What is the average amount to retire on?

[markcoznottz]

DonkeyApple said:

jeff m2 said:

Also you can't just put it in a wrapper. The wrapper (LLC) would have to be created and the property sold to the corp thus making C.G.s and stamp duty payable on the transfer in. (Now)
This is what high end foreign investors currently do. The house is not bought and sold, the corp is transferred. A Foreign corp like "35 Bishops" of course
The UK gov is well aware of this and I presume trying to do something about their lost revenues.

Whether this has anything to do with high end prices being off, not sure, but interest has recently moved to Japan.

That wheeze was going on for years but didn't they change stamp duty to curb it? Either way, my personal opinion is that any form of wrapper should be taxed to buggery on residential assets.

However, as a second home owner I suspect that I will get nailed by the next govt, along with their mansion tax. The irony being that I own a second home as I cannot afford a real mansion in London having been priced off that ladder.

Successive govt's are going to need to fund an ever more costly NHS and pension bill as the Boomers age and that means they are going to have to tax the absolute crap out of everyone, which invariably means they will want to keep inflating their artificial property bubble to generate the fake wealth to then tax.

As some people alluded to last week, the government has open ended funding commitments to every fking thing now. There are massive black holes looming in pension funds, nhs, local authorities... Basically everything. The latest spin appears to be boosting gdp at the expense of GDP/capita with increased immigration ( blimey lets no go there again), unfortunately the political class entered into no narrative with the working class about immigration and now coalitions may be a permanent feature, again with no working majority no long term structural desicions will be made. Immigration definately cost labour the 2010 election, but might not be our main concern. There is surely no 'squeeze room' for any more tax on middle income (basically most wotking people), and I am incredulous that some authorities have raised council tax. Still the goons on more than the prime minister in made up jobs though. Do the political elite have a death wish?.

[DonkeyApple]

jeff m2 said:

That pretty much sums up why I am now sitting in New Jersey
Not that all is rosy here.

Yup. Grass is never greener but it is always different.

Biggest dilemma I have is whether to stay or go before the children are too old for it to be a huge risk. I love living here but deep down I know I'm going to spend the rest of my life being taxed to crap and my children will grow up in a Britain evilly split between true haves and have nots with almost no opportunity for social mobility.

At the height of the Credit Crunch we came very close to buying a property on Long Island but I bottled it. America is the only place I'd consider going. Europe is screwed and I'm far to 'English' to make the logical step and head to Asia. I've worked in HK and Singapore and they aren't places to logically raise children.

California is the place my wife loves most but it is too far and the time zone is wrong for what I do but we are going to investigate a place called Siesta Key in Florida this year as neither of us know Florida at all and we want to know whether that can be ticked off our short list.