Hi,

What do British people normally do in Spain when they move there? What type of jobs or how do they earn a living?

Thanks.

the lucky ones have a pension or an income from outside the country

the clever ones not lucky enough to get a pension have a business running before they come which they can bring with them

Get a job, same as you would in the UK. Wages are more than likely to be lower than UK although a waiter can earn quite a good pay with tips over here.

That is if you can get a job. very hard to come by at the moment

I have often wondered about this too. Some have a private income or business in the UK. 80% seem to have no visible means but manage to send kids to private school, drive an SUV and have pockets full of money

Early retired and can live comfortably on my pensions.

Sell drugs..... Some on here have even done that!

Yes a lot of pushers in certain places. Did anyone see that a British man was arrested trying to smuggle drugs in to Estepona last week...he was 75

He needed to subsidise his meagre pension..........

The trouble is with this new ruling, you now need to prove an income and healthcare provision within 90 days before you can become a resident in Spain

Jo xxx

But most of those who come with nothing and no job never show up on the padron, they just disappear into the mist!
When they then find themselves in the mire they run to the British Consulate for help.

It is a question many Spanish friends ask me.

I scrape a living as an artist who will willingly clean toilets also if offered cash.

I try to explain to Spanish friends that many of the UK expats have sold property in the UK which allows them to buy here with enough money to live on for a couple of years. Many did that. Many tried to speculate. Many are now back in the UK starting from square 1.

If you learn Spanish you can look for the work all the locals are looking for.

If you have a degree, or recognised qualification, English teachers are always in demand. You don't need to speak Spanish, you don't need a specialist qualification.

You can offer services to other UK expats. That market is dying in many areas.

Most of my Spanish friends assume the UK expats living here make money on the internet. Many do, it is possible.

It is always possible to make your own work.

Unless you have income in the form of a pension, or savings of some form you will find it difficult to gain a good income here ATM. Drug running is an option if you want to risk a bit of liberty I chose not to.

Specialist skills if you already have them and want to work in Gibraltar for online casinos. Personally, I think I would sooner pass on a bit of marujana at a profit.

The truth is the vast majority of expats from the UK did not, and do not have work driven income. Many tried to invest savings, or profit from selling UK property and putting the capital into Spanish property. Few actually managed to make anything.

Plenty of conmen, and conwomen still around masquerading as estate agents of course. Again, I think I would feel less guilty about passing on a bit of MJ.

If you compare the cost of a Gramme of Hashish in Southern Spain to the cost of a Gramme in the UK, or Northern Europe you can understand how some markets withstand the hardest crisis.

Despite economic woes there are still many ways you can make a living here without operating outside of the law. The internet is a very useful medium even if you are just working ebay.

I am happy on a very low income for the time being. When cigs and booze get taxed as they are in the UK and Northern Europe (as they will surely have to very soon) then, I may start thinking about ways to earn more money. ATM life is still relatively affordable. Low income. Low outgoings. You can still live on very little here if you try.

A few years ago it seemed that every other Brit was setting themselves up as an independent building contractor. Their previous experience in the UK could have been a taxi driver, car mechanic, shop assistant, anything really, but over here they could become builders.

Fortunately, that has now stopped.
Unfortunately, there is very little building work to go around for the genuine builders now.

Many Brits choose gardening and pool cleaning for a bit of income. With more foreigners having gone home leaving their Spanish homes up for sale or rent they are finding they have to keep on top of the maintenance, so there is still some of this work around, although mainly by word-of-mouth I would think.

The reality is that if you come to Spain without a sizeable chunk of savings to tide you over then you are going to have to make do with a lot less than in the UK. And that's not really that hard to do. There's less pressure to always have the latest or newest of anything, for example car registration numbers do not show the age of the car so there's none of the keeping up with the Jones' attitude. At least not in my experience of Spain.

I can understand Brits moving to Spain with money for a better lifestyle, chill out in the perpetual sun in your villa, everything is cheap as chips, but why would you want to move to slave away in a bar, clean toilets, clean pools, clean holiday lets, peddle drugs? And they're the lucky one's, most won't even get a job like that. I could possibly understand youngsters heading out there for the hedonistic lifestyle, but middle aged people with kids in tow, why do they do it? A quick check of these forums will tell them if they haven't contributed, they'll get zilch, nada. Living the dream, I guess.

It's probably only middle aged-plus people in the UK that have any equity in their house, so they see that they can sell up and move to the sun with a hundred grand or so in their back pocket. They're millionaires. For a while.