jg12345 wrote: Tue Sep 02, 2025 7:53 am
Valuethinker wrote: Wed Aug 27, 2025 3:23 amRemember you need 35 years for full Basic State Pension.
Yes. It’s an anomaly and Canada and Australia are the number 3 and 2 destinations for UK retirees emigrating. For family reasons almost inevitably (Spain is number 1). So the government saves itself c £500m pa. Representations and lobbying goes on all the time to governments about this but there’s no political upside in fixing this. And in fact the saving is illusory – we should pay retirees to emigrate (maybe to Rwanda?) and so avoid the real cost of a retiree to society, which is healthcare. On average you will spend something like 10x on healthcare post age 65 than before (it could be 20x). Plus of course the cost to your Local Council for home visits etc. (and retirement home if your assets drop enough).
We should not be deporting illegal young men seeking asylum, we should be deporting pensioners! (that’s a joke, if not obvious)
It’s going to become impossible to emigrate to many countries by mid century — the planet is getting old very fast. Countries like Korea, Taiwan and Japan that have limited/ no tolerance for immigration are going to have much smaller populations.
“It’s going to become impossible to emigrate to many countries by mid century — the planet is getting old very fast” can you expand on that, please?
Sorry muddled thought.
What I meant was that basically every developed country is aging quite fast. As a result, their tolerance to take new residents who are over say 3 40 is going to be very small indeed. Even your 25 years paying into the national insurance system, if they then have to look after you in the pension and medical system for a further 30 years, is not looking like a great bet for those host countries. Now within the EU there is mobility of labour – one of the main reasons why the UK voted for Brexit (among the 52% of voters who voted for Brexit).
Logically of course we should take large numbers of immigrants from places that have lots of young people. To an extent Spain has proven receptive to Latin Americans who share a common culture and historical roots — analogous to South Africans emigrating to the UK. But the places with the young people are Africa and the Middle East, and we’ve seen the political reaction to the threat of large immigration from those places.
East Asia is ahead of us on the demographic curve. But you don’t find large numbers of Indonesians or Philippinos in South Korea or Japan, I do not think? Europe is going to be old.
But it’s fun to idly dream of retiring to say Spain (if it does not become too hot) or Portugal. If you are British, and lacking an Irish grandparent or equivalent, then post Brexit that’s going to be difficult (and will in time become impossible, I suspect).
Generally I would say if you want to relocate somewhere else in the developed world, do it whilst you as young as you can. Partly because that makes adjustment easier. (Counterpoint: compensation is so much higher in the USA than anywhere else, that you should work in a highly remunerative role there, and then relocate when you are older — there’s definitely a case for that; countries that are sunny and nice to retire to tend to have much lower wages (southern Europe v northern etc)).
Also note you need a minimum of 10 years to receive any state pension. However, years of work in EU will contribute to the 10 years criteria (they will not contribute to the amount of the pension, of course)
Thanks that is a good tip.
