Moving Overseas? Get Your Money Sorted Before You Go

Packing up your life and moving to another country is one of the great adventures. New job, new streets, new everything. It’s exhilarating, and it should be. But here’s the raw truth that nobody ever seems to put on their Instagram posts: the people who actually enjoy the adventure are usually the ones who got their money sorted before they boarded the plane, not the ones frantically googling “how to transfer money internationally” from a hotel room while the removalists wait for payment.

So let’s do the boring-but-essential bit properly. Here’s how to set your finances up so the move is the start of a great chapter, not a slow-motion money headache. Think of it as the financial equivalent of checking you’ve packed your passport: dull, and absolutely non-negotiable.

1. First, can you actually afford the move itself?

People budget for the airfares and then get blindsided by everything else. Moving overseas has a long tail of costs that add up faster than you’d believe: shipping your belongings (and bracing yourself when the quote arrives), flying the family, relocating pets (which can run into eye-watering sums once you factor in quarantine and specialist transport), travel and health insurance, and temporary accommodation while you find somewhere to live.

Then, once you land, you’re effectively furnishing a life from scratch: a fridge, a bed, a car, a kettle, and the hundred small things that quietly cost a fortune when you buy them all at once. The cost of living can also be wildly different from what you’re used to, and not always in the direction you’d hope.

Here’s the Barefoot bit: build yourself a proper buffer before you go, and keep it separate from your moving budget. Call it your “get me home” fund if you like. Because the one scenario you never want is running out of money in an unfamiliar country, far from your old support network, needing to get back to Australia in a hurry and not having the means to do it. A cash cushion isn’t being timid. It’s what lets you take the leap without it becoming a freefall.

2. Getting set up once you land

Everything you do on autopilot with money in Australia has to be rebuilt in your new home, and some of it is fiddlier than you’d expect.

You’ll need a local bank account, which often can’t be opened until you have a local address and sometimes a local tax number, a classic chicken-and-egg problem in those first weeks. Keep an Australian bank account open too; you’ll still need it for any Australian income, bills or obligations, and closing it can be a headache to reverse from afar. A practical, hard-won tip: sort out your myGov and Australian digital ID logins, and update your contact details, before you cancel your Australian mobile number, or you’ll find yourself locked out waiting for a security code to land on a SIM that no longer exists.

And brace yourself for the credit-history reset. In many countries your spotless Australian credit record counts for precisely nothing, and you start again as an unknown. That can make something as basic as getting a phone plan, renting a flat or being approved for a local credit card surprisingly hard at first. Start building local credit early and don’t take it personally; the system just doesn’t know you yet.

3. Understand how different the money world is

You’ve spent your whole life thinking in Australian dollars, and that instinct can quietly cost you. Exchange rates move, and the difference between a good rate and a bad one on a large transfer (say, moving your savings over, or sending money home) can be hundreds or thousands of dollars. The banks are usually the worst offenders here, hitting you twice with a clunky exchange rate and a fat fee. Dedicated transfer services generally do far better, so compare a couple before any big movement rather than just clicking through your bank.

Interest and inflation rates differ from country to country too, which changes what your money does just sitting there. And the rules around borrowing can be genuinely riskier abroad: what happens if you default on a credit card or a loan, and how aggressively that’s pursued, varies enormously. Read the fine print on anything you sign, because “that’s not how it works back home” is not a defence that gets you very far overseas.

One more for the investors: the lovely Australian features you take for granted, like franking credits on shares or the way the family home is treated, often have no equivalent wherever you’re headed, and your investments may be taxed quite differently once you’re a resident somewhere else. Don’t assume the rules travel with you.

4. Plan for the years ahead, not just the first month

This is where people really get caught, because the consequences are invisible until years later.

Take retirement. In Australia, super is compulsory (employers must now pay 12% of your wages into it) and there’s an Age Pension safety net behind it. That’s not how the world works everywhere. In plenty of countries, retirement saving is largely on you, with no compulsory employer contributions and no comparable state pension, so if you don’t deliberately save, nobody’s doing it for you. Meanwhile your Australian super generally stays put, preserved under Australian rules until you’re allowed to access it, and you usually can’t simply transfer it into a foreign retirement scheme.

Then there’s healthcare. The moment you’re no longer covered by Medicare, you’re relying on your new country’s system, which may be excellent, eye-wateringly expensive, or somewhere in between. Health cover isn’t a “sort it later” item; it’s day-one essential.

If you’ve got kids, factor in schooling, which can mean hefty international or private school fees in some postings. If you’ve built wealth in property, know that foreign markets and their tax systems behave very differently, and the strategies that worked here may not translate. And don’t forget the genuinely unglamorous stuff like your will and estate planning, which can get complicated fast when you hold assets across two countries.

The tax thread running through all of it

Here’s the bit that ties everything together, and the bit we actually live and breathe. Your Australian tax residency status is the single decision that shapes a huge amount of the above: what Australia can tax, what happens to your investments when you leave, how your super is treated, and what you need to keep lodging while you’re away. Get it right and the rest of your financial planning has a solid foundation; get it wrong and you can be hit with surprises years down the track.

We’ve set out the tax-specific to-do list in detail in our pre-departure tax checklist for expats, which is the natural companion to this piece. Read this one for the broad money picture, and that one for the tax nuts and bolts.

The bottom line

Moving overseas is a brilliant thing to do, and the financial side shouldn’t put you off; it should just be done with your eyes open. Build a buffer before you go, plan how you’ll bank, transfer money and rebuild credit in your new home, respect how differently the money world works abroad, and think years ahead about retirement, healthcare and your Australian tax position. Do the boring planning now, and you get to spend your energy on the adventure instead of the admin.

Tread your own path. Just pack a financial plan alongside the passport.

About to move overseas? Let’s nail down the tax side before you fly.

Of everything on the pre-move list, your Australian tax residency and the decisions around it are the easiest to get wrong and the most expensive to fix later. Sorting your investments, your super and your lodgment obligations before you leave can save you a great deal of money and stress down the line.

Our specialist expatriate tax team helps Australians plan the tax side of moving overseas, and we work remotely with clients heading to every corner of the globe.

Book an appointment with our expat tax specialists today, ideally a few months before you go. A bit of planning now saves a world of bother later.

General information only. This article doesn’t consider your personal circumstances and isn’t tax or financial advice. Decisions about money, investments and relocating depend heavily on your situation. Speak to our specialist expatriate tax team today, or with another registered tax agent and a licensed financial adviser, before acting.

References

1. Australian Taxation Office, “Work out your tax residency” (how residency status determines your Australian tax obligations when moving overseas): ato.gov.au
2. Australian Taxation Office, “Super guarantee percentage” (the compulsory employer super contribution rate of 12% from 1 July 2025): ato.gov.au
3. Australian Taxation Office, “Accessing your super” (preservation rules that generally keep your super in Australia until a condition of release is met): ato.gov.au
4. Services Australia, “Medicare” (eligibility for Medicare, which generally does not cover you while living overseas): servicesaustralia.gov.au