Brits Relocating to the US – Is This a Trend?

[andrewfi]

Omega, that's an option discussed here before. Russian Central Bank rate is pretty high, IIRC correctly 7.25%, and is giving a real rate of return after inflation of around 5%. Of course retail rates are much lower but probably in excess of inflation giving a real return on investment. The risk though is related to the ruble fx rates. If your savings, which will be in rubles, suffer due to a decreased exchange rate to your base currency at the time you wish to withdraw then you lose out. Of course the opposite case also applies but you can easily see that this is not a risk free option.

[Steveboy]

I don't think it makes  putting savings into a savings account unless you have millions..all a waste of time just for a few quid every now and again..

Russian banks pay a good interest rate but there are much better ways in Russia to invest spare cash and you do not need a lot of it to big returns within 12/18 months ..

[andrewfi]

I agree Steve, there was a good opportunity a while back to park cash, collect interest, and benefit from the appreciation of the ruble. Didn't need much knowledge to do it. I doubt that there's much room for ruble appreciation right now. I bet that the Russian Central Bank is happy enough with the current exchange rates

[rosco]

Back from holiday now so I will comment 

As some of you know I lived and worked in USA for about 10 years.  In 2003 I returned to UK and married Nataliya.  We did not stay in UK for long, in 2008 we moved permanently to Turkey.  I will try to explain why:

I lived in Metro San Francisco, Boston and Metro New York.  SF is a weird place, made very few friends there and the commute times in the Bay area are very long.  Boston was better, folk are more normal and the business climate was good.

I enjoyed living and working in New York but the downturn following 9/11 effected me badly.  A major client went under - chapter 11, owing me a small fortune.  I also found that my business network in the USA was not strong enough to support me in the downturn.  You need a six figure income to live comfortably in NYC and after 9/11 I was living by selling off investments.  I made the decision to return to UK.

In hindsight it was the right decision.  Swearing the oath of allegiance means a lifetime of USA tax returns.  Revoking USA citizenship is not easy.  It took a friend of mine 2 years and $50K in fees to do this.  Only take citizenship if you are sure you will stay in the USA.

I had not lived and worked in UK for almost 20 years and the country I had returned too was not the country I had left.

I thought long and hard about starting new business in UK but the tax and business climate was very poor.  We moved to London for a year which in hindsight was a BIG mistake.  London has evolved into a city which I can't identify with.  It is dirty, violent and the center has few British people.  I secured a significant business contract in Scandinavia, so i was weekly commuting to Sweden.  Nataliya HATED London.  Once our second daughter arrived she wanted to leave ASAP.  We owned a holiday apartment in Turkey so we moved there.  At first it was a "stop gap" decision.  Get rid of the high overhead Bloomsbury flat, decide where we would go next.  That was 10 years ago...

Life in Turkey has significant problems but they have little impact on our family life.  We enjoy a very high standard of living here and no one bothers us.  I have built an extensive business network in the middle east so my business prospers.  We are settled here now.

Never considered starting a business in Russia or Ukraine.  I don't have any significant contacts in either country and starting a business in these countries has loads of issues.



 

Interesting read Les, thanks.

No doubt our resident troll will be along to tell us, how your very own experience of London is wrong.

[rosco]

I lived in Metro San Francisco, Boston and Metro New York.  SF is a weird place, made very few friends there and the commute times in the Bay area are very long.  Boston was better, folk are more normal and the business climate was good.

I enjoyed living and working in New York but the downturn following 9/11 effected me badly.  A major client went under - chapter 11, owing me a small fortune.  I also found that my business network in the USA was not strong enough to support me in the downturn.  You need a six figure income to live comfortably in NYC and after 9/11 I was living by selling off investments.  I made the decision to return to UK.

This is still accurate: SF is full of nutters who hate their largest employers and think it's ok for people to shit in the street.  Boston is ok, but a bit provincial vis-a-vis NYC, and metro NYC is fine, with $.

In hindsight it was the right decision.  Swearing the oath of allegiance means a lifetime of USA tax returns.  Revoking USA citizenship is not easy.  It took a friend of mine 2 years and $50K in fees to do this.  Only take citizenship if you are sure you will stay in the USA.

Very true.  In many ways, it's great to have a US passport, but how we handle taxation sux, which is ironic, insofar as we were founded by tax protesters.

I had not lived and worked in UK for almost 20 years and the country I had returned too was not the country I had left.

I lived in London back in 1991.  In many ways, my vintage 1991 self would find the London of today largely  unrecognizable.  I'd recognized the buildings, of course, but I'd wonder where the British people had gone.  I mean the usual British people.  I'm sure there are people with British passports, etc., in the same way that this lot of 'Oxford Men' are from Oxford.

B/B

I first visited London as a teenager in the late 80s, I lived there for three weeks on a building job in the Jewish area of Golders Green. It seemed vibrant and full of energy. I loved visiting all the tube stops on the Monopoly board. Today it feels like an alternate reality that is a mix of the worst of Pakistan, Africa and Islam. I hate it now. It's a desperate and dirty place full of immigrants, stabbings, moped crime and a Muslim mayor in denial. I'd hate to have to live there. I'd resent paying a premium to live there as so many have to.

I'm curious where our US pals here would say was a *good* place to live in the US?

I spend a bit of time in Manchester these days on business and have only just returned. The wife came this time and we went a walk round the centre before dinner. Quite an eye opener.

It looks like half of Africa has sneaked in, there were plenty orientals but that was always the case and I was appalled to see some blokes dressed up in their sand uniforms with a sound system on a table. They were shouting about Islamophobia with their signs whilst blaring out their prayer guff at full tilt. Quite the spectacle.

Moby and Ste love this sort of stuff but I was pretty disgusted to see this happening in Manchester. It was provocative rather than defensive. The wife remarked that she was glad we live in Scotland...... 

[Slumba]

I spend a bit of time in Manchester these days on business and have only just returned. The wife came this time and we went a walk round the centre before dinner. Quite an eye opener.

It looks like half of Africa has sneaked in, there were plenty orientals but that was always the case and I was appalled to see some blokes dressed up in their sand uniforms with a sound system on a table. They were shouting about Islamophobia with their signs whilst blaring out their prayer guff at full tilt. Quite the spectacle.

Moby and Ste love this sort of stuff but I was pretty disgusted to see this happening in Manchester. It was provocative rather than defensive. The wife remarked that she was glad we live in Scotland......

When are you lot going to cleanse the Shire?

[Steveboy]

I agree Steve, there was a good opportunity a while back to park cash, collect interest, and benefit from the appreciation of the ruble. Didn't need much knowledge to do it. I doubt that there's much room for ruble appreciation right now. I bet that the Russian Central Bank is happy enough with the current exchange rates

The best investment at the moment in Russia if you do not have piles of cash is property, they cannot build it and sell it fast enough!

[Steveboy]

Another important point about the US nearly 80% of the population hate there job and do not enjoy going to the workplace every day ?

Its what I heard in any case.. So very few are really happy anyway... and it all comes down to the same thing. Happiness can be found any where, don't need to go to the US for that..

[msmoby]

The best investment at the moment in Russia if you do not have piles of cash is property, they cannot build it and sell it fast enough!

That's all very well, but you'd have have had to have seen a vast increase in property - given how the Rouble bombed in April

We haven't made a penny - if converting from Roubles - due to this

[Steveboy]

The best investment at the moment in Russia if you do not have piles of cash is property, they cannot build it and sell it fast enough!

That's all very well, but you'd have have had to have seen a vast increase in property - given how the Rouble bombed in April

We haven't made a penny - if converting from Roubles - due to this

Its very easy to buy a place under construction 50% deposit and make monthly payments over 12/24 months to the construction company. As soon as the property is finished you have made some money it will already be worth a good % more than you paid..

[andrewfi]

Moby is weebling about the conversion from roubles to his favoured tax avoidance currency. If the exchange rate goes against one when buying using funds derived from something other than roubles the exchange rate movements can lead to a windfall profit or a loss.

Of course that's not actually a real estate issue but a currency issue and can be managed.

Olga and Ivan are not too worried about fx changes, they are happy to see price appreciation in roubles.

[Manny]

I spend a bit of time in Manchester these days on business and have only just returned. The wife came this time and we went a walk round the centre before dinner. Quite an eye opener.

It looks like half of Africa has sneaked in, there were plenty orientals but that was always the case and I was appalled to see some blokes dressed up in their sand uniforms with a sound system on a table. They were shouting about Islamophobia with their signs whilst blaring out their prayer guff at full tilt. Quite the spectacle.

Moby and Ste love this sort of stuff but I was pretty disgusted to see this happening in Manchester. It was provocative rather than defensive.

Moby would have borrowed a fiver to put in their collection box.   

I've not seen that in the city centre but I dont doubt it is there. I dont often go there, especially since the new gag is to change the rules on a road you've known for 20 years for no particular reason, bung some cameras up and you get a £100 special through the door a week later (Oxford Rd anyone?). I've had half a dozen or so, so I go in on the train now if I must go there. I ain't paying road tax, paying to park and then being stiffed because I turned left at a junction that is suddenly now only for buses since last week or something. 

[shakespear]

I've not seen that in the city centre but I dont doubt it is there. I dont often go there, especially since the new gag is to change the rules on a road you've known for 20 years for no particular reason, bung some cameras up and you get a £100 special through the door a week later (Oxford Rd anyone?). I've had half a dozen or so, so I go in on the train now if I must go there. I ain't paying road tax, paying to park and then being stiffed because I turned left at a junction that is suddenly now only for buses since last week or something. 

Those "camera tickets" have been ruled illegal here in Ohio.

I beat one in court a couple years ago.  Showed up in court
with two witnesses that confirmed I was 60 miles away when
the ticket was issued (it was my wife driving not me).

The prosecutor asked me who was driving the car if I wasn't and
I told him that it was HIS job to determine that, not mine.  The ticket
was in my name and I proved beyond a reasonable doubt that I was
not driving he car.  The judge agreed and waived the fine but I had
to pay some court costs.       

[Markje]

The prosecutor asked me who was driving the car if I wasn't and
I told him that it was HIS job to determine that, not mine.  The ticket
was in my name and I proved beyond a reasonable doubt that I was
not driving he car.  The judge agreed and waived the fine but I had
to pay some court costs.       

Good on you, in the Netherlands you would've still had to pay the fine for small traffic violations stuff.

Here the burdon of proof that it -was- someone else driving is on you. So if you can't prove beyond reasonable doubt it was your wife driving, the fine would stick to the owner of the car.

(Thats why so many homeless in Netherlands had 4-5 expensive ferrari's on their name, until they started to impound+sell the cars to get the traffic fines payed and the rest of the money went back to the owner ... the homeless man....).

It's called "Law Mulder" , and it applies only to small traffic fines that are below 300 Euro and without jailtime / administrative punishments like revoking your driver license.

Mark.

[Contrarian]

I've not seen that in the city centre but I dont doubt it is there. I dont often go there, especially since the new gag is to change the rules on a road you've known for 20 years for no particular reason, bung some cameras up and you get a £100 special through the door a week later (Oxford Rd anyone?). I've had half a dozen or so, so I go in on the train now if I must go there. I ain't paying road tax, paying to park and then being stiffed because I turned left at a junction that is suddenly now only for buses since last week or something. 

Those "camera tickets" have been ruled illegal here in Ohio.

I beat one in court a couple years ago.  Showed up in court
with two witnesses that confirmed I was 60 miles away when
the ticket was issued (it was my wife driving not me).

The prosecutor asked me who was driving the car if I wasn't and
I told him that it was HIS job to determine that, not mine.  The ticket
was in my name and I proved beyond a reasonable doubt that I was
not driving he car.  The judge agreed and waived the fine but I had
to pay some court costs.       

In California years back I received a camera ticket from company in Arizona.

I never paid it and they gave up, those are not Constitutional. Ticket must be from a human officer and the officer must be same state as the state of the infraction. 

[Slumba]

I've not seen that in the city centre but I dont doubt it is there. I dont often go there, especially since the new gag is to change the rules on a road you've known for 20 years for no particular reason, bung some cameras up and you get a £100 special through the door a week later (Oxford Rd anyone?). I've had half a dozen or so, so I go in on the train now if I must go there. I ain't paying road tax, paying to park and then being stiffed because I turned left at a junction that is suddenly now only for buses since last week or something. 

Those "camera tickets" have been ruled illegal here in Ohio.

I beat one in court a couple years ago.  Showed up in court
with two witnesses that confirmed I was 60 miles away when
the ticket was issued (it was my wife driving not me).

The prosecutor asked me who was driving the car if I wasn't and
I told him that it was HIS job to determine that, not mine.  The ticket
was in my name and I proved beyond a reasonable doubt that I was
not driving he car.  The judge agreed and waived the fine but I had
to pay some court costs.       

In the state I am currently living in, only a speeding ticket handed to you by a uniformed officer is valid. They (biggest city in the state) had set up traffic cameras inside vans and were sending out photo tickets. I ignored all of them - they were depending on the gullible to pay up.

[Steveboy]

I went through a red light in Los Angeles a long time back and never thought anything of it..

Then a few weeks after arriving home I received a letter and fine from the sheriffs dept , even had clear photo of me driving as we hired a convertible ..

I was going to chuck it in the garbage as they wanted $180 fine! Had no choice but to pay it as I was told I would have problems next time I went to the US..

I couldn't believe they had the bloody cheek to send me that...

[AvHdB]

Lets see some drive through a RED light and they are upset when the ticket arrives. 

What few understand is from a government standpoint collecting fines via foto's is a cost effective way of increasing revenue.

[Steveboy]

Lets see some drive through a RED light and they are upset when the ticket arrives. 

What few understand is from a government standpoint collecting fines via foto's is a cost effective way of increasing revenue.

Governments are becoming very very good at increasing revenues today from Joe blogs.. Speeding tickets, parking tickets, rubbish tickets and lots more small offence tickets..

But you know what is really funny?? They only collect the fines of the employed.. if your a gypsy , living on benefits, or. just a general ass hole they leave you alone..