Retirement move
 

Myself and wife want to move to Spain for our retirement and would like to hear from anyone who has done this. At the moment we are 57 and 55 but plan on retiring in 5 or 6 years. Our reasons for the move would be for a better quality of life and the warmer climate. We obviously need to look into the cost of living, health care and legal requirements but not sure where to start. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Best Wishes

Re: Retirement move
 

Hi UK.Fred,
Nice to hear from you. There are a number of threads running at the moment discussing this subject. My wife and myself are the same ages as yourselves and are planning to do exactly the same, but sooner. I am trawling the net and finding that there`s a lot of good people out there with advice.
Best wishes.
Alan

Re: Retirement move
 

Thanks Alan
There's lots to consider but it's hopefully the right thing for us. The new pension scheme here in the UK needs looking at though as I heard that if we reside in Spain we'd have to give up our UK pension entitlement.
Good luck with your retirement planning
UK.FRED

Re: Retirement move
 

Always plenty of discussions going on here and as always depends on budget etc. Personally I kind of like the idea of keeping a place in the UK (but in my case Ireland) and spending the rest of the time in Spain. The ideal world for me would be to spend the summer in Ireland and just go to Spain every now and then, or maybe during winter. Far away from retirement, so not an option now.

Re: Retirement move
 

Not true, pensions are fully transferable, and subject to the same increases as in the UK. Please don't assume everything you read on the internet ot in the papers is true. The only thing that retirees in Spain do not get is the Winter Fuel Allowance, that was scrapped this year. There are no plans to change pension entitlements, although as part of the EU renegotiations the present government is looking to possibly do away with other benefits like the DLA for people who move from the UK.

We retired to Spain but have since returned t the UK, and the major reason for that was the huge decrease in the amount of money we got each month due to fluctuations downwards in the exchange rate.

Re: Retirement move
 

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Re: Retirement move
 

Thanks Moses.
That's something to consider depending on budget.

Re: Retirement move
 

Thanks for clearing up the pension issue. That's good to know. We would have to use our savings to live on with our UK pension as we'd have no other regular income. Our £150,000 would not be worth as much in euros and we don't want to live frugally. Calculating the cost of our retirement in Spain is going to be the most challenging thing to calculate.
Thanks Mike

Re: Retirement move
 

Definitely. We're all different, but even Spain can get boring after a while and it's great if you have the choice. I think I would go mad being in Spain all the summer, especially when all those tourists come LOL. I also like the long summer days in Ireland and that the beaches are empty.

Re: Retirement move
 

Who knows what the situation will be in 5-6 years, but I would suggest you budget for same living costs as you have in UK.

Re: Retirement move
 

Thankyou. That may make things easier.

Re: Retirement move
 

Hi UKFRED. We retired early (2 years) we sold up everything and moved here lock, stock etc.

Loads to consider though Fred, healthcare and cost of living. I personally find it cheaper to live here than the UK. We love it here even with the summer tourists. We manage to live well enough on our private pensions, which don't amount to that much.

I'm sure you will get plenty of good advice on this site.

Steve

Re: Retirement move
 

We "retired" in August 2009. My wife is Basque, so our situation is different from yours; we have 'free' health cover for instance.
My UK state pension is paid into our UK bank a/c; my teacher's pension is paid into our Spanish a/c. I'd probably be better off having both paid into UK and then every so often transferring money here.
Ideally, you'll be more accepted learning some Spanish; perhaps you already do, forgive me. People appreciate it when you're seen to be making an effort at least.
Choose carefully where to settle. Rent first for a few months. Anywhere along the Med has lots of British expats so you'll perhaps feel more at home.
But do try to integrate in whatever way. Eg, join various activities. Here we're spoilt for choice; I have an allotment (no problem with water here in the north!), we go walking with a local group every Friday morning, there's a reading club (OK, in Spanish and Basque), a photography club, to name a few.
Get internet radio and you can tune into radio 4 or whatever you wish.
Buy a left hand drive car; not difficult to "convert".
Best of luck.

Re: Retirement move
 

The story about losing your entitlement to UK Pension shows how much inaccurate information is floating about. A long time ago I went on a TUC course explaining pensions and National Insurance. Great resource. I wish more people woul do this sort of thing instead of relying on Hearsay, "The Daily Moron" and a pal down the Duck and Ferret.

Re: Retirement move
 

I think I'll look into the pension side of things and see how it works. This new lump sum pension payments scheme we've had here since April are confusing. How does the health care system work? I take it we need private medical insurance as we won't be working. What's the best way to arrange that?
Thanks for all your replies.
FRED.UK

Re: Retirement move
 

If you are UK pensioners you will qualify for 'free' healthcare in the Spanish sytem, in the same way their own pensioners do. I put free in inverted commas because it's not totally free, but is still very cheap, you will have to pay a small percentage of prescription charges, no doubt someone will be along to say just how much. You just need the S1 form from the DWP to show you are of retirement age.

Re: Retirement move
 

The prescription charge is 10% of what the medication costs but I do not know if there is an upper limit to what you pay as I only have two very cheap ones.

Rosemary

Re: Retirement move
 

These two UK government websites will give you loads of helpful info.
Living in Spain

Healthcare in Spain

Re: Retirement move
 

Hi Fred,

I believe that if you have enough money to live in the UK, then you have enough money to live in Spain, and in fact, you're highly likely to have more disposable income in Spain.

Probably one of the biggest issues for people retiring to Spain is that they don't get free state healthcare if they are retiring early. You will need to have some kind of private cover (or buy into the state system, which is possible in some regions) to fill the years between your actual retirement and reaching the official retirement age.

The move will be of most financial benefit to you if you do it on the basis of permanent living in Spain. Being a "swallow", as those who go back and forth are often called, is fine, but you have to maintain properties in two places and bear the costs that come with doing so.

There are a couple of other issues that can arise. Integration with your fellow expats and locals is not as easy if you're back and forth all the time. My wife joins classes and clubs and then misses attendance, and sometimes doesn't bother getting involved as a result. Your choice of property might also be impacted. You might not feel comfortable leaving a villa unoccupied for several months of the year and will feel forced to go the route of a lock-up-and-leave apartment. You might then feel uncomfortable leaving the UK house (if you keep one) unoccupied and have to make some changes there too.

These are all things that we've come up against so there's a chance you will too.

Re: Retirement move
 

We changed some £ yesterday at €1.41 to £1 Stirling so 150k would be worth a lot more well over €200k. We don't smoke I drink one 33cl bottle of beer each day with lunch she has a bottle of water and our lunch costs between €8 and €12 each including the drink and coffee after. We spend an average of €20 a day on food. Date night is Friday when we go to the cinema €12 for two saw Spectre last week Intern the week before. The last 10 days has been amazing Autumnal weather cool evenings and mornings 15-20*C afternoon temps of 25*C but in the sun it is mid thirties. What's not to like about Spain?

Re: Retirement move
 

I'm pleased to be getting lots of positive feedback. Our move is going to be permanent so all these tips are appreciated.