Leaving Britain and Living Abroad
The free guide for Brits who have left, or are thinking about it. Seven chapters, every figure from the government that sets it.
I email a few times a week. Unsubscribe whenever you like, no hard feelings.
Most people pick a country first and find out the rest later. That a cheap visa bans them from working. That their state pension stops going up. That Britain still wants tax from them after they've gone.
This guide puts the rest first. It's for two people: the one thinking about leaving, and the one who already has. Both get hit by the same rules.
Inside it
1. Would they even have you? The 84 countries Brits actually live in, each answered twice: living on what you have, and still earning. Rechecked against every government's own pages in October 2026.
2. Could you afford to live there? What the same shopping costs against Britain, from Eurostat, and the tax due in cash the day you buy a house.
3. What they'd tax you. The published rates for pensioners who move, from 5% to 7%. The top rate in each country. The yearly taxes Britain never charged you, and inheritance tax where you go.
4. Your UK state pension abroad. Where it rises every year, and where it's frozen for life.
5. Who pays when you're ill. Why Britain pays for none of your healthcare abroad until State Pension age, and the cards people misread.
6. How you'd earn once you're there. What a country asks a remote worker to show, and the official catch in each plan people make.
7. What Britain still wants from you. The 16 day rule, the landlord scheme, the 60 day return on a sale, and the 31 October deadline.
This guide is free.
Who I am
James Hopkins. Eleven years out of Britain, four moves, three of them with my family. I still own two houses in York and I've run them from abroad the whole time.
Nobody pays me to tell you where to go
Everyone else who talks to you about moving abroad gets paid when you go. The estate agent when you buy, the developer when you sign, the relocation firm when you apply. No country, agent or developer has paid for a mention in this guide. If a company ever does pay to reach you, I'll say so on the page it appears on.