to know which countries this applies to - forewarned is forearmed, as they say. I can't imagine there would be too many restrictions to stop you moving to rural Italy. You can buy a house (in need of renovation) for as little as 1 Euro, and they are paying the rent of families moving into some towns to stop the communities dying out. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2021/05/19/this-italian-village-will-pay-you-to-move-there-and-even-more-if-you-have-a-baby/?sh=4177928962d8

I see. At the moment there are no restrictions on British citizens entering the Schengen area and staying up to 90 days, although they are introducing a visa waiver programme (ETIAS) in late 2022, which still seems like a formality. From the information I've read, my spouse will need to register within 90 days of arrival and apply for a residence permit. I appreciate that this process may vary somewhat between the different member states.

That doesn't sound right at all, although I'll happily stand corrected According to the official website of the EU... As an EU citizen, you have the right to move to any EU country to live, work, study, look for a job or retire. There is no mention of any restrictions placed on EU citizens living outside the EU. https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/residence/residence-rights/index_en.htm#eu-citizen

When I worked in Cairns I lived just down the road from Palm Beach in Trinity Beach, for 3 years. It's a slightly cheaper suburb and in my opinion has a bit more personality than Palm Beach. A word of warning, if you're looking to buy an apartment/unit in FNQ then the bodycorp fees can be exorbitant due to the cyclone risk. It's a beautiful location, but unless you're into fishing or diving in a big way, it's definitely too boring to retire there! I think S E Asia is only really an option while you're in good health and even then you need health insurance, but it's a option for the more adventurous due to the low cost of living. Also, you don't need a particularly large pension to obtain a retirement visa for either Thailand or Malaysia.

@newjez I am sorely tempted to brew my own beer, as my father did, but I'm sure it will result in me drinking far too much beer - as it did for him! It's now getting increasingly difficult to buy craft ales over here for anything less than $4/can - when bought as part of a 4-pack or 6-pack. Once it reaches $5/can I've decided I'm giving it up. I might even give up before and then I can retire sooner, but at the moment I find that it brightens up my working week! Italy - I'm thinking about the Dolomites. Spent some wonderful summers there with my parents. I'm fortunate to have Irish citizenship through a grandparent, so I've managed to dodge the Brexit bullet

I'm an Irish citizen, so I don't need to go through any visa rigmarole because I have EU residency rights. However, my wife only has British citizen, but my understanding is that obtaining residency for spouses of EU citizens when living in Europe is much more straightforward (and less expensive) than spouses of British citizens living in the UK, where the process bleeds you dry.

By all accounts property is going through the roof in the UK atm, so you might end up selling just at the wrong time. Assuming it's not an interest-only mortgage, you will be paying of much more of the principal by now, so more of each mortgage repayment will be your money when you come to sell the place. Good luck with the lawsuit - hope it can benefit you. @Lavers showing what a great forum PIO is for helping people in a fix

Well that's the obvious place, but there are also bonds, property investments, peer-to-peer lending - and now cryptocurrencies, for a more diverse portfolio. It would be fair to assume that most people are either working or living off a pension, so in either case there's no real need to have tens of thousands in a bank account. Given current interest rates, each day you are literally flushing a little more money down the pan.

However tempting, this is such a bad idea. As Tulip states, you will be left with a much larger debt than if you had sold the property yourself. They are likely to have something on file which links you back to Australia, and if you don't repay the debt, it will eventually be passed on to an Australian debt collecting agency and then you are in deep doo-doo. 20 years ago you could've probably got away with it, but not the way information is shared these days. Unless you plan to jet off to South America with a large suitcase full of money, this is probably going to catch up with you in the end.

I find that hard to believe as it doesn't make any financial sense, unless you're in the process of a property transaction. The FSCS limit is still a consideration, but a minor one considering that UK banks are now required to keep their commercial and domestic banking operations separate.

Andrew, I can almost see the finish line if I squint hard enough!

Thanks for the comments everyone, and also for the links to various retirement calculators etc. I've estimated that I should be able to retire in some degree of comfort (based on our needs) when I'm 60 (5.75 years from now, not that anyone's counting), although I might have to stop buying beer and start brewing my own! Apart from overseas trips, we are also pretty frugal. We hardly ever eat out and generally change the car (for another second-hand one) every 5 years or so. You can probably run them for longer here in Australia because of the climate, but the cars I owned in the UK were pretty much on their way to the scrapheap by the time they were 10-12 years old. I agree that people seem to spend a lot more money on cars than they really need to. As @Marisawright noted, it was a loaded question because I'd really like to stop working before 60 and was wondering if we'd had enough money. The short answer is 'no' if we continue to live in Australia. However, we've been thinking about renting out our house and living in a cheaper country for a few years. The rent would more than cover the mortgage, and the remaining funds would become an income stream along with my UK private pension, which I can get at 55. Regional Italy is top of the list at the moments, as the cost of renting is half of what it would be in Australia. It would also negate that need for overseas holidays because we'd already be there Thailand/Malaysia are also possibilities, although I think I might get bored there after a while.

It seems unlikely that anyone would maintain a balance in excess of £85,000 in a UK bank account for any period of time, but I guess it's a consideration. The Revolut account would probably solve the OP's dilemma. I assume that Revolut issue customers with a bank card?

I maintain 2 UK bank accounts and 3 credit cards, and I'll never close them unless I'm told they no longer support overseas customers. Unlike Australia, UK banks rarely charge an annual fee for account ownership, and owning a UK bank account long-term is also good for your UK credit rating, should you ever wish to return.

I'm wondering just how much you would need to retire these days, if you were single - or a couple. I appreciate it's a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but let's say for the sake of argument that the retiree(s) mortgage is paid off, they aren't renting, and they don't have any other loans or major outgoings. They lead a modest lifestyle, with one overseas holiday a year, and replace their car every 3-5 years. They are retiring at 60, so will be completely self-funded until they reach retirement age. Would $40,000 for a single person, or $60,000 per couple be enough?

That's a bit of an exaggeration to be fair. For the last two years £1=$1.80 has been the average. Sterling is strong at the moment due to the UK having 'conquered covid', while Australia tries to get past first base. It's killing the economy over here. £1=$1.90 isn't the best exchange rate, but it could be a lot worse. If you open a Wise account you can transfer some of your funds to Sterling and hold it in Wise until your UK bank account is open. That way you've hedged your bets, regardless of exchange rate fluctuations in the near future.

Sorry for your loss. A couple of my friends in the UK lost loved ones in the last year (not covid-related) and they held the funerals online. It might be an easier option given all the current restrictions.

Then you were very fortunate. For most people the cost alone makes the return trip prohibitive, not to mention the holidays required and taking children out of school etc. In principal the UK is 24 hours away, but in practice that's always been a fallacy - even before covid.

@Quoll correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this also applies to children born in the UK? Doesn't the UK adhere to the Hague Convention too?

The short answer is they don't, and their mental health never improves - only gets worse. There are many posts on this forum from people who are ambivalent about the idea of life down under, but yours has to be one the most clear-cut in favour of staying in the UK. If your partner feels just as strongly about returning to Australia, then do the sensible thing and split up. Hopefully you don't have kids yet. Don't become one of the many on this forum who have spent decades being miserable because they are living somewhere they don't belong.

True, although they never seem to have much of a choice - Johnson or Corbyn, for God's sake?! For the first time ever I voted for the Green Party!

You've hit the nail on the head. The UK is as cheap as chips because of slave-labour wages, which haven't kept up with the cost of living and are never likely to go up significantly - at least while the Tories are in power. Low-skilled UK workers have been paid peanuts for decades and stripped of their employments rights, pensions, and other benefits because there's always been someone who'd replace them. The glut of cheap labour might eventually dry up with the exit from the EU, but there's enough poor people there already, willing to work for peanuts. My wife was on 8 quid an hour for 12-hour night shifts at an old folks home. Now she makes double that here in Australia, not to mention 9.5% super contributions and more social hours. Brits will always been exploited because they'll never drop that stiff upper lip, which ironically has become their Achilles heel.