# Daunted!



## Jenny J (Jan 24, 2015)

Hi,
I am hoping to make my dream come true but feel more than daunted over the prospect now I have looked into things.

I have spent the past 17 years being a mum to my son on my own after my husband left me for his secretary. Another story! My dream has been to buy a little pad for myself in sunny climes and Spain is my choice because I feel it very familiar as my parents owned a second home here for some years.

I have just had my house valued, 3 bed semi in Cheshire, and after mortgage payments I will have approx £90,000 to make my move with. I will need to buy something outright as the prospect of work is low. I have a few small pension pots from previous employment ie Navy, Police and NHS that I hope will help.

After hours of trawling on the internet I am now scared sill that I will not be able to make this dream a reality. I will be moving on my own and dont understand everything I have to do. I dont know where to start, I dont know if I have the wherewithall to complete the move. The 90k pot might not be enough to get me over there with taxes, moving, selling costs etc. Please will someone tell me I can do this, I am having a serious wobble. I am 53years old and losing my confidence! My parents are long departed but would have been able to give me advise on this move. Help, Jen


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## Trubrit (Nov 24, 2010)

My advice to you is rent, rent, rent and keep your 90,000 as back up, then in a year or two you will have probably checked out different areas and will be wiser regarding a place to buy.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Jenny J said:


> Hi,
> I am hoping to make my dream come true but feel more than daunted over the prospect now I have looked into things.
> 
> I have spent the past 17 years being a mum to my son on my own after my husband left me for his secretary. Another story! My dream has been to buy a little pad for myself in sunny climes and Spain is my choice because I feel it very familiar as my parents owned a second home here for some years.
> ...


Well, I'm not going to say come on over, everything's going to be fine!
I don't know what field you work in, but as you yourself say the prospect of work is low, so if your move is dependent on finding work then I think you'll have to put on hold.
As you're talking about a long term move I'm sure you'd like to do things properly and that means signing on the EU resident's register after 90 days. To do that you need to have healthcare covered and around 600€ a month coming in or in a bank account. You can find more details on the FAQ's sticky at the top of the main Spain page. You can also find some pointers there on buying or renting a house and lots of other stuff so it might be an idea to look through that first to get an idea of things.
If you're selling your house you'll have to think about tax issues too. Not sure if that's on the sticky, but you can find info on the forum. However, personally I'd say go straight to the tax authorities themselves to find out about this.
A vital piece of reading is #21 in the stickies which gives all the posts that UKinspain has posted which is a link to the British embassy giving info about living here including tax and health issues.
Have fun reading!

PS Renting and buying are at rock bottom prices now, so that's good!


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## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

Jenny J said:


> Hi,
> I am hoping to make my dream come true but feel more than daunted over the prospect now I have looked into things.
> 
> I have spent the past 17 years being a mum to my son on my own after my husband left me for his secretary. Another story! My dream has been to buy a little pad for myself in sunny climes and Spain is my choice because I feel it very familiar as my parents owned a second home here for some years.
> ...



Hi Jen 

Welcome , I guess it must be hard on your own its nice to get feed back from a partner on if you are doing the right thing or not

Sorry cant really advise , but I know there are single people who I am sure will be able to help you on this forum !

I think if you can get by with out having to earn a living here that is a good start !

and I am sure you would have enough money to buy a place , as prices are so low now !

good luck hope you make the right decision

Tony Agost Alicante


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## extranjero (Nov 16, 2012)

Make sure you are not tax resident in Spain when you get those pension pot lump sums!


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## Jenny J (Jan 24, 2015)

Trubrit said:


> My advice to you is rent, rent, rent and keep your 90,000 as back up, then in a year or two you will have probably checked out different areas and will be wiser regarding a place to buy.


Thank you for replying, in an ideal world I would rent but will have to eat into the 90k in order to do that and then I will be unable to buy. But I get what you are saying, thanks. J


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Hi Jenny

You don't say in your post whether any of the pensions you have are actually in payment yet, or not? Obviously that makes a difference as to whether you would have any income coming in at all if you weren't able to find work, or whether that lump sum if you sold your house would be everything.

How much might you be able to get per month if you were to rent out your house in Cheshire, instead of selling it? With exchange rates as they are at the moment, if you did have a small pension income plus the rent, you might find you could rent a modest place here as rentals are very low at present, as are property prices.

If there is no monthly income at present at all, then as Pesky Wesky says it would probably be wise to put your move on hold for a few years. I don't think anyone expects property prices in most areas here to go up by much in the forseeable future. But at 53, you would have a long time to wait until you were able to draw your State Pension, and until then you would need to fund your own healthcare here which is an added monthly expense.

Sorry! I've just noticed your reference to that lump sum being available after you have cleared the mortgage on your house, so if there are mortgage payments still to be made then renting it out probably wouldn't give you the income you'd need. Scratch that suggestion, please!


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## Horlics (Sep 27, 2011)

Hi Jenny,

Well it's a big move so you are bound to feel apprehensive about it, so don't be surprised that you do.

Number one priority is that you need a financial plan. You need to be sure that whatever your income will be is enough to live on, for the rest of your life.

You should consider how and when you will get access to pension cash and what you will live on in the meantime. You will then know how much you can spend on property and what kind of lifestyle you'll be able to support. Considerations about pension should include allowances for taxes depending on where you will be resident. If you will be given lump sumps while living in Spain, make sure you allow for taxes at the Spanish level. Get some awareness of the Spanish tax system, there is a lot of information about it in English here and elsewhere on the Internet.

You then need to consider where you will live and find a property you are happy with. People here will always recommend renting first and I am usually right with them, but with 90k and if pensions are just enough, then taking 6-10k in rental, say, out of that sum could be an issue.

You said you know Spain. If you feel you know it and your target area well enough then you might think you can buy without first renting in order to get to know an area. If not, try to spend some time in low cost accommodation for a couple of weeks or more and talk to everybody you see. Expats in Spain tend to have a bit of time on their hands, so engaging in chat in a cafe on market day can be a way of getting different opinions from people.

Regarding housing. Running costs in Spain can be low compared to the UK but the single most expensive add-on can be community charges. If the finances say you are going to have to watch your money, avoid community accommodation with high annual support costs.

On the specific point about 90k being enough to get you over here. Yes, it is. I could find a nice place to live in Spain and get some belongings and myself into the country for a lot less than 90k. But getting here is the easy part, you want to be able to stay, so back to financial planning.

Do you have a particular area in mind yet?



Jenny J said:


> Hi,
> I am hoping to make my dream come true but feel more than daunted over the prospect now I have looked into things.
> 
> I have spent the past 17 years being a mum to my son on my own after my husband left me for his secretary. Another story! My dream has been to buy a little pad for myself in sunny climes and Spain is my choice because I feel it very familiar as my parents owned a second home here for some years.
> ...


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

Have you an idea of where you would like to live in Spain? You will find you'll get loads of advice on here although some bits might seem negative and not to your liking they will, nevertheless, be well intentioned. Advice above is absolutely crucial. RENT first. Don't even think about buying until you have lived here a couple of years. The very worst mistake you could make would be to buy, move over and discover you don't really like the property, the area or even Spain!! But if you rent, you can move around until you know you've found the right area and then you can do a more thorough property search as you will be living here. Also, you will meet people and find a social life here - not difficult - and as often is the case it isn't what you know but who you know. The people you befriend will be able to give you the benefit of their experiences etc. Where we are Nerja/Torrox/Frigiliana area you will be able to find one bed apartments from around €250 a month long term. Then there will be all the other expenses such as utilities (although there are an increasing number of rentals around where utilities are included), food, car if you need one and so on. If you assume that the cost of living here is the same as UK then work out your budgets and see if you can afford it then give it a try. We think that the cost of living is cheaper than UK, others disagree, but it will depend to a large extent on where you choose to live. Marbella is more expensive than Torrox. Much more!! Good luck and feel free to ask questions. That's what the forum is for...


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## Jenny J (Jan 24, 2015)

Thank you everyone, this feedback has really helped. My parents had a place in La Carihuela, costa del sol in the 70's & 80's, my preference would be coastal, looking at Almunecar if I manage to make move.
I would be able to work if anything available, I can turn my hand to most anything but I am not fluent in Spanish and therefore I guessed I wouldnt be able to get work.
I will not be bringing my car so not wanting rural.
I will keep researching, fingers crossed. Jen


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Difficult. Normally I would say avoid renting - why pay out say 6000€ a year on rent when for two or three times that, you could maybe buy a place - it will be small and require some work. However, since you have a fixed size pot, you may have to consider both options.

You need to get on and do plenty of research. With a computer and access to the internet, it's not going to cost much - if necessary get down to the public library. You need to have a good idea in your own mind about what you want and what you don't want. 

Things you will need to choose right at the start are basics:

do you want to be where there are other expats or away from expats
climate - there can be snow, hail and windstorms in many places in Spain, bear in mind that temperatures can vary with altitude as well as latitude
do you want village, town, city
do you need to be close to major stores
etc.

Don't forget that you can go to Google Earth, home in on an area then take a look around using "street view"


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