Chocolate eclair

Hello there.
We are a couple in our late fifties who have been resident in New Zealand since 2005 and planning our return to England within the next eighteen months.
We are trying to be methodical and organised in planning our return. We don't want any nasty financial surprises at our age.
We know about completing a TOR before our return and we are getting tax advice from advisors from the UK and NZ, what else should we be thinking about?
We are grateful for any advice that can be provided thank you.

ianandhelena

Have you checked your State Pension forecast?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Chocolate eclair

I haven't as yet, given that I'm not expecting to get much but thanks for the link.
My partner has been in touch with a pensions advisor for a number of years now.

ianandhelena

The point is, whilst you live and work abroad, you may be eligible to fill in gaps in your record by paying much cheaper class 2 NIC, currently £158.60pa rather than c£800 for class 3.
Each extra year you buy entitles you to another £267pa for life, which is the best return on investment you will ever find.
Currently (until April 2023) you can fill gaps in your record going back to 2006.
https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-nationa...-contributions

Pulaski

I totally agree - this (below) is my post from above that I had second thoughts about and deleted.

Chocolate eclair

Thank you both very much. That's really excellent advice and I'll put it on my "to do list" for next week.

ianandhelena

Oops-forgot to attach this: https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ty-abroad-ni38

Chocolate eclair

That's very helpful thanks.
Apparently I can't attach URLS until I've posted five times.

alicerose

Hi

Sounds like we are similar age and situation. We have been on SI NZ since 2005. We originated from Surrey/Sussex and would like to move to the Dorset area.

We want to ensure;
1. We don’t jeopardise our max pension funds
2. We won’t have a worse retirement in the UK

We are looking to exit in the next 2yrs. Just as my OH will be 60. Hopefully we can semi retire but we still have a reasonable amount to pay off a mortgage here 😞 we are working on loading the repayments to increase equity.

Plus we have 3 kids, 1 in Germany and 2 here, hoping they will come with us otherwise I don’t know if I can go… so hard, feel awful for having brought them here 16 years ago and now want to uproot them again to a country they don’t know!!! But NZ isn’t the place we came to it’s changed a lot and we really feel like we don’t belong here now!

Will you be leaving family here?

I’ve tried to log in to identify my NIC however neither of us have a current UK passport so can’t complete true two forms of ID not sure if there is a way round it?


Good luck to you guys I hope your plans come together!

alicerose

Your info is really great … have you first hand experience of this process?

It’s like de ja vue, working in reverse, so don’t want to mess up our retirement… when we came to NZ in 2005 we just sold the house and packed up 3 kids and boarded a flight knowing if it didn’t work out we had heaps of time to make up any financial disaster, but this time it feels like we are playing roulette with our retirement fund!!! And don’t want to be worse off !!

Chocolate eclair

Thank you. We would like to be packing up and ready to go right this minute! In our heads we are already in England and we are both unhappy being here. We need to do some stuff to the house and garden prior to selling it and get our heads around starting again in the UK.

Being that bit older does seem to make the whole process more daunting than coming this way. The financial stuff scares the heck out of me. We don't have the pull of family as we don't have children but appreciate how difficult that makes it for you. We have friends with a son and new baby in Canada, and a daughter in NZ who feel pulled in different directions. They feel guilty about not being near their parents in England, they want to be able to see their new grandchild and their daughter is planning on going travelling later this year. She may decide to settle in Europe or Canada as she doesn't see much of a future in NZ. It's very difficult for them.

As we get older we are finding NZ life increasingly boring and just too expensive to live comfortably. We feel that if we remain then it will be too much of a miserable existence. The beaches and scenery are all very lovely but I miss the culture, architecture and history of home.
For us, the Government's isolationist approach to Covid in the past 12 months has increased our resolve to return home. We don't feel that we belong here either.

Good luck with your plans.

OzSheila

Hi,

We left Surrey in 2006 returning to Australia with our 3 UK born children.
Roll on 2019 & we returned to the UK to do a renovation on our London property in readiness for sale.
One child in Melbourne; one in Penang and the other in Northern Norway.
Then the pandemic happened.
Fortunately with jobs & roof over our head we remained in UK.
Managed a 2 week trip back to Australia for Christmas where we were treated as London lepers.
Couldn’t wait to get back to London. We have no regrets.
Good luck

BEVS

I so hear this. We are older than some on this thread. We came out to NZ from Dorset in 2004 & I have never really felt the fit. For me it is dull. For several reasons our own window of opportunity to leave closed mid 2020 so unless something amazing happens to help somehow I cannot now see how we could viably return.

Our great pals ping-ponged but finally made a UK return at the beginning of 2020. I believe they used an equity release plan to help them afford a home. Of course savings and pension pots took a hit but they are at least where both their adult kids are now even if finances are not all that. They are happier. They are in Dorset.


Wishing you all the best for your plans.

alicerose

Oh I’m sorry to read this…is it because of the pension funds that are restricting your plans?

We always felt coming to NZ was a bit of a one way ticket..my OH has never been back to the Uk probably because he would not have come back here if honest. We don’t feel like we belong here now…but the worry is; will we feel like we belong there!!!

We are both a wee way off retirement but not too far! So we so want to do the right thing!

i hope one day you can return to the UK.

Good luck to you too 👍😊

BEVS

Thank you. That is kind.

Yes. It is about funds and also income to live. We were set for a long recce Sept 2020 and hopefully a return April 2021 , except the world got turned upside down .
2019 I hit my 65th birthday. My husband is 5 yrs younger than me. May/June 2020 saw me having to make a very very hard decision regarding pensions for 2 reasons. My age ; my husband.

Try not to worry about how it will turn out. Just get back there. You have time .

Edit to add: Our pals. They went to Sherborne. They are a bit fusspot around the edges regarding areas & types of houses . He always earned a great salary both UK and NZ as an EHO.
They have struggled somewhat, in part because they maybe they like the nice things in life & given work opportunities were not as was hoped. However an equity release plan saw them where they wanted to be and his age kicked in to release some pension funding . That has helped. Overall though , they are where they wish to be .