I
retired on April 1, 2014. Cathey and I boarded a plane at JFK on April 15th with four suitcases and two cats, determined to become lifetime
residents of France. In the intervening 10 years, we have been back to
the Colonies a total of five times - twice for me, three times for
Cathey. Only for REALLY important stuff.
Don't get me wrong. I'm American and I say so with relative ease
and pride. But we've chosen to live in France. Chosen. Macron is my
President.
SPOILER: Not a single regret. Not. One.
COST OF LIVING
From
buying groceries to eating out, from going to concerts to partying with
friends, what does it cost to live a satisfying retirement life in a
small village in the rural southwest of France? You may be surprised to
learn that an income equivalent to two average Social Security
Retirement checks monthly is sufficient. (The average SSR check, which
can be direct deposited to your French bank account, is currently just
over $1,900 per person monthly.)
Remember that legal residents in France get 70%
of most of their healthcare costs either provided freely or reimbursed.
(The French consider healthcare a human right. What a concept.) There
might be what are called social charges to pay, a percentage of income
to pay for the healthcare and other socialized services. But those
charges at their very most would be a small percentage of your taxable
income above a generous floor, can be offset by US taxes (which are
credited against any French charges), and your Social Security Retirement income is not considered taxable income in France.
The point of all of this is
that, assuming you have a home and a car free and clear or loans that
consume only a small percentage of your monthlies, and assuming the two
SSR incomes, retirement life here can be rewarding. More income is
better. Of course. Less is possible, but not an easy road.
Your experience may differ. Different folks live different lives.
HOUSING
If
you take the cost of healthcare off the table and if the tax burden is
minimal, what's left is housing, transportation, food and
entertainment.
First, there's the problem of a bank account.
There are people that I know who work entirely through their plastic
from Wise (formerly TransferWise). But a bank account makes things so
much easier. It's France, though. You can't get a bank account without a
house and you can't get a house without a bank account. As digital as
France has become (I have fiber and 5G.), it's still France. Patience
and, depending on your circumstances, professional help may be required
to establish a working relationship with French bureaucratic culture.
But what can be done will get done eventually given unfailingly polite but insistent
determination.
If you are reading this, you have some personal
interest in moving to France. My suggestion is to carefully research the
region of France that most seems to suit your requirements. Must you be
near snow skiing or ocean sailing? Can you stand Mediterranean summer
heat in order to be free of winter frost? France spans from the Med to
the Atlantic, from the Pyrenees to the Alps. It's northern tip lines up
with Brussels. So finding the France that's right for you demands
serious investigation.
What to do if you are certain that you've
found just the right place? A number of the websites/blogs will tell you
to rent first, for some months at least, and that's not a bad idea. You may have picked a region that really doesn't suit you after all. You
may have pegged region correctly but picked the wrong town. At the very
least, you'll have a base from which to broaden the scope of your
search.
You might also consider a foothold, a relatively
inexpensive village house with just enough space to cram your stuff into
until you get set and settled, looking for a more suitable landing pad.
All of this assumes that you have sold your house in the States that is going
to be your nut. Or that you have been prudent in the markets and come to
France with a bit of cash in hand. Either way, a foothold gives you more
than a base. In some small hamlets, you may be welcomed almost as a
celebrity. Or shunned. In some tourist towns, you may become part of a
thriving expat community. Or become part of what your neighbors see as a
growing problem. Either way, home ownership, particularly in a small
village, makes you a part of a community in a way that being a renter
does not.
A small foothold with 100 square meters of living space
or more that doesn't require extensive remodeling, with a
reasonably-sized terrace or courtyard, and with two or three
bedrooms and functionally modern plumbing and electrics can cost you 125,000USD, less in the deep sticks far from
shopping and services. Count on
175,000USD more or less in our neck of the semi-rural woods when all of
the fees are paid and if you want a garage and serious outdoor space. In the most popular places like Aix-en-Provence or Paris, mortgage your firstborn child. (Actually, compared to similarly popular American locations, even Aix is relatively inexpensive. But if you look at what's available within a couple of hour's drive, it's off the charts.) If
you choose to jump directly into the fire, a larger house that has a mature garden, a good-sized garage/workshop, a small pool, and is otherwise good to go will sell for 300,000USD if you are lucky and go up quickly from there. In our neck of the woods. At least.
Today.
The seller pays the real estate agent, the buyer pays the notaire
- the French equivalent in France of a property lawyer and notary. Add anywhere from 5% to 10% depending.
We were fortunate in our house hunting. We found a house that was a bit more than a foothold
that met all of our requirements except one that we didn't anticipate -
the ravages of old age. Well, maybe that's a bit harsh. The house
served us very well for eight years. But the stairways were narrow,
steep and winding. Very common in a small, village house in France. What
had been a snap for us when we moved in became a burden on our older,
less well-lubricated knees later on.
Because we had eight
years in the village and had made a surprising number of close,
endearing friends, it took a while to find the right place to buy in our
small, rural village of under 2,000 souls that would be in our price
range and had the proper interior and exterior spaces. Oddly enough, we
found just such a house 75 yards from our old place, downhill to make
wheelbarrow moving possible...with professional muscle moving the really
heavy stuff for us at the end.
You never know what's beyond the
facade of a village house. Often courtyards and terraces are not visible
from the street and can be extensive. Look for a side gate wide enough
to accommodate a tractor and there's no telling the size of the yard and
outbuildings that might be behind that gate.
I have left out our trials finding a bridge loan/mortgage/home loan. Story for another day. Banking is another post entirely.
Your experience may differ. Different folks live different lives.
TRANSPORTATION
France
mimics the rest of Europe in that public transportation at almost all
levels is safe, reliable and affordable. Ride sharing is popular even
over long distances. Check out BlaBla Car. Ride sharing on steroids.
Busses and trains go pretty much everywhere and, within about an hour of
our house, there are four stations that connect to about all of the
country's routes. Short-hop airlines compete with the trains in pricing
and time. Yes, you can buy cheap train tickets, There are sales and
promotions. But if you are not flexible and need to go from here to
there on a schedule, train tickets can be surprisingly expensive. Small
airports like the one closest to us are under siege with the government
subsidy running to 1,500USD per passenger. But two internationally
connected airports are about an hour away and major international hubs
are within about three hours.
And yes, the French hitchhike.
But mostly, when we go anywhere,
we go by car. And that is getting interesting. More and more cities are
banning smelly old diesels. I drive a smelly old diesel. Yes, Ginger is
reliable and economical. (I name my cars. Ginger is a bright red
station wagon.) But yes, Ginger is old and Ginger is smelly. The way
that things are going, in a few years we will have to go gas, hybrid or
electric. Today, 5,000USD to start for a decent older used car.
10,000USD for something newer and more reliable. Some folks lease. New
car prices are new car prices. Whatever, you have to factor that cost
into your budget.
I love my old diesel. Ginger is comfortable, reliable, and gets the equivalent of 42 MPG. Given the price of fuel in France, diesel costing the equivalent of 5.67USD or so, you need that level of fuel efficiency.
Your experience may differ. Different folks live different lives.
FOOD, BANKING AND MORE
That's PART 2. Internet. Grocery stores. Restaurants. Concerts. Wine! Lots to talk about.