OK here it is. I haven't been contributing to the Cat much because I have been quite low. Seems most of my thought is taken with wishing to move back to Virginia from the UK.

My partner is 60 and could technically retire.

I will be 53 next month and have at least a decade of full time work left in me.

Our main worry is the cost of health care as the sale of our flat would probably buy us a decent little house near the Chickahominy river with only a small mortgage. Sale of our car (it is pretty new) would easily pay for decent car in US.

I have found that there are at least 4 jobs at William & Mary (in Williamsburg a 30 minute drive from where we want to live) that I am more than qualified for. They are full time state jobs and salaried with benefits, so our health care would be covered.
Job will probably leave us with about $2000 a month to live on after mortgage. This is without touching partner's pension or the savings.

Even if I can't get state job, I have had some looks at comparable jobs in private sector in Newport News (also drivable) and could do near as well though maybe more expensive health care.

Partner is willing to work for a short time in US, if he is permitted to (he is English) qualified IT lecturer. I don;t think it will be necessary if I can get one of the jobs I have been looking at.

I think if we wait until partner is 65, I will be less likely to get a decent job in US and I will be stuck in UK until I die. The prospect is making me more and more depressed.

I am thinking I should jump, because there is no guarantee that I will keep the job I currently have in the UK. I work in public sector and we are about to be centralised and restructured and probably sold to the lowest private sector bidder. There will be a great many of us competing for a few downgraded posts. All this happens by mid summer this year.

What do my Mudcat friends think? Am I missing something? Am I not likely to get a job due to my age anyway?