spouse of scouse

Thanks for your info too, I didn't know about the UK pensions/trade agreement thing. Fingers crossed it happens, would be great for expats of both countries if a new Social Security Agreement was put into place.

I'm in the process of engaging a tax advisory service that has offices in both the UK and Australia, if you like I can let you know in a couple of months if I can recommend them or not.

fal

This is the link to the full document https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore...8&subId=463798

Yes please it would be great to have a personal recommendation for a tax advisor who's knowledgeable about both countries.

spouse of scouse

Goodo, will let you know what I think of them. Thanks for the link.

ozzieeagle

Yehp will try and start a retirement thread soon. I'm such a similar position to you, except I'm aussie based and would like to look at the possibilty of having a NHemisphere base.

First thing I will say is that here in Aus, the aim is not exactly the Aus Pension per se it's more to fit just in within the pension threshold so as to gain all the Pension discounts. Superannuation is the key to this.

We plan to spend my/our 7 figure Superannuation on holidays and good living over the next 10 - 15 years and then downsize to another part of Australia from our Inner Melbourne Location..... Airbnb is on our horizon as well we live in a damn good location and it's going to be difficult to part with our family home of the past 32 years. IE: Forgetting about the pension and just going with the assets we have accrued over our 40 years of government employment in Melbourne

AFAIK the Thing is if you have to much "Cash' which includes assets likes cars and furniture in Australia and I think it's a relatively low figure of 270,000AUD for a couple then you fall foul of the Aus Pension assets test. So you have to maneuver your assets very carefully.

Sydney from where I sit seems a strange choice, in as much as it locks up too much of your assets. I'd actually choose Adelaide over Sydney purely for that reason... especially if weather is a major factor.

Personally Ballarat, Hobart, and Launceston are on my retirement horizon as my final property ownership.... thats just current thinking and if we spend the bulk of our Super and have to liquidate our Melbourne abode.

I was supposed to have retired with a redundancy package last year.... on Sept 29th to be precise, except Aus Post reneged..... Now I'm stuck with the prospect of losing 88 weeks tax-free payout if I leave before my official pension age of 66 in 3 years time. (After Pension Age, Redundancy packages become taxable) There is still a very strong likelihood of those automation driven redundancies coming along. Hence I really am between a rock and hard place at present.... as I would love to leave and start enjoying myself.


So why Sydney is my question?

fal

This was very interesting, mind you I find UK pensions complicated enough let alone navigating the Oz system.

Our daughter lives in Sydney and doesn't plan on leaving. That's where I lived for 8 years many years ago. It's the only city I know and as I'm a city person it's an ideal combination of urban/waterside living. Anywhere other than possibly Melbourne would most likely be too small town for us.

It's unfortunate that Sydney house prices are similar to our part of the UK. Location is an important factor and it's hard to make a major move without having a big incentive. We're happy to downsize to a certain extent but still want an attractive property in a great suburb not too far out.

ozzieeagle

I'm an urban lover as well. Having spent all of my life in Cities, from SE London to Inner Melbourne. Coincidently my place here in Melbourne is worth about the same as where I grew up in my family home like for like in Forest Hill South London. Although I'm closer to the CBD here. There is one thing that has become abhorrent to me about cities in my later years. That's sitting in traffic. I really despise heavy traffic to the point that I am willing to seriously consider moving to quieter locales. Now I'm not sure where you are from but Sydney if anything is worse than London for traffic... Without the public transport back up. In fact, Public Transport in Inner Melbourne is probably better than Sydney's because of the tram network. I'm just pointing out that there are possible factors you haven't taken into account yet.

At age 63 I cannot think of a more pointless time-wasting exercise than sitting in a traffic jam for an hour or more per day just going to the shops or indeed visiting your daughter....Then there's the car parking... So unless you can afford to buy in an area where you walk to most of your daily activities you could be buying yourself an issue you hadn't thought of. Everything else about Sydney is fine as far as I'm concerned.

Luckily I walk to most things here or catch public transport. If I do move, it will be to an inner locale within walking distance to everything I think we need and the Train Station in Ballarat's case.

fal

That's strange, I live in Bromley and am just a year older than you! Our daughter lives right in the city centre and we walk everywhere and get very fit especially as it's so hilly.

Yes Sydney traffic is much worse than round here. I can walk to the station and the train into London takes 16 minutes. Other than school runs and peak times we rarely get stuck in traffic around this area. Driving distances is very different of course, the M25 being terrible much of the time. London has the tube so other than the crowds it's easy to get around.

We will need to be a stone's throw from a station or the "express" bus routes, preferably not more than 30-40 mins from the CBD. The northern beaches that we like don't even have trains. That's down to topography I suppose but also what makes it so beautiful. Who knows things change and children usually move out from the city eventually. As you say property prices are high in cities so moving out in future is an option.

tomar

Allen Collett a migration agent is also recommended for U.K./Australia tax advice. We will probably use him when our parent visa comes through.
We have been retired in Oz for 15 years, we are on a long term self funded retirement visa that was stopped in 2005. the cost of living has definitely increased considerably, so it's important to factor this in your plans. Our pensions are luckily index linked, so the rise hasn't impacted on our lives, but we do know several couples that have returned to UK as they couldn't afford to stay.

fal

Thanks I've made a note of his details.

I presume you mean your workplace pensions are index-linked. We're unlikely to fully emigrate unless the frozen state pensions are sorted. It makes it harder watching the fluctuating pound. Problem is it's not really a long-term retirement plan to be travelling back and forth.

ozzieeagle

I'm not going to worry about the Long Term retirement plan until we've finished our Travelling bug. Then we'll see where we end up. Until then you could do as I intend, use your main dwelling as your pension retirement egg. By that I mean work out where you are most likely to get the most return until your final abode.

It could well be worth hanging on to your place in Bromley and renting it out over the next few years and renting here.

Just a option in case you hadn't considered it. You could also feel very differently in 3 years time to today.

Just to let you know how Aussies think, and I consider myself an Aussie now after 38 years here. A hell of a lot of them become "Grey Nomads' in the first stages of retirement. I'm looking at the option of getting a self-sustainable caravan, building a secure living fully fenced and private complete with all utilities berth for it at the back of my place here in Coburg.... Traveling and coming back here at times all whilst renting my main dwelling out.... either through Airbnb or maybe even fixed term. That will give me an option of not having to worry about the means-tested pension for a few years, whilst we do our traveling here and overseas. Plus it should insure our final retirement plans as a nest egg on a pro rata basis v other properties.... in fact it's more than likely going to increase v them because of the inner city locale.


In a very few years and 64 is still very young in today's world, you could develop a more Australian attitude to life.... hence keep as many options open as possible is my advice.

Lets put it this way, I definitely plan to do the Trans Siberian and a bit of Cunarding, plus spend a few NH summers in Europe, I wouldn't mind a driving holiday through the US either. Hence my main early retirement thrust is keeping as many options open for myself as possible.

tomar

Yes work pensions. The exchange rate needs factoring in as well, it was $3 to the pound 15 years ago!
We came for a bit of an adventure, we had lived in Brunei for 10 years and weren't ready to go back to the UK. on retirement. No immediate family here either, but 2 of ours have followed us here so we are quite settled now. We travel loads, have visited every state, and go back to UK most years for about 3 months as our only grandchildren are there. We never get our tenants to move out of our property, it seems more sensible to leave good tenants in place and rent ourselves, much less hassle. We get the state pension increase every time while we are back. We haven't regretted retiring here but as I previously mentioned we are lucky our income has matched the increase in living expenses.
We reckon to spend between $3500/4000 a month 4 bed detached house, pool 2 cars, solar panels. Holidays meals out not included. We manage comfortably, live on the Sunshine Coast. Hope that helps.

louie

Tomar, you need to be very careful if you are not to become UK tax resident. If you are not already familiar with the rules, have a good look at https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...nal_078500.pdf, particularly if you give up your Australian rental when you are in the UK and/or stay with your children or rent a property (and thus are deemed to have a home) in the UK.

tomar

I think you have misunderstood we don't have an Australian rental. We have no Australian income, we are taxed in U.K. Our rental property is in U.K., we own our house in Australia. We are not Australian, live in Oz on a long term temporary retirement visa.

louie

You are right - I thought you were referring to an Australian rental property, not a British one. Ignore me!