Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
Apr 26th 2016, 7:58 am
#46
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: May 2012
Location: Cayman Islands
Posts: 5,015
Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
I've done a fair amount of research on where we might retire, and my wife and I have talked long and hard about it. (We're both in our high 70s.) Every once in a while we pull out the papers containing our research and check the figures. So far, we haven't moved from our home island, but we keep a close eye on the local cost of living. If inflation catches hold, we're mentally ready to sell out and move to South East Asia or Latin America or the northern Mediterranean. Everybody should have a "bolt hole" in mind.
Apr 26th 2016, 11:50 am
#47
Lost in BE Cyberspace
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Location: Cayman Islands
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Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
There are literally hundreds of online advisories about retirement, including the fear of living in foreign-language countries. This one is from a letter i supscribe to. (The writer lives in Cayman, as it happens; but I haven't met him.)
There Might Be Dragons (the Fear of Internationalization) | International Man
There Might Be Dragons (the Fear of Internationalization) | International Man
Apr 26th 2016, 12:37 pm
#48
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Joined: Jun 2015
Location: Near Lynchburg Tennessee, home of Jack Daniels
Posts: 1,395
Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
We're planning a series of mini-retirements. So far we've got:
- RV traveling
- a year in a tiny city center apartment somewhere, pretending to be sophisticated urbanites
- a rural episode, including building a rally car for hubby and chickens/ vegetables for me
- a winter somewhere with a mad amount of snow where we actually get snowed in (but don't care because we don't have to be anywhere)
By the time we've done those and any others that occur to us, the kids should be through college and possibly settled, and then we can see if they'd like/ need us anywhere nearby.
- RV traveling
- a year in a tiny city center apartment somewhere, pretending to be sophisticated urbanites
- a rural episode, including building a rally car for hubby and chickens/ vegetables for me
- a winter somewhere with a mad amount of snow where we actually get snowed in (but don't care because we don't have to be anywhere)
By the time we've done those and any others that occur to us, the kids should be through college and possibly settled, and then we can see if they'd like/ need us anywhere nearby.
Apr 26th 2016, 1:13 pm
#49
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Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
I used to like Frinton. It was quite posh years ago, not sure if it still is
I would recommend a look at Tennesee. Low cost of living, no state income tax. Weather is very good with mild winters. Cost of housing is low with low property tax and home owners insurance. I am presently building a very nice 1200 sq foot retirement house on a lake view lot with expected property tax of $650 per year and home owners insurance for less than $500 per year. Great scenery with the eastern part similar to North Carolina which would also be a good choice especially if being near ocean is important. Unsure of North Carolina income or property tax.
Apr 26th 2016, 1:16 pm
#50
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Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 211
Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
You want a single payer system. I was glad to get away from "such nonsense".
Giving the government the capability to determine what healthcare services people can use is outrageous, as is giving the government the capability to squander $millions on unnecessary procedures and prescriptions or on ineffective computer systems, etc.
Giving the government the capability to determine what healthcare services people can use is outrageous, as is giving the government the capability to squander $millions on unnecessary procedures and prescriptions or on ineffective computer systems, etc.
Apr 26th 2016, 1:29 pm
#51
Joined: Dec 2001
Location: Dixie, ex UK
Posts: 52,558
Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
It's better than having the government determine the availability of healthcare services. Neither is great, but have services restricted based on the whim of the government is worse. We don't stop people spending their money on Ferraris or world cruises, and if someone is wiling to pay for an operation that the government won't fund then I see no reason why the government shoud be in the business of allowing "acceptable waiting lists".
Last edited by Pulaski; Apr 26th 2016 at 1:36 pm.
Apr 26th 2016, 1:34 pm
#52
Lost in BE Cyberspace
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Location: San Francisco
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Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
Anyway, to me the big difference is that - VA aside - services are not provided by the government, but by private providers. The UK has an aversion to the latter, which means the NHS is a monolithic and inefficient supplier.
Apr 26th 2016, 1:42 pm
#53
Joined: Dec 2001
Location: Dixie, ex UK
Posts: 52,558
Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
Right, but we've discussed that previously too. I don't know enough about how Medicare "ticks" but I am far enough away to not care too much at the moment.
A very good point. .... Except that doctors in the UK are pretty much private contractors to the NHS, (the NHS owns most, but not all, of the infrastructure) and who seem to be able to flex their hours between NHS time and private time more or less at whim. Or so it seems. 
.... Anyway, to me the big difference is that - VA aside - services are not provided by the government, but by private providers. The UK has an aversion to the latter, which means the NHS is a monolithic and inefficient supplier.
Apr 26th 2016, 1:45 pm
#54
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Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
A very good point. .... Except that doctors in the UK are pretty much private contractors to the NHS, (the NHS owns most, but not all, of the infrastructure) and who seem to be able to flex their hours between NHS time and private time more or less at whim. Or so it seems.
Apr 26th 2016, 1:53 pm
#56
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Apr 26th 2016, 1:55 pm
#57
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Joined: Aug 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 1,403
Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
A very good point. .... Except that doctors in the UK are pretty much private contractors to the NHS, (the NHS owns most, but not all, of the infrastructure) and who seem to be able to flex their hours between NHS time and private time more or less at whim. Or so it seems.
Many doctors do a couple of days a week in the NHS for the pension and other benefits. They throw around their weight to have specific vendors' goods in the Trust, and benefit from greatly reduced/free goods from the same vendors for their own private practices.
One Trust I worked in was building a new wing for a private for-profit practice that would be part-owned by some of the doctors in the Trust. It was intended that the doctors would split their time between the private wing and the rest of the Trust... but where do you think the doctors are prioritising their time? Where the dough-ray-me is.
I worked with a few wonderful, caring doctors primarily motivated by providing the highest standards of care for patients in the NHS.
Many were nothing more than obnoxious prima donnas, drunk on power and obsessed with their status desperate to get back to Harley Street and away from the general riff-raff.
Apr 26th 2016, 2:52 pm
#58
Joined: Apr 2005
Location: Milwaukie, Oregon
Posts: 9,974
Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
I haven't been there for years, it just came to mind when you mentioned the F places. As I recall it was largely a retirement type community.
Apr 26th 2016, 3:00 pm
#59
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Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
It was a very exclusive retirement community. Very posh and proper which is strange when you think Walton and Clacton are so close and oh so typical seaside tacky!
Apr 26th 2016, 3:11 pm
#60
Joined: Apr 2005
Location: Milwaukie, Oregon
Posts: 9,974
Re: Are you happy to stay where you are when you reach retirement?
Yes, not the sort of places I would fit into. On thing which really annoys me are Capt Mainwaring types.
