General advice

when moving to a new country

The goal of this section is provide general advice on what to take into account when moving to a new country.

List of guides

The following guides provide an in-depth summary of relevant information on the respective topic.

  • Checklist before moving. This guide provides a compact list of things to consider when moving country. You can just go through the list and make sure that you do not forget something important.

  • Exchanging money. If you move between countries, you often need to send and exchange money internationally. This guide reviews some of the best options. It particularly focuses on smaller sums and transferring to other people.

  • IBKR money transfers. If you have two bank accounts in different countries and need to transfer regularly or a single large sum, Interactive Brokers will typically by far the best rate (often just 2 USD for sums up to 100,000 USD without further commission from the exchange rate). In this guide, we carefully explain how this works, what you should consider and what you need to do.

  • Interactive Brokers. This guide is an introduction to Interactive Brokers offers, which is one of the best brokerage accounts on the market (low fees, access to many markets and currencies, available in most countries). It is particularly suited to people who move between countries, because it can be used in many different countries and with various currencies.

  • Free money (strings attached). We explain how to evaluate advertisement promises and deals that may appear to be "too good to be true". In particular, we explain that this does not mean that any offers of "free money" should be avoided, but it is important to evaluate the specific offer to avoid bad deals and scam. We also review various deals that may be worth to consider.

Do not forget to check out the Services & Accounts, which has a lot of general recommendations.

Wishlist for new guides

In the following, I provide a list of guides we are intending to write in the future. Let me know if you are particularly keen on one.

  • Taking risks. This guide explains when it is worth to take a risk and when this is a bad idea. Vice versa, it also discusses the opposite, namely when it is a good idea to take out insurance and when not.

Please send suggestions for the wishlist to ExpatFinance.us@gmail.com.