Not Always Greener.

I hear there was a programme on TV the other night regarding the plight of the Brits who went off to Spain to seek a cheaper life with better weather and are now living to regret it due to the collapse in the value of the pound. Its surprising that otherwise intelligent people seem to have forgotten that exchange rates are not fixed and can move in all sorts of directions. If they had read any economic history they should also have realised that such changes can often be very sudden events.

Whilst you can understand the motivations behind their decisions to move abroad, I suspect that some of it would have been down to simple herd mentality. X gets bored with life here, moves abroad at a time when property in the land of choice ius cheap, has a good time and contacts Y who moves and contacts Z. of course, they are all encouraged to jump on the band wagon by unscrupulous estate agents who know the possible economic drawbacks, but dont go out of their way to point them out to potential clients. Now the chickens have come home to roost with a veangence with people unable to sell property there in order to get back here and couldnt afford the property here even if they could sell there. Many of them, being retired are in a far worse position then, for instance, the people of working age from Poland who came to Britain, made money, sent it back home, while retaining family links and even sometimes homes in Poland so tat now that its no longer financially advantageous to remain inn Britain they have something to go back to.

Which all goes to prove that while the grass may be greener on the other side of the fence its often best to have an escape route worked out in case the grass that looks better turns out to be a bog.