I’m here in the Channel Islands following a partially-successful emigration. So, what’s the plan now?
I still have some loose ends to tie up in the UK
Regular readers will remember that we sold our house by text message – well, that’s still going through, although we’ve exchanged now.
Our solicitor in Hampshire has been exceptional. Would use again. If you’re in the Solent area, Warner Goodman LLP really know their stuff and put the effort in. Can’t say the same for the buyer’s solicitor, who – despite the constant nagging of the buyer – didn’t even begin the basic property searches until 8 weeks after accepting her as a client.
With conveyancing, you really do get what you pay for.
We can’t buy a house yet
One very kind reader reached out to me on Reddit a while ago, and told me that it “seems like I have everything together“. If only I was half the man…
I’m slightly ashamed to admit that at age 34 I’m living in my mother-in-law’s spare room. There are a few reasons for that:
- The house needs to be sold in the UK to give us a sizeable deposit;
- We can’t get a mortgage in the Channel Islands until we’re outside the 3-month standard probation period with our employers – so no move before January 2023 at the earliest;
- Rental accommodation that accepts our dog just doesn’t seem to be a thing here.
We’re proud to say that we are in fact paying a fair lodging rate (so we aren’t freeloading) but all the same there’s something about it that bugs me. Still, we’re grateful for the assistance.
Due to the rental situation, we’re probably going to buy a property here, looking to purchase in 2023. I’ll explain our thought processes in a later post, closer to the time.
Food costs have trebled
Back in the UK, we were eating for about £150 per month. Sadly, here, food is expensive. We’re budgeting against £450 per month in feeding.
It’s not all bad. The quality of food here is much better. I guess an island with a top-heavy income pyramid only demands the best? This means we’re eating less processed stuff.
Fish isn’t cheap here, but it’s a lot cheaper than the meat that’s imported from the UK or France. Which is pretty awesome for my waistline as it contains fewer calories. I may have to learn how to fish…
Gym memberships suck…
On our first week, we did a tour of the gyms on island.
Short version: if you want a 1990s style all-cardio-machine experience for £1,000 a year, you’re sorted. For everyone else, don’t bother.
I hear there are some specialist weights gyms if I ask around but we didn’t see those.
However, I think I’ve solved the keeping fit problem another way…
…but the adult sports scene is HUGE!
Think of a sport that’s semi-mainstream and there’s probably at least one club for it. Better yet, it seems to be affordable!
Back in the day, I could swim to the standard required for HM military personnel: 500m in any forward stroke, no time pressure, and 2 minutes of treading water. That’s not really a high standard, and I figure that living on a tiny island with lots of free watersports opportunities is a powerful reason to get better at swimming. I’ve signed up for adult lessons to try and get a decent front crawl together. £84 for six weeks isn’t too bad.
Sea swimming is pretty big here, as you’d expect. It’s basically a free hobby! I’m enjoying it.
I’m starting a six-week beginners archery course in November, at the tiny cost of £45 including borrowing equipment.
I’ve also joined the local sailing club, so we’re looking to get some solid experience in and meet a few people. Again, sailing is really big, and people are always looking for crewmates. It’s also a big social club with cheap(ish) beer that runs social events, so that’s pretty cool.
I’m using my kettlebell and training bands to add in workouts from home and there are a few runs around the cliffs I quite like.
Investing options are different here
The classic FIRE strategy, Vanguard index funds bought on the Vanguard platform, doesn’t work in the Channel Islands. Here in Guernsey, the FCA has no power: there is a Guernsey Financial Services Commission instead.
They do the same job, but it means you need to be Guernsey licenced if you want to offer financial services, which Vanguard isn’t.
We also lose ISAs here. Oh, we can keep them, but they’re not tax shielded. They’re basically a General Investment Account unless we return to the UK.
On the other hand, there isn’t a Capital Gains Tax concept here, and income tax is a flat rate 20% up to a cap (which, unless I become a multi-millionaire, won’t benefit me – so I’m not concerned about that!).
My Trading 212 account is still active and fine to use. I’ve mentioned before about how I’m a little concerned with their IT security after discovering a computer in Andover had permission to access my account, but that seems to have been a one-off and may be a ghost in the machine.
If you would like to check out Trading 212, here’s an affiliate link that will get us both free shares of up to £100 if you sign up.
I’m using a robo-investor, Wealthify, as my main investment platform. They’re originally a Guernsey start-up but they offer ISAs and SIPPs in the UK as their main product and the General Investment Accounts which I can use. I will pay more in fees than I would have using Vanguard, but the alternatives here are Etoro, Trading 212 and active funds managed by IFAs. I’ve decided that Wealthify offers me a reasonable balance of security, trustworthiness, diversification and fees for now. That may change.
If you would like to check out Wealthify for yourself, here’s an affiliate link that will give us both £25 if you sign up and deposit £250 or more. 10% instant return? That’s pretty good!
What this means for the Financial Independence Campaign
The cost of our staples – housing, food etc – has increased dramatically. We’re expecting triple the amount. Ouch.
However, our employment incomes will have more than doubled, and our other expenses have either reduced or flatlined.
I’ve been able to completely ditch one expense (my train ticket!). At £650 per month, that’s a huge saving. Yuge, even.
The net outcome is that we ought to be investing a lot more, easily three times as much as we did in the UK, and with less time spent on commuting.
The boat plan is still our long-term ambition. However, this move will give us a boost to our investments that should support that goal, get us more (and cheaper!) sailing experience, and potentially give us time for more side hustles or other ideas.
When we set off on our sailing trips, the arbitrage difference from earning and investing in the Channel Islands with its high cost of living to eating out of tins off the cost of the Caribbean should work in our favour.
Reference back to the Campaign Plan
In the 2022 Campaign Plan, I declared that I was going to invest primarily in crypto while in the UK and switch to shares on relocation to the Channel Islands.
The logic here was that my savings rate in the UK was tiny compared to my savings rate here, so actually my overall weighting on investments was primarily in equities – by a significant margin. I also didn’t know at the time what the tax and platform availability was going to be for investments in Guernsey.
I did actually keep to that, even through market turbulence. As mentioned in *all* of my crypto posts, crypto isn’t a fire-and-forget investment item, and by staying on top of things I managed to avoid the whole “crypto collapse” after the Terra Luna failure also brought down Celsius. Things could just as easily have gone the other way, but I did make significant profits by speculating and lending tokens out. Well, by percentage growth.
By net worth percentage the best performance in my portfolio was achieved by renovating my house and selling it. Honestly, nothing else has come close.
I have rebalanced largely out of stablecoins to Bitcoin or liquidity pair tokens in Tezos and Cosmos that are part-stablecoin. However, these are now going to be left in my wallets to do their thing, and the serious lifting of the portfolio will be done through equities and/or traditional investments, which was always the plan.
