pwwm

Yes please! I need a gardener, had one in UK for my tiny garden, unfortnately you are too far away, otherwise the job would be yours.
I do agree with you husband, our pot came from nice redundancy and also selling our house in England, we do not go mad but live quite nicely take advantage of the cheaper flights of course usually book when first listed as tend to be cheaper then.
Regards Pwwm

montgomail

I also visit Denia regularly and have found, as in many small towns, that you soon get to know a few people. I don't imagine it woud be difficult to get gardening work with the vast number of apartments going up along the las marinas road. Have you considered talking to Community Administrators as they will be the ones looking to employ gardeners and cleaners for all the hundreds of communities in the area.

Gray C

If you were to put you savings into a UK based (L&G is the best one) Distribution Bond you will be able to draw down 5% of the initial investment tax deferred for a period of 20 years. This would still allow for growth as the L&G Distribution fund has averaged about 9% growth per annum over the past few years

E.g. £100,000 would produce £5,000 per annum net (no tax to pay unless you draw more than 5% or encash it and incur a gain)

Graham

You may want to check out a Spanish equivalent as this is not something that i am familiar with.

Rachels2000

I so agree with your saying Gray C.Leave the safe harbour.

ScotinSpain

Hi Millano,

There have been a number of cost of living estimates in Andalucia on this, and other, boards out here and Rachels2000 estimate is very realistic.

I live on the Western CdS which, relatively, is very expensive, and 10,000 - 12,000 pounds p.a. will see a very nice lifestyle in this neck of the woods.

Looking at Rachels2000's detail, the electricity at 20 pounds a month is very low as is the IBI at 5 pounds a month, but this is offset by the water estimate which is very high at 25 pounds a month.

Official inflation here is about 3.5%pa, but some requirements are rising much faster, notable electricity and some food products (plus petrol, but that's a worldwide problem at present)

Hope your plans come to fruition,

Jock

Gill Stevens

Very good breakdown Rachel. We have also done the same and got our figures to around £180.00 a week i.e. £9360. We have not included car depreciation or car parts, lots of birthdays or christmas pressies as we only have each other to buy for, but have included spending money for going out twice a week at £130 per month. We have also allowed for utility bills, council tax, dental, haircuts, gas bottles, internet, sky tv (£45 a month subscription here), buildings and contents insurance, mobile phones, landline, service charge for our urb., life insurance, car insurance, car tax and fuel.

I have been onto many forums and got average prices for electricity and water so am reasonably happy with the figures I have counted. I do think that food prices are quite expensive though in all the supermarkets and that is for spanish brands. We have allowed 70 euros a week for two people. Am not sure if that will be enough. We do intend buying our fruit, veg etc from local markets, but there is so much you have to buy from supermarkets.

We are also investing the equity in our property sale. We have put it in a Friends Provident investment bond, in the "property" fund which has done very well, average of 12.56% over the last 3 years, but all the property funds with the major insurance companies have done well over a longer time. We can take out 7.5% p.a interest. We also have a very small private pension so will hopefully have around £10,200 p.a. without touching our capital at all but will start to use it once we get our state pensions in 10 years time, but its there for emergencies if we need it.

I have allowed £40 per month for electricity and £15 for water.

It is good to read that most people agree with the £10,000 figure.

Barrosa Brit

Wish we could get electric for that price our last Endesa bill for Nov and Dec was 245 euros. We live on Costa de la Luz, all our water heating is gas. Anyone else have any comparsions? Most of the people around us don't pay electric as they do not have meters. Would be interesting to get some idea as to what others pay Endesa.

coralsoft

Rachels2000,
If you haven't already done so, you might want to take a look at the discussion boards on The Motley Fool:
http://www.fool.co.uk/

They have boards covering financial subjects such as investment, retirement planning, living cheaply (Living Below Your Means), etc, etc. As a resource for advice, they're phenomenal, whether you're a knowledgeable investor with a portfolio of shares in companies, a beginner with a mortgage, pension, credit cards and a savings account or deeply in debt and fighting off creditors.

I'm sure you would find good advice on where best to put your money for maximising income, whilst minimising capital drawdown and risk, even taking into account moving abroad (there's also a board for expat investors); and ideas/inspiration for reducing your living costs.

It sounds like you're very much along the right lines, being prepared to supplement your investment income to make it go further.

There are really three fronts for you to consider: investing your money, cutting your living expenses and making money from additional income streams other than your investing. On the money-in front, there are numerous ways to make extra money from part-time local work in various fields or short-term full-time work, maybe even further afield. On top of these, there's also the possibility of running small-scale business from home or perhaps turning a hobby or interest into something money-making. The key, I think, to avoid it becoming a hassle that's detrimental to the rest of your idyll is to make sure that it's something you find enjoyable and interesting. You've plenty of time in your favour to do anything you need to put things in place, such as learning the language, making friends locally, getting to know the area, the business and people within it. And you've little pressure to 'sell yourself' into doing something you don't enjoy, out of necessity.

Good luck.

Arco-Iris

We too are on the Costa de la Luz. Have just done a calculation of electricity for the year - 741 euros - roughly 64 euros a month. We run 2 computers 24/7, 2 air conditioners and/or ceiling fans in the summer, electrical heating in the winter, washing machine about 3 loads a week. Cooking and water heating by gas, around 170 euros a year, plus more gas in the winter for a gas fire (around 100 euros). We also buy logs (around 70-90 euros depending on how cold it is). The heaviest bill is at the end of January, which we have found to be the coldest month.

Barrosa Brit

Thanks for your reply, that's really interesting. We also have computers, pool, but no air conditioners, and a small house. Will be interesting to get other peoples input. Thanks Again.

Interested

****!!!

lynnxa

we have a live in gardener in our community in Javea - he gets a free apartment

montgomail

That's interesting. But who actually owns the apartment? Do they take something from the community in lieu of rent from the gardener.

lynnxa

I have to say I don't know

we are renting here, but his daughter is at school with mine, which is how I know he doesn't pay rent - maybe the management company retained an apartment for this reason

pwwm

We have just had our electric bill in for 83 euro's this covers nov/dec I run a tumble dryer when it rains but we also have and run four computers which we use all the time, but we do not have electric heating we use butano in the winter but we definately do not buy logs we just go out and collect them off the hills. In the summer we run the pool but we do keep it up all year. our electric bill is never higher than the one shown.
pwwm