A new survey conducted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has revealed that almost half of over 55s in the UK are seriously and actively contemplating relocation abroad, with well over a third planning to move within the next five years if they possibly can. The only thing holding many Brits back appears to be the weak pound…
The statistics and figures from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have been published to make us all aware of the fact that Britons are no longer happy living in Britain. However, judging by the correspondence we receive on a daily basis, we at Shelter Offshore knew this already! It seems that the likes of rising crime, unemployment and personal debt, coupled with a poor climate and a broken economy are driving more and more Brits to seek a haven overseas.
The trouble is – where in the world can Brits affected by the weak pound live affordably abroad, and how can they make the move safely and successfully? Well, the good news is that we’re here to help the 42% of British over-55s who want to emigrate and retire abroad with practical support and advice. And all this week we’re going to be running a series of articles and reports aimed at directly assisting those seeking a move overseas. We will focus on where to live with a weak pound, how to find the best country for you, understanding the bureaucracy and legalities of your move, getting your money matters in order, and today we’ll begin by looking at reasons to relocate or remain in Britain so that you can ensure you’re making the right choice.
Should You Stay or Should You Go – is a Move Abroad Right for You?
Whilst 42% of the British population of over-55s are keen to move abroad and escape broken Britain, it doesn’t mean that the decision to move is an easy one, nor is it necessarily the right one for you as an individual. We all have days when we wake up wishing our lives were different – and when you live in a country where everything is so clearly ‘not working’ and ‘so far from ideal,’ it’s understandable that you’ll perhaps have more of these days than someone who’s retired abroad aboard their yacht in the Caribbean for example!
However, how can you differentiate between having a dislike of your nation and having a strong urge and desire to live somewhere else? The answer is, you need to ask yourself some serious specific questions, and the answers you give will hopefully lead you towards the right choice for you.
So, the questions you need to be asking include:-
1) ‘What is it about my current life that I dislike?’ – it may be that you are dissatisfied with your job, the home you live in, the area you live or your lifestyle. In which case, you need to ask yourself further questions such as: - if I retire or change my job will I be happier? What about if I move home or location within the UK, could this make a positive change and the right difference? If you determine that no, you really want to make a move right away from everything in your current life, then perhaps a move abroad is right for you to further consider.
2) ‘What about my family – can I leave them behind?’ – if you have children and grandchildren, they can be a very strong tug on the heartstrings that prevent you from realising your dream of moving abroad. Is this the case for you? Can you persuade them to move with you, relocate ahead of you, or what about moving close enough to home so that you can visit regularly, but far enough away so that you’re not in the UK anymore – northern France for example? How does your spouse feel about relocation overseas?
3) ‘What about my friends – I’ll know no one abroad? - it takes a long time to establish true, long-lasting friendships, and to just move abroad and leave true friends behind is very hard. Particularly as it means you leave your ‘network’ of trusted friends behind at a time in life when you could really do with their support! Think long and hard about the reality of this. Whilst you will make friends abroad, and your true friends will always support you in life no matter where you live, making the move and the break can be genuinely hard.
4) ‘How will I stay healthy and wealthy abroad?!’ - as we age our health inevitably deteriorates. For the lucky ones that just results in a few aches and pains and a few creaks and groans! But for others, it can mean serious and debilitating illness that requires significant intervention and/or long-term care…with the majority of us probably having to expect some form of significant medical treatment at some point in our later lives. This all means that we need to be realistic as we look for a new life abroad, and think seriously about the medical care available in the country we’re thinking of moving to. It would be dangerous to leave making an assessment of the new country’s medical services until we actually needed to call on them. So, look into the health service in any country, and your entitlement to access it. Look at how much it will cost you in supplementary care or to get private health insurance. All are critical factors to bear in mind from the outset of even contemplating a move abroad.
5) ‘Am I moving abroad to achieve a better standard of living or am I running away or over-reacting? - the media is always keen to report the negatives, a newspaper telling only happy stories wouldn’t sell. It’s the nature of the beast – sensationalism sells, real tales of happiness don’t. So, the fact of the matter is yes, there are many, many things wrong with this ‘great’ country of ours – but it’s not totally without its qualities. What’s more, there are plenty of things wrong with every other country in the world too! In Italy you have the bureaucracy, in Portugal you have to learn to speak Portuguese, a very difficult language. The French can be quite racist, in Cyprus the build quality of homes can be poor, in Greece the economy is in a worse state than our own, in Canada the weather’s worse than our own…so you see, the grass isn’t necessarily greener. What’s more, Britain is at least the country you know well and you know best, and it can be true that it’s better the devil you know! You need to think long and hard and seriously and realistically about your reasons for wanting to move abroad.
Having worked your way through the questions posed and thought long and hard about the answers you’ve given, hopefully you will have a better understanding of yourself and your own reasons for either seriously thinking about moving abroad, or discounting the idea altogether. However, if you’re still divided in your thinking then this should just show you that you need to work hard at coming to the right decision.
The idea of moving abroad in retirement is an easy one to think about on quite a shallow level. Yes, wouldn’t it be lovely if you could have a villa with a pool, sea views, sunshine all year and a more affordable cost of living. But when you bring reality into the mix, the thinking and decision making gets rightly harder. I say ‘rightly’ because this is a move that will have a massive, dramatic, long-term and deeply impacting effect on your life - forever. So you have to get it right. And getting it right requires long, hard thinking time…
