Move to Spain???!?? Help!!!

[rjnpenang]

hi, just new to site! my partner, my 14yr old son, and i are thinking of moving out to spain next april. I am 32 and my partner is 48".
Hi Donna, Its all been said above, but, please consider your 14 year old son, it will be VERY difficult for him to settle here, no friends?, unable to speak Spanish?, schooling?. Regards Rob

[mackenziegray]

thank you soooo much for your replys, we honestly dont know what to do, we would so love just to be able to move tomorrow (never mind next march)!!
We have thought about what you said about Benalmadena and maybe its not such a good idea after all.
We would be happy with even a job each in a bar or a resturant, just anything to keep the rent paid, we also havent got great knowledge of Spain, (having only been to the Costa Del Sol, and Mallorca)
My mother and father are going to look after my son for a couple of months back in ireland until we see if living in spain is what we really imagined it to be, we understand it will be long hours work, but we have talked about it for years, maybe by next year things might of picked up again.
I suppose we would have to go to tourist areas, were we might have a better chance of getting work........ but where?????
donna n stephen! x

[rjnpenang]

Donna, In my old business, (a cafe with 14 employees), all the staff are now on a 5 day week (from 6), Its extremely doubtful if you can find work at the moment. Sept/Oct are the good months for British tourists but with the pound at 1-20? who knows what going to happen then. Regards Rob (Fuengirola)

[mackenziegray]

Originally Posted by rjnpenang

hi, just new to site! my partner, my 14yr old son, and i are thinking of moving out to spain next april. I am 32 and my partner is 48".
Hi Donna, Its all been said above, but, please consider your 14 year old son, it will be VERY difficult for him to settle here, no friends?, unable to speak Spanish?, schooling?. Regards Rob

thankyou Rob for replying to me, i really wish we knew what to do for the best, my son has actually fallen in with the wrong company of friends here and that sort of made our mind up about moving, although hes only 14 he looks about 19 and we thought maybe a change for him would be good also. At the minute, we are all (trying) to learn spanish (not to well) haha! He is not sure about moving, (we had an incident last month when we were on holiday, he had made friends with two spanish kids and had a great day, only at the end of the night they stole his money and mobile phone)!! Its getting him to understand that not everyone is like that. Its a big change for us all, maybe we will hate it or maybe we will love it, i thought if we gave it a year or two out in spain, whats to lose. If we dont do it now, we,ll never do it.
We would ideally like to go to somewhere where there is a lot of irish, english etc as if my son meets friends he will settle in a lot quicker
donna xxx

[rjnpenang]

I agree with you, it can be a better life here, we raised 2 kids thought the Spanish school system, they loved it and made good lifelong friends!. But even so, we know that they tried all the usual things, soft drugs, smoking etc., (even growing marij. on our terrace). 14 is such a difficult age, not quite a child and not quite a man and with such temptations!. We moved here in 1983 and looking back it was a good place to raise kids. However, even if you both had jobs in Spain its not a good idea to leave him with your parents and he´s a little too old to enter the Spanish education system. I´m sorry I don´t have an easy answer, but the main criteria in my opinion is your son. Regards Robert (Why don´t you move over to the UK?).

[bambi]

Hi
we lived in Spain for 5yrs inAlmeria, we saw many young couples come and go, dont want to dishearten you but be careful. The children will be fine they adapt very quickly and will probably be speaking Spanish before you. I would advise strongly to rent beacause if you get the area wrong your stuck there until you can sell. Work can be tricky if you dont speak Spanish, then you will have to rely on the English for work and they dont pay well. You need to get onto the national ins system and this can be expensive you need to pay even if you dont earn. Please be careful a lot of Brits leave their brains on the plane when arriving in Spain and buy on impulse only to regret. Think long and hard and good luck.

[mackenziegray]

thankyou to everyone who left me a comment, you have all been a BIG help, and it has given us more things to think about, the good and bad. Maybe we should not even think about moving until my son has finished his schooling here, it will only be another two years i suppose..... but in saying that, my partner will be 50 then, even slimmer chance of finding a job then. AAARRRRGGGGG! god, i wish i knew what to do for the best! haha!
anyway, i love this site, it gives me lots of information and is a brill help. i dont know anyone who lives in spain so im taking all your comments on board.

thanks again! xxx

[MDM_117]

Hi there

I understand from your message you are serious about moving to Spain. What I am going to tell you now is just a few words of warnings to be aware of if and when you decide to make the move.

I moved to Spain - Marbella Costa Del Sol 6 months ago with my partner from North West England. We researched our move and travelled down for 12 months planning the area which to live, and to buy a business that could generate a fairly decent living. I discovered that it is not easy to get a job in Spain that pays well, if you do not speak Spanish. We both had really well paid jobs in the UK and gave them up to make the move.

We researched and found a business in Marbella. A Cafe bar situated in the business district of Marbella. We wanted a business that did not rely on tourism. The Cafe bar seemed perfect as many of its clients were local spanish people. We both did not speak a word of Spanish but learnt quickly. So I dont think you would have a problem learning the language as long as you intergrate yourself into Spanish life.

We bought the business and rented an apartment just outside Marbella. Things then started to slowly go wrong. We were told, and shown figures of the businesses takings daily, these were offical documents (so we thought) and we based our decision to buy on this. After the first few weeks we discovered that the business was making no where near what we were told. We both have committments in the UK, i.e. we have to send cash back each month, this has been virtually impossible. We have lived on tips for the past 6 months trying to survive.

We have put the business on the market and are hoping it will sell fast otherwise we stand to lose everything. We have had to sell our car to try and make ends meet. I have taken on another job in the evenings but it is commission only, most of the jobs on the coast are commission only. The salaries do not compare with that of the UK.

Spain is very different from the UK in many ways. We were under the impression that the standard of living here was much less, but it is not. It is the same as the UK. Electricity bills are very high, more than that of the UK. The same with telephone bills. When you set up a bank account, and you have to pay utility bills, personal bills, etc, the money is debited from your account without prior warning. It is very difficult to manage your finances as you dont know what is going to go out of your bank account from one day to the next.

I have spoke to a few expats that live in Spain. If you send your children to state Spanish school, they learn everything in Spanish. Therefore expats have to consider sending their children to have either part time private english reading and writing lessons, or pay for a private school full time. If a child goes to a private English school, they follow the UK curriculum.

If you do decide to make the move, make sure you have available cash in bank should anything go wrong, and I wouldnt even consider the move if you havent got jobs in place beforehand. Do a search in google and type "jobs in Spain" Many recruitment agencies will come up.

I regret moving to Spain and If I could turn the clock back I would. It was supposed to be a dream come true, and we are both trapped in our worst nightmare. I am not trying to put you off from making the move, but what I am trying to say is even with planning, it can still all go wrong. Spain is also on thr brink of a recession, so now is certainly not a good time to make the move.

Living in Spain has made me appreciate why we pay high taxes i.e. council tax etc in the UK. We pay them for a reason, and its only after living here you see why.

regards

[jojo]

Originally Posted by MDM_117

Hi there

I understand from your message you are serious about moving to Spain. What I am going to tell you now is just a few words of warnings to be aware of if and when you decide to make the move.

I moved to Spain - Marbella Costa Del Sol 6 months ago with my partner from North West England. We researched our move and travelled down for 12 months planning the area which to live, and to buy a business that could generate a fairly decent living. I discovered that it is not easy to get a job in Spain that pays well, if you do not speak Spanish. We both had really well paid jobs in the UK and gave them up to make the move.

We researched and found a business in Marbella. A Cafe bar situated in the business district of Marbella. We wanted a business that did not rely on tourism. The Cafe bar seemed perfect as many of its clients were local spanish people. We both did not speak a word of Spanish but learnt quickly. So I dont think you would have a problem learning the language as long as you intergrate yourself into Spanish life.

We bought the business and rented an apartment just outside Marbella. Things then started to slowly go wrong. We were told, and shown figures of the businesses takings daily, these were offical documents (so we thought) and we based our decision to buy on this. After the first few weeks we discovered that the business was making no where near what we were told. We both have committments in the UK, i.e. we have to send cash back each month, this has been virtually impossible. We have lived on tips for the past 6 months trying to survive.

We have put the business on the market and are hoping it will sell fast otherwise we stand to lose everything. We have had to sell our car to try and make ends meet. I have taken on another job in the evenings but it is commission only, most of the jobs on the coast are commission only. The salaries do not compare with that of the UK.

Spain is very different from the UK in many ways. We were under the impression that the standard of living here was much less, but it is not. It is the same as the UK. Electricity bills are very high, more than that of the UK. The same with telephone bills. When you set up a bank account, and you have to pay utility bills, personal bills, etc, the money is debited from your account without prior warning. It is very difficult to manage your finances as you dont know what is going to go out of your bank account from one day to the next.

I have spoke to a few expats that live in Spain. If you send your children to state Spanish school, they learn everything in Spanish. Therefore expats have to consider sending their children to have either part time private english reading and writing lessons, or pay for a private school full time. If a child goes to a private English school, they follow the UK curriculum.

If you do decide to make the move, make sure you have available cash in bank should anything go wrong, and I wouldnt even consider the move if you havent got jobs in place beforehand. Do a search in google and type "jobs in Spain" Many recruitment agencies will come up.

I regret moving to Spain and If I could turn the clock back I would. It was supposed to be a dream come true, and we are both trapped in our worst nightmare. I am not trying to put you off from making the move, but what I am trying to say is even with planning, it can still all go wrong. Spain is also on thr brink of a recession, so now is certainly not a good time to make the move.

Living in Spain has made me appreciate why we pay high taxes i.e. council tax etc in the UK. We pay them for a reason, and its only after living here you see why.

regards

Gosh I'm really sorry things havent worked out for you. That "lets buy a bar in Spain" idea seems to catch people - even with careful planning! Mind you, I think the Marbella isd a very expensive area - although bar prices should reflect that too!

I will say one thing, my electricity bill is nowhere near what it was in the UK (less than half and I dont have gas here, I did in the UK) and my phone bill is only dear here cos I'm always phoning the UK, but I know what you mean about telefonica etc just taking the money out of the bank account without warning - that really annoys me!

I hope you manage to resolve your problems, cos sadly I dont think its easy in the UK either at the moment

Jo

[cosmokramer]

Hi,
just a quick tip, i´m not an expert but i would rent for sure until this price slump stops. In Empuriabrava where i live, the prices are dropping big time and rentals are getting harder to come by.

Don't jump up and down and try and get a mortgage that drains every penny you have, rent for a while.

Lee