Moving Abroad - What to do about money?

Manc2015

Hi everyone,


I am 32 years old and would really appreciate some advice as I am looking to move to New Zealand in the middle of March, working there with a 1-year work visa. Dependent on how my job goes (and how much I enjoy it there!), I could then apply for another 2 year visa afterwards.


My questions relate to my current investments and what I can do with my future savings, namely:


Lifetime Isa - I have not yet added into my Lifetime Isa for this tax year but I intend to add the maximum amount before I leave in early March. It then looks like that I will be unable to add anything further (including for tax year 2019 - 2020) as I will not have a UK address - is this correct?



Savings - I am in the process of selling my house and will likely have c. £65,000 in savings. I intend to transfer c. £5,000 with me to a new account in New Zealand but am uncertain about setting-up a new savings account / adding to Premium Bonds as I will no longer be a UK resident - or can I do this?


Pensions - I have a pension with my existing employer which I intend to keep open.


Many thanks for any advice!

eskbanker

You're correct that you can't pay into any ISAs when not tax-resident, but can keep them open if you wish.

You can put money into NS&I products when abroad, as per https://www.nsandi.com/i-live-outside-uk-can-i-invest-with-nsi, but most UK banking/savings products can only be opened by UK residents, or EU ones in some cases. You can obviously open any number of accounts while you're still here - some may not be happy to accept a change of address to NZ though so that'll need some more research....

atush

Opening them later will be difficult/impossible. So keep open current accounts and set up savings accounts and maybe ISas and broker accts.

kidmugsy

You might want to check whether NZ will charge you income tax on the interest (or dividends) in your LISA and your pension. Ditto for your Premium Bonds.

When we lived in NZ (and in Oz) we found ANZ to be a pretty decent bank. They have a big office in London - whether you can arrange retail banking there I don't know, but if so maybe you can arrange an account before you leave.