Moses2013

Not just US and across Europe life is very expensive now. It doesn't matter how you look at it and unless you inherited money or already own property, very few people can afford a house earning an average salary these days. More and more apartment blocks are popping up, unfortunately they are also far from affordable and no wonder people feel stressed when they have no personal space and no money to go out.
Owning a home is not cheap either and I just spent 5 figures on a new septic system. Sorry, slightly off topic:-).

Pulaski

I am already anticipating a few years from now using my hard work and good fortune to help little Miss P buy a home - she's still at high-school ATM.
I sympathise. What I paid a couple of years ago for a new roof and siding would have bought me an entire home 30 years ago; I had to replace the water heater the same year. I also paid for a new heating and AC system in 2016.

St.Georges Girl

Where we lived is still very nice and I felt so 'home' when we visited, but it is one of the most expensive parts of the UK. There is rarely any property for sale and the very few that have come on the market in the past few years have been snapped up within hours. I regret selling our beautiful home immensely and would give my right arm to buy it back but I know that will never happen. If only we all had a crystal ball. We are having to look further afield, we have no choice. I don't feel comfortable with it, but at least it will be closer to family than I am now..

Chchexpat

thanks for that it’s hard to know exactly how much is enough!
As for work it’s reassuring to know it is possible to find work. I have been in banking/finance but am very flexible as to what I do next.
nothing wrong with NZ if you have family and close connections here but I don’t so that’s the pull back for me…has been ongoing shall I shan’t I foe the last ten years! It’s a tough decision but the indecision is also very stressful

durham_lad

“How much is enough” is part of the “one more year” syndrome when it comes to retirement and I know it is tough knowing when to retire. The problem is compounded by moving to another country because you don’t know what your expenses will be in your new place. However, I would start by making a budget and estimating your expenses to get a feel of how close you think you are and I personally would estimate taking 4% of your savings as a guide to how much they can provide in the long run, so in your case 16k/year, then add in pensions when they arrive etc.

I have no experience in finding a job in your 60s but as mentioned above there seems to be a real shortage of workers so if you are prepared to be flexible you should be able to find something suitable.

brits1

Hi, We even had those type of comments from friends who lived in Perth WA when we were looking to move over to the Australian Eastern States lol and bar one non had never even left WA lol overtime I have in my own experience realised that (accept genuine friends who you find out through the process ) a lot of “advisers” are at most just thinking of themselves ie loosing a friend, wishing they could do it etc. I think it’s a good measure that your family are happy for you to return, most usually want you stay. We moved to the Peak District (we are northerner’s) and have been very happy here but we have been planning (when the timing is right) to move nearer to the coast. When we were moving to Aus I was so scared the furthest I had visited then was Greece. with no internet it was newspapers from the Australian consul in Manchester and from the penpals from migrants (writing in the Aussie papers) some I eventually met when we migrated and were very nice others write long letters telling if their regrets of leaving the UK (that really shook me up) but we went and we are glad we tried it (we tuned down the advisers lol) and we listened to what we wanted and thought we would regret it if we never had given Aus a go. The return decision was nothing drastic, we knew we “done” everything we could into our life in Aus and as I said we had on the whole had a great time but there was always a feeling it was not for us. We return to the UK, we explore places we had never visited before, gone overseas to countries we had only ever dreamed about before we left for Aus (travel is so much more accessible than before we left for Australia) we have visited castles, museums, theatres and I think we have only scratched the surface lol plus I can watch my beloved Manchester City whenever I can. Good look I truly hope you find “peace” as I know what life feels like when your unsettled and all the money, weather etc cannot not make that go away….it helps lol but