expat

When people reach out to our team of US expat financial advisors, there’s a good chance they’re either living or planning a move to Portugal. And it’s not just something we’ve seen. It’s something the Wall Street Journal & LA Times have written about, too. So as Portugal continues to grow in its...

In a rather swift and harsh judgment, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision in favor of the IRS, which assessed an approximately $1.2 million penalty against a taxpayer for failing to disclose her financial interests in an overseas account. The decision, U.S. v...

What I mean by the "adverse exchange rate" is the lower (or higher) exchange rate that is really a fee for the transaction, even though the bank claims not to have charged any service fee. I am a US expatriate in South Korea who last transferred funds from Bank of America to a local bank (Hana...

Hi EF! TL;DR financial planning strategy for US-EU expats, how to address constraints related to citizenship we’re both 40, married, EU citizens, US residents (green card), family of 4, double income, young kids with dual citizenship. $2M net worth, as follows: half in net USD assets: 15%...

Question about Ecuador CDs 🇪🇨 I would appreciate any critical thoughts and insights to my plan below. Thank You. I am leaning towards selling my Austin TX home. My net will be about 400k. I am 55 and thinking of moving to Ecuador to take advantage of the LOW cost of living. My body has major...

tl;dr - we’ve had fraudulent visa debit card charges twice in 6 months, what are we doing wrong? We are expats living in Portugal and have experienced two rounds of fraudulent charges on our visa debit card in less than six months. Each time we cancel the card and get new ones. What are we...

I want to transfer a relatively large amount ~6k to a bank outside the US, but keeping the money in USD, NOT changing it to regional currency. Which would be the best way to do this? (The international account is a USD account ofc)

I'm a dual citizen (France, US) and am married to an Italian; living in Spain. I've got my savings in my EU bank account but cannot put it in a high-yield savings account on Raisin (or similar) due to being US citizen. Where should I put this money in order for it to earn interest? We will...

Hi all. I'm a British expat living in Vietnam - have been here for several years and am a tax resident here. I've recently become a lot more interested in personal finance and want to invest in a global equity ETF, as well as park some money into a high-yield savings account to take advantage of...

My wife (Philippine-born US citizen) is taking her mother (Philippine citizen in US on a Green Card) back to the Philippines for care in a nursing home. Mother has dementia, that is getting worse, and needs care that we can no longer provide. She has a pension from her husband's US Navy...

Hi all I am reaching out to a CPA also, but wanted to see if anyone here has done consulting with a US-based consulting company while living in another country (Canada, in this case)? Background: my husband has just accepted a job which will move us to British Columbia in the next few months...

Looking for some advice here as I think my situation is a bit more unique than most people who just live abroad. I'm in my early 40s, and have 3 citizenships: US, UK, Australia. Have been outside of the US for about 15 years, married and live currently in Australia. I've always filed tax in...

Hi there! I live in the USA but am currently overseas working on a 5-month contract with a company in India. I receive my income to an Indian bank account. ....what the hell do I do with it? More information-- I have bills to pay in the US while I'm over here that I'd ideally like to pay them...

Been a customer of OFX for over 5 years and never had issues. But last 3-4 months started noticing abnormal behavior - delayed transfers, constant request for KYC and recently it got very bad that i now have over $10k stuck in their system and i lost hope of ever seeing it again. Went to...

Hello. We are a US couple, early 50s, and we moved to MX early this year for many reasons, one of the biggest being financial (we are on a tight budget, lean FIRE). We make about $500 usd a month (now, after I left my job) from side hustles and the rest of living expenses are covered from DIV...

I need to send 10k USD to my parents since they need to take care of some hospital bills. I've done this wire transfer in the past using Schwab, but I don't know if there's a better way? In any case, they're asking me if I want to send using USD or local currency... What should I pick? I...

I just moved to Australia for a Working Holiday (woo!) but now that I am settling into things, I've found the international account I was planning on using for this year is not helpful. I set up a Wise account before I left. Was planning to transfer money from my checking (PNC) or savings...

I am an American that would like to continue working my remote US-based job while living in China. Does anyone have any experience or information about this? I have been considering the start of a company so that I can do my job as a consultant and also qualify for a Work visa. Thanks.

I wonder the following: can a French plan épargne logement (PEL) be used to purchase a property located outside France? https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F16140 does not indicate any condition on the location of the property, but thelocal.fr mentions: so I am confused on...

HELLO I would like to start investing my savings in a broker like Trading212 or Interactive Brokers, but I would like to know a bit more before I decide. Is there any podcast or youtube channel that explains "finance for dummies"? Something that is not "smoke and mirrors" and that really...