Retirement Abroad, is this the way to happiness?

I had rather wondered what I would write about this week, after the Lord Mayor’s show of coming back from a very nice holiday. Our friends in Shanghai solved the first problem on Tuesday although created another one by unsettling us, but what to write about next? I’ve included a photo of Spain(right) for reasons that will become clear as you read on, not because we’re there. I could write about my jazz classes but, at the moment, that would just be another whinge about how difficult it all is. So I will leave that for a later blog when I need cheering up. I could write about the need to re-evaluate my retirement life, a feeling I often used to get when I was working and was on, or had just come back from, a holiday. Probably at the end of June I’ll do a six month review of how the year and my retirement goals are panning out, but not right now. So what to write?

And then along came an article on AOL (who have put their bleedin’ prices up and at £22 a month* seem very expensive but I’m too idle to change) about the top ten countries to retire to. I recently wrote a blog about lightness and, as a part of that, I asked whether the actual place you were in made a difference to your feeling of lightness or lack of it. I suggested that for us (sorry that should say me, not us) it hadn’t made a great deal of difference other than the opportunity to be dissatisfied in a different setting. However we are clearly in a minority if this article is to be believed.

How else to explain the fact that 6.4 million Brits say they intend to retire abroad. This along with the ones who already are. I guess for people from other countries, the USA for example, their retirement destinations will be quite different. Top country for us, unsurprisingly, Spain, then France followed by America, Australia, The Far East with a photo of Shanghai (a bit of a surprise), Canada, Italy, Eastern Europe (a list of countries too numerous to mention and serve them right too), India (another bit of a surprise), and then finally, on a more predictable note, Portugal. So, much in the way of predictability but some real surprises, boy, some people are adventurous when they retire.

The main reason for going seemed to be the weather and for us that wouldn’t necessarily be a plus because we rather like the changing seasons, even the cold and wet ones. A lower cost of living and the fact that people spoke English were other plusses. I have to say that, as we have reasonable pensions, the first of these would not be reason enough to go and, as for the second, any time we’ve been in a foreign country we’ve tended to avoid people speaking English or the British in general. Yes, terrible snobs I know. Oh, and I nearly forgot, cheaper property prices. Now for me, as a bit of a collector, this does have appeal. I always remember actress Miriam Margoles saying she had houses all round the world, she regarded them as her children. Not sure about the last bit, you can have too many of the latter, but houses round the world appeals, at least it did until we got the pups and have had our travel severely restricted.

In the other ‘famous person’s’ corner is Phil Collins who, at that point anyway, lived in Switzerland – tax purposes or a love of mountains, I’m not sure, could be both of course, where was I? Yes, Phil said he only wanted one house because he liked having all his possessions behind one door. I definitely get that Phil. As the owner of three properties (I didn’t want to be a two house / holiday home kind of guy, they’re horrible) I can speak with authority when I say the thing you want is always in the other place unless you are Phil Collins and can afford one of each of whatever the item is. Yes, I know, I hear you say you shouldn’t have three bloody houses then. Oh and did I mention the two bits of land and a third one in County Kerry if I had my way which I won’t because Mrs Summerhouse says it’s too far away.

On the reasons for not going side, there seemed to be one main reason and that was that your state pension didn’t increase in line with inflation in some countries and of course the exchange rate can be an unwanted complication if you get paid in sterling which, I would think would be most people. But that apart, not much, no reference to factors such as they hate the bloody British or people who come from abroad and take their houses.

So should a retired person move abroad? Well, you’ve seen the pros and cons above, you may even have some additions of your own. For us, while I think we like to spend time in different places, obviously or we wouldn’t have ‘all’ these properties, the idea of moving abroad on a permanent basis does not appeal. As I said before, it’s just another opportunity to put a different slant on my dissatisfaction. So, unless I change my mind or Mrs Summerhouse suddenly changes character and becomes unhappy where we are (unlikely), then I guess we will just stay where we are, a retired person in the UK.

*Did I mention I got another offer of paid advertising on my site, to cover my costs, as the lady who emailed me put it, which, other than bloody AOL, I don’t really have. I just don’t think it seems in the spirit of my blog to get money for it, although I would like to publish my blogs as a proper book but that’s not to do with the money because, as we know, you don’t make money from publishing, rather it’s that I’ve always had a bit of a weakness for publishing books. Pretentious moi? Mais, non. There must be at least one book in this retirement business for me. So there we are it’s turned out to be a retirement blog about living abroad when you retire and whether it brings happiness, somehow I doubt it but we have been travellers in our past life, so never say never.

PS I wrote most of this blog in the car driving (by that I mean Mrs Summerhouse was driving) to meet the valuer at my late mother’s house, now mine, did I mention that’s four houses but this one doesn’t really count because we hope to sell it. It doesn’t have a blue plaque as yet, you know, Mr Summerhouse used to live here until he was eighteen, but surely just a matter of time. In the meantime we have to clear it out, no easy matter my late mother was something of a hoarder, beginning with a look at the furniture with the aforementioned valuer. After the meeting I realise that this part of our retirement lives has a long way to go and no doubt I will write more on this. It’s full on this retirement business.