InVinoVeritas

Yes I'd go along with €1,500pm as a minimum but I'd want a bigger buffer than £100K.

Chatter Static

IMHO the buffer needs to be able to buy a house in the UK if you decide to bail or be able to support yourself in rented accommodation in the UK for some time whilst you wait for the French one to sell. Best laid plans don't always pan out as you predict so it's contingency planing that will keep you smiling.

EuroTrash

If I had a bigger buffer than 100K, I'd think about spending most of it on buying a house or flat in Birmingham or somewhere and renting it out. £500 a month rent or thereabouts as opposed to peanuts in interest, and it's not like France, if at some stage you need to break into the capital you don't have to wait forever to sell it and get your hands on the cash.

EuroTrash

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Confusedinfrance

We live well on 1100.00 euros per month. Own the house, run two cars, eat out fairly often, entertain a great deal and pay our bills with no problem and save around 100 a month. It is all a case of being sensible. We don't have expensive holidays but we do travel back to the uk at least three times a year. So, in my opinion you don't need a huge back up of cash. I cook from scratch with produce in season, we bake our own bread and although we have two log burners and central heating we are careful not to over use the central heating but keep it warm. We are better off here than we would be in the UK.

EuroTrash

Yes but if you don't have a buffer, what do you do when for example your car breaks down and will cost 1000+€ to get repaired? It will take a lot of 100€s to pay a major garage bill and you can't wait 12 months to get your car back.

petitefrancaise

It all sounds very lovely - retiring to France....

I'd be more concerned with coping when you are older and can't cope on your own or perhaps want to be around your family. A retirement/nursing home in France with a load of oldies who can't speak French anymore nevermind English.
How will you get to the doctor's/hospitals for the inevitable appointments?


Your house may not appreciate in value at all, it may take years to sell it - how will you manage if you want to go back to the UK?

Legal stuff in france eg.French inheritance tax means you can't disinherit your offspring.

I'd rather live frugally in the UK and go down the pub with my mates!

Touraine

Best points so far in this debate.

EuroTrash

Totally disagree, I'm afraid.

If you never do anything because one day you're gonna be too old to do it any more, what a boring life you'll have lived. That's exactly why you do it now, before you are too old. Life's for doing things while you still can - you're a long time dead. Needing hospital care and being in a nursing home with a load of dribblers who can't communicate is going to be no fun whatever country you're in, but if you live the dream for a while and have good times to look back on it might make the last bit more bearable. Working until you retire and then living frugally in the same place and going down the same pub every night isn't everybody's idea of living life to the full.

The OP already said that he's single with no kids so I don't think he'll be too worried about inheritance tax or disinheriting offspring or missing grandkids.

But hey it's a good job we're all different and want different things out of life.

Chatter Static

I think you should research this subject some more before making such sweeping statements this subject comes up over and over there are lots of useful threads in the forum.

But the term you should research is "Communauté Universelle" as it's a contract where spouses pool all resources so that any surviving spouse can become soul inheritor of the estate it is an option for married couples with children as it disenfranchises the children until the second party kicks the bucket and you can adopt it anytime after you have married although the older the children the more paperwork is needed and you cane find out a lot more HERE





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petitefrancaise

He's already 65
didn't say he doesn't have any kids. Whether or not he supports them now is irrelevant to french inheritance laws.

My aunt and uncle "retired" to the Dordogne at age 55. They'd had a house there for years, knew their neighbours, spoke french and had a decent amount of money to live on (ie they were set up for a succesful ex-patriation) Sold up last year after 10 years for all kinds of reasons but one of the biggest ones was what they saw happening to their slightly older friends and having had to rescue a couple of elderly Brits living out of town. It's also really cold and dreary in the dordogne in winter.
They've bought a huge campervan and spend the winters touring warmer climates and the summers with their family in the UK. Not exactly people who don't experiment.

Oh yes, don't forget to factor in the costs of buying a house. Even if you manage without an agent, there are the notaire's fees to be paid. Not sure how much they are these days but luckily we were forewarned by a friend because it is considerable.

I know this should probably be on the OP's other thread but if you want a really accurate assessment of the value of your house, then the notaire can send someone to do a valuation. They know what houses have sold for in the area (not what people tell you). They were spot on with our house - it sold for what they said it was worth.

That horrible daily mail article was full of Brits who sold up everything and thought France would work out. I know they were morons but I bet that wasn't what people were telling them when they moved.

petitefrancaise

sure, but what I gave was an example eg...) to illustrate the point that one simply cannot assume that everything is the same as the UK.

You are aware that the tax laws regarding selling a house after you leave France have changed this year?

EuroTrash

Yes sorry you're right about the kids, I didn't read it properly.

But quite honestly I think it's the exception rather than the norm when people want to disinherit one of their kids to the extent that it's a real issue for them when they can't. And the likelihood is that within a few years the law will be changed and many expats, including those from the UK, will be able to choose who they leave their assets to as per the inheritance law of their own country.

I agree that moving to France doesn't work for everybody, but it does work for lots of people. So I don't get why you seem to be saying that the fact that it didn't work for somebody else, either because they went about it in a moronic way that was doomed to fail or because they just decided it wasn't for them, means nobody should do it. If you're in a position to do it properly and if you stay for 10 years and enjoy it and then decide to come back, I would say it was well worth it - nobody says it has to be for ever or not at all.

That is one of the keys to making it work - never assume that anything is the same in France as in the UK, after all why would it be. Do your homework, find out how things work and work round that.

Chatter Static

Personally I didn't see what you posted as an example, to me it read like an incorrect generalisation.

JWL

Well, they would be if they applied to anything I've said about my situation. They don't...