Need urgent advice please

[KazzyJS]

Hi everyone, Happy new Year!
I am new on here.
I am a 60 year old female living alone with a rescue cat in the West Lancashire area of the United Kingdom.
I have no family life here now and have lost all of my friends to Cancer in recent years.
I have a 4 bedroom house to sell which needs a bit of repair, so not sure what profit I will make from selling but it won't be much since I bought it 10 years ago on an interest only mortgage which I have just found out was mis-sold to me, so I have embarked on a legal battle to sue for this and this should compensate me for enough to afford to move overseas and buy a small modest home for around £100,000 (or equivalent).

I am stuck though because I have little knowledge of the geography of the world, and I have no idea where would be a good place to move to, where at my age I could get in with relative ease without a lot of hassle getting a visa.

Being alone at age 60 is daunting enough I feel very vulnerable, so this is a once in a lifetime move, I want to move to a place where I can easily make new friends, ex pat British or American people as I only speak English, somewhere where there is a low crime rate, good health care, warmer climate than the UK without risks of floods, earthquakes, terrorism, Tsunami's, violent crime, where people speak English as their second language and where in old age I will be safe. Does such a place exist, if so where is this place?!

Can anyone help me with ideas for where the best place to move to is, how I make this move, where I can get help with applying for a visa or the move itself, find a good estate agent, good support and new friends?

I am very lonely and just want a better life than the miserable one I presently live here, I spend 24 hours per day 7 days per week alone and its dreadful. Too many painful memories here to make me want to stay and the public services here are getting worse.

Anyone got any helpful advice for me please?

I also need to be able to find work, as I have no savings, no pension and no investments, so plan was to buy a home outright, to be mortgage free and find work even if its cooking or serving food or drinks in a bar or office work, just enough to help pay bills.

Need a place where my cat will be safe too and not sure of she would need to be quarantined to come with me, are there countries which won't require this, she is a rescue cat so can't handle more trauma.

Thanks millions in advance, all help would be really gratefully appreciated - just need a sensible strategy to move ASAP but no idea how to do this and where to move to for the best.

Kaz XX

[Kay]

Hi Kaz,

Happy New Year to you too and welcome to the forum.

This is a BIG question and it'll probably take some time to think of useful answers for you. I'm a bit busy right now so this is just a quickie to say hello and welcome. I'll come back later with at least some suggestions for you.

All the best!

Kay

[Kay]

Hi again Kaz,

Just a few thoughts meanwhile. And some questions.

I can understand your wanting to move from where you are now, especially if you want to leave the painful memories behind, but why overseas?

Have you travelled much before?

If you're fit enough for physical work, eg cooking, then surely you must be fit enough to go out and about and meet people.

Why could you not move to a new area in the UK and make some new friends there?

If you don't seem to have anyone to leave your property to, then why would you want to buy a house? I can understand that you'd want security of tenure but could you not find some other way without tying up all your capital? Eg, a long-term lease.

Pre-Brexit, you'd have been able to live and find work in the EU countries but that's much less likely now. Also, buying a house overseas can be a very dodgy business. I know loads of people who have regrets about doing that. That said, if you come off the UK property ladder and for whatever reason need to get back on it later, you'll find it extremely difficult if not impossible. Therefore you might consider staying on the ladder one way or another - whether renting out your four-bed house or selling that one and buying another which you could rent out temporarily while you explore elsewhere in the UK or abroad.

Anyway, it's likely that you'd find it very difficult to find work. The exception being low-paid teaching English jobs overseas. I don't know what your qualifications are but you obviously have a high standard of English so you could could easily obtain a TFL cert or similar - it's possible to do it online fairly cheaply.

Have you considered volunteering for VSO or similar? You'd be housed and fed, and very little else, while you could taste life working overseas. You'd most likely have a ready-made circle of friends too, and you'd have the satisfaction of doing something useful. You could top up your income by renting out your UK house. (And still be on the property ladder in case you want to come back.)

Another thing is that unless you're employed and sponsored by your employer, health insurance can be extremely expensive.

This isn't a full reply by any means but it's something to think about meanwhile. Please do come back if there's anything you'd like to explore or discuss further.

[KazzyJS]

Hi Kay,

Thanks for your really helpful posts of advice, which are greatly appreciated.

I want to move for many reasons, including bad memories which is just becoming intolerable.

I no longer feel safe in the UK for many reasons, I am being abused by several people and I want to get away from the whole lot, and the UK is too easy to be traced in, but I don't like the way the country is being run, the health services is a shambles and I don't trust mainstream medics in the UK anyway.

I have always wanted to live overseas and in a warmer climate, and start a new life.

At present I am having to work an 18 hour day, 7 days per week just to break even on the bills and the mortgage, I can't afford a social life and have no pension or savings. So only chance is selling up and putting the small profit from the house sale (if any) to some possible compensation for suing the mortgage company for mis-selling my mortgage to me, and whilst I am able bodies enough and not to old to move, moving overseas and starting a new life, hopefully meeting a nice guy and settling down, I am fed up of endless lonely nights and days and no company and no means to get out.

The climate here isn't good either - I prefer a warmer climate.

My hope was that getting the compensation from suing the mortgage company for mis-selling me my mortgage would enable me to buy a home overseas and be mortgage free, then just going out to a menial day time job would free up evenings and weekends to enable me to have a life again before I am too old to have one. It is a now or never move.

So what I was looking for is good suggestions for the best place for someone like me to move to overseas.

Thanks millions,

Kaz X

Hi Kaz,

Happy New Year to you too and welcome to the forum.

This is a BIG question and it'll probably take some time to think of useful answers for you. I'm a bit busy right now so this is just a quickie to say hello and welcome. I'll come back later with at least some suggestions for you.

All the best!

Kay

[Kay]

Hi Kaz,

I'm afraid there aren't really any easy solutions. By all means go and explore the big world out there. But planning to buy a house overseas at the outset is pretty much crazy. Most countries don't want foreigners (ie Brits) buying houses in their countries and even then most expats would try renting in various places for at least a year or two before deciding where they'd want to settle.

If you're looking for meeting a nice guy, with fun or even marriage in mind there are options. The tourist spots in Turkey are good for "older" women wanting to have fun (similar to Thailand for "older" men), there are the match-making fairs in Ireland. And there are the luxury cruises where rich, elderly, people hope to meet a new love. Do any of these sound like attractive options to you?

I'm kinda shocked that at 60 you're talking as though you're over the hill and it's like a last ditch attempt. I understand you're new here on this forum but you're only of average age to us.

Pack up. Rent out your house. Go and have fun somewhere. Keep a tight control over your purse-strings and don't get conned. Take stock after a year or so. Then decide. Don't decide now what will be so important for the rest of your life.

Have a "gap year". Do what you want. Just make sure you have something to come back to. By the time you've had your gap year I can almost guarantee you'll see things differently.

Have fun and I hope this helps.

Kay

PS: New members' postings are pre-moderated as a spam prevention measure so if you don't immediately see your posting there's no need to post it again. We'll get around to it. If we didn't do it this way we'd be swamped with spam and other rubbish.

[ruggie]

Hi Kaz. Kay has kicked off with some very sensible advice. I'll repeat her warning not to get off the UK property ladder until you have been settled abroad for several years.

There are places in France where you can buy habitable property for £100,000, but most of them are in places where the weather is both hotter and colder than in the UK.

You write good English - what did you do for most of your working life?

[DavidH]

Hi Kaz. I totally concur with all that Kay has wisely said. The golden rule before moving anywhere is to rent first. You must be sure that you will be happy in that country or area before committing yourself.
I wish you well in your endeavors.
David