A question posed to me by and expat, your thoughts please.

[woolybanana]

Assuming a single person with an annual income of, say, £18000 or €18000 made up of 85% pensions and 15% interest from investments, would you be better off living in UK or France, with home fully paid for?

I am not sure how to answer?

[Sprogster]

wooly, it is impossible to answer, as it all depends on lifestyle and which areas of the UK and France you are comparing. I am always bemused when posters take prices in the Limoussin for example as representative of France in general, in seeming ignorance as to the huge regional variation in everything from grocery and fuel costs to property taxes.

[Renaud]

Wooly, your friend would be mad not to live where he more enjoyed living.

[woolybanana]

I think he was trying to compare living in rural Somerset with where I live in the Vendée which is ruralish.

[Pommier]

I'd have thought he would have enough money to live in either place so it depends where he would prefer to live.

[powerdesal]

Surely it's a 'swings and roundabouts' situation.

Council tax in UK is very possibly a lot higher than in the Vendee ( maybe), vehicle costs will be higher in UK, ( VED, petrol / diesel prices ), however, IMHO, food costs could be a lot lower in UK.

As someone said, it's down to lifestyle.

[Loiseau]

I am sure there have been lengthy threads on why people move TO France from the UK. Maybe a search of those, and sort of reversing the situation, would be helpful.

One major reason that people move to France seems to be to take advantage of its cheap property to become mortgage-free. Assuming your friend were unaffected by that aspect, the other most-often cited perceived advantages to living in France would probably be low crime levels, good medical treatment and free education.

Angela

[powerdesal]

Given that the person in question has an income involving a pension it is unlikely that free education would be an issue. Similarly I imagine that crime levels in rural Somerset are unlikely to be any different to rural France. Medical may be pertinent but only if said person is covered by an S 1 if he moved to France, otherwise it's a case of private health care = expensive.

[andyh4]

I think you have to define "better off" - simply financially or taken in the round.  And if the latter then the level of language skills would in my book at least play heavily in the answer.

 

Also important would be the level and number of friends that you have that you could contact on a regular (perhaps daily) basis.

 

It's a question that no one except the expat questioner could sensibly answer.

[NormanH]

Even just looking at the figures is difficult because it depends if the pension is a Government one, i.e taxed at source in the UK (with the declaration in France + tax credit system)  or one which can be totally taxed in France.

In the latter case there would be less tax to pay than in the UK, but of course even with an S1 you need a Mutuelle which bumps up the total.

I believe Electricity is cheaper in France.

Food in the shops feels more expensive in France, but I can still find good value restaurant meals

I have lived in rural Somerset and urban France and the latter suits my lifestyle better, but then I am reasonable in French and have built up a network of friends which can be hard to do in a new country and a foreign language.

[Sprogster]

The last paragraph in Norman's post probably sums it up best, in that it all comes down to language competence and assimilation, without which longer term you are probably going to be happier staying in the UK.