Best country to retire to

What an interesting thread.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, my priorities remain keeping contact with friends as well as family (who fortunately live in Britain).
I've lived in this town for 44 years. DH and I never thought of moving, though we used to spend a lot of time in Europe for work as well as holidays.

When we were in our late forties, early fifties, DH and I talked about retiring to Spain, a country we both love and where the climate suits us better than the Danish one does. However, both Spain and Denmark changed their Income tax laws which washed that plan downthe drain.

Now that we are waiting for confirmation of a diagnosis that almost certainly will be that DH has cancer, I am glad we are not in Spain. My Spanish would be up to dealing with doctors, and all other instances, but DH's is not, and having to worry about the advisability of a return to the country which we both are citizens of would have complicated this hard situation greatly.

I am glad now, that I said that emigrating should be done early in your adult life, if at all. I have never truly regretted leaving Scotland for my mother's country of Denmark at the age of 16, but contemplating changes at retirement age, is I feel a totally different and far less wise a choice.

I think at our ages we do well to consider that some ships have sailed.

I think that some of the saddest threads on Gransnet are those where children and grandchildren are moving abroad and grandparents are torn by whether to stay here (often with other children) or go with them.
Personally I think that moving with one's adult children is risky, they could always choose to move again and we might become less able to move again as we get older.

I am waiting for my Irish passport (thanks, Gran...) to make it possible to spend winters somewhere warmer. Portugal and Gozo are the top candidates so far.

I certainly wouldn't leave the UK now because all my children and grandchildren live here, but sometimes wish we'd done it when our family were young. I think that they might have had better opportunities abroad, and I suspect that their education would have been better too.
Once your parents are elderly you don't really want to leave them, and after that you often have grandchildren.
However I do know a few people who went when they were young and many of them have drifted back over the years. The ones that have stayed abroad tend to have married people from their new country.

As lovely as it would be to live in France or Spain, things are not the same since Brexit and you do have to proof you’re managing your finances. Due to helping elder family we moved to the Isle of Wight for 7 years and we only had 1 grandchild. Now we have 5 and as much as they wanted to visit and us to visit them the cost of travel was too much and with Covid we missed them terribly. Now we’re back within the fold and life couldn’t be better. The thought of older age and possibly being alone doesn’t seem so daunting. Take everything into consideration as it’s a big step.

My daughter lives in nz and having spent six weeks there earlier this year I couldn’t afford to live there - property - food - everything is so expensive

I had a neighbor who lived in Greece for 15yrs he loved it said he would never come back but he needed a major operation to remove a leg and he came back here and he’s always going on about how much he loves it but he can’t go back because he can’t work luckily for me I moved a month ago so new neighbors have to listen to him lol

Grantonow
I know that that is what you wanted to read but what it actually said, is:
The final group are the affluent euro sceptics comprising 23% of the electorate and almost half of the vote leave

It was supposed to be cooling off to mid 20s tomorrow but forecast has changed to more stinking hot for at least 2 days. And it’s humid - I’m dripping.

We’ve lived in considerably hotter weather in the Middle East but I can’t cope with it any more. Really looking fwd to going home!
However all the two families’ dcs - all 6 between 3 and 8 are having a great time in the nice big pool. Granny will join them later. ‘Jump in the deep end Granny!’ - pleased to say I’m still well up for that. 😎

You people need to keep some of that heat for me in France in September. Round about 30 degrees please. 🤞

Too hot here in the Auvergne.
4th day of 40°c ,too hot to go out and normal life is on hold.

Wow 41 degrees witzend. Good luck and keep drinking!
Sadly, the gîte business as a whole now seems to be less fashionable with families because they want so many facilities on site these days.
Enjoy your stay.
By the way, le fan is le ventilateur seeing as we are learning languages on this thread. 😄

What with increasing heat, drought and the possibility of wildfires, I should imagine that fewer people will want to retire to southern Europe.

We are currently in SW France near Bordeaux, with a large family party in a huge gite. Owner is a friend of a dd and has said that gite business generally is down this year - they assume people are put off by news reports of excessive heat/fires.
41 deg here today! 😩
I am mostly staying indoors avec le fan. Pool later when it’s cooled down a bit.

MerylStreep

Leave voters are often depicted as hairy knuckled Neanderthals.
Here is an article that disputes that claim.
From a respected body that won the Think Tank of the Year award.

ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Comfortable-Leavers-1.pdf

Needless to say there will be some who will argue this fact.

The paper identifies 23% of Leave votes as comfortably off. It identifies about 48% as economically-deprived, anti-immigrant or older working class of a similar kind. Its main thrust is that Leave voters favoured more investment in the police, real jobs, social care, etc., and had a desire for a strong Britain of the past and that Leaving the EU might be a catalyst for change.

The catalytic effect seems not to have happened despite BoJo talking up Global Britain and most of what they wanted has little to do with EU membership and a lot to do with incompetent UK government (Tory for the last 13 years).

The paper doesn't use the pejorative language you quote but neither does it seek to categorize intelligence or educational standard for any of the above groups (including the comfortably off) so one can't conclude from it that Leave voters were of low, medium or high intelligence.

I think people should make the effort to learn the language of the country they live in and most people do. Trouble is some people are not very talented at learning a different language.

you make them sound thoroughly despised and unwanted
A Freudian slip, maybe, whoops.

Siope
I’ll try again: Do you, or do you not, think immigrants should learn the language of their new country?
Yes I do.
When I taught in Liverpool, many of the children with ESL learnt very quickly, as did the men who were working, but the women found it much harder and often at parents’ evenings we needed a translator. (The fathers didn’t consider it their job to attend.)
Where I work now, the children still learn more quickly, but the women also work hard to learn and both parents attend parent evenings.

paddyann54

My life hasn't been restricted Monica we've run businesses that meant we've mixed with people from all walks of life done things some would only dream of.Climbed oil rigs,flown UNDER the Erskine Bridge in a helicopter spent time in the company of people like Bill Clinton and many celebrities.We've been abroad on holidays though neither of us is a "holiday" person and we've had a great life .I've never had the need to boast about where we've been or how much money we have so most people who know us just accept what they see.An ordinary couple with 2 kids who keep a low profile .
It hasn't been a life without drama or problems, far from it ,I could write a series of books on things we've dealt with but if you are happy in yourself and in your marriage, problems are coped with and we move on to the next .
I've never felt inferior because I dont cruise or for any other reason that includes the biggest house or most expensive car... .Contentment is a gift in my opinion

I understand.

We live within miles of where we grew up, went to school, Church as children, where our families lived. We bought my grandparents home after they passed, we still live in that house 60+ years later.

We've traveled all round the world, met interesting people, famous people even. My husband has a thriving business he built alone, we've happy children, grandchildren, GGC, and GGGChild. Life is great.

Our life is totally unrestricted and does not include "living with domestic abuse, or unhappiness or limited opportunities" (Silly thought) and I'm sure you're equally as content. We always come home!

😁

Thanks for the tip!
I heard that it has no coastline either, being landlocked. Really, I couldn't bear to be more than a few miles from the sea.

Callistemon21

Mollygo

Things are getting better though. In France, the Netherlands and Portugal, I’ve heard English people really making an effort to say even a few words in the language of the country, even if they’ve only been learning with programs like Babel or Memrise.

Bring back Esperanto!

Oh but the climate in Esperant is awful and the food even worse!

Callistemon21

Mollygo

Things are getting better though. In France, the Netherlands and Portugal, I’ve heard English people really making an effort to say even a few words in the language of the country, even if they’ve only been learning with programs like Babel or Memrise.

Bring back Esperanto!

I taught myself Esperanto when I was about 13 from those bright yellow Teach Yourself books. 🤣🤣

Leave voters are often depicted as hairy knuckled Neanderthals.
Here is an article that disputes that claim.
From a respected body that won the Think Tank of the Year award.

ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Comfortable-Leavers-1.pdf

Needless to say there will be some who will argue this fact.

Mollygo

Things are getting better though. In France, the Netherlands and Portugal, I’ve heard English people really making an effort to say even a few words in the language of the country, even if they’ve only been learning with programs like Babel or Memrise.

Bring back Esperanto!

So they are reduced to living in English-speaking ghettos despite good intentions

reduced????
ghettos????

Rather strong language, StillNotGinger 😲

You make them sound thoroughly despised and unwanted.