Hi there, I am completely new to transfers of this size and am needing some advice. My Mum died last year and her grant of probate has just been issued. I am needing to move a large sum from the executors account to my Australian bank (Bank Australia).

After doing some research I am in the process of opening an Expat account with HSBC (I have a UK passport but am not a resident) and planned to use a forex agent to get it here.

However, I am now reading that I can simply use a forex agent directly and that they can provide UK holding account details to the executors and they transfer it directly from there.

Any advice here? The executors have been truly terrible in competence and communication, so I don't want any hiccups on their side and potentially simply providing them with UK bank details via HSBC is more straightforward than getting them to engage with an agent.

Also, reviews for agents to use are all over the place, I guess everyone has had a bad experience with one of them and then it's on reddit forever - but as someone completely new to this with a life-changing amount of money - it is very nerve wracking! I'm thinking of using OFX as they are registered within the UK & Australia.

Any advice appreciated.

In the next few years I'll be relocating to Germany and then likely a decade or so later retiring early somewhere else in Europe. For those U.S. Expats, which brokerage do you recommend: Interactive Brokers or Schwab International?

I have some ETFs already for my base, dividend earning portion of the portfolio. So if I have to focus on individual stock while in Europe that will be ok for diversification. I know I'll have to pay "phantom" taxes in Germany on the funds.

I am trying to open a bank account in Thailand for LTR, I am trying to use the government bond route and this requires you to have a bank account in place before you can buy the bonds. Without the bonds you cannot qualify for a visa hence it’s a chicken before the egg 🤷🏻‍♂️

Anyone can help share knowledge or agents who can help open bank accounts

CashApp, Zelle, and Venmo solved this problem in the US. It's preposterous when you send money within the US to pay a fee. Why has this not been solved internationally? What's the bottleneck?

The average remittance cost worldwide is 6.2%, which is absurd to me.

Situation, a Canadian citizen that works abroad in US doing research.

I've had a Wealthsimple brokerage account with a TFSA shelter. Nothing crazy, mostly shares in XEQT. Didn't contribute to a RRSP.

It's my 3rd year (of 5) as a J1 visa holder. I've had to change residency for tax purposes. Because of this, I can no longer use TFSA or RRSP, or contribute to them regularly. There's no USA equivalent for TFSA and it's not recognized.

In order to keep my finances active in the market, what's the best move here? I'm considering the following options?

#1. Migrate everything to a US brokerage (fidelity, etc)

Use a regular or non registered account and pay the taxes for any gains use VTI or VT or voo instead of XEQT.

#2 let it sit in savings in Canada

Wealth stagnates temporarily for a few years until the future job looks more predictable/long term. Holding my wealth in Canada has nasty tax form implications, nor do they recognize it as a tax shelter.

#3 put most of it into it into a retirement account like Roth IRA

Advantage is tax shelter but not as accessible for emergencies. Given my time frame and uncertain future, it doesn't make sense to me to, for example, lock everything down which punishes you if you cash out early pre-retirement.

I'll probably try to find a specialized person for this but I'm not sure what the best thing to do is. Thanks for any advice.

US-Canada cross border tax advisor. Looking for cross border tax advisors in the Bay Area, California.

I've been building out a financial newsletter for people living and earning across borders, and one thing keeps coming up: everyone researches visas and cost of living before a move, but almost nobody researches the financial system they're about to plug into. So I put together a step-by-step checklist covering the whole thing, start to finish — sharing the actual framework here since I think it's useful whether or not you ever touch my newsletter.

Before you even pick a country, run it through a financial filter, not just a vibe check. Does the place tax based on residency or citizenship (if you're American, this matters everywhere), how foreigner-friendly is local banking, what does the visa actually require financially, and is the currency stable against what you earn? Cost of living is a snapshot. These four questions are a forecast.

Before you leave, open a multi-currency "hub" account (Wise, Revolut, whatever) while you still have a home address on file — it's genuinely harder to open from abroad. Also, don't close your home bank account. Keep one card lightly active. Your credit history resets to zero the day you land somewhere new, and having a home fallback matters more than people think.

The visa money requirements are stricter than the marketing pages let on. Portugal's D7 wants ~€920/month in passive income right now. Mexico's temporary residency wants ~$4,300–$4,500/month or ~$73K in savings. These change almost every year, so always confirm the current number directly, not from a blog post from two years ago.

The biggest silent bleed is the FX spread. Banks don't advertise a transfer fee anymore because "zero fee" tests well in marketing. Instead, they give you an exchange rate 3–6% worse than mid-market and keep the difference. On a $3K/month transfer, that's $100+ gone every month, invisible.

Never use Dynamic Currency Conversion. When a foreign terminal asks if you want to be charged in your home currency, say no, every time. Let it charge you in local currency and let your card network handle the conversion.

If you're American, residency doesn't get you out of filing. The US taxes citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live. FEIE covers up to $132,900 for 2026, but you still have to file even if that zeroes out what you owe.

I turned the whole thing into a free checklist (country selection all the way through year-one wealth protection) link's in my profile, didn't want to dump it in the post itself.

Curious what this sub would add, for those of you who've already made the move, what's the financial thing you wish someone had told you before you left?

TL;DR: Moving abroad comes with a financial system that most people don't plan for — banking setup, visa financial requirements, FX spread, tax residency. Built a free checklist covering the whole process, happy to share specifics in the comments.

I track every active project from Thailand's 9 largest developers (204 right now) for a side project, and the same question keeps coming up: what does the condo actually cost once you buy it from overseas? The sticker price is not the number. Worked example on the median new condo, which opens at 2.49M baht (about USD 74k), assuming a typical 30 sqm one bedroom.

Transfer fee: 2% of registered value at the Land Office. Most developers split it 50/50 with the buyer, so 24,900 baht. Some don't, check the contract.

Sinking fund: one-time capital contribution to the building, typically 500-800 baht per sqm. At 600/sqm on 30 sqm that's 18,000.

Prepaid common fees: usually 12 months up front at transfer, roughly 50-80 baht per sqm per month in mainstream buildings. About 21,600.

Then the FX layer, which people underestimate. To register foreign ownership the money must arrive in Thailand as foreign currency and get documented with an FET form. Between wire fees and the spread you lose roughly 0.5-1% per transfer, call it 18,700 baht on this unit, worse if you send many small installments. Fewer larger tranches means fewer fees and cleaner FET paperwork.

So roughly 83k baht on top, about 3.3%, before furnishing. Thai condos hand over fitted (floors, kitchen, aircon, wardrobes) but not furnished. If you plan to rent it out expect another 150-400k.

The payment schedule is its own risk: 50k reservation, around 10% at contract, around 10% in installments during construction, then the remaining 80% at transfer 2-3 years later when the building registers. Most of your money crosses the FX line years after you fixed the price in baht.

I put these fee schedules into a free calculator on my project (baanscope.com/calculator) that applies them to any unit price and size. Full disclosure it's my site, free, no signup, and mods, happy to remove if this crosses the promo line.

For anyone who has actually wired money in for a Thai condo: did the FET documentation give you trouble, and did your bank or the developer's team handle it?

Hi everyone,

I've been working remotely as a freelance software engineer for a US client for the past few years. I get paid weekly through Gusto, and my salary goes directly to my Wise account.

I'm planning to withdraw around ₱500,000 in cash to add to my budget for purchasing a house here in the Philippines.

For anyone who's gone through something similar, what's the safest and smoothest way to do this? Is there anything I should prepare beforehand or expect from the bank?

I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thanks!

Hello everyone! I am currently planning my move to Paraguay and organizing the logistics. Could you please recommend banks outside Paraguay (e.g., in Panama or Costa Rica) where it is easy to open an account—either remotely or in person? The goal is to park funds there and later transfer them to Paraguay, or to use that account while in Paraguay. Alternatively, is it possible to open an account immediately after moving, or do I have to wait for my *Cédula* (ID card) first? Also, how much money can be transferred from Germany to Paraguay? Does anyone have experience with international online banks or accounts in the region that are well-suited for this purpose? I would be very grateful for any tips or personal experiences!

I am going on a fellowship soon for a year in Brazil. I will receive a stipend for the year disbursed in two parts. I plan to put it in a HYSA and take from it as needed. I currently have savings in Marcus by Goldman Sachs but plan to move it because I heard they're funny about location and have frozen funds for other people, which would be terrible for me while away. I have a Fidelity CMA but it's connected to a debit card (good for international ATMS) but I don't want tens of thousands to be accessible so easily. Which HYSA is good and won't give trouble while I'm away?

When you send money from your local bank to an account overseas (different bank), you may be asked to bring your passport for ID (the page where the name, DOB and portrait photo is photocopied by the bank). Is detailed personal information on the passport sent to Intermediary Bank / Correspondence Bank and a beneficiary's bank?

i’m hoping to get some answers on this. I will be moving to Australia for a year. However, I still have a car payment to make back in the states. What app would I use to transfer the money I will be making in Australia to my US account, or vice versa. what would you guys recommend? I have a pretty hefty savings account here in the states, and I don’t want to bring that much money in cash to Australia. Is there a way to transfer it between my US account and my Australian account?

I'm trying to get set up for investing for my retirement. But I seem to be stuck at the first hurdle of choosing a broker.

From what I can see, IB, Degiro, etc, don't seem to support Chinese tax residents (which I am). I've heard of people setting up their home address (or a family member's) as their permanent address and putting China as their tax residency and just explaining it to customer service later.

But my plan is to retire here in China so I need to be careful. I assume the people I mentioned stay in China just a few years.

As an expat in China, how am I supposed to invest for retirement when I can't seem to register for any platform?

Also, I understand China's capital gains tax is 20%. So is that 20% of any profit my investments make? Surely that will make investing even harder/quite fruitless?