UK a great place for Americans to retire.....if you can get in

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort If we live in UK for 7 months out of the year and have NHS for healthcare (getting in not an issue) and live in California or somewhere else sunny for 5 months with travel insurance, would that work out? Any gotchas with that plan? Our relatives from outside the U.S. come to visit California sometimes for months at a time with travel health insurance, though no one ever had a car accident or anything big to test out the policies. Or sometimes they go to places like Spain or Portugal for vacations during the winter. It is rainy here today so I've gotten some major decluttering done. If we don't end up moving, worst case we'll have a clutter free house.

This was initially our plan, apart from travel insurance, which we didn't think about for such long periods. Apart from regular day to day illnesses which travel insurance may not cover, what if you have a serious incident that requires ongoing care? Are you ready to be transported back to the UK for ongoing treatment? For our last few weeks in the USA we had dropped HI and took out a World Nomads travellers' insurance plan for ~$350/month which covered us for emergency healthcare.

I also looked at private HI here in the UK and some companies offer HI that cover you for healthcare in the UK, with options (extra premiums) to also cover all countries in the world, except the USA.

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Apart from regular day to day illnesses which travel insurance may not cover, what if you have a serious incident that requires ongoing care? Are you ready to be transported back to the UK for ongoing treatment?

Yes, that is what we are considering - we'd be residents there and rent or sell the house here in the U.S.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort Yes, that what we are considering - we'd be residents there and rent or sell the house here in the U.S.

Apart from travel insurance this is essentially what we have done. Our US insurance covered us on our travels including the UK. Visits to the doctor were covered and where we were staying in the UK there was a private hospital for elective surgery covered by our BCBS policy.

Our retirement travel history, we had HI with BSBC.

2010 - 5 months away from home (Texas) in Colorado (4 weeks), England (12 weeks and Canada (4 weeks).

2011 - 7 months living in the UK

2012 - 5 months in various States of the USA

2013 - 5 months in the UK, Ireland, Spain and France

2014 - 5 months in Australia

2015 - 3 months Canada + 2 months in other US States

2016 - 6 months in UK, retaining US HI but also become resident for UK taxes and signing up with the NHS

2017 - Moved out of US apartment & dropped US HI 1/1/17, travel insurance for first 3 weeks of January, and will use travel insurance for visiting son and daughter later in the year.

[nun]

Many US insurance policies won't cover you overseas for anything other than emergencies and obviously Medicare only works inside the US.

So you either need travel insurance that will get you back to where you are insured or insurance in both countries. If you are over medicare age and retiring to the UK it's a good idea to keep paying Medicare if there's any possibility of you ever needing care in the US.

[jim584672]

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Originally Posted by nun Both governments seem to want to keep the border open. The ability for UK and Irish citizens to move between the two countries and work in either without visas was superseded by the free movement of people within the EU, but it still exists and I assume would do so after BREXIT. FYI large numbers of UK citizens with Irish grandparents etc are now applying for Irish passports.

The common travel area pre-dates the EU and should remain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Travel_Area

The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland currently have no hard border, you can literally walk from one country to another, hopefully this can continue.

[jim584672]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort If we live in UK for 7 months out of the year and have NHS for healthcare (getting in not an issue) and live in California or somewhere else sunny for 5 months with travel insurance, would that work out? Any gotchas with that plan? Our relatives from outside the U.S. come to visit California sometimes for months at a time with travel health insurance, though no one ever had a car accident or anything big to test out the policies. Or sometimes they go to places like Spain or Portugal for vacations during the winter. It is rainy here today so I've gotten some major decluttering done. If we don't end up moving, worst case we'll have a clutter free house.

The downside to this is having to file US and UK tax returns once the UK considers you a tax resident.

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim584672 The downside to this is having to file US and UK tax returns once the UK considers you a tax resident.

Yes, I've been looking at the UK tax bands. Are there local income taxes? If we make the move we would be renting and probably buy one car so other than the country income tax I'm not sure what other taxes I'd have to budget for. I assume the council tax is included in the rent cost.

[REWahoo]

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Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort Yes, I've been looking at the UK tax bands.

None of them can hold a candle to the Beatles!

[ShokWaveRider]

Has anyone looked into spousal visas for a non UK Citizen spouse. We have been married for 30 years but my wife is Canadian, I am a UK Citizen. Is the procedure for the application long winded?

[nun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShokWaveRider Has anyone looked into spousal visas for a non UK Citizen spouse. We have been married for 30 years but my wife is Canadian, I am a UK Citizen. Is the procedure for the application long winded?

Yes it is tedious. You need annual income of over 18k pounds or savings over something like 64k pounds to qualify.

[nun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim584672 The downside to this is having to file US and UK tax returns once the UK considers you a tax resident.

That's something that US expats are continually struggling with. However, a little planning and it can be managed. The bigger issue is the restrictions on the type of investments that can be owned that are imposed by IR, HMRC and financial services companies.

[Hyperborea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim584672 The downside to this is having to file US and UK tax returns once the UK considers you a tax resident.

One option for a short time is to use non-dom status. It would allow somebody to shield income from outside the UK for 7 years before having to either have UK taxes apply to it or start paying a large yearly fee (high enough that for most of us here it doesn't make sense to keep the status).

I have UK citizenship and had thought about using this at one point to use the UK as a base to explore Europe from. Not such a good idea now though.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort Yes, I've been looking at the UK tax bands. Are there local income taxes? If we make the move we would be renting and probably buy one car so other than the country income tax I'm not sure what other taxes I'd have to budget for. I assume the council tax is included in the rent cost.

There are no local taxes but the equivalent of property tax is council tax and is the responsibility of the occupant not the house owner so is not included in the rent.

The rules covering non-Dom status are changing so I don't believe it can be claimed after this current year for folks resident in the U.K. I did consider it for this year but very much wanted to be covered by the NHS.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...-paying-tax-uk

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan There are no local taxes but the equivalent of property tax is council tax and is the responsibility of the occupant not the house owner so is not included in the rent.

Okay, thanks. I thought some of the rents I was looking at seemed pretty inexpensive. That bumps the monthly rental cost up a bit.

[F4mandolin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort Okay, thanks. I thought some of the rents I was looking at seemed pretty inexpensive. That bumps the monthly rental cost up a bit.

We are paying around £1650 a year for council tax for a small 3 bedroom detached that we own. I don't know what the rentals would run at..... size+location matter of course ........

[Alan]

We are paying £1,425/year council tax for a 3 bed 1.5 bathroom single storey bungalow that we are currently renting.

[nun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan We are paying £1,425/year council tax for a 3 bed 1.5 bathroom single storey bungalow that we are currently renting.

I pay $4000/year on a 3 bedroom house in New England.....so that's about £3200.....like I said, the UK looks pretty inexpensive to me.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nun I pay $4000/year on a 3 bedroom house in New England.....so that's about £3200.....like I said, the UK looks pretty inexpensive to me.

Although we haven't needed to pay property taxes in Texas our rent for our 2 bed apartment was $1,396 / month compared to the 3 bed house we have been renting here for £675/month, which is about what we paid in rent for a similar house in the same town in 2011. My sister rents a 3 bed house on the high street in town for £450/month.


While the U.K. is a lot less expensive than the USA, salaries are also much lower, certainly in engineering fields, so I feel very fortunate to have had my career in the USA and then be able to retire on a pension that is more than double the average salary in the UK.

[nun]

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Originally Posted by Alan While the U.K. is a lot less expensive than the USA, salaries are also much lower, certainly in engineering fields, so I feel very fortunate to have had my career in the USA and then be able to retire on a pension that is more than double the average salary in the UK.

Exactly! My US SS and UK state pensions added together will be larger than the average UK salary and I would still have my company pension and withdrawals from my savings. The UK looks very cheap.

[Meadbh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan While the U.K. is a lot less expensive than the USA, salaries are also much lower, certainly in engineering fields, so I feel very fortunate to have had my career in the USA and then be able to retire on a pension that is more than double the average salary in the UK.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nun Exactly! My US SS and UK state pensions added together will be larger than the average UK salary and I would still have my company pension and withdrawals from my savings. The UK looks very cheap.

So I think you have established that the UK is financially a great country to retire to if you spent your working career in the US. I note that you are both returning to the country of your birth. The experience may be different for Americans who do not have the same connection to the UK.