Article on retiring to Europe
 

An article from Forbes appeared on Yahoo today with some interesting facts on retiring to Europe. The article is geared to US perticipants.

Retirement
The Golden Years: European Style

http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/golden_years_1.html

Cost of living anywhere in Austria is higher than in Munich. So it's not low! However, the tax breaks are nice. A nice house in upper Austria, close to the Bavarian border. Buy gas in Austria and food in Germany. Yes, not such a bad idea and German is pretty easy to learn. :-)

Logos, that of "German is pretty easy to learn" is an irony, isn't it ? :)

I learned it in a rather short time, so my mom says :-) Can't be that difficult. The "s" took longer, but the "ch" was pretty easy!

>Logos, that of "German is pretty easy to learn" is an irony, isn't it ?

No, it is absolutely in earnest. German IS easy to learn if you don't try to just "soak it up" but invest your time in formal learning of the grammar etc. German is after all quite closely related to English.

Just because Mark Twain enjoyed complaining about learning German everybody thinks it is so difficult. Admit it.

>Just because Mark Twain enjoyed complaining about learning German everybody thinks it is so difficult. Admit it.<

Nein.

I admit to not having a facility for learning languages, but I was able to master some Italian far more easily than an equal amount of German.

How can you call a language that has declensions AND noun genders "easy to learn"?

((I))
"Some German words are so long that they have a perspective".

Hi JS,

From your link,

"So suppose your assets are all in the Cayman Islands, churning out $500,000 a year in income".

ROFLMAO! :) :) :)

((I))

Der Finger, die Hand, der Arm, der Ellbogen, Butter, Milch, Käse, Kindergarten... that's pretty easy, ins't it! :-)

Can some fellow-Briton enlighten me about this bizarre article?

Apparently, if you earn £100,000 here, you pay 45% income tax. Last time I spoke to the nice people at the Imland Revenue, the highest tax rate it's possible to pay was 40%. Even ignoring the special allowances any sensible tax planning (especially in retirement) would use to reduce tax further, it's simply impossible for someone on £100,000 to pay more than 31% of their income in tax.

It hasn't actually been possible to pay 45% on £100,000 income since Maggie came to power in 1979. Which was roughly when "the city's museums will let you peruse their collections for free mid-week".

Is Forbes' research always this sloppy? Or does it just take them 30 years from writing articles to printing them?

>Der Finger, die Hand, ...that's pretty easy, ins't it!

How about "the finger, the hand.."?

Also "ein finger, eine hand" vs "a finger, a hand"? :) :)

((I))

Pretty "meaningless" article in my opinion.

I'm counting the days -- not until I get my meager social security payments -- but rather the much coveted Medicare. I can't wait for the day I can get rid of my $7000 a year health insurance plus $5000 deductible out of pocket before I can collect a penny for healthcare.

So to move to Europe and lose that benefit is not a little matter. To me that's a much greater benefit to give up than being able to vote in an election.

Don't throw stones when sitting in a glass house.
After al, how about "visited" vs. "have visited" vs. "have been visiting" vs...?
And don't start me on he English pronunciation. At leats German is 99,9% phonetic.

<<< Is Forbes' research always this sloppy? >>>

If your assets are generating £500,000 a year you would be paying some accountant who will do a deal with the Inland Revenue to cut your tax bill to pennies

THE ARTICLE IS GEARED TO US PARTICIPANTS. That didn't refer to "us" but to U.S.

Mark Twain was right! There are 16 ways to say "the" in German. And those verbs!--It is possible to have five verbs at the end of a sentence, and it's common to have three.

Gender is a crapshoot! "the car" is "der Wagen" (masculine) but "das Auto" (neuter). "The Girl" is neuter--"das Mädchen." You have to memorize the gender for most words, because with a few exceptions, there are no rules for determining gender.

I've studied German, Spanish, Japanese and Latin, and German is by far the most difficult. One can speak Spanish almost from the beginning of study, but
to put together even a simple sentence without advanced study of grammar is impossible.

>16 ways to say "the" in German
der, die, das, dem, den, des.

Tell me about the other 10? ;-)

Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather live in Mexico pay practically zero taxes, rent a mansion for $1800 a month in stead of a small apt., then be able to afford to travel to Europe anytime I wanted.

quote : "Can some fellow-Briton enlighten me about this bizarre article?

Apparently, if you earn £100,000 here, you pay 45% income tax. Last time I spoke to the nice people at the Imland Revenue, the highest tax rate it's possible to pay was 40%. Even ignoring the special allowances any sensible tax planning (especially in retirement) would use to reduce tax further, it's simply impossible for someone on £100,000 to pay more than 31% of their income in tax.

It hasn't actually been possible to pay 45% on £100,000 income since Maggie came to power in 1979. Which was roughly when "the city's museums will let you peruse their collections for free mid-week".

Is Forbes' research always this sloppy? Or does it just take them 30 years from writing articles to printing them?"

40% plus social costs, council tax, fuel duty, VAT, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, etc ?

Peter