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I lived in the UK for two years. I am married to a Brit. Living there, is much different than visiting, I can tell you that. I enjoyed the culture, food, etc. But the weather gets down right miserable and depressing after a while. I would say you need to spend all four seasons there before you could really get an idea if it is a place you would want to plant roots. Of course, if you have the money to travel frequently, you could always plan several sunny and warm holidays each year, and that would help tremendously. The last summer I was in the UK, the temperature never broke 70 degrees Fahrenheit.... and we had maybe 1 sunny day per week. It does wear on you, I promise.
I can tell you that since the UK joined the EU, it is overcrowded, and way too politically correct for my taste. .
It's always been crowded. As for the weather, I don't get what people's problems is. I'm fair skinned, I'd have to use cream all the time in southern Europe. I lived in the south of France for six months when I was young. I mean, it's hotter and sunnier a lot. So what? Gets boring. I don't like being too hot anyway, it's good weather for doing stuff, rather than chilling out. I find Scotland quite grey skyed and dark, but not really England. It's never that cold at winter, like it is in a lot of the US, hasn't snowed one bit yet now. The climate in western Europe is a lot better than the US IMO.
My DH (a Brit) and I (US citizen) retired to Oregon in 2006. Our youngest daughter will be a junior in college next year. Middle and older daughters both married and settled (two young grandchildren). Our problem? MEDICAL INSURANCE.
When we retired, our 401k was in good shape, we bought a home with a small mortgage and the DH's company paid for our medical. He has since gone on Medicare. His company liquidated, got bought by another one, and the medical coverage for retirees was discontinued. After a long search, I found insurance which I just dropped. In 2007 it cost $500 per month with a $1,500 deductible. Now they want $1,000 per month with a $5,000 deductible and 20 percent co-pay.
Our 401k is down a third of what it was. When we sell our house, half of our original equity will be gone. This isn't whining, it's just stating where we are right now.
So, we're contemplating a move to the UK (near where his family is) and the increased costs of things like 'petrol' will be defrayed by what we spent on annual health insurance here in the US. I have to spend $17,000 before seeing a dime of it. How crazy is that? On a fixed income, too.
We talked about moving to France but I don't speak the lingo. The DH thinks that will make it difficult for me (he speaks French and Italian fluently). Portugal was on our list but I haven't heard good things about their medical care.
Please be aware that although the NHS is free for UK citizens, it isn't free for everyone else. I guess you must be married to a UK citizen which is why you are considering a move to the UK ?
I hope you are very healthy : ) but we all get sick and you may find the NHS a bit of shock if you are only used to private healthcare in the USA.
The UK also does not have a fantastic reputation for the treatment of elderly people in nursing homes. My mother suffered from a severe illness (no cure unfortuntaly) and spent a year in and out of free NHS nursing homes and she had appalling treatment by some of the staff. Once she was pushed and shoved because she needed to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and the staff who came to help her weren't too pleased she woke them up !!
We always tried to look after her at home, but when the illness got very severe she needed 24 hour help which we could not provide at home.
I often joke that if I get so sick that I have to live in a NHS nursing home I would prefer my husband to shoot me first ! Apart from my mother's experience I had to visit a few local authority nursing homes in London (as part of a project I was doing for the Government) the sight of those places depressed me so much I was in tears feeling deeply sorry for the elderly who had to live/die in those places.
Sorry to be so negative, but my mother eventually died in a NHS hospital (aged only 67) due to negligent medical care. They failed miserably to pick up on something that could have been resolved with a simple, relatively cheap scan. Instead she died from it.
We are leaving the UK soon and I just feel as somone who has lived here for 30 years (in some of the best cities and locations including the south coast) I would NEVER leave the USA to live in the UK. My husband's entire family and a few of my own live in California and Washington, they are pretty shocked by the weather and low standard of living in the UK when they visit us here.
The NHS is an important factor to consider for someone wishing to retire here, it may be worth your while to investigate NHS healthcare here before you make your move. It is free, but ain't the best in teh world (lathough at one stage it used to be).
100's of NHS hospitals are in the red and have had their budgets cut by various UK Governments. They are even closing down maternity units. The UK has a shortage of midwives (something that may not concern you unless you plan to have babies ; ) but it is an indication of a crisis in the system.
Unless you are incredibly rich and can afford the best private hospitals and nursing homes that is, in which case you may be ok !
How can people visiting the UK be 'shocked' by the low standard of living, when they are not living here? Simply visiting a country does not allow you to get a good idea of the standard of living at all. You need to live here for a few years before you can make judgement like that. Besides, I don't think the standard of living in the US is any better then in the UK - houses in the US are generally larger then the UK but that's about it, there's not much else about the US I'd prefer over the UK whatsoever. I actually have a friend who married an American and they both decided the quality of life in the US cannot even touch the UK.
This thread was created by a person who is interested in retiring in the UK, and while I understand that he/she has to know the bad points of being a retiree in the UK, you do not have to try and stop him/her from moving here if he/she wishes, just because you dislike it. Many, many Americans have emigrated to the UK - over 200,000 reside here and most are impressed by the NHS and the care it provides - and if you're ever unsatisfied with the NHS there is always private healthcare, just like the US which only has private healthcare, so really it wouldn't be any different.
And yes, there is an 'elderly care crisis' in the UK but I often feel it is over-exaggerated by our media. There have been some horrible cases of elderly people being neglected in care homes but this does not happen to the majority of people so I wouldn't let it bother you at all.
And as Calibele says, the grass isn't always greener. The UK might not be for you, but it might be, so give it a try, and don't let people like the above stop you!
Last edited by dunno what to put here; 01-05-2012 at 08:41 AM..
Oh, I have tons of money. I think I can explain my means of support. I continue to work because I don't golf and I did the skirt chasing thing twice before to bad results.
But, I am disappointed by the negative comments. I know that as a tourist at nice hotels and travel to only charming places, I get a very skewed view of things, but I found Oxford very lovely, friendly and charming. I also visited the Cotswolds which was like a fairy tale land.
I also think that you Brits may have a unrealistic vision of what life in the states is like. In my city, Cincinnati, Ohio about half of the population are unemployed or under employed minorities without a great social safety net. I love Cincinnati, and there is a very good life here, but it is not an ideal environment so I have some experience with adversity.
I guess I'll take a short holiday weekend in the UK and see if I may have had the "rose colored glasses" on before planning for the six months' visit.
Thanks.
Brits themselves have rose-coloured glasses when viewing the rest of the world. They emigrate, and most end up coming back because it isn't what they expected. That is why you should never just 'move' straight away but visit first.
dunno - you make some excellent and valid points - I am not trying to stop the OP or anyone else from moving here. Of course they are welcome to do so !
I have lived in the UK for 30 years (most of my life that is) and believe you me having visited MANY other places and having friends/relatives dotted around the world who report back to us on where they live, I do think the standard of living is quite low throughout the UK (compared to other industrialised nations) UNLESS you are lucky enough to work in the City and receive a 500,000 K bonus every January : )
I am a former City of London lawyer (solicitor) myself - I lived it up for a few years, etc and had a very good standard of living when I lived in London, but I didn't have a child to look after at the time, etc. Ever since I stopped working in the City to look after my son at home (I was doing 16 hour days including most weekends and going mad little by little) my standard of living dropped right down to the level I had had when I was a student, worrying about bills, etc all the time.
Eventually we moved out of London so that our son could get into a decent primary school (I was on the wrong side of the road for the best school where we lived in North London) so we moved out of London a few years ago.
I know the OP doesn't have small children to look after, but when you talk about standard of living in the UK you have to fully realise that many housholds in the UK barely make it through the month until the next pay cheque. We are lucky my husband has a good salary so I can afford to work from home, but most families living near us (funnily enough we live in an educated, affluent, service industry town) seem to be struggling, especially in the current economic crisis.
Yes, of course we all have "rose tinted glasses" about other places, which is why the OP also needs to see the full picture before he moves. We are moving out of the UK soon, but I too am not making the mistake of leaving with blinkers on. I am investigating everything thoroughly before we finally abandon ship, as it were !
Apart from anything else, it is a scientific FACT that the weather can make people depressed (SAD) and if you can't take grey skies for 6 - 9 months in a year (as we seem to have had in the past couple of years) then it can have a severe impact on you, especially if you have a lot of free time on your hands. It's not so bad when you are in an office all day, but if you are retired and like taking walks by the beach, etc. then you need to be aware of British weather.
I was practically locked into our house with my 7 year old son all of July - August last year, during his summer holiday. We then had a sort of Indian Summer and it was lovely in September and some of October, but this raelly wasn't much use as the summer holidays had ended by then, my son had gone back to school and I was busy working at home. It woudl be nice to live somewhere with a more predicatble climate, if nothing else ; )
The other important factor is one's ability to socialise and make friends quickly in their new host country. Again, unless you already have a good network of friends/family in the UK, this too can be quite difficult. As I have said on my other threads, the English are very tolerant of immigrants, but they are not what one would describe as instantly warm and friendly. It can take years to get to know Englsih people well. This has certainly been my experience as well as those of other non-English families we meet here.
I would like to wish the OP best wishes - but PLEASE make sure you do your "homework" before you finally settle in the UK. I wasn't actually given a choice to move to the UK because my parents brought me here when I was a child for education purposes. Given the choice NOW with all the facts at my disposal, I am pretty certain the UK would not have been my no. 1 industrialised nation choice. That's just my OPINION though ; )
And you think there are no families in the US that are not struggling? I watched a BBC news summary about families in the US being evicted out of their homes and living in motels, the US has a high proportion of people living below the poverty line. I'd say they have more urban poverty then we do. People worry about bills everywhere, everywhere is experiencing financial problems, especially Europe, and it's not UK thing at all, because our economy is doing slightly better then Europe.
And just for the record, I'm on 12k a year and live in Leeds and I'm getting by just fine and I enjoy my life. I don't really see how the standard of living in the UK is any worse then other industrialised nations - our average income is fairly high compared to most. Also, it will interest you to know that in 2010, 60% of all people who emigrated to Australia came back to the UK - keeping in mind Australia is very very expensive and apparently has had some trouble with racial disturbances. So it isn't all great - expats who stay abroad will say 'it's much better here' because they like it there more then the UK, otherwise they would not have moved at all - but for a large majority of people, the grass is not greener, and the standard of living in the UK is no better or no worse then other developed countries around the world, especially ones like Japan which is very crowded, or France, which is making big austerity cuts and has very high taxes compared to us. Also, how do you know the financial well being of all the families in your town? Up here in Leeds, things aren't bad, people are still spending, sales are up 32% on 2010 and things are being built - new shopping centres, arenas, and whole 'urban villages'.
Oh, and bearing in mind, again, that many expats are retirees with more money to spare and want to live their final days in the sun, or were offered a well payed job in Australia. It's easy to see life as an expat in other nations but for the average person it can be a lot different. I mean, after all, you don't emigrate if you have no money because you can't afford to!
Just thought I should add that we both have our opinions, so I guess we'll just agree to disagree. Good luck with your move.
Last edited by dunno what to put here; 01-05-2012 at 10:43 AM..
How can people visiting the UK be 'shocked' by the low standard of living, when they are not living here? Simply visiting a country does not allow you to get a good idea of the standard of living at all. You need to live here for a few years before you can make judgement like that. Besides, I don't think the standard of living in the US is any better then in the UK - houses in the US are generally larger then the UK but that's about it, there's not much else about the US I'd prefer over the UK whatsoever. I actually have a friend who married an American and they both decided the quality of life in the US cannot even touch the UK.
This thread was created by a person who is interested in retiring in the UK, and while I understand that he/she has to know the bad points of being a retiree in the UK, you do not have to try and stop him/her from moving here if he/she wishes, just because you dislike it. Many, many Americans have emigrated to the UK - over 200,000 reside here and most are impressed by the NHS and the care it provides - and if you're ever unsatisfied with the NHS there is always private healthcare, just like the US which only has private healthcare, so really it wouldn't be any different.
And yes, there is an 'elderly care crisis' in the UK but I often feel it is over-exaggerated by our media. There have been some horrible cases of elderly people being neglected in care homes but this does not happen to the majority of people so I wouldn't let it bother you at all.
And as Calibele says, the grass isn't always greener. The UK might not be for you, but it might be, so give it a try, and don't let people like the above stop you!
How do you define Standard of Living? Houses in Africa are even cheaper...
How can people visiting the UK be 'shocked' by the low standard of living, when they are not living here? Simply visiting a country does not allow you to get a good idea of the standard of living at all. You need to live here for a few years before you can make judgement like that. Besides, I don't think the standard of living in the US is any better then in the UK - houses in the US are generally larger then the UK but that's about it, there's not much else about the US I'd prefer over the UK whatsoever. I actually have a friend who married an American and they both decided the quality of life in the US cannot even touch the UK.
This thread was created by a person who is interested in retiring in the UK, and while I understand that he/she has to know the bad points of being a retiree in the UK, you do not have to try and stop him/her from moving here if he/she wishes, just because you dislike it. Many, many Americans have emigrated to the UK - over 200,000 reside here and most are impressed by the NHS and the care it provides - and if you're ever unsatisfied with the NHS there is always private healthcare, just like the US which only has private healthcare, so really it wouldn't be any different.
And yes, there is an 'elderly care crisis' in the UK but I often feel it is over-exaggerated by our media. There have been some horrible cases of elderly people being neglected in care homes but this does not happen to the majority of people so I wouldn't let it bother you at all.
And as Calibele says, the grass isn't always greener. The UK might not be for you, but it might be, so give it a try, and don't let people like the above stop you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunno what to put here
And you think there are no families in the US that are not struggling? I watched a BBC news summary about families in the US being evicted out of their homes and living in motels, the US has a high proportion of people living below the poverty line. I'd say they have more urban poverty then we do. People worry about bills everywhere, everywhere is experiencing financial problems, especially Europe, and it's not UK thing at all, because our economy is doing slightly better then Europe.
And just for the record, I'm on 12k a year and live in Leeds and I'm getting by just fine and I enjoy my life. I don't really see how the standard of living in the UK is any worse then other industrialised nations - our average income is fairly high compared to most. Also, it will interest you to know that in 2010, 60% of all people who emigrated to Australia came back to the UK - keeping in mind Australia is very very expensive and apparently has had some trouble with racial disturbances. So it isn't all great - expats who stay abroad will say 'it's much better here' because they like it there more then the UK, otherwise they would not have moved at all - but for a large majority of people, the grass is not greener, and the standard of living in the UK is no better or no worse then other developed countries around the world, especially ones like Japan which is very crowded, or France, which is making big austerity cuts and has very high taxes compared to us. Also, how do you know the financial well being of all the families in your town? Up here in Leeds, things aren't bad, people are still spending, sales are up 32% on 2010 and things are being built - new shopping centres, arenas, and whole 'urban villages'.
Oh, and bearing in mind, again, that many expats are retirees with more money to spare and want to live their final days in the sun, or were offered a well payed job in Australia. It's easy to see life as an expat in other nations but for the average person it can be a lot different. I mean, after all, you don't emigrate if you have no money because you can't afford to!
Just thought I should add that we both have our opinions, so I guess we'll just agree to disagree. Good luck with your move.
Well, by your own logic you can't discuss 'standards of living elsewhere' because you haven't lived abroad now can you?!
I can tell you this - the standard of living in the UK is not great even compared to other countries in the EU let alone the rest of the world. I'm British, have lived in Germay and now living in the US - if you have a decent job then the standard of life in the UK is poor compared with Germany and the US. Don't kid yourself about the NHS either - it is a joke. My insurance in the US is less than I paid in NI contributions and the standards of hospitals here are like resorts compared to the crap I dealt with in the UK (and I lived in Windsor which is one of the more expensive areas).
There is no utopia and you can be happy anywhere - thats up to you, but I wouldn't watch the 'BBC' and think you've got a good idea of what its like outside the British bubble
Well, by your own logic you can't discuss 'standards of living elsewhere' because you haven't lived abroad now can you?!
I can tell you this - the standard of living in the UK is not great even compared to other countries in the EU let alone the rest of the world. I'm British, have lived in Germay and now living in the US - if you have a decent job then the standard of life in the UK is poor compared with Germany and the US. Don't kid yourself about the NHS either - it is a joke. My insurance in the US is less than I paid in NI contributions and the standards of hospitals here are like resorts compared to the crap I dealt with in the UK (and I lived in Windsor which is one of the more expensive areas).
There is no utopia and you can be happy anywhere - thats up to you, but I wouldn't watch the 'BBC' and think you've got a good idea of what its like outside the British bubble
I have lived in Britain, Switzerland and the UK.
I have come to the conclusion that you cannot really compare standards of living. Each country has its good and its bad points.
For example, when I lived in Switzerland, buying a house was out of the question. It was simply too expensive even for someone making good money which I was. Buying a house is much more affordable in the USA and the UK although, for both, affordability is a function of where you live. And there are plenty of Americans living in mobile homes even in lower cost areas.
On the other hand, wine is cheaper and better in Switzerland than it is in the USA while clothes and food are outrageously expensive in comparison.
As to the cost of health care ... again it is a function of salary and employer subsidy of health insurance. Here in the USA, I have very good health insurance but I am only paying 30% of the actual cost. The rest is picked up by the employer. In Switzerland it was the same kind of deal. In the UK, I got BUPA paid for by the employer. Self employed people in the USA can easily be paying well over $15000/year in health insurance and related costs .... and that assumes you do not have a pre-existing condition which means that nobody will insure you. My brother-in-law has diabetes and other related ailments. He is lucky to live in Massachusetts which has universal health care. If he lived elsewhere he would probably be dead by now.
So, one really has to be careful when making comparisons. Partly because each country is different but also because what matters to each individual is different.
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The DH thinks that will make it difficult for me (he speaks French and Italian fluently). Portugal was on our list but I haven't heard good things about their medical care. 
