Do you own a holiday home abroad?

[pontipinemum]

I love watching shows like a place in the sun and having a little dream for myself.

I've always said I will retire to Italy or somewhere.

But do any of you own a holiday home abroad? I was thinking earlier why wait until retirement? However, if I was to do it now I'd opt for somewhere with a lot going on for families in an apartment that is easy to rent out for part of the year.

Should I quash this dream now? Or try make it a 5 year plan?

For people mentioning Brexit as a barrier to retiring in the EU: It's not great, but it doesn't make it impossible for people with a moderately good income or savings (the kind that many MNers have). Those hit hardest are working-class people (a bigger percentage of whom voted for Brexit) with not much beyond a state pension, which was sufficient under the old EU rules.

To (early-)retire to Spain as a married couple now, you have to show (roughly - the actual process is more subtle than this, but this will do as an approximation) that over 5 years you will have about £150,000 to live on. This can be in pension/investment income, or capital, or a mix of those, but not earnings. You also typically need private medical insurance, but you can pay for that out of the £150k. After a year, in most parts of Spain you can join the (pretty good) Spanish NHS for a monthly fee, which is worth doing if you have the kind of condition that private insurers won't cover. And when you get to UK state pension age you can get health cover via the S1 certficate.

To retire to France you have to show slightly less, about £25k/year for a couple (I don't know if there is a savings alternative in the case of France). And you can go onto the (superb) French health system from day 1, in return for 6% of your income.