J.J

US SS can be arranged to be paid in foreign currency into a foreign bank account.
For your private pension the provider will know best. If in $$ only consider having it paid into a Offshore Bank that allow multi-currency - I've seen them but don't have one, they may charge a fee !!. Others have praised HSBC. Alternatively keep one checking account open in US (useful if there are late refund checks to cash or tax checks to be deposited) when you leave and make appropriate exchange transfers, no charge if done online.

windsong

Thanks JJ.

If you have your SS paid directly into foreign currency, I would think you can still lose out on currency fluctuations so does it matter if you arrange to have it paid directly into foreign currency or if you have it paid into an Offshore bank?

J.J

Or the other way, glass half full, you could consider it as a gain on currency fluctuations.

Just food for thought;

The potential advantage of offshore could be that it goes into a $$ account allowing you to exchange it when rates are more favorable if you can live without it as regular income, if you have a job for instance - however, exchange rates are not easily if ever, predictable, you may have to wait a year or so, otherwise as you say you are at mercy of prevailing rates.

Something I have not yet done but marked for future investigation is to compare US SS exchange rate basis with what I could get doing it myself from a US bank account through a currency exchange organization.

Jennifer Fletcher

Hi Windsong

Whereabouts in the UK are you moving to?

I'm from London, moved to Sydney last month. I'm 27 so I can't recall past 30 years but I can tell you that in the last 15-20 years of life in London it has changed dramatically. It's one of the reasons I left. I've only been in Sydney for a month but I can already feel a connection with this place and it actually reminds me of how London USED to be. Strangely, Sydney is more similar to the London of my childhood than the current London is.

If you're moving back to somewhere in the countryside then I guess that's a different story, but I don't know much about that. It would be interesting to hear more about where you are from.

I doubt things will be the same after 30 years, the population has changed, the races and religions have changed - you might even see mosques and cultural food markets in place of your butchers and grocers. It's not a bad thing, it's just very different. The christmas I knew as a child has all but disappeared due to political correctness. There's a whole load of things that have changed, and I don't think most of them are for the better really. But that's just my opinion. In light of that, I would imagine in 20-30 years from now I would rather keep the England I knew in my memory and not spoil it by going to a deteriorating economy and culture. England is not a place of good manners anymore, not a place of community. It's very easy to get iscolated and lonely there and people do not respect the elderly.

Whatever negatives you might be facing in the US won't neccessarily be resolved by coming back to the UK. Perhaps you would be better off planning to move to another destination - maybe check out Scandanavia or Italy (again personal opinon!) and then you'll know that you are close enough to home to drop in now and then. There are lots of options and I think you sound like someone who is passionate and has a lot of life in you. Wouldn't going 'back' to UK be a kind of regression? And on top of that an unfamiliar regression? If you're gonna go into the unfamiliar, may aswell do it somewhere new and nice, and not risk shattering your love for UK as it was.

Anyway that's my thoughts on your topic!

ldyinlv

The grass isnt greener anywhere...every country has its own problems especially in this economic climate. Windsong and I have both been in the US for many years (34 in my case) and I know its cliche to say, but home is where the heart is.

Jackie..

sallysimmons

I felt like you when I first moved away too. But here are several negatives that will be resoved for me - and I suspect Windsong - by leaving America:

1) I won't live in fear of having my very expensive health insurance removed leaving me without any access to health care.
2) I won't have to pay $1,400 in healthcare premiums every month
3) I won't have to wait all year to see friends and family for just a few weeks - I'll be able to see them whenever I want.
4) I won't have to worry that Sarah Palin might be my President

I know you meant well, but there are very concrete things about the UK that you come to appreciate when you don't have access to them, and as you get older.

ldyinlv

Very well said Sally. As someone who has just lost everything because of my health here in the US, I know that would never have happened in the UK...also family, and a nation that cares about the well being of its citizens cant be all that bad. Like te old saying says "you dont know what youve got till its gone"

Lorry1

As a couple of people have already said...there are problems all over the world!
I too felt like you when I left England 3 and a half years ago.

I live in Canada and we have the same thing with political correctness here, Kids can't do Nativity plays anymore etc, etc...
Once you remove your rose tinted spectacles, you will see things for what they really are in your new Country, and see that things are not much different from England.

London is definately NOT a place I would ever choose to live anyway, no matter if it were 30 years ago, or today!

Good luck in OZ

Jennifer Fletcher

Glad to see this forum is active!

I don't know how I will feel in 3 - 30 years time. I made the choice to leave London because I just felt that life was really depressing and the types of people you run into on public transport leave a lot to be desired. So many people are annoyed about the immigration issues, I would be lying if I said that wasn't part of the problem for me. I know there's a whole bigger picture and I'm not an economist or anything but from what I could see there seems to be a constant looming threat of terrorist attack (after 7/7 if people like that get their hands on nukes, they wouldn't hesitate to use it on London), there is a problem with numerous underage pregnancies (sorry I don't have any stats but it's obvious just walking down Croydon high street) to single, uneducated mothers leading to a cycle of producing more of them (promiscuity is a problem amongst these types), the latest immigration wave of polish people has seen to it that you are exposed to the polish language everyday while they work in jobs that the government should've forced the uk benefit busters to work instead. Those are just a few of the observations I made from a mixture of experience, media and discusssions amongst like-minded people. From my everyday experience I have plenty of things to say about the general public! Once upon a time we used to have civilised bus queues. Now it's like a baboon troop scrambling for food just to get the bus. The weak, ill or elderly have no chance of getting the bus - even if they queued there first. It's overcrowded, people bash into you and don't apologise. It's dangerous - my phone has been mugged from me 2ce in my own street. I've been attacked at my local park while on a sunday morning run. It's a place where immorality is rife, it's not a place for children. London is a place to make money if you can (with the goal of enjoying that money elsewhere) and get the hell out! On top of this we have bad weather, what's the point?

You know what I do love about England though? Pork pies, savaloy and chips and pie and mash. I loved it when the food of the chavs was pie and mash - that's changed now to chicken and chips eaten on the bus with a loud rnb song playing on their mobile. Sorry forgot, I was supposed to be positive in this paragraph! I do enjoy going to a football match in the cold season, the chants of the supporters and seeing your breath-vapour as you watch the pitch is an amazing atmosphere. I love those shows only fools and horses, keeping up appearances etc! I loved going to the butchers or the grocers! I love Mayfair and Canary Wharf - both places I worked at. The back-street bars in Mayfair around Berkley Square were lovely. I love the cheap prices of food, I love the atmosphere when the christmas lights are up, I love the snow and I love sitting with my nan in her cosy flat by the fireplace watching x-factor or whatever she wants to watch!

So, there are parts of the UK that are close to my heart and can never be replaced by Australia, but it's just too heartbreaking to watch all that disappear in front of me as the UK deteriorates. It's sad to say but it will one day be as distant as a foreign country with no way to return.

Okay so now you know my opinion and why I was telling windsong to reconsider

windsong

Sally, Jackie and Ida - You all understand me very well. Yes, home is where the heart is.

Life in the USA is worthless - yes, WORTHLESS. People are dispensable. Life doesn't count. You can tell by how little the government cares about people.

People here only care about themselves. They are shallow, two-faced and uncaring. Now, I know I can't say that about everyone, but I can say it about 95% of the population.

I know that Britain is heading in the same direction as the U.S. - but it is a long way off being in the same evil category. Yes, I did say "evil". It is dog eat dog here, money counts and people don't. That's evil. Old people here are shoved off to the side. No one cares.

Everywhere, including Britain is changing. Nothing is the same anywhere. They can't be. Supposedly, life improves with all the changes - hopefully, but not everywhere. The population figures have increased drastically over the last 30 years and changes have had to be made to support the increased numbers.

My mother had a massive stroke here in the USA 11 years ago. She lay on the ground 12 hours before she was found. She was a vegetable. After a while she was on life support. After her insurance ran out, the hospital would only keep her on it for three months. Then, they more or less forced me to take her off. She died!

A few years after that, I became very sick with a fibroid tumor - 7-month fetus size. I carried that for FOUR YEARS! My doctor told me he didn't know how I could still stand. Why four years? I was at the top of my career field and the economy in my state was getting really bad. It's bad everywhere but my state is one of the worst hit. I was in and out of jobs and felt I couldn't take off for surgery as soon as I got a new job. I was on a job for one year and planned the surgery. No date had been set but in my mind it was planned. A few weeks later, I was laid off. I could not afford COBRA health insurance as a single female. I had three weeks of health insurance left after I was laid off. I went to a hospital - directly to the surgeon. I begged him to operate and take it out. I couldn't walk further than a block. My blood level was down to SEVEN! My thyroid shut down completely - I still have a low thyroid to this day. The surgeon examined me - he was a robotic surgeon (used robots to operate rather than hands). I thought because he was a robotic surgeon he could get inside and be able to remove the tumor without my female organs. He told me it was impossible, even with robotic instruments. The tumor had mingled with my organs and they "were one". Also it was pressing right up against my stomach by this time. He told me to come back in two weeks and he would operate - one week before my insurance ran out.

I had surgery and I am fine now, except for having a low thyroid. I also have no waistline whatsoever anymore and a bit of loose skin. They told me I carried the large tumor too long for my skin to snap back like a rubber band and that I may need surgery to remove the skin later. I do, but it's not bad. It did ruin my figure, though.

Four years after that the bank took my home. I merely applied for a loan modification and was approved. I received the final papers to sign from the bank but the escrow figures were wrong. They were asked to change them. No response. One month later I found out by accident my home had been sold. I am presently renting MY HOME from the new owner until the lawsuit is finished - yes, I am suing the bank.

The rich corporations are thieving from the middle and working classes. It is a real struggle to survive.

I am not working in a permanent job at the moment - just a temp job.

Now ask me again why I want to go home. I don't like what happens here. I had my eyes opened and I do not want to remain in a country that allows this sort of thing to happen to ANYONE!

Even if all this had not happened, Jackie is right. Home is where the heart is. Britain is my home. I have had enough of the BS that happens in this country.

windsong

I would never live in London or even on the outskirts. Heck, I love Edinburgh in Scotland - went to university there - but would never live in the city. I might even be in the city all the time, but I would never hang my hat there - on the outskirts perhaps.

I really miss hearing the birds sing - crowds of them. You don't hear that here. Yes, there are birds but you are lucky if you hear them sing very often. Besides, I am 58 and I am similar to the rest of the 58 year olds over there. The young crew may be different, but not those my age. Even here on this forum, I can feel the bond. No such bond exists with anyone in the USA.

Also, there's tons of history over there. The buildings are ancient - historical buildings I mean - and the churches. Many fiction books have been centered around these historical buildings. You can "feel" the history in those buildings. I yearn to be close to that.

Unfortunately, immigration is going to water down the history. Much of it will be forgotten and perhaps no longer taught. Family values will eventually change. That is the beginning of the disintegration of society as we knew it. Even so, the disintegration is not quite so far along as in the U.S.

ldyinlv

I know what you mean about the birds. The morning chorus as my mom calls it. The birds start at about 5am at my moms house and within an hour all you can hear is a wonderful chorus of bird song..

windsong

It's a beautiful sound, Ida. When you have such natural beauty around you, it makes you feel at peace. I long to feel that peace.

sallysimmons

I don't have any problem with immigrants - far from it. I think they have made Britain a richer and more interesting place than it was when I left it. And they've introduced way better food! But then again, since I left Britain I've lived in very multi-cultural societies and I know how much it has improved my life. I'm not interested in 'whites only' living - never have been.

I had a list of reasons I left too, Jennifer. Top of mine was Margaret Thatcher, rain and football hooligans. But you change as you get older - or some of us do anyway. Be happy that you're enjoying your life, but don't presume to know how people much older than you should be feeling. You have a lot of life experiences to go before you understand.

As for the birds, we have a lot of bird song here and I'm 20 minutes outside Manhattan. Do you guys genuinely not hear birds where you live?

Jennifer Fletcher

Wow I'm shocked... That sounds awful! If you put it that way I guess UK are lucky to have the so-called 'nanny state'!

I really feel for you and hope that you can move back to your lovely hometown with ease.

My husband said he didn't want to stay here in Sydney and I said to him the only way I would go back is if we moved to the countryside! I love cornwall or even just Hertfordshire.

I think the countryside has more friendly people there so you should be able to build up friends again easily.

My dad told me that it takes leaving the UK to really appreciate it. He was in the merchant navy for a few years. Although, he is now as upset as I am about the way London is and wants to move to the Philippines! lol! Maybe I should suggest to him to just move to the countryside

I love this thread