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I have some friends who retired to Spain and love it. I'm going to visit them soon to check it out. Great weather, good golf and reasonable prices! They're trying to convince me to join them and I don't know how I'll be able to resist lol
If they are American, can you share how they retired to Spain and how that process was. If UK or Euro zone retiree, it's easy to retire in Spain but if you're American or Asian, not so easy. I have a vacation condo in Marbella (Mediterranean) comparable to Santa Barbara at much less cost and it's wonderful here. My reservations on retiring here start with the taxes, the visa, and the unfavorable laws for things such as health care and taxes for Americans compared to Europeans.
Shorty after that my taxable value went to $1,225,000
I paid 11,500 for my first home and saved it from the wrecking ball.
OK - that makes sense. Buying at the top of the last real estate boom was a lot different than buying in 1977 . We avoided crazy increases in property taxes then as a result of the Save Our Homes Amendment. Of course - we didn't avoid the crash in real estate values. We were hit hard here in Florida - although our part of Florida wasn't hit as badly as other parts (we didn't go up as much in the boom - didn't go down as much in the bust). Did your taxes go down after the bust?
When I think about these things - and how little I know about most states in the US - I wonder how I could even begin to wrap my head around how things like this work in other countries? One thing I know for sure is my husband and I couldn't afford to live well in most/all of the cities outside the US we've enjoyed visiting in recent years. Places like London - Tokyo - Stockholm. The most affordable place we liked was Berlin (although I don't think we'd care for the winters). The other thing I know is it would be impossible for us to get health insurance just about everywhere (no way we could get through medical underwriting). Robyn
Hah hah = that is exactly how we originally studied Spanish enough to get around traveling. We did all 90 and then 10 Spanish Plus, along with some college textbooks at same time. Had no problems running around in Panama, Costa Rica, Peru, etc.
You won't get anywhere near fluent with that program but will get a great feel for the spoken language. However you end up sorely lacking in vocabulary so is best used along with something structured with verb drills and useful noun vocab lists.
It is also way $$$ so best acquired used or while wearing an eye patch.
My husband bought and (later) sold most of his Pimsleur course materials (French/Japanese/Swedish/German/Hebrew) on Ebay. There were IIRC good deals directly from Pimsleur for the first series of lessons in all/most languages.
You're right about needing to supplement the Pimsleur materials. In addition to various books - we've found some excellent on line courses/materials. This one - for Japanese - produced (improbably) by Georgia Public Broadcasting - was very useful. Entertaining too:
My husband also makes/uses a very old fashioned thing - flash cards.
BTW - learning to speak some basic Japanese (forget about learning to read it unless you have a decade or so) is not as difficult as one might think. Because it's phonetic and the grammar is simple/straightforward. OTOH - languages which you think might be relatively easy - are very hard. Because the accents are tricky (French) - the grammar is mind-boggling (German) - etc. Then there are languages which you think would be hard - and are hard. Like Chinese (because it's tonal).
When it comes to Spanish - if you speak decent Spanish - it is relatively easy to pick up some Italian (they're very similar languages).
FWIW - my husband loves to study/learn languages. And he has a great ear for accents. I am the exact opposite. But I like to learn in depth about the places we visit. And my husband doesn't. Makes for a good match when it comes to visiting places. But it wouldn't work in terms of moving somewhere. I can think of few things I'd dislike more than trying to navigate through a foreign bureaucracy to get something like a driver's license. Which can be surprisingly difficult in some countries:
OK - that makes sense. Buying at the top of the last real estate boom was a lot different than buying in 1977 . We avoided crazy increases in property taxes then as a result of the Save Our Homes Amendment. Of course - we didn't avoid the crash in real estate values. We were hit hard here in Florida - although our part of Florida wasn't hit as badly as other parts (we didn't go up as much in the boom - didn't go down as much in the bust). Did your taxes go down after the bust?
Eventually the assessed value dropped... the tax amount dropped a little but at a smaller proportion than the assessed value...
Seems the Assessed value is mostly used to determine has the tax roll is divided/allocated.
California's Prop 13 is totally different... if the value falls... 1% Prop 13 falls by exactly the same percentage.
Although, by law the county has 2 years to respond to appeals... I made two back to back appeals and won...
Under the system... I had to pay a tax appeal fee and all the taxes as billed in full... about 30 months later I got me check...
I've enjoyed reading this thread because the majority of posters are conducting a rational discussion. The inevitable angry and hyperbolic bashing of the United States was predictable, as we know that poster well.
I wonder if there is any statistic about how many people with U.S. citizenship live more or less permanently abroad?
Is anyone here who is considering or actually doing this over 70? Robyn
I'm 70 and am considering it. But I lived in Latin America and Africa when I was younger and speak fluent Spanish and passable French. I ruled out the two places in LA that I was considering, Argentina and Uruguay, but am still looking at Spain and France and maybe Portugal.
I think that Spain and Portugal, and a couple of other countries with large Brit ex-pat populations, will work very hard to see that a Brexit will not be the cause for their departure. And I fully expect that in this they will be supported by other EU members. However, these countries will also be looking for continued considerations for their citizens who reside in the U.K.
I expect there will be a Brexit, and would be quite surprised if it did not pass.
However, I am strongly inclined to think that this issue of ex-pats will not become a "pawn" issue. Lots and lots of sticky, nitty-gritty details, of course, but nothing like that of British financial services. This first link will give you a very "lite" version of one possibility, but go down to the bottom to "Alternatives" and see where the biggest landmine is buried.
Given the number of deals possible and their huge impact on the UK and the EU, it makes me more than ever believe that making life as uncomplicated for each others ex-pats will seem highly desirable in many respects.
Last edited by kevxu; 02-27-2016 at 02:40 PM..
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. We avoided crazy increases in property taxes then as a result of the Save Our Homes Amendment. Of course - we didn't avoid the crash in real estate values. We were hit hard here in Florida - although our part of Florida wasn't hit as badly as other parts (we didn't go up as much in the boom - didn't go down as much in the bust). Did your taxes go down after the bust?
