THE.PReSeNT: "CoNTeNDeR what are you up to? You have been all talk about this move to France THE.FuTuRe says you haven't got it in you besides FRA?NCE are you MAD? Aren't they all socialists that take all your money and tell you how to live your life?
Come to your senses man.
It may rain in Blighty a lot and the government may be a bit socialist and spend most of our money, badly.... but we have the pub! let's get down The Dog and Bone pub, have a few pints* and get p*****"
* Effective tax on a UK pint costing £2.50 is £0.97 - 38%!
Here is an update and some reflections on our downshifting move to France NEXT MONTH:
- Was Renting in the UK a good Choice?
- How the move is going?
- What is on the cards for the TRIBE in the next 4 years?
- Is it going to work for us?
Exiting the Rental Property in London
Right now we are finalising our move to France. Mrs C resigned from her job one month ago. We have arranged to hand back the keys on our London rental property.
To buy the London 3 bedroom terraced Victorian house it it would have cost $700,000. With 20% down payment of $141,000 the mortgage would have been $560,000 and we would have to have paid stamp duty on the property $21,000.
The typical cost of a repayment mortgage over 25 years is (4.6%) = $3192
The typical cost of an interest only mortgage is $2147
The rent is $2080 per month
Was renting a good choice? We may have missed out on capital appreciation of the house. This would have been completely dependent on the timing of the purchase. Or we could be in negative equity.
By renting we abdicated the risk of owning the property. We did not have to pay for re-decoration, a new roof, new boiler and the mortgage arrangement fee, estate agent fee and the stamp duty to the government.
The "fees" and the deposit instead have been invested for capital gains via the stock market. This has allowed us to save in more diverse assets instead of the majority being tied to the property.
Some people have become very rich via property over the last decade and perhaps we did not understand the opportunities that were there at the time. Perhaps we were always intimidated by the large amount of money and the commitment involved.
The French Rental Property
We have booked a removal company ($3000) to move our modest stuff to the SW of France where we have taken another rental property.
We really would like to BUY a property outright instead we are going to be paying rent AGAIN! Thankfully the rental of a property in the countryside in the south of France at $1000 per month is far cheaper than London.
All guns blazing the contract is now in place. We have had ups and downs, chasing paperwork, form filling and lots of actions to arrange with the French estate agents. We are getting there.......
The rental property is a three bedroom bungalow with a 3000m2 garden for the kids to run around in. It is only 3km from the center of a lovely French medieval town where we have arranged for our eldest child to go to the picturesque local school.
Budgeting in France
We have converted just enough of our assets into dividend paying stocks to cover what we believe will be our modest living costs. The rest of the portfolio's job is to grow a little more so that early next year we can buy a property out right.
Once we have a property paid for, the $1000 per month rent money is "freed up" to be re-allocated to the costs of owning a home.
We will then incur the extra costs for buildings insurance, furnishings and repairs. We would like to invest in some solar panels and a nice garden and big veg patch.
Our aim is to have $400 free cash flow each month to invest or spend as we wish.
Keeping Busy
Keeping busy and "in touch" with the world around us is one of our main priorities.
Year 1: Rental property, settling the children in France, Mr C improving his French linguo, making new friends, looking for a property to buy, buying the property, starting work to make it a home
Year 2: We are expecting to send a lot of time decorating the property and looking after the grounds and Baby C should be starting nursery school. We will look at options to work in the community.
Year 3: We hope to have supplemental income coming in from working a few days a week while the kids are in school full time. In their school the days are 9-5pm and they have Wednesdays off.
Year 4+: Potentially have a city work pad for the week so that the kids can attend an international school. We could then travel out to the countryside at the weekends. Who knows.
Over this time THE.CoNTeNDER's ambition is to spend a bit more time on this blog. Unfortunately it has been a bit quiet while we move to another country.
The idea is to expand on all of the tools he has started upon and is yet to develop (Project FISH - Financial independence and Seeking Happiness. There certainly is a long list of blog posts and tools waiting in the wings (approximately 50).
C is considering setting up a parallel blog on office survival skills such as influencing, project management and networking. Down the years so much knowledge has been thrown at the CoNTenDeR can it be filtered into a fine matured single malt whisky from the fermentation still?
Is it possible to have a simple weekly tool to help nurture a career and hopefully pass those career goals onto financial independence goals? Perhaps this would be a critical look back at what THE.CoNTeNDeR messed up and if he did it again what would he have done and how would he have done it.
Maybe THE.FuTuRE will have the last laugh and this blog will go down in ridicule of failure and what not to do. Maybe it will be of some use afterall ;) - CoNTeNDeR you complete MUPPET!
Is it going to work?
Choices are endless in the modern world today. Who knows what is the right thing to do? That can only be answered by the individual through their own desires, objectives and circumstances.
We are leaving behind a wonderful community in London and will take fond memories with us. We have made some amazing friends to keep in touch with. We are embarking on an unknown experience. We know it will not be plain sailing, we know it will definitely be very different.
Will it work for Mr and Mrs C? We need to embed ourselves in a new community and make some new friends. We need to adjust to the new French culture and abide by its customs and rules. Integrating into this new life will be challenging. We have to change ourselves to be like and act like French citizens.
Looking towards THE.FuTuRe what do our choices mean for our kids? Do we encourage them to "do the old thing" (uni and professional career) or something new?
Should THE.CoNtENDER drop all these ideas about financial independence and downshifting, get back to work and get with the system ASAP is that the right thing to do?
THE.CoNTeNDR hopes our choices will lead to a bright vibrant future for the TRiBe. We will embrace our failures and celebrate our success along the way. We want to live in strong healthy community of which we hope we have found one. Finally our focus is moving from moves from quantity of experience and stuff to quality. We would like to value wisdom over wealth.......
THE.FuTuRE: "Wake Up, Wake UP! Get in the ring! Stop kidding yourself, hiding away like that, non-conformity - alienation I say!"
....In the mean time the TRiBE will stick to:
- Taking responsibility for our future and do not expect government to bail us out
- Develop prosperous relationships.
- Make sure we listen more than we speak.
- Keep in touch with our friends
- Stay out of debt
- Plan ahead (it will change but there is a little direction)
- Look after our health
- Watch the herd but follow the leaders
- Be good, be positive, be proactive, recognize and accept one's numerous failings
- Hard work for ourselves is good for us
- Grow our knowledge and personal resilience - we want to be Antifragile
- Know the rules of the game and how they can be made to work in our favour.
- Simplify our lives.
THE.CONTENDER
Welcome New CONTENDER Readers! Take a look around. Find out who THE.CONTENDER is or Start at the first article, browse the list all posts or have a look on PINTEREST notice board or just go for a Random Post. Please feel free to play with the FREE planning tools and checklists.
Keep in Touch: RSS Feed or subscribe to posts by email:
