If you need to sell £ for euro, think about doing it sooner rather than later, as I fear we are in for another bout of £ depreciation against the euro. Germany has announced stronger than expected growth figures which together with rising oil prices has raised expectations that the ECB might now increase euro base rate to curb inflation, rather than reduce them as had been previously expected. This might also impact on your mortgage arrangements, if you are borrowing in euros.
With the spectre of inflation raising its ugly head again it is important that one does not underestimate how much capital one needs to put aside to produce sufficient income to retire early. As a rule of thumb you should work on the basis that if you are living on a fixed investment income your spending power could halve every ten years.
Hi all
Some food for thought here. HOwever, we are unlucky in that we dont own the house we live in, it is rented, (one reason why we brought a house in france as we could not afford to get on the housing ladder in the Uk) (other reason we love france) so unfortuantly we have nothing to sell and will need to make sure our pensions will support us if we cant find work.
However, I am lucky enough to have the school holidays in which to live in france so technically i can spend 12 weeks every year there at the moment. ( not always possible but i try any way).
My husband and I have now after a lot of years working for peanuts, and bringing up kids on a shoe string, got jobs that pay a halfway decent salary. The other reason is that 4 of our kids (yes we have 5 of them) will want to remain in the UK. We also have 3 small grandkids. (we are not over the hill yet we started very young). We have another 15 - 20 years before we can retire
Judith XX
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