We came to the USA for 18 months but ending up staying for 12 years! We have now both retired and didn't know whether to stay or go back to UK, elderly infirm parents pulled us back but it was a difficult decision. So, we have finally decided to 'not-decide' by selling our home here and buying a condo locally then going back to the UK in November to be with family. Plan is to spend time 3-4 months a year in USA and rest in UK for the next few years anyway.
Hopefully it will all work out but we just couldn't break our ties here - felt we needed a bolt hole away from UK weather and politics. Unfortunately we can't escape UK taxation but that's life I guess.
Anyone else tried split-living?
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Anyone else tried split living? quote]
Hi Rick, I'll be interested to hear how this works out for you. My husband is a way off retirement, but a split living type of arrangement is how we see the future. We'd reverse yours though, more like a 70% here/ 30% there deal mrgreen
Because of infirm elderly parents we will have to spend most of our time in UK for first few years. However, in the longer term we are likely to reverse the ratio and spend most of the time here. Of course, much will depend on what happens and how we feel as time goes by. We just know that we dread the thought of returning to UK full time at the moment, the grey skies, overcrowded malls and roads and general hassle of UK living are not compensated for fully by friends and relations. The other thing we wonder about is that our sense of living seems to have diverged from our friends and relations, we find it hard to accept waiting 4 weeks for results of a blood test - as my MIL has just done - or waiting 1-2 months to see a specialist, life seems to be more "controlled" in UK and customer service less consumer oriented.
I will let you know how we get on!
Well we have been back in UK for 2 months now. Thoughts so far are that you certainly feel much less free or in control here than in the USA. It is much more crowded (but it is a small island with 60m people!) and the roads are always busy. Weather, as expected, is awful. Taxes are ridiculously high and seem to be applied to everything you do - they call them stealth taxes! Health Service has had billions of pounds poured in by Labour Party but most seems to have gone on wage increases and more administrators - there is now more than one administrator for every hospital bed. From personal experience with an elderly relative (the reason we came back) the health service is not much better, 3-4 month waiting list just to see a specialist then more waiting for any treatment or tests. People I know here who would have never have "gone private" are now doing just that in order to get treated. Some hospitals are cancelling appointments and redefining the seriousness of an illness to remove patients from the waiting list - and those include heart conditions. However, many people here cling to a belief that the NHS offers the best care in the world and look disbelieving if you argue that compared with most civilized countries in Europe and USA that the UK health care system is poor.
I don't want this to sound all negative but it is concerning that no one seems to think it an invasion of privacy that it is being suggested that all car trips could be monitored by the government, or that the police should hold the DNA 'fingerprint' of everyone in the UK. I find both those proposals really scary.
On the plus side the food is better - bigger range and fresher. The pubs are still good and there are a better selection of non-chain restaurants with great food. Strangely TV is now no better than USA and the radio - including BBC - is far inferior to Public Radio in the USA. In fact we listen to WYPR Baltimore on the internet more than we listen to UK radio. Scott Simon on Weekend Edition, Car Talk, All Things Considered etc.
However, it is so nice to be close to family again and that makes up for a lot of negatives - we don't know if we will stay in UK in the long term however, jury is still out on that!
Rick, it's great to hear from you and hope your elderly folk are as OK as to be expected.
I was very interested to read all that you had to say. I was wondering if you think that maybe one of the reasons why you don't believe the TV and radio is any better than over here is because you have been away so long? I know when I went back for just a week early last year I wanted to watch the tv but couldn't get into it. We have been in the US 7 years now and I am so out of touch of what is going on in the UK. I used to listen to the british radio over the internet when we first arrived. I think now, though, I would listen to our local radio here before any UK radio. )
Hope everything goes well for you all )
Neighbours of ours here in Ottawa went one step further. The had a place in Brentwood, Essex ( 3 months ) Naples, Florida (4months) and here in Ottawa (5 months)
He is British and she Canadian. They bought up the family and had a buisiness in the UK. But retired to Ottawa keeping the UK place and buying a condo in Naples for the winter. They decided to make Canada the principle residence mainly for taxes and health care.
They are now both in their 80's and have persuaded their daughter to settle in Ottawa with her two children and have sold the UK property. This decision, they knew had to be made at some time mainly because of health. The place in Naples is not used as much and I suspect it will either be made a rental and held for the family.
Eventually health decides where we wish to be. Continuity with health care is most important as we age.
Good to hear from you RickT. Good to hear what you your feelings are about being back home there for a while.
Its funny that unless you have travelled abit and seen different governments and systems in play, that you tend to see your small part of the world with rose coloured glasses.
I think that people should be made to travel and get that experaince, maybe then we will all be less quick to judge and build a better place. Ohhhh for a star treck world lol
As we get older inevitably, at some stage, health care becomes a priority. A question we will have to answer in the next few years before deciding where to live permanently is whether USA Medicare plus top-up insurance is going to be okay. I think it is better than the UK NHS as a healthcare provider - particularly now there is the beginning of a prescription drugs plan in USA - but don't know about other services. I am finding that my elderly relatives are not considered a priority for NHS treatment but tend to be given drugs to mask the symptoms and more or less told to go away! In our case we convinced my elderly relative to see a Specialist privately, end result was far fewer drugs, an improved quality of life and a test for a simple heart problem not even considered by the GP. If the problem is as the Specialist suspects then the treatment is fairly simple and will further improve their quality of life.
Incidentally one other "good" thing about living in UK is how much better the cars are, handling, suspension, fit & finish etc. We have bought a 2.0 liter diesel automatic and are getting nearly 50 mpg and it drives no differently than a petrol car. Great after years of Chevrolets and Buicks.
We are back in the USA in April to close on the condo we are buying so will then be able to spend some time each year in USA. How long depends on family over here but we hope to increase the time in the USA as time goes by and inevitably 'old father time' changes circumstances. Hope that doesn't sound ghoulish but you have to look to the future.
I will keep anyone interested updated with our thoughts about being back in UK and how the winter progresses.
Glad things are going well for you, Rick. I appreciate your posts and am interested in your observations about your move. Nice to read an unbiased account!
Very interesting to read your feedback on living in the UK again.
Hope the specialist can improve your relatives health situation.
Please do keep us posted Rick - I'm some years away from retirement but still cling to the idea of spending parts of the year in both countries, like yourself.
Best wishes to you and your family.
Nice to get everyones good wishes. Thanks
I have decided that we should have come back to the UK in the Spring and not the Winter! This is a typical UK January and I think we are suffering from lack of sun and light! However, the days should soon start to grow longer and hopefully the weather will improve and we can get out more. Garden certainly needs some work and in the meantime there is plenty of decorating to do in the house. We have been away 12 years and fashions and taste in decoration etc certainly changed a lot in that time. All white bathroom suites and pale furniture. Ikea (which I hate) has taken over in the UK and seems to set the trend for decor and cheap tatty furniture.
A few other observations about UK Judicial system is like sports fishing - the police catch criminals then let them go again, then catch them then let them go etc. etc. There seems to be an absolute concentration on understanding the criminal and ignoring the crime! Life is cheap in 2006 Britain - murderers receive life sentences but are often released after 6-8 years, often to re-offend. Violent criminals might be sentenced to just 8 years but only serve 3-4 due to over-crowding; no one can coutenance building more prisons - so barbaric don't you know!!! I never thought of myself as right wing but the sentencing here has gone loony. Funny thing is everyone I talk to agrees with me but it is "THEM" in charge who are doing it and they don't feel they have any control. I wonder what happenned to Democracy but as all you get to vote for is a Political Party every five years and a local government who is tightly controlled by the Government so I gues the description of an elected Dictatorship is about right!
Now I wasn't going to go into all this so I will finish now and wait till I have more positive news to report!!!
You've got to stop reading the Daily Mail wink
I don't read the daily Mail!
All these observations are from my talking with people here or from my personal feelings on my return.
Tell me this - a guy in Poole was walking home from a Berbecue with his wife and another couple. A couple of youths picked an argument with them and beat up the guy so badly he is now unable to work and permanently disabled, physically and mentally - he had just qualified as a barrister. The penalty? One 18 year old got 18 months and the 17 year old got 12 months youth custody. Do you think justice was done? I don't.
I refuse to be totally negative about the UK, there are advantages but I promised to give my honest views for everyone to read if they want.
I refuse to be totally negative about the UK, there are advantages but I promised to give my honest views for everyone to read if they want.
I like the honest views, mate.
/it still comes across as disgusted of tunbridge wells tho :mrgreen: