There’s been some scary pensions data this week for Over-50s thinking about retiring to sunny Spain and stern warnings of a Big Bang if something radical isn’t done…
Pensions are an accident waiting to happen, according to experts in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme,"Who Took Your Pension”
While the McBroon Government financial crisis, poor investment returns and inadequate savings have curbed our ability to finance an ever longer retirement, our expectations remain high. "If the pension system carries on as it is with no real change, it will explode," Ros Altman, governor of the London School of Economics, told the Dispatches programme.
Basic UK state provision is low by European standards, yet occupational schemes which should top that up are in crisis because of increased costs, poor investment returns and our extended longevity. Those who most need to make an early commitment for old age, the low paid, are those least likely to do so.
TUC figures show the proportion of "unpensioned" private sector workers has risen from 54.6% to 62.6% between 2000 and 2008, a period that included the pension raids of McBroon, the spend-thrift chancellor that got it all wrong.
"Low-paid employees are simply not earning enough in their working life to pay for a sensible retirement given that people are living so much longer," independent pensions consultant John Ralfe told Dispatches.
With McBroon borrowed billions to repay, taxes and cost of living increases on the way, Over-50s should be looking at ways of leaving these shores for a relaxed lifestyle on a favourite Brit-friendly Costa.
Ex-pat pensioners along the Costa del Sol were relaxed the other day as they watched the latest McBroon machinations on their Sky News widescreens. They seemed to be enjoying life to the full with Spanish mates and ex-pats from other northern European countries in favourite bars and golf clubs.
The wrecked Pound means they have less pension cash, but living in Spain can cost 30% less than the UK and with a sunnier, relaxed lifestyle to boot. Petrol now costs about the same, but fares on efficient trains are much lower, helping retirees to enjoy the seaside resorts and historic cities.
Housing costs are a fraction of those in Blighty, food and drink costs typically 25% less and heating bills are lower because of the Spanish climate. The health service is highly rated and there are few delays in seeing consultants and getting treatment. Private health payments are lower and dentists plentiful.
The McBroons are likely to be replaced by the Cameroons, but the borrowed billions and train-wreck economy can only be fixed by higher taxes, working longer and lowered standards of living. BBC News shows pension options.
9 October 2009
25 September 2009
McBroon’s fiscal porridge
The Spanish property market appears to have reached a watershed moment in time with reports that the collapse in prices might be bottoming out, based on sales of more than 500,000 properties in the last 12 months, and British buyers finally having to realise the once mighty Pound now only buys one now mighty Euro.
Despite the world recession property sales have dipped by only 20% thanks to heavy discounting by developers, Spanish bank repossessions and British vendors taking reverse advantage of the 30% exchange rate decline.
It’s been a buyers’ market for many months and 10,000 deals a week across
If September 2009 proves to be the watershed, then they will have missed out on the real bargains like 2-bed apartments for EUR 74,000 and 3-bed villas from EUR 140,000. While continuing to “look before they leap” 1,000s of British couples intending to buy a property in Spain, have suffered a double whammy as Sterling has plunged and is now unlikely to get better than parity for years.
The decline in the Pound is a direct result of McBroon’s fiscal porridge, that has brought Britain within a caber-toss of bankruptcy with savage budget cuts admitted for the first time by this patently dishonest bunch of incompetents…
It seems the Swiss, who know better than anyone how to manage the economy, are forecasting the continuing decline of Sterling as big corporations quit the sinking ship, now driven onto the rocks with the bungling McBroons at the wheel. They also point at the 800 billion pounds worth of borrowing to bale out the banks and the mismanaged British economy and pose the question: “Who would lend more money to this UK Government”?
Buyers who haven’t yet taken a view trip to Spain to select the last of the real bargains are unlikely to see house prices drop further, but extremely likely to see their buying pound shrink in their pockets. Over-50s need to move fast to secure a Spanish property investment.
The other half of their Hobson’s Choice is to stick with the McBroons fiscal porridge and watch as Spain follows Germany and France into better economic state, house prices recover from their 30% dip and life returns to normal with generous dollops of Med lifestyle and sunshine.
22 September 2009
Escape to Spain, Escape from McBroons
The summer has seen the ruling, bungling McBroons crash from crisis to disaster as the economy went south and the national debt northwards.
Over 50s, struggling to hold onto their last jobs before retirement or supplement their pensions, have never seen anything like the level of incompetence shown by the McBroons. They say Ministers and departments of state lack credibility, a viewpoint reinforced by statements from
First, it’s no cuts in public services as spun all summer long, now, as McBroon himself realises no sane person in the land believes him, he finally admits there will be cuts as the national debt soars above £800 billion.
After the great
Many of the Over-50 loyal readers of this blog run companies that may start recruiting again sometime in the next decade. They now have a ready answer if they inadvertently fall foul of the McBroons laws on employing immigrants.
Tell the man from the Border Agency – the same dozy outfit that allowed illegals to hitch a lift on their private coach – that you are sorry if the originals of the documents you have photocopies of are fakes like the ones that so easily fooled the Bungling Baroness. Then quietly point out that the McBroons own Home Office issued thousands of national insurance numbers without checks…
It is no wonder that Spanish property websites are getting record numbers of inquiries from Over-50s – they clearly reckon that country is nowadays run better than the
23 July 2009
Easier to buy bargain property in Spain
While mortgages is the UK are still hard to find, buyers of property in Spain have had it much easier to fund their purchase in the sun, with some recent sales going through on 80% loan to value deals.
The difference can be put down to McBroon himself, both as chancellor of the exchequer and, latterly as prime minister. His was the “light touch” on the banking tiller that allowed the Mad Men to take on toxic assets and venture into hitherto uncharted banking waters. This brought about the taxpayer emergency funding to keep the banks in business and much face saving for the McBroons.
There’s been none of this in Spain, where a single authority, the Bank of Spain regulates with an iron fist, laying down strong lending rules and no venturing into fringe activities. Result, just a single bank bailout of a minor caja in Castilla La Mancha.
As in the UK, the resultant recession has brought about many repossessions, with an estimate 74,000 properties being taken back by the Spanish banks (about 4.7% of total assets). Recent estimates put the value of property repossessed and unsold developer stock being swapped for debt by Spanish banks at about €16bn (£14bn).
Despite that, the Bank of Spain, in a further boost of confidence in the Spanish property market, has relaxed provisioning rules for lenders in a move that could help some banks avoid losses next year and allow others to strengthen their capital ratios.
The Bank of Spain told all banks that they would no longer have to set aside the full value of high-risk mortgage loans - those for more than 80 per cent of a property's value - after two years of arrears.
Instead, they would only have to provision for the difference between the value of the loan and that of 70 per cent of the mortgaged property. In the case of a mortgage for the total cost of a new home, for example, banks would provision for 30 per cent of the property's value.
The central bank also warned banks to "update" their Spanish property valuations, which means the current sales of repossessions will keep prices down for bargain hunting Brits and other north Europeans for about another year.
Banks and their specialist brokers are offering new or newly homes priced at 15% to 50% below current realistic valuations and registering buyers from across Europe and North America on a daily basis. Sometimes there are five bargain hunters chasing the same property – not surprising with such discounts and generous mortgages built-in.
The difference can be put down to McBroon himself, both as chancellor of the exchequer and, latterly as prime minister. His was the “light touch” on the banking tiller that allowed the Mad Men to take on toxic assets and venture into hitherto uncharted banking waters. This brought about the taxpayer emergency funding to keep the banks in business and much face saving for the McBroons.
There’s been none of this in Spain, where a single authority, the Bank of Spain regulates with an iron fist, laying down strong lending rules and no venturing into fringe activities. Result, just a single bank bailout of a minor caja in Castilla La Mancha.
As in the UK, the resultant recession has brought about many repossessions, with an estimate 74,000 properties being taken back by the Spanish banks (about 4.7% of total assets). Recent estimates put the value of property repossessed and unsold developer stock being swapped for debt by Spanish banks at about €16bn (£14bn).
Despite that, the Bank of Spain, in a further boost of confidence in the Spanish property market, has relaxed provisioning rules for lenders in a move that could help some banks avoid losses next year and allow others to strengthen their capital ratios.
The Bank of Spain told all banks that they would no longer have to set aside the full value of high-risk mortgage loans - those for more than 80 per cent of a property's value - after two years of arrears.
Instead, they would only have to provision for the difference between the value of the loan and that of 70 per cent of the mortgaged property. In the case of a mortgage for the total cost of a new home, for example, banks would provision for 30 per cent of the property's value.
The central bank also warned banks to "update" their Spanish property valuations, which means the current sales of repossessions will keep prices down for bargain hunting Brits and other north Europeans for about another year.
Banks and their specialist brokers are offering new or newly homes priced at 15% to 50% below current realistic valuations and registering buyers from across Europe and North America on a daily basis. Sometimes there are five bargain hunters chasing the same property – not surprising with such discounts and generous mortgages built-in.
20 July 2009
Candles in the wind...
The green energy policy of the UK’s McBroon Government is blowing in the wind and future generations will finish up paying through the nose for their heat and light with over-50s reverting to candle power and peat logs... All those wind farms on hilltops and wave tops are costing the earth to construct and maintain as, meanwhile, the nuclear option still has many queries as to its future.
McBroon sort of admits “going green” costs more, but denies the bills will be picked up by the British taxpayer, as has been the case with most things he and his Celtic cohorts dream up. Like nationalising banks, railways and much else going broke in badly run Britain.
That is what you get with Socialism. Dreamers, not realists. It’s now the same in Spain where the prime minister Zapatero is a socialist dreamer with no sense of reality about the long term impact of his green policies on Spain and its people.
In the country with 300 days of sunshine a year, he has forsaken solar for wind farms and, like McBroon boasts of being the European leader in this method of power generation. As in the UK, the nuclear option is being downplayed, leaving nuclear leader, France to flog its spare output to both countries when domestic supplies cannot cope.
Both leaders are taking their countries back to a culture of reliance on the state for everything, with the taxpayers and corporate sector picking up the bill for this outdated idealism. Drive from Gibraltar into Spain's windy corner near Tarifa and see the environmental damage caused by serried ranks of giant wind propellers.
It’s a pity they don’t get together and exchange notes. Zap might then tell McBroon of the problems with contrary wind power they both currently subsidise heavily. Like, it doesn’t always blow to match peak output requirements; it’s electricity cannot be stored at times of low demand and it costs far more than nuclear generation.
Luckily both are likely to be relegated permanently to Dream Land next year when their policies are voted on by the electorates of both countries.
McBroon sort of admits “going green” costs more, but denies the bills will be picked up by the British taxpayer, as has been the case with most things he and his Celtic cohorts dream up. Like nationalising banks, railways and much else going broke in badly run Britain.
That is what you get with Socialism. Dreamers, not realists. It’s now the same in Spain where the prime minister Zapatero is a socialist dreamer with no sense of reality about the long term impact of his green policies on Spain and its people.
In the country with 300 days of sunshine a year, he has forsaken solar for wind farms and, like McBroon boasts of being the European leader in this method of power generation. As in the UK, the nuclear option is being downplayed, leaving nuclear leader, France to flog its spare output to both countries when domestic supplies cannot cope.
Both leaders are taking their countries back to a culture of reliance on the state for everything, with the taxpayers and corporate sector picking up the bill for this outdated idealism. Drive from Gibraltar into Spain's windy corner near Tarifa and see the environmental damage caused by serried ranks of giant wind propellers.
It’s a pity they don’t get together and exchange notes. Zap might then tell McBroon of the problems with contrary wind power they both currently subsidise heavily. Like, it doesn’t always blow to match peak output requirements; it’s electricity cannot be stored at times of low demand and it costs far more than nuclear generation.
Luckily both are likely to be relegated permanently to Dream Land next year when their policies are voted on by the electorates of both countries.
5 June 2009
Pensions go further in Spain
As the McBroon government faces a new Culloden-style battlefield of mangled egos and inept tactics and leadership among its chieftains and white flags among its troops, the over-50 residents of these islands turned their attention to far weightier matters…
No matter what the McBroons do before their final defeat and what the Cameron clan manages when they eventually march into Whitehall, the baby boomer over-50s remain buggered so far as their pensions are concerned.
In a decade McBroon has totally bankrupted what was the best pension industry in the world. In annual raids he has nicked five billion quid a time - current total 100 billion - and with the increasing deficits even the best pensions in the world will become even more decimated.
Another 10,000 workers have just learned their employers, supermarket group Morrisons, has became the latest company to close its final-salary scheme to existing members. It follows similar recent decisions by Barclays and BP. Despite Morrisons reporting a rise in sales, the 10,000 employees in its pension schemes will now have pensions based on their 'career average' earnings, rather than their final pay when they retire
Some baby boomers will retain their better pensions, but some over-50s and the following generations will be working extra hard – and years longer - to make sure they are paid while their own pensions will be diminished.
McBroon stealth taxed the pensions of the private sector but levied no tax on the public sector pensions, so the private sector is also subsidising the pensions of dodgy MPs and quitting ministers and the pension of McBroon himself, whenever he is forced back over the border.
His stealth taxes and fiscal policy caused the recession, which is now the main reason for the end of proper private sector final salary pensions, and he ruined the pensions of millions more with his £5 billion a year pension raids.
So much for McBroon’s “Fairer, more just society”.
Some over-50s say the McBroons have ruined Britain and it is not longer a place they recognise. They are looking for a haven in sunny Spain, where their pensions and their lifespans can go further because of the lower cost of living and stress-free lifestyle.
With property prices down by up to 40% many over-50s and pensioners are opting for Spain as a more secure future. Downsize into a 2-bed place near the beach and amenities, slow down to manana pace, eat healthily and have the family down on a regular basis to share the wonderful lifestyle.
That’s the new dream and more are making the move, according to http://www.propertyinspain.net/ where over-50s are becoming the majority of buying clients.
No matter what the McBroons do before their final defeat and what the Cameron clan manages when they eventually march into Whitehall, the baby boomer over-50s remain buggered so far as their pensions are concerned.
In a decade McBroon has totally bankrupted what was the best pension industry in the world. In annual raids he has nicked five billion quid a time - current total 100 billion - and with the increasing deficits even the best pensions in the world will become even more decimated.
Another 10,000 workers have just learned their employers, supermarket group Morrisons, has became the latest company to close its final-salary scheme to existing members. It follows similar recent decisions by Barclays and BP. Despite Morrisons reporting a rise in sales, the 10,000 employees in its pension schemes will now have pensions based on their 'career average' earnings, rather than their final pay when they retire
Some baby boomers will retain their better pensions, but some over-50s and the following generations will be working extra hard – and years longer - to make sure they are paid while their own pensions will be diminished.
McBroon stealth taxed the pensions of the private sector but levied no tax on the public sector pensions, so the private sector is also subsidising the pensions of dodgy MPs and quitting ministers and the pension of McBroon himself, whenever he is forced back over the border.
His stealth taxes and fiscal policy caused the recession, which is now the main reason for the end of proper private sector final salary pensions, and he ruined the pensions of millions more with his £5 billion a year pension raids.
So much for McBroon’s “Fairer, more just society”.
Some over-50s say the McBroons have ruined Britain and it is not longer a place they recognise. They are looking for a haven in sunny Spain, where their pensions and their lifespans can go further because of the lower cost of living and stress-free lifestyle.
With property prices down by up to 40% many over-50s and pensioners are opting for Spain as a more secure future. Downsize into a 2-bed place near the beach and amenities, slow down to manana pace, eat healthily and have the family down on a regular basis to share the wonderful lifestyle.
That’s the new dream and more are making the move, according to http://www.propertyinspain.net/ where over-50s are becoming the majority of buying clients.
1 June 2009
Why Brits are still quitting Britain
While Brits living in France and Spain are feeling the pinch because of the decline in the Pound, many others are still planning to move away from the declining state of once Great Britian.
An American correspondent in yesterday’s New York Times, commenting on Brit emigration, spoke for many over-50s when he wrote: “I can well understand why folks want to abandon Britain, where a person can’t smoke or own a gun or derogate a religion (even in private conversation), or spank one's child, or avert one's face from any of that country's 10 million CCTV cameras.
“I always thought Orwell's book (1984) represented a dystopia, but now the Brits have accepted it as their constitution.”
He didn’t mention the poor healthcare, inadequate education, ruined pension industry, unwanted currency, gun-toting teens, criminal under-class, corrupt politicians, open borders, nor an unelected leader deciding what the now angry populous wants.
But just as stoic, ex-pat Brits will sit out the currency and financial crisis affecting their lifestyles in continental Europe, those still to leave will go-ahead with their plans and take advantage of the downturn in house prices, that more than compensates for the currency losses.
In Spain they will find excellent value villas and apartments in established residential areas at prices 25% to 50% below valuation, buying direct from banks who have not had Government bail-outs because of mismanaged growth efforts.
Over-50s will notice that three ailing British banking institutions are going to carry the Santander name and be integrated in a 14,000 branch network across 40 countries. The boss of Santander was the only top banker not required to offer an apology to the Parliamentary committee investigating the banking collapse as no client money went into dodgy banking scams.
By contrast, Brit rivals have been bailed-out by the UK Government who failed to supervise their more dubious actives as they strove for world domination...
Along with sunshine, siestas and relaxed lifestyle, Spain offers stability, sound banking and good healthcare. What more could the over-50s or pensioners want for?
Their property search starts here, with specialist over-50s active life resorts, developments with guaranteed rentals, or heavily discounted repossession bargains from Spanish banks and and hard-pressed developers.
An American correspondent in yesterday’s New York Times, commenting on Brit emigration, spoke for many over-50s when he wrote: “I can well understand why folks want to abandon Britain, where a person can’t smoke or own a gun or derogate a religion (even in private conversation), or spank one's child, or avert one's face from any of that country's 10 million CCTV cameras.
“I always thought Orwell's book (1984) represented a dystopia, but now the Brits have accepted it as their constitution.”
He didn’t mention the poor healthcare, inadequate education, ruined pension industry, unwanted currency, gun-toting teens, criminal under-class, corrupt politicians, open borders, nor an unelected leader deciding what the now angry populous wants.
But just as stoic, ex-pat Brits will sit out the currency and financial crisis affecting their lifestyles in continental Europe, those still to leave will go-ahead with their plans and take advantage of the downturn in house prices, that more than compensates for the currency losses.
In Spain they will find excellent value villas and apartments in established residential areas at prices 25% to 50% below valuation, buying direct from banks who have not had Government bail-outs because of mismanaged growth efforts.
Over-50s will notice that three ailing British banking institutions are going to carry the Santander name and be integrated in a 14,000 branch network across 40 countries. The boss of Santander was the only top banker not required to offer an apology to the Parliamentary committee investigating the banking collapse as no client money went into dodgy banking scams.
By contrast, Brit rivals have been bailed-out by the UK Government who failed to supervise their more dubious actives as they strove for world domination...
Along with sunshine, siestas and relaxed lifestyle, Spain offers stability, sound banking and good healthcare. What more could the over-50s or pensioners want for?
Their property search starts here, with specialist over-50s active life resorts, developments with guaranteed rentals, or heavily discounted repossession bargains from Spanish banks and and hard-pressed developers.
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