Into the final stretch.
 

Yesterday my wife (American) finally received her UK visa. We always knew she would get it as we met all the criteria required but until confirmation there’s that nagging doubt we may have messed up somehow. As you can imagine, relief & joy all around, now the reality kicks in. We have 90 days to get out of Dodge so to speak & work needs to be done this side of the Atlantic.
We think our departure will be the end of April so we have around 60 plus days to finalize everything here. Any expats who have any tips on things we need to do before we leave I’d love to hear them. Thanks in advance.

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

Greetings.
How exciting
Can you give us an outline of your plan for the move? With details, such as do you have a UK bank account already? Somewhere to stay already lined up?

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

Hi Helen, thanks for replying. I do have a UK bank account already & have transferred money previously from my US bank to purchase a house about 7 years ago. My siblings take turns to house sit the house as its close to the Yorkshire Dales (think “all creatures great & small”), my wife & I will be living there when we get to England. We are in the process of selling furniture or donating it to charities as the cottage is already furnished. It’s all a little overwhelming dealing with stuff but my wife is smart enough for the two of us, I just don’t want to miss anything & have any repercussions down the line.
It is exciting, my wife especially can’t wait to get over there and experience Britain & Europe generally but mainly to set up the cottage the way she would like to & for us both to enjoy a happy & healthy retirement.

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

Do you have vehicles to dispose of? If so, get quotes from Carmax, Carvana, and/or webuyanycar.com in your last seven days, so you can drop it/them off at the last minute for a known price.

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

Thanks for replying Pulaski. No cars to sell thankfully, my wife sold hers a few years ago.

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

If you have a bank account and a house to go to, that’s probably the two main problems sorted.
Maybe get something from your car insurance people so that you can claim your no-claims bonus when you get to the UK?

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

Thanks for the reply Helen. My wife had the car insurance before we were married & my name wasn’t on the policy, should we still claim her no-claims bonus? Would it be valid in England as any policy in England will be under my name.

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

Good luck and be happy 😃.. such an exciting time for you both. I can’t wait to be able to make the move back home from NZ … one day it will happen.. just gotta get my ducks in a row!

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

Thanks alicerose for your kind wishes. We are so looking forward to moving to England, as I wrote before my wife especially so. She has stayed at the cottage before & loved it, she has had my brother measuring various parts of it to see which appliances she can fit in etc.There’s no mortgage on it we just have the usual bills to pay like everyone else, we have savings, we have our health & we have each other. I wish you luck on your plans to return, get those ducks lined up 😄.

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

I don’t suppose the no-claims bonus will work if you’re not putting her on the policy but I would get something from the insurance company anyway, just in case.

Isn’t she planning to drive when she gets there? If not, I would strong encourage her to reconsider. Especially if you’re going to be living somewhere a bit rural that doesn’t have excellent public transport right on the doorstep.

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

If you have a 401k or similar it may well be worth rolling it into an IRA which is a non taxable event. Our son flew out a few days after his last day at work and had already successfully started that process which completed within days of arriving in England. 401k providers are often not good at supporting overseas customers.

Welcome to Yorkshire :)

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

Hello durhamlad, thanks for the welcome to Yorkshire. I don’t know if you remember advising me to speak to someone about transferring a traditional IRA to a Roth to avoid paying taxes. I did go to the broker & he told me that I would have a one time tax penalty if I did transfer funds, if I remember correctly. I didn’t go ahead with a transfer because I wanted to speak to an accountant so that they could advise how much to transfer became the amount taken out may affect the tax bracket I would then be which is what I will be doing soon. I don’t have a 401k so that’s not an issue or any other stocks etc.

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

It’s good that you looked into it. Everyone’s situation is unique to them. As least now you know. In my case I did the transfers and paid the US taxes which were significantly lower than I would be paying once RMDs hit in a few years. I don’t understand the comment about the penalty, there should be no tax penalty for early withdrawal, just regular taxes for an IRA to Roth conversion.

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

durhamlad, I mistakenly wrote “penalty”, as you know there isn’t a penalty for withdrawing after a certain age. Out of curiosity, what are RMD’s? Is this where a person is obligated to make withdrawals at age 72?

Re: Into the final stretch.
 

correct. Required Minimum Distributions sets the % of your IRAs that must be withdrawn. Up until a year or so that age was 70.5 but now is 72. The % to be withdrawn increases each year you get older. I knew that I would be in the 40% HMRC bracket once I was 70 as I would be drawing both OAP and SS on top of my employer pensions. As soon as I retired and my income dropped I began doing IRA to Roth conversions so that after 10 years I was 100% Roth. The taxes I paid on the conversions varied between 14 and 17%. So, in my circumstances I figured it would save me plenty in the long run.