Cyprus-Forum.com

[Southerner]

beware of offshore accounts the tax man is on to them and you may have to pay a hefty bill if your not careful.

The tax man of which country are you talking about.

[Svetlana]

UK savings accounts are a good bet ATM becuase of the expected devaluation of the CY pound and the continually rising interest rates there.

Lana

[Southerner]

UK savings accounts are a good bet ATM becuase of the expected devaluation of the CY pound and the continually rising interest rates there.Lana

ISAs are tax free, I put money in the ftse 100 tracker 30th March this year it has already made even with the recent turbulance 4.75% in a little over 3 months.
The best offshore account I've seen at the moment is giving 18.25% before they deduct their tax @ 21%.

[paul]

oh the dreaded tax man now they want to be put offshore

[Donnauk7]

OK i've heard so many things about moving from the UK to Cyprus!

What advice would you give us?
I'm 42, hubby is 46 and our son will be 10yrs old when we come over and will be goin into an english school. (Pafos)
:>We will be buying an house outright therefore no mortgage or rent to pay.
:>hubby is an electrician by trade altho he may try and set up an house alarm business but not sure yet.
:>I probably wouldn't work for a couple of years because of my son unless i can find something in between school

We already know that the wages are very low but we do have savings. The question is:..........

How much (GBP£ or CYP£) savings would you recommend before even attempting to move. Obviously this amount would be to live on until we receive our pension from the UK.

I am curious to hear your realistic suggestions! and those who wanna be sarcastic just skip this topic please

And thank you for those who are sensible

Can we go back to my original question please!!!
I'm well confused now

[juliesewell]

Bring at least enough dosh to last you for 2yrs, to buy 2 vehicles (you will need 2 if your husband intends to work) as there is a severe lack of public transport here, except in the tourist areas. 2nd hand cars are not as cheap as in UK but they don't rot the same and there are plenty of Japanese imports at costs of between £4k and upwards for a relatively new model. Remember, you will have to pay the school fees, buy uniform and books for your sons education.

Allow some backup for unforseen costs like maybe changing your driving licences to Cypriot ones (not a necessity by the way- but it still costs money), prescriptions, doctors & dentist visits.

The first year is the most expensive as you may find you want extra heating devices for winter and/or cooling ones for summer. You may want to purchase a water cooler (around £50 for a decent one) unless you have one of those american style fridges.

We can live fairly comfortably on around £600 - £700pm (there are only 2 of us and we have 2 vehicles), which covers our rent, food, utilities, car insurance etc and we go out at least 2 nights per week and also have takeaways. We don't have a swimming pool, we use the big free one or we use the one at Aphrodite Club close by but if you have a pool, you will need to budget for the maintenance too.

We are in Limassol and costs of living are a little cheaper than in Paphos, particularly for food and/or eating out.

[webbo]

any large amounts of cash you have look at putting it into a sterling account some have a very good rate of intrest. for example £260'000 gets you aprox £900 a month intrest.

I put £32K in an offshore account and got £400 a month after tax, although interest rates have fallen you can still pull £390 a month after tax on a £32K balance.

Please tell which bank this with?

[Hazza]

We can live fairly comfortably on around £600 - £700pm (there are only 2 of us and we have 2 vehicles).

How do you manage that? I'm on £500/month which pays for mortgage at £250/month, internet, mobile phone contract, electricity, water (next to nothing) and very very basic shopping yet I still can't hold my head above water, and thats me living on my own.

Donna, IMO, just for the basics between you, your husband and kids, you'll need a good £1200 a month to be comfortable (which would include rent). If you are buying outright, then £900/month should be comfortable for you, though that would be without school fees.

[juliesewell]

Hazza

Our main outgoings are less than £500 each month, with the exception of food shopping. Even then, we don't spend a fortune as we tend to buy staple stuff, fruit & veg we buy from the fruiteria rather than supermarket as it's a lot cheaper. We have pay as you go mobiles and spend less than £5 a month on them. Internet access is probably one of our biggest expenditures (approx £32pm incl vat).

A night out is usually a few beers at the local bar.

[norman347]

Hi Southener.
Just read your reply to one of the queries, and I was very interested in your statment that you can get a return of £390 for £32000 invested.
We are retiring to Cy early next year and will have about £80000 to invest to cover rent,as we intend to rent rather than buy.
I would be very greatful for any information.
Cheers Norman/Jean.