Uhs or Ähs might be legally defensible, but Sins Against Geraniums will blacken one's name for all eternity.

Seems a bit perverse this " retirement " thing. When one thinks there are alot of people trying just to find a place where they won't be persecuted or murdered.

... or Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Monaco... French and/or German are spoken as the first language of large numbers of citizens of these countries.

And if by "Europe" you mean the broader EU, there's a whole lot more very attractive (to some) options for French speakers, in particular. French overseas departments include French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Réunion, and Saint Martin is an outermost region (OMR) of the EU. There are also the overseas French possessions that the EU treats as Overseas Countries and Territories, including French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna.

So... yeah, it's a tough one.

Do try to get the color right when your application is processing then. Is it red or pink where you are?

Bright red.

Against pink houses.

So you can see why I am an unrepentant sinner.

Interesting thread

I'm considering a semi-retirement, moving a bit anywhere doing some highly-skilled contracts but not too much, ideally 30% just to cover current expenses. Live just like that for the next 10 or maybe even 15 years. Malta looks interesting. Maybe it's time to move my "bags" there.

Sorry, I meant taking the pension after leaving CH

Won’t Germany tax the lump sum?

Thank you Phil for reviving this old thread. I'm "only" 45 years old, but I have been almost obsessing over this for a few years.

I agree with all comments about Portugal and Malta (although I believe Malta may be unviable in terms of cost of living). I'd add some Greek islands to the list (very low-cost of living, easy access to residence permit for non EU-members, great weather).

Somewhere warm enough to swim and cold to ski.

I usually retire at Kwikfit

Fully agree! North of Spain (Asturias, Galicia) during Summer time, Costa Rica during Winter time.

I'm happy that there are so many poor countries, so that we can have a great retirement with our Swiss pensions

Going to check in at the hotel California

https://www.volkswagen-nutzfahrzeuge...alifornia.html

Malta is dirt cheap, Average earnings is about 18k a year before tax. Plenty of people live on 1k a month.

Oh my gosh, the pop-top is back!

My college room mate and I 'inherited' an old yellow 60's pop top VW bus, obligatory flower power stickers and all. It was a trade for typing up a grad student's dissertation. (Yeah, the days of manual typewriters, so we earned that bus...)

We thought we were the bee's knees tootling around in that thing. Good times.


Now that I'm showing my age, back to discussing retirement plans...

What do they do with the extra 6K?

Plenty of people earn minimum wage which is significantly below average earnings. Average earnings has gone up as gaming companies have come to Malta, this has had a knock on effect with rents in trendy expat areas.

Half a year in Switzerland (winter and summer sports e.g. skiing, cycling and sightseeing with beautiful alpine landscape not to mention proximity to other interesting EU countries) and the other half spent in South Africa (summer sports e.g. tennis, golf, cricket , rugby, soccer, surfing and water sports with proximity to two oceans and table mountains, wildlife, safaris and sundowners, vineyards in Cape Town). Families on both continents so it’s a good compromise .

Thats hardly going to save any money from living in CH all year round