Moving abroad - financial advice

louella17

Hi all

I am going through some pretty big life changes at the moment and would appreciate some general advice or tips on who to speak to about my finances.

I am in my early 30s, in a long-term relationship with no children, currently in full-time employment in the UK with savings of around £45,000. I have a defined benefit pension scheme (public sector) currently worth around £4-5k pa. I do not own property or have any other investments. I have outstanding student loans of around £2,500 which I am paying off by direct debit (should be paid off in about a year).

This time last year I was looking to get on the property ladder but now my plans have changed. I will be leaving my job at the end of June and moving abroad (to the Eurozone) to start a new permanent job there. I anticipate staying at least five years, but really it is anybody's guess. It's possible that I will never come back. My partner is from the other country and we may stay there permanently and look to buy a property in the next couple of years. He has no savings or assets in the UK - everything he has is in euros.

I am trying to decide:

- what to do about my pension
- what to do about my savings

I could just leave my pension as it is and ignore it. I am wondering whether to buy added pension quickly before I leave my job or pay some money into a SIPP but think I may have left it too late to get the full higher rate tax relief. My UK earnings for this tax year will only just exceed the income tax threshold. I'm also unsure about investing more in my UK pension as I have no idea which country I will be living in when I eventually retire. I will be paying into an occupational pension scheme in my new employment but obviously this will be in euros and I'm not sure what kind of scheme it is.

Regarding the savings, I don't know whether to leave them in sterling and maybe invest in some stocks and shares (as with current interest rates they will just lose value otherwise) or change them into euros. On the one hand the Eurozone is a bit unstable. On the other hand I think sterling is likely to continue to fall against the euro as the Brexit negotiations get under way and if I am likely to need them for a house deposit in euros in a couple of years then maybe I should move it all to the euro account now.

So confused.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

atush

Keep your pension where it is.

Do yo have parents or a sibling you could use their address? If so get statements sent there.

Then, accounts. Keep your current acct open, and savings accounts. Again use the address from above. Make sure you current acct pays interest, and has a online platform.

Do you have ISAs? Again, change of address to your new UK address as above.

If you want an account in future, it is VERY hard for expats to open new ones. So open some now.

Voyager2002

Your defined benefit pension scheme is like gold dust: don't even think of touching it. See if you can make additional payments into the scheme to increase your eventual pension. Moving abroad makes no difference to its value: once you reach pensionable age you can get it paid to you anywhere in the world (possibly not North Korea, but essentially everywhere else).

As for your savings: if there is a reasonable chance that you might need them within five years then stay away from the stock market. Unfortunately there is nowhere in the world that pays decent interest (India and Russia are possible exceptions, but you would not want your savings held in Roubles or Rupees). You might find it worthwhile to use current accounts such as the Santander 123, or if you are able to accept some risk consider peer-to-peer lending.

elephantrosie

which country you moving to?

louella17

Thanks for the replies.

I will see if I can make any extra payments into my pension in the next month or so.

Elephantrosie - I am moving to France. Still not sure whether to move my cash savings into euros or not. If the value of sterling plummets again during the Brexit negotiations then it won't be worth nearly as much if I am trying to buy a property in France in a year or two!