Recent content by Whisper9999

Thanks! Great tip and I just noticed that someone posted here.

Thx. You posted in a somewhat similar thread that I started last year about retiring in France: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/health-insurance-in-w-europe-56992.html The information in this thread was fantastic and much appreciated. However, things have changed a little for me...

Let's say I want to semi-retire early, which I think I can do in two to five years, and live half the year in the U.S. and the other half of the year in southern Italy, France or Spain. However, I will be in my mid-50's at the time and so I need good health insurance obviously. (Btw, I know...

Guys, I realize appreciate the comments, even though some of it makes my head hurt. It's interesting that there so many experts on France on this board - thanks much - but it looks like I may have to go to a Spanish board to find some answers on Spain. Well, that will be good practice for me...

True. However, you have to get that starting point to for beginning comparison purposes.

Thanks for the comments guys. (Sorry to be slow to respond.) I'm also really wondering about tax rates and health care costs/quality compared to Spain if anyone has any feedback...

Yes, that's just what I was thinking. I don't want to be callous to the people of Spain, but a collapsed real estate market is a great buying opportunity. (Although one has to be incredibly careful of course.) The nice thing about a country in Western Europe is that social order will be...

In case anyone is int'd here is the taxes as of 2009 I guess: Retiring to Spain

Well, I already know that European countries are generally set up the same, but the "devil's always in the details", eh? Besidaes, there is no substitute for actually talking to someone who has lived there. As far as Googling, I can only say to try it: you'll get a million "retire overseas...

I asked a question a few months ago about retiring, or semi-retiring, in France and got GREAT responses. But I wonder if I am being realistic as I don't know French yet but am pretty good with Spanish. Well, and my wife is a native Spanish speaker as well! Anyway, here is my understand of...

Again, thank you so much for all the info! Very kind...

Gotcha. Well, I've read a little on the regimes, etc. So it's really quite confusing. I guess that you have to pay the taxes you mentioned and then you have social taxes on top of that, right? Anyway, that leads to my next q: how do you find a reasonable estimate for what your taxes are...

Thx for the time to give me all this info - I appreciate it. So, basically, if you don't mind paying all those taxes, then all the extra dollars you'd pay into Medicare goes away. So for some that would be a big savings. Or it would save from the premium to fill in the gaps of your medical...

Oh I see. Very interesting, but I do have a q about what you wrote: "As for the cost, it would still be lower than what you would pay in the US". I read somewhere that it is about 40% of your salary. So is it salary-based or premium based? And I would really like to hear why you say it is...

So it's really only worth it if you are going to live there nearly year round? And even then, of course, it's very expensive...