I have just been chatting to a local London friend of mine on the phone. “Are you missing your South African friend now that she’s returned home after her two week stay?” was her question to me. I found it difficult to answer – yes…and no! Truth is I am utterly exhausted - I fair wore myself out!
There is so much to do in London: I have a friend with a longboat so we sailed from Windsor to Hampton Court – it was wonderful. We also attended a colleague’s hen party and behaved rather badly! Plus saw Martin Shaw in a play at Richmond, went to the musical ‘Wicked’, paid a fiver to watch ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ at the Globe and attended a memorial to ‘The Few’ of the Battle of Britain outside the Churchill War Rooms which ended with a fly past of a Hurricane and a Spitfire: what a way to end two weeks of London fun. I now need a holiday…!
Talking to my friend, I was trying to persuade her to move abroad. She’s quite keen but scared of the unknown factors…and who of us who have moved weren’t? Most people have the idea and the initial spark, but soon lose their drive. These are the people live to say “If only” in their old age! Then there are those who have the passion and desire to carry their plans to fruition…but inevitably, at some stage, find themselves stopping to catch their breath and to wonder if they are making the right decision.
An OGC reader I spoke to, when planning her move abroad, found exactly that: “I spent all my spare time planning, preparing and ticking off endless lists. After a few months I felt overwhelmed – was I merely caught up in ‘living the dream’ or did I truly understand what lay ahead? And how could I make sure that I wasn’t making a big mistake?”
I have chatted to people who have found that the move wasn’t right for them and they moved back to the UK almost immediately – at massive cost needless to say. So how do you make sure that the decision is right for you?
One way is to ‘play house’ at your overseas location. Try to make arrangements to stay for as long as possible on your next visit. Then plan to experience the place as someone who lives there would. This means that, rather than staying in a hotel, you rent an apartment or a villa or – first prize - do a house swap. Instead of visiting the main attractions, check out all the things that the locals do. Go grocery shopping, look at employment adverts and do everything you would normally do if you were moving from one town to another in the UK.
My afore-mentioned OGC reader decided to book a two week trip to her intended relocation destination. Although she had spent several holidays there, she had never done so with the intention of one day calling it home. She said it was the best decision ever: “By spending two weeks in my future town I was able to better set my expectations. I visited the doctor, paid a visit to a community centre, made enquiries about a local art class and made sure to eat most of my meals at home. By the end of the two weeks, I realised that some of my expectations were a bit too high whereas others were too low. Overall, the holiday gave me what I needed to get back on track.”
You might want to test public transport to see how reliable it is, stroll through the area at different times of the day to listen out for noise, buy the type of groceries you normally purchase to determine if they are available and at what price – and definitely check out health services. How far away are they and will they cater to all your needs?
By giving yourself time as a resident rather than a tourist, you will get a more realistic idea of daily life in your desired location. Of course there will be pros and cons but, without experiencing life as a local, you will be making the move without knowing exactly what those pros and cons are. The more you match your requirements and your expectations to your overseas destination, the less likely you will be to ask, “Am I making the right decision to move abroad?”
Friday 27 August 2010
Friday 20 August 2010
Why I would think of buying property in Portugal
Hey – how are you today?
I am still racing around London showing off my ‘home town’ to my South African friend! The highlight of this week is going to be the Spitfire and Hurricane fly-past over Whitehall at 4pm, Friday 20th August 2010, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The flyover is preceded by a reading of Winston Churchill's speech outside the Churchill War Rooms at 3.52pm.” Never in the field of human conflict...” and all that! I am really looking forward to it.
People often ask me why I would think of buying property in Portugal. It’s not as well known as Spain as a property destination but to me that’s half its charm! It's an inexpensive and fascinating country that is still catching up with the rest of Europe after forty years of dictatorship. This means that it has a far more rural, unspoilt feel and of course it often means that it costs less to live or holiday there.
Portugal, meaning ‘beautiful port’, has miles of unspoilt coastline coupled with a unique culture and a rich history. When I last travelled around I could not believe the beauty and the cultural heritage that I found in even the smallest towns and villages.
Many of the greatest seafarers and explorers were born in Portugal, and the Portuguese Empire once stretched from Brazil to the Indies, with Portuguese the most widely spoken language in the world. Today Portugal’s beaches and ports are far more likely to be catering to happy tourists. The long sandy beaches of the Algarve are well known, but all along the coastline there are opportunities to enjoy a whole selection of water sports in crystal clear waters, all to be enjoyed in the lovely warm climate, with temperatures of around 35°C in summer.
Inland, small towns and villages are surrounded with olive groves, vineyards and fruit trees. I went in spring and it was so delightful to walk through fields of spring flowers. There are also vast national parks, thickly forested and with an abundance of wildlife. To the north are snow-capped mountains, while to the south are the gently rolling plains where locals farm their lands.
Let’s not forget too the wonderful festivals with almost every town and village celebrating a regular saint’s day with a festival, usually in summer. There is also of course an endless selection of historic attractions plus many beautiful architectural gems. My especial favourite is the Palace of Pena at Sintra, which beautifully combines gothic, Islamic, and renaissance styles. I also love the ancient ramparts around towns like Ronda and Óbidos – one of the things I loved doing was walking around the whole of Óbidos along the walls – it’s a great way to see how the locals live!
To top it all off, there are also a number of excellent golf courses, plus other sporting facilities – but all pale into comparison with football, that Portuguese obsession, which you can watch from the many stadiums dotting the country. So…the question really is: why wouldn’t everyone think of buying property in Portugal? Do you feel the same? Please tell me of your experiences and why you are looking at moving to Portugal – or why you love the country so much.
Bye for now and happy summer days, Carol.
http://www.portugalbuyingguide.com
I am still racing around London showing off my ‘home town’ to my South African friend! The highlight of this week is going to be the Spitfire and Hurricane fly-past over Whitehall at 4pm, Friday 20th August 2010, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The flyover is preceded by a reading of Winston Churchill's speech outside the Churchill War Rooms at 3.52pm.” Never in the field of human conflict...” and all that! I am really looking forward to it.
People often ask me why I would think of buying property in Portugal. It’s not as well known as Spain as a property destination but to me that’s half its charm! It's an inexpensive and fascinating country that is still catching up with the rest of Europe after forty years of dictatorship. This means that it has a far more rural, unspoilt feel and of course it often means that it costs less to live or holiday there.
Portugal, meaning ‘beautiful port’, has miles of unspoilt coastline coupled with a unique culture and a rich history. When I last travelled around I could not believe the beauty and the cultural heritage that I found in even the smallest towns and villages.
Many of the greatest seafarers and explorers were born in Portugal, and the Portuguese Empire once stretched from Brazil to the Indies, with Portuguese the most widely spoken language in the world. Today Portugal’s beaches and ports are far more likely to be catering to happy tourists. The long sandy beaches of the Algarve are well known, but all along the coastline there are opportunities to enjoy a whole selection of water sports in crystal clear waters, all to be enjoyed in the lovely warm climate, with temperatures of around 35°C in summer.
Inland, small towns and villages are surrounded with olive groves, vineyards and fruit trees. I went in spring and it was so delightful to walk through fields of spring flowers. There are also vast national parks, thickly forested and with an abundance of wildlife. To the north are snow-capped mountains, while to the south are the gently rolling plains where locals farm their lands.
Let’s not forget too the wonderful festivals with almost every town and village celebrating a regular saint’s day with a festival, usually in summer. There is also of course an endless selection of historic attractions plus many beautiful architectural gems. My especial favourite is the Palace of Pena at Sintra, which beautifully combines gothic, Islamic, and renaissance styles. I also love the ancient ramparts around towns like Ronda and Óbidos – one of the things I loved doing was walking around the whole of Óbidos along the walls – it’s a great way to see how the locals live!
To top it all off, there are also a number of excellent golf courses, plus other sporting facilities – but all pale into comparison with football, that Portuguese obsession, which you can watch from the many stadiums dotting the country. So…the question really is: why wouldn’t everyone think of buying property in Portugal? Do you feel the same? Please tell me of your experiences and why you are looking at moving to Portugal – or why you love the country so much.
Bye for now and happy summer days, Carol.
http://www.portugalbuyingguide.com
Friday 13 August 2010
Mortgages – you need a degree to decide…!
Hello again. This has been a great week for me – one of my closest friends has come to stay for a couple of weeks and I am showing her London! Needless to say, we have stacks planned but will probably exhaust ourselves and slump in front of the telly after a few hectic days!
One of the things we are going to do is to see a favourite of mine - Martin Shaw - in a play at the Richmond Theatre. Plus a possible Bat Walk at the Wetland Centre…and there’s a jazz festival at Canary Wharf…whew, I feel tired already!
No matter how canny you are, today it just isn’t easy to predict what’s going to happen in the foreseeable future is it? Take mortgages: after the recent emergency budget, many industry experts are now predicting that the base rate will remain stable at around 0.5% until perhaps the end of 2012 – I even saw 2013 mentioned.
Even Chancellor George Osborne made reference in his budget speech to Bank of England governor Mervyn King’s recent comments that if growth does prove to be slower, interest rates will remain lower. So…for those of you thinking of buying a new home or re-mortgaging, where does this leave you over the next couple of years?
You can take a competitive fixed rate now – and with this you get the ability to budget. For those more risk-averse borrowers who simply want a planned budget, a fixed rate is a highly attractive option. It does mean however that you give up a low standard variable rate (SVR) and ignore the tracker rate linked to the Bank of England base rate.
In contrast, if you choose to embrace the prediction of a continued low base rate, in the short to medium term certainly there are some competitive choices. You can of course remain on a low SVR until you see signs of an upward trend, but should you want to exchange you may find that your lender excludes existing borrowers from their best products…
Perhaps you need to take advice here from a mortgage expert? If you don’t know who to ask about this I know that the friendly team at the Overseas Guides Company Resource Centre can recommend someone – give them a call on 0207 898 0549.
But sometimes even for the most experienced broker, there isn’t really a right or wrong answer. However I always feel that two heads are better than one, especially when that second ‘head’ has been concentrating on the mortgage market for years…!
I’m off to have fun – in the sun I hope – with my friend now. Fortunately, because she’s from South Africa, a few cooler days are quite welcome - I hope you are enjoying summer too.
Best wishes,
Carol.
http://www.portugalbuyingguide.com/
One of the things we are going to do is to see a favourite of mine - Martin Shaw - in a play at the Richmond Theatre. Plus a possible Bat Walk at the Wetland Centre…and there’s a jazz festival at Canary Wharf…whew, I feel tired already!
No matter how canny you are, today it just isn’t easy to predict what’s going to happen in the foreseeable future is it? Take mortgages: after the recent emergency budget, many industry experts are now predicting that the base rate will remain stable at around 0.5% until perhaps the end of 2012 – I even saw 2013 mentioned.
Even Chancellor George Osborne made reference in his budget speech to Bank of England governor Mervyn King’s recent comments that if growth does prove to be slower, interest rates will remain lower. So…for those of you thinking of buying a new home or re-mortgaging, where does this leave you over the next couple of years?
You can take a competitive fixed rate now – and with this you get the ability to budget. For those more risk-averse borrowers who simply want a planned budget, a fixed rate is a highly attractive option. It does mean however that you give up a low standard variable rate (SVR) and ignore the tracker rate linked to the Bank of England base rate.
In contrast, if you choose to embrace the prediction of a continued low base rate, in the short to medium term certainly there are some competitive choices. You can of course remain on a low SVR until you see signs of an upward trend, but should you want to exchange you may find that your lender excludes existing borrowers from their best products…
Perhaps you need to take advice here from a mortgage expert? If you don’t know who to ask about this I know that the friendly team at the Overseas Guides Company Resource Centre can recommend someone – give them a call on 0207 898 0549.
But sometimes even for the most experienced broker, there isn’t really a right or wrong answer. However I always feel that two heads are better than one, especially when that second ‘head’ has been concentrating on the mortgage market for years…!
I’m off to have fun – in the sun I hope – with my friend now. Fortunately, because she’s from South Africa, a few cooler days are quite welcome - I hope you are enjoying summer too.
Best wishes,
Carol.
http://www.portugalbuyingguide.com/
Friday 6 August 2010
Know Your Credit Card...
Hello there.
I am so excited to have discovered the Canary Wharf free concerts here in London! Every Thursday evening throughout the summer they have something new: last week I saw a real blast from the past: Georgie Fame – yeah yeah! It was great – a clear, lovely evening, music and a few munchies – what could be better?
Enough about me…You are thinking of moving or buying property abroad, and I have no doubt that for those inspection trips etc you have a credit card. If you are like me, a credit card is a credit card...For years I had only one of these pesky little devils, but these days it pays to know the perfect card to pick. They have very different pros and cons and it could cost you a lot of money if you are using the wrong one.
You need to make sure that you are not making new purchases on cards charging expensive rates, paying huge APRs on old debts and missing out on benefits such as cashback.
Right – firstly, what’s APR?
APR stands for Annual Percentage Rate and, under the Consumer Act 1974, it is required to be published for all regulated loans so consumers can quickly and easily compare products.
This means that when advertising any form of credit, the lender should ensure that the APR is more prominent than any other rate.
APR was introduced because the interest rate a lender charges for credit will not accurately reflect the cost to the borrower. For instance, on top of the interest rate, there are other costs to consider such as administration costs, acceptance fees, broker fees and so on. It would be next to impossible for consumers to compare all these costs for every loan. Because an APR takes in all of these extra costs, it will always be higher than the lender’s actual interest rate, but in effect it calculates all the costs for you.
It is important to bear in mind however that unless the loan is fixed, there is no guarantee that the APR won’t change during the duration of the loan. For example, if the Bank of England raises its interest rates, the APR on your credit card will also go up. On the other hand, you will benefit if the Bank cuts its rates.
Remember that any form of credit on today’s market will come with its own set of restrictions, fees, charges and penalties. As a general rule, if you keep up with repayments and settle the loan in the agreed term these will not be a factor. However, if you miss repayments, want to settle early, or deviate in any way from the original agreement it could end up being very expensive.
The 0% balance transfer card is one of the most useful credit cards out there - this card comes with a 0% balance transfer offer that lasts for a set period – sometimes up to 16 months. This means that for 16 months you will pay no interest but chip away at your debt. However, once your 0% period passes, interest is charged on the whole balance…The thing to remember here is that using one card for both paying off old debts and making new purchases is not usually a good idea.
Some credit cards come with 0% on new purchases. Here you need to pay the entire balance off before a certain date. If you don't, your credit card provider will apply a standard APR to your outstanding debt and this could mean sometimes up to 17%!
Then there is the long term, low rate credit card. These are a great option for someone with debts they are unable to clear within a short space of time. The advantage of these cards is that they offer borrowers an affordable interest rate for much longer than the average 0% card - in some cases, for as long as it takes an individual to clear their debt in full.
For instance, one of the banks are offering a long term, low rate credit card that comes with an interest rate of 6.8% APR, and if you transfer a balance to it within 60 days of opening your account your debt will remain at this low rate until every penny of it has been paid off.
Finally there is the Cashback Credit Card. These cards allow you to earn back a proportion of what you spend, potentially netting you a lot of money each year, depending on how much you spend. The most important thing to bear in mind when using a Cashback Card is that you must repay whatever you spend on it in full every month or you could end up not only not making money but paying very high interest rates. With these cards be aware that there is often a figure which you must spend annually to ‘qualify’ for your cashback option.
I hope this has been some help, if only to make you aware that there are choices out here and you need to ask about them before just accepting any credit card offered to you by your bank or financial institution.
Bye for now – I’ll chat next week!
Summer smiles,
Carol
http://www.portugalbuyingguide.com/
I am so excited to have discovered the Canary Wharf free concerts here in London! Every Thursday evening throughout the summer they have something new: last week I saw a real blast from the past: Georgie Fame – yeah yeah! It was great – a clear, lovely evening, music and a few munchies – what could be better?
Enough about me…You are thinking of moving or buying property abroad, and I have no doubt that for those inspection trips etc you have a credit card. If you are like me, a credit card is a credit card...For years I had only one of these pesky little devils, but these days it pays to know the perfect card to pick. They have very different pros and cons and it could cost you a lot of money if you are using the wrong one.
You need to make sure that you are not making new purchases on cards charging expensive rates, paying huge APRs on old debts and missing out on benefits such as cashback.
Right – firstly, what’s APR?
APR stands for Annual Percentage Rate and, under the Consumer Act 1974, it is required to be published for all regulated loans so consumers can quickly and easily compare products.
This means that when advertising any form of credit, the lender should ensure that the APR is more prominent than any other rate.
APR was introduced because the interest rate a lender charges for credit will not accurately reflect the cost to the borrower. For instance, on top of the interest rate, there are other costs to consider such as administration costs, acceptance fees, broker fees and so on. It would be next to impossible for consumers to compare all these costs for every loan. Because an APR takes in all of these extra costs, it will always be higher than the lender’s actual interest rate, but in effect it calculates all the costs for you.
It is important to bear in mind however that unless the loan is fixed, there is no guarantee that the APR won’t change during the duration of the loan. For example, if the Bank of England raises its interest rates, the APR on your credit card will also go up. On the other hand, you will benefit if the Bank cuts its rates.
Remember that any form of credit on today’s market will come with its own set of restrictions, fees, charges and penalties. As a general rule, if you keep up with repayments and settle the loan in the agreed term these will not be a factor. However, if you miss repayments, want to settle early, or deviate in any way from the original agreement it could end up being very expensive.
The 0% balance transfer card is one of the most useful credit cards out there - this card comes with a 0% balance transfer offer that lasts for a set period – sometimes up to 16 months. This means that for 16 months you will pay no interest but chip away at your debt. However, once your 0% period passes, interest is charged on the whole balance…The thing to remember here is that using one card for both paying off old debts and making new purchases is not usually a good idea.
Some credit cards come with 0% on new purchases. Here you need to pay the entire balance off before a certain date. If you don't, your credit card provider will apply a standard APR to your outstanding debt and this could mean sometimes up to 17%!
Then there is the long term, low rate credit card. These are a great option for someone with debts they are unable to clear within a short space of time. The advantage of these cards is that they offer borrowers an affordable interest rate for much longer than the average 0% card - in some cases, for as long as it takes an individual to clear their debt in full.
For instance, one of the banks are offering a long term, low rate credit card that comes with an interest rate of 6.8% APR, and if you transfer a balance to it within 60 days of opening your account your debt will remain at this low rate until every penny of it has been paid off.
Finally there is the Cashback Credit Card. These cards allow you to earn back a proportion of what you spend, potentially netting you a lot of money each year, depending on how much you spend. The most important thing to bear in mind when using a Cashback Card is that you must repay whatever you spend on it in full every month or you could end up not only not making money but paying very high interest rates. With these cards be aware that there is often a figure which you must spend annually to ‘qualify’ for your cashback option.
I hope this has been some help, if only to make you aware that there are choices out here and you need to ask about them before just accepting any credit card offered to you by your bank or financial institution.
Bye for now – I’ll chat next week!
Summer smiles,
Carol
http://www.portugalbuyingguide.com/
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