Am I mad to think about moving to Spain

[Johngerad]

Hi all,

I'm a 29 yr old father of 1 and my wife is pregnant with our second.

We are both fed up with life in Ireland, and I have always wanted to move abroad but never did and instead settled with a mortgague, job etc. problem is I never did setle and now my wife feels the same way so I'm starting to look into it to see if it's viable.

What would be the best area of Spain to move to for an english speaking family starting off, close to the coast, I hear alot about mallorca but there must be others

The type of info I would need is

House/ appartment Rentals (what it would be a month)
employment in the accounts area (although I do have bar/hotel exp if necessary)
english speaking schools
healthcare (my wife is diabetic)

We would obviously wait until the baby is born, I might move over initially for work seeking etc, not sure yet

After we sell our house and tie up other loose ends we would have about 20,000 euro to move with.

Am i mad to consider this, is the quality of life over there good

Any kind of info would be greatly appreciated, especialy from someone that was in a similar situation and took the plunge

Regards

John

[Stravinsky]

Well firstly, with your wifes condition, you have to consider health care. When you move here you will probably come on a limited health care coverage document, maybe up to two years depending on your past NI payments. After that, unless you are paying into the state system, you will have no health cover. You will need private health care. This costs about £65 a month for a couple in their mid fifties, so you can see it is good value.

Houses and villas can go from €450 a month upwards, depending on where you are renting and of course how many bedrooms.

The average salary in Spain is €13k a year .... the cost of living out of the main cities, for instance in CB is about 30% cheaper then the UK, although inflation here is running at about 4%.

National schools are all Spanish speaking. You would need to choose an International school for fully English speaking, and most of those are private (fee paying).

If you don't speak Spanish then your chances of getting a job are lessened. I have links for a load of Spanish job seeker sites if you seriously decide to look at it further.

€20,000 is not a lot of money to tide you over, and you'd need to get wprk pretty quickly.

The quality of life is something that people move here for, but to be sure its much better for a retired couple. If you have to work here then you will spend about 9 till 2 at work, have maybe three hours off, and then go back to work from maybe 5 till 9. Were you looking to spend more time with your family?
But the weather is much better than the UK, and probably Ireland! Where we are we find the Spanish to be very friendly and helpful and for us the quality of life if you enjoy outdoor life is much better.

With such a small pot, I'd say your success totally depends on you getting work within, say, 6 months.

Hope this helps

Originally Posted by Johngerad

Hi all,

I'm a 29 yr old father of 1 and my wife is pregnant with our second.

We are both fed up with life in Ireland, and I have always wanted to move abroad but never did and instead settled with a mortgague, job etc. problem is I never did setle and now my wife feels the same way so I'm starting to look into it to see if it's viable.

What would be the best area of Spain to move to for an english speaking family starting off, close to the coast, I hear alot about mallorca but there must be others

The type of info I would need is

House/ appartment Rentals (what it would be a month)
employment in the accounts area (although I do have bar/hotel exp if necessary)
english speaking schools
healthcare (my wife is diabetic)

We would obviously wait until the baby is born, I might move over initially for work seeking etc, not sure yet

After we sell our house and tie up other loose ends we would have about 20,000 euro to move with.

Am i mad to consider this, is the quality of life over there good

Any kind of info would be greatly appreciated, especialy from someone that was in a similar situation and took the plunge

Regards

John

[Judy]

Hi John,
10 months ago we wer in the same situation as you.
I had always wanted to move to Spain after spending a lot of time on holiday here.
The idea would just not go away,could we do it?
What about the children? what about work? where would we live?what about the house ,furniture,dog ? The list went on and on .........

But we have been here for six months now,children in school and so happy.

I dont regret coming to Spain for one moment ,dont get me wrong it has been difficult at times, Chris (my Husband ) lost his job after 3 months ,I was home sick,I t has taken six months for me to get the confidence to drive over here,which has caused a problem.

But we are finding the quality of live much better that the uk.

The children are out swimming or playing out side in January rather that watching tv.

As for work ,do you speak Spanish?

Your chances are higher if you do, but consider jobs you would not apply for in the uk, I have just got a part time job in an english speaking supermarket.

What type of property are you looking to rent? prices go from about 450e upwards.


But your not mad to consider coming to Spain, we love it and dont want to come home.

Email me with any questions I will try and help you were I can.

Take a deep breath and take the plunge,dont always think ...what if.

Kind regards Judy

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by Judy

Email me with any questions I will try and help you were I can.

Hi Judy

It would be nice to keep it out on the forum, as it helps others then also

[jacks]

hi everyone, i am wanting to move to spain. On similar lines to John, may be even more mad. I am a single mum of 3. When i sell my house hopefully will have approx. 70000 euro. Want to rent and put the kids into spanish school. Don't mind what work i do obv. limited as don't speak spanish. Am planning to try michel thomas to learn. Kids all up for it and i most deffo. All advice good or bad greatly needed.
jackie

[jojo]

we're the same, we've been wanting to do this for years, but somehow the timing was never quite right - you know how it is, kids, parents, work..... until now!!!!

This time we are doing it. We've done the research, we've got a rented house near malaga, we've rented our UK house, the school is sorted out for the kids, flights booked for us and our 2 dogs and we're actually doing it!!! On 4th February!!! I'm now absolutely terrified!

But I'm sure we're doing the right thing!!??! I hope I can relay our experiences to you all, providing my OH has got the broadband thingy working!!?

Jo

[janeanddarren]

johngerad
We are in a similar situation - I (darren) have arthritis and so we have to consider healthcare.
it is hard finding all the information we might need.
we hope to go in about 18 months.
cheers

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by janeanddarren

johngerad
We are in a similar situation - I (darren) have arthritis and so we have to consider healthcare.
it is hard finding all the information we might need.
we hope to go in about 18 months.
cheers

What information do you need?

[janeanddarren]

I don't want to hijack this post but we need to know :-
in scotland I get financial help because I have arthritis, are there any benefits for disabilities in Spain?

There are obviously many more questions that we have but whether we could actually afford it is one of the first that we have to consider.

Thanks

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by janeanddarren

I don't want to hijack this post but we need to know :-
in scotland I get financial help because I have arthritis, are there any benefits for disabilities in Spain?

There are obviously many more questions that we have but whether we could actually afford it is one of the first that we have to consider.

Thanks

The only main benefit you can carry from the UK is disability IF you are already claiming it. Like the winter fuel payment, you can take that as well.
So I dont think so, although to be sure you could contact:

Exportability Co-coordinator,
Room B120D, DCS, Warbreck House, Warbreck Hill Rd, FY2 0YE.
Email: exportability.team @ dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Tel: 08457 123456

If one of you is of pensionable age then you both get free health cover here under the state system.