The 90-Day Financial Checklist for Moving Abroad

Ninety days is the sweet spot: close enough that the move is real, far enough that every option is still open. Here is the money side of those ninety days — the free, condensed version of the system we build for clients.

Days 90–61: The moves only possible from inside the US

• Open your expat-friendly accounts NOW. A bank and brokerage that welcome foreign addresses (which ones, and brokerages). Opening later, from abroad, ranges from painful to impossible.
• Roll old 401(k)s into an IRA at that brokerage while your address is still American (why and how).
• Get your brokerage’s expat policy in writing for your destination country before touching your address.
• Set up a US VoIP number that receives texts, and migrate two-factor authentication to it (or authenticator apps) account by account.
• Decide your address strategy deliberately — family, mailbox service, or clean foreign address (the options compared).
• Check your life insurance and convert any employer group cover while the window is open (the checklist).

Days 60–31: Structure and paperwork

• Build the currency plan: a transfer-service account plus a multi-currency account with a euro IBAN (cutting transfer costs, the strategy).
• Arrange visa-compliant health insurance timed to start on arrival — and bridge cover for the moving weeks (health cover abroad).
• Subscription and account audit: inventory every recurring charge; kill the zombies; flag US services that won’t work abroad.
• Freeze your credit at all three bureaus and set up monitoring (credit protection).
• Update beneficiaries everywhere — retirement accounts, insurance, bank TOD designations. Ten minutes now versus a legal mess later (estate basics).
• Plan the state exit if leaving a sticky state: what ties to cut and document. (Your tax position itself: our sister brand eTaxNexus.)

Days 30–8: The switchover

• Automate everything US: all bills on autopay from your hub account (the hub system).
• Go paperless everywhere; download a full set of statements and tax documents while access is easy.
• Notify on your schedule: banks and brokerage last (after confirming policies), Social Security if drawing, insurers as policies change over.
• Pre-position cash: first months’ euros converted and sitting in your euro account — arrival week is a terrible time to negotiate exchange rates.
• Assemble the document pack: IDs, account list, policies, contacts — digital and paper copies (the full organisation system).

Week 1 and beyond, abroad

• Open the local bank account (appointment booked in advance — how).
• Confirm every autopay fired correctly the first month; chase anything that didn’t.
• Calendar your new reality: FBAR threshold tracking, insurance renewals, the annual review.

Want this as a complete tracked system — every task, dated to your move, with the trackers and registers built in? That’s the International Move Financial Planner. Prefer it done with you? The Roadmap service, or start free: a 20-minute Money Check.

This article is general information, not financial advice. Sequence and requirements vary by destination — verify specifics for your country.