Easterndawn

[QUOTE=Almo;10226204]Thanks Fish, I'm hoping that's not what most people are talking about!

I did start a thread about this topic but didn't get much response, understandably it differs for everyone depending on family size, lifestyle, location once they get back to the UK etc.

We are just about to transfer another chunk of cash over so keep your fingers crossed that the Aussie dollar stays high for us. We transferred over the monies from our house sale a couple of months ago, when the dollar was not quite as strong (we thought it was going to fall further, so made the leap) and yesterday I made the mistake of playing 'how much more would we have got if we'd waited?' Big mistake![/QUOTE

I think it will depend on your lifestyle and what part of the UK you decide to live in. Here in the west of Scotland, one bedroom flats range from £400 to £800 per calendar month, council tax, £100 - £200, groceries for a couple would probable range around £200 - £300, TV liscence £12.00, car insurance £50 - £120 (your driving record in the country you presently reside in will not be taken into effect here in the UK by most companies), electric and gas £100 -£150 combined. Therefore your budget would be in the £1,000 to £1,500 per month for a couple to live decently. I also think if you had £10,000 to £20,000 in your savings that you could live quite well here as long as you had a decent pension that would allow you to not have to dip into your savings. All this would depend as I said on your lifestyle. If you enjoy eating out, travelling then of course you would need much more in your savings. These are just my thoughts, if I had what I have written above it would be much easier for me.

between two worlds

Do post the result of those pros and cons--the "turmoil" of being older, leaving family, having health issues, etc is what this thread for the over 50s and 60s (and more) is all about--as you know, since you started it! Just a shame the turmoil has been more than you expected....

Great news on the thyroid, trust hepatitis will be all clear.

Watch those fingers or soon you will be typing to us with your teeth!!!! I love that you can still give us a chuckle.

Tina

jasper123

Almo,
Its so hard for anyone to put a ball park figure on the amount of money you would need to come back home, it all depends on how many people are in the family, what living arrangements you have in mind, like renting or buying, you say you have recently transferred a chunk of cash from your sale of your house, so you sound as if you would be in a darn good position, so as I see it you shouldn't have a problem,
I came home with $5,000 U.S. and still have it in the bank, it all depends on so many factors on what money you will need, are you retired, will you have a retirement income? or do you need to try and find work?
And it also so much depends on how you live your life over here, if you like eating out, going for a drink, seeing concerts and shows and plays, and music festivals? and take vacations, OMG then you will need a lot of money,
for example I know a couple over here in there 40's who have a nice joint yearly income of around £30k after taxes, and they rent a council flat, and go on 2 or 3 nice holidays abroad every year, go out to dinner in a rather nice restaurant once a week, love there curry take aways all this is very expensive, and they owe money on credit cards that they are paying off,
They have been living this way for many years and they havent managed to save a penny, ----- I wonder why?
Good luck,

sallysimmons

Almo, we have been comfortable in our move, but we do not have enough money to be mortgage-free, so that's definitely not what's needed.

Like you we saved up and we used those savings to finance the move home. There's no doubt this money made the move easier - for example, we were able to rent a holiday cottage for a few weeks when we first got back instead of cramming in with family or friends. We've been able to rent a home in a nice area. We're able to take day trips or go for dinner every now and then. I've been able to afford art classes.

These are the things that make life easier for me - but they might not be the things someone else would choose to spend money on. You may have other requirements or needs to make you happy.

In the end I think you just have to sit down and think about what matters to you in life and whether you can afford those things in the UK. If you can, then you have 'enough money.' If not, you have to decide whether not having those things will make you unhappy.

cheers

Maybe the Welsh in us??

curleytops

I agree with Rodney. For every returning ex-pat you will see a different set of circumstances. You have to examine what's important to your lifestyle and determine what changes if any you are prepared to live with as a result of the move. Obviously for some of us, that magic £ amount is higher than others.

For some years prior to returning I had learned to live on practically nothing. I lived with my Dad (his house is paid for) and basically I looked after buying the household groceries. Other than that I had a car to run and maintain. We lived in a remote small town in Ontario, Canada where for me there was really no social life to speak of and no place to wear fancy clothes to so I didn't spend a lot on entertainment etc. When I got to the point in my life where I decided there was no point spending all my income just for the sake of spending it, I started saving it and gradually it added up, despite the fact that my job paid little more than minimum wage. For years I used credit cards to my own advantage (collecting reward points and paying off the balance in full every month) so when I moved back to the UK I was debt free.

Both hubby and I were pretty much starting over and at our age we have resigned ourselves to renting as a mortgage for us being first time buyers is unlikely. That's not necessarily a bad thing as while it is nice to have a place you can truly call your own, it can also be a burden to tie you down - all of you having trouble trying to sell property know that. We started setting up our home prior to my moving back - hubby arranged the flat & associated setup costs and I looked after getting some of our household goods online & just having them shipped directly to him. Amazon was a good friend in those days and hubby used to joke about it being like Christmas with all the parcels arriving . When I came, I brought about £4000 with me to help out with a bit more furniture and opted to leave other cash and investments along with my small RSP in Canada to be drawn upon if needed.

The original game plan had been for me to take a few months off to get my bearings and adjust to life back in the UK and to try & pick up a part time job later in the year (my health issues put paid to that). We could have managed on my husband's salary and been able to save a little if we'd been careful. The plan was to take our time furnishing the flat and buy when we could afford something we both REALLY liked (thank heavens we didn't fall into the old buy now defer payments routine!). Unfortunately with my husband's health problems and subsequent redundancy all our plans went out the window. We're holding our heads above water at the moment but there won't be a car or a holiday any time soon.

I guess what I'd say is take a good hard look at your priorities early in the move planning stages and if you are part of a couple make sure you are firmly agreed on those priorities. If you have any credit card or similar debt I would suggest clearing off as soon as you can so you can concentrate on building up your cash reserves in preparation for moving. Keep in mind that the unexpected can and does happen and obviously the more you've got in the fund, the better you'll be able to handle it.

Almo

Thanks for all your responses and the depth of info in them, much appreciated. We will be going back to work - we're not over 50s but this is by far the most informative thread on here so I snuck in and mostly lurk but read religiously.

I guess I am just going through a bit of an uneasy stage about walking away from jobs etc here. I'm entirely committed to moving back, it's just the getting a job aspect which frightens me which means I focus on money and have little freak outs every now and then!

jasper123

curleytops,
It seems the lack of money always plays a big part in peoples lives wherever they live in the world, in the western world people always seem to want more and more, its Just the way it is, and those with nothing strive to get something,
In the late 1960's I decided to end my four year Immigrant life in Australia, and go home to U.K. ALONE, I was 24 at the time, oh boy that was a long time ago I planed my trip well, Sydney to Singapore on board the S.S.Malaysia passenger ship, public transport through to Penang, 3 weeks there in youth hostel one U.S. dollar per night rent, then passenger/cargo ship over to Madras, South India, then public transport all through the middle east to Istanbul, then took the Orient Express Train to France, then ferry over to Dover, and Train to Portsmouth, My adventure took me six months to compleat, I traveled through a lot of countries, and along the way there were quite a few really scary moments in many countries, in particular Iran,
Anyway the experience was a once in a lifetime for me and I wouldn't have missed it for the world,
Now to my Point that I need to make now, ------ rewind to the part of my story When I got to India, In my travel plans were to take a short trip up to Kathmandu ---- cause I read a lot about Nepal and I wanted to see it for myself, so I paid 13 rupees to travel on an open back truck along with 20 other people up this winding very steep narrow road, the 130 mile trek through the ganges and the Himalayas to Kathmandu, that short distance took 12 hours to drive, I would often be looking at the wheels as they came ever so close to the edge looking down and seeing a drop of thousands of feet beneath, quite scary!!! a sudden rock fall and we would all be gonners,

OK now we are in Kathmandu, we are so far up in the mountains the mist is everywhere and just sits there in the brisk cool air and looking so magical,
I look at farmers leading Oxen pulling a cart through the dirt track streets,
I see women washing there clothes in the stream, and little children running around everywhere, old men with long grey beards smoking a chillum of hash in the street,
These were extremely poor people all of them, but I didn't sense the same poverty there like I did in India, the Nepalese people just looked to me that they were one cut above in a class of there own and they new how to be happy and contented with what they have, they have never known any other life, its quite isolated up there you know, there hard working farmers leading a (VERY) basic simple life,
Nepal at that time was a country that as the world moved on and progress happened, IT didn't move on, it just stayed as it has always been, at that time there were no cars or any kind of motorised vehcles, or anything modern, as though there world has not changed for thousands of years, and I just absolutely loved it there, and loved the people, so poor but without a care in the world, and expecting no more from life then they have now, and you got the impression that if someone came in and tried to change or improve there life even slightly ---- then they would not like that at all, I only spent 5 weeks with these people, I wanted to stay there forever, but it was not to be,
So thats the point I have been trying to get at all this time, some people in this world need a lot to make them happy, ----- but then there are others who need very very little but are happy and contented beyond belief.
I suppose I myself fit quite snugly into this group.
Sorry for such a long story, I hope I didn't bore those who took the time to read it too much,
Take care,
Rodney.

cheers

You are quite the author...wow!
One point, if I got it right, people are content if they are on equal footing with others.
As some have posted, it is hard when people around you are off to the races, so to speak, and you are left in the dust economically.

Cheers

dontheturner

Well Cheers - You have, quite rightly, hit the nail on the head - and that is the problem, with having a Tory government - they have no concept of how ''normal'' people live. if something is losing them money - just increase the prices, or cut the wages. easy! - My yesterday moan was about the increase in car tax - so you think OK. lets go by train! - lovely, except today, they announce rail fare increases. - (I realise they said last year about it) But Why? Are they losing money? or is everyone working for them getting a pay rise? I don't think so! Don

jasper123

Cheers, ------ YES!!!! THANK YOU!!!!! You have hit the nail right on the head, this contentment among people works better if everyone around you is in the same boat ---- so to speak ----- but there is no law made and nothing written that tells us that we cant break away from the pack and live (OUR) lives the way we want to live,
Keeping up with the Jones'es has never been a thing that I would want to do,

jasper123

Don on the telly yesterday when they announced yet another rail fare hike of over 6% ----- and then they showed the prices people pay every year for there annual ticket just to get them to work and back, Brighton to London as an example £4,900 per year, and another one was £6,850 per year ----- just to get to work, all I can say is these people must be making tons of money to be able to afford those fares

curleytops

Rodney Have you ever thought of writing a book? It sounds as if you've led an amazing life and its through experiences like yours that I think we get a great insight into ourselves - they encourage us to examine what is important to us. I personally think trying to keep up with the Joneses can be spiritually exhausting and if you ever get there how many people are truly happy? My eldest nephew left Canada to go traveling 2 1/2 years ago after studying biomedical science. He started in Egypt and worked his way through the middle east. I won't deny the fact the family were squirming a bit when he told us he was living in a Palestinian refugee camp and had a job translating Arabic into English for an arts group. After that he moved on through Israel, Syria (we're glad that stop's over with!), Jordan, Turkey etc. and eventually he made it into Europe in the fall of 2010. He holds dual citizenship (Canadian and British thanks to his mother) and with his British passport he was able to get a job in his father's ancestral home of Hungary. He doesn't have a lot and lives quite simply but by all accounts he's really quite happy and I have my doubts he'll return to North America to live. He's going to Canada for two weeks next month but I expect he'll be quite happy to return to his life in Budapest. Just wish he'd have a visit here to tell us all about his travels! I think experiences such as his and your own are invaluable and provide a special sort of wisdom not gained through striving day in and day out to have the latest model sports car. That shiny car will eventually rust and end up in the scrap heap but you have memories like your travels throughout the world forever.

dontheturner

Hi Rod - I agree wholeheartedly, BUT - just think on, that equates to 3 tanks of petrol a week ( and I think diesel may be about the same)........so less stress to use the train for a long journey.

curleytops

Not to mention parking costs at destination!