moving to a new country

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I would choose Norway, Germany, Sweden in a heartbeat, at any time, if asked.
Canada would be a quick and easy one - just drive north a bit, no airplane needed.
I would consider Ireland, Scotland, etc., too

Norway would be neat I think. Actually that region itself all would be neat to move to

 

[DisneyClassicFan]

The UK, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, Scotland or Canada

 

[Drewsdad]

Tuscany Italy . Weather is great , people are friendly and the food is perfect.

 

[nursejackie]

I lived in Australia for a few years, on a 4 year work visa, as it's easy to get a job there as a nurse (from the UK). It was great but it's a long way from family and expensive to visit each other, so after 3 years I returned home i think it's easier for some to be apart and for others not so easy.

 

[Scotgirl]

The UK, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, Scotland or Canada

You do know that Scotland is in the UK? (For now anyway!)

 

[NannyBeBe]

The only other country I would consider would be England.

 

[Darcy03231]

DH and I are looking at retiring to Costa Rica. We've traveled there before and just love it. Cost of living is low, weather is great, friendly people, and several ex-pat communities.

 

[Colleen27]

DH and I have talked about Costa Rica or Belize for an ex-pat retirement, but I would really love to live in Ireland. Maybe in retirement, maybe before since I work remotely anyway. I've only just started looking into the legal details and whatnot because any move or even long-term visit has to wait until my youngest is off to college, but it is something I hope I'll be able to pursue eventually.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

UK. I might actually consider it if I had enough money to retire there

 

[limace]

Fun question! I never want to leave my house permanently-west coast of US. DH and I have both lived in Australia and love it and would be up for spending a long stretch of time there again. We also both have spent time in New Zealand and would love that. Our kids speak Spanish, so we’ve talked about part timing it in Spain or Mexico.

 

[tcufrog]

My husband's company has lots of Canadian customers so we've talked about moving there to open a Canadian branch office. We've also talked about buying a place in England or Scotland and splitting our time between here and there once our kids graduate. We'd rent it out when we're in the US.

 

[Kimkimba]

Ireland. If we need to escape it’s first on our list.

 

[LovesTimone]

France
Japan

 

[mousefan73]

Realistically, Canada. I could live further south than I do now, and easily go back and forth to the States to visit family. In a perfect world, I'd be part of the Paris ex-pat community.
Unfortunately, I'm 66, only speak English, married, and not wealthy, so we don't really qualify to leave this country. Nobody wants old people who are going to retire soon instead of add to their culture and economy.

You do have a point. I live in Germany in in Myexpat group of Americans here there are many people who post questions about retiring in Germany. Many are ex US military that lived here on special status or lived most of their working years in the US and are now moving back to Germany as one spouse is originally German.


The issue is health insurance at an older age. As an American retiree moving to Europe, you do need to have substantial income because he will most likely have to privately insure your Health insurance. I’ve heard cases where people have to pay two grand a month. European countries and especially Germany has a great socialized healthcare system but if you’ve never paid into it you can’t just suddenly join at an older age where you pay based on age/risk vs income. That’s why if you do move to Europe or Germany it’s always good to move when you’re not completely retired where you can work and pay into the system. Once you’re in the system you’re OK.

And the US Social Security system direct deposits your payments into many countries overseas.


There’s a difference between a Canadian being a Snowbird in the US. Versus someone completely moving overseas especially at an older age where Health care and elder care is an issue.


In my group recently a woman posted how her father is a US retiree in Germany unexpectedly fell I’ll seriously and now needs nursing care. Since he’s not on the German system it’s a fortune. He had some type of international US based health insurance but devils and the details when it comes to then nursing care

 

[leebee]

Forgive me for asking, but what do you mean by the bolded (by me) above? "So we don't really qualify to leave this country". I'm genuinely intrigued by this, what qualifications do you need to meet to leave? I might have missed something - you are in the US, right? Or Canada?

Sorry, I forget that sometimes written words don't convey the full content; I was speaking to our efforts to immigrate to Canada. Yes, I am in the USA and we have looked into immigrating to Canada. We started looking as we have 2 friends who just moved to Canada. We filled out the same forms, filed papers, etc., as they did. Canada asks about your age, marital status, education, finances, being bilingual, what your field of work is, etc. We did not "score" enough points to be considered for immigrating, but our friends did. They are about 15 years younger than we are (we're 66 and 62), are nuclear physicists (DH's PhD is in biophysics and my MS is in protein chemistry), they have financial resources that we do not, and the wife speaks English and French (I have the remnants of 10 years of public school French classes, DH has a smattering of Spanish). Basically, it feels as if we don't qualify to move to Canada because we are older, our professions aren't as sought-after, we only speak English, don't have huge financial assets. I guess what I should have said was, given Canada's requirements for immigration, we don't qualify to leave the US to move to Canada.

(Sorry for the slow reply, I've been on vacation for a couple of weeks...)