Retirement abroad: How Brigitte Kaiser with 70 the new beginning in Estonia dared to

Five years ago, she and her man decided, at that time, 71, pitch their tents in Germany, to cancel and to Estonia to emigrate Because they could not afford with their meager pension of life in Germany. What was originally born out of necessity, proved to be lucky.

At the beginning of 2015 Brigitte Kaiser faced with the question of whether you should extend your practice rooms or stop. Since 1997, she had worked as a naturopath. Now the 70-Year-old from lower Saxony was aware of the fact that you stop it can’t really afford. Because the pension and their meager savings were not enough to live in Germany. In the pension you had paid only a couple of mandatory years. After that, there were no training courses, which were eating up the money. “The idea to the retirement age was so far away, I had other priorities,” she says. Her husband, 71 and also a naturopath with a private practice, was in a similar position.

“For us, only to wash out remained Gentiles”

What to do? One Option would be social assistance. But that was out of the question for both of them: “the welfare office was a horror show.” In addition, it feels Brigitte Kaiser as unfair, nothing to contribute, and to take at the end of the solidarity community. “For us, only to wash out remained otherwise”, she says.

Then everything went blow on blow: her husband searched the Internet for countries where the gross income of the population is so low that the pension and Savings sufficient to live on. Particularly curious, she made to Estonia: There were historical Connections to Germany, and it belongs to the EU. “That was important, so that we can get the pension without deductions,” explains Brigitte Kaiser.

“We caught fire”

Her husband was collecting more and more information, among other things, he sat down with a German pastor in the capital city of Tallinn, the mediated, in turn, the contact to a German, who lived a long time in Estonia.”We started a fire and decided to make 14 days of vacation in Estonia to leave the country to affect us. We were immediately impressed,” recalls Brigitte Kaiser. That was the beginning of June 2015. The Couple met wandered other in order to make a comprehensive picture of the country, the area is about as large as lower Saxony and 1.3 million inhabitants. Soon, they were confirmed in their feeling: “This is our Land.”

Barely arrived home, took her husband on the Internet in search of housing options: they wanted to find a small house to have no leasing costs. “After two days, an offer to the eye, which corresponded to our mini-budget and well-liked jumped us.”

On the following weekend, they went back to Estonia, to visit the small wooden houses in the vicinity of the port city of Pärnu. Everything worked like clockwork: “Seen it, liked and buying done perfectly,” says Brigitte Kaiser. After two renovations were still – and on 1. November 2015 so far: they moved to Estonia, just a few months after she had first thought about emigrating.

More and more pensioners, it pulls abroad

The Emperor is not an isolated case. An increasing number of German pulls in retirement abroad: in 2018, the German pension insurance 240.467 German has transferred the remuneration abroad, in 1993, it was with 116.083 still less than half. The two favorite countries of Switzerland, well-26.000 pensioners, and Austria, with over 25,000 subscribers. The advantage here: There is no language barrier.

Brigitte Kaiser and her husband had, however, also in Estonia, never had a problem with the understanding: “With knowledge of English, you can overcome everything well,” she says. In the meantime, you can Estonian, some of the chunks, sometimes you used a Translation, or simply hands and feet. “I’ve met up to now, only helpful people,” she says.

Read alsoRiester-pension: As little savers out

The formalities were pleasantly uncomplicated For the pension scheme only provides an address re-registration was necessary, and as your statutory health insurance provider required a contract with Estonia, it is only a re-registration. The Couple of lucky with the landlord in Germany was: “He had a full understanding of, and us in every way,” says Brigitte Kaiser.

A life without Stress

Estonia is like a dream to the country: “Here, everything is so easy, as I knew it from my Childhood also from Germany.” The people locked in the country your car when you go shopping. She has never seen a stressed out people. “In the Post a snake, and an older person takes longer for his formalities, there is neither irritated Buzzing yet nervous and rolling heavily or eyes twisting. It takes as long as it takes.”

The life is so natural and reduced to the Essentials, this was reflected even in the architecture: the banking houses or Offices are functional and technically up-to-date, without the unnecessary glitz and Glamour, would have to pay for the ultimately, the citizens. “I work to live, not I live to work” – this attitude fit in well to life in Estonia.

30 Pages Of Widow’s Pension Application

Your decision has not regretted Brigitte Kaiser. And, although in 2018, her husband died. The necessary paperwork was led, rather, once again, how complicated the bureaucracy in Germany. “The widow’s pension request was more than 30 pages long. Without the help of a friend in Germany, a funeral home, and I would have been screwed,” she says. And for the cost of the funeral you should have been in Germany, probably twenty times pay, which would have been due to low income, very strong.

“I live alone now, in Estonia, in the small cottage with garden and hope to never have to return to Germany,” says Brigitte Kaiser after almost five years. “I’m a political and spiritual person. When I compare the life here in Estonia is with Germany, it seems to me, as I came from a giant hamster wheel in which you hardly get in the real life and to find meaning in this life. Here it is different. The people have enough to live in space.”

*The contribution “retirement abroad: How Brigitte Kaiser with 70 the new beginning in Estonia” is dare released by Wizelife. Contact with the executives here.