I am considering PERMANENTLY leaving the USA and moving overseas when I retire. Please tell me how you deal with these basic itmes ... a) mail - how do you continue to safely get US mail overseas b) money - if you keep your money in US mutual funds, how do you access them? ... get Social Security checks .... pay taxes ... overseas? c) medical - how do you pay for medical? Use US medicade (or similar) d) US citizenship - do you have to travel back to the US each year to maintain it? e) anything else?
It's all very easy these days, assuming you're in a developed country anyway.
a) Mail forwarding service. I use a reputable company out of Florida (my last U.S. home state) and they provide me with a physical Florida mailing address as well. This is helpful if I ever want to order something from the States, I can have it sent to my mail forwarding company and they can then ship it to me.
b) Money these days is easy. I moved most all my assets overseas with me, but maintain a stash in a money market account in a large US bank. I can wire that money to my local European bank if I ever need to.
Taxes are just a little bit bigger pain than normal, but not too bad. Just set aside one full day and knock it out. This year I did my US taxes like usual, on paper, and mailed them from Europe via registered mail (with a tracking number). The made it with no problems.
My local taxes are much easier due to the system they have set up here and only takes about 15 minutes to complete. It's all done online and most of the required information is already provided by the banks, employers, investment companies, etc. You just review to ensure accuracy and add anything not automatically entered and click Send.
c) As I obtained citizenship in my new country my medical is covered at home and while traveling throughout the EU. Many countries will let you buy into their national health insurance though so that's a possible route. Or depending where you live, treatment for most things may be reasonable and you can pay cash as you go.
You need to be very careful here though cause if you drop your US insurance you may have a hard time ever getting it again if you change your mind and move back to the US after some time. But if you truly plan to move overseas permanently, then who cares.
d) You won't lose it. It's even hard to get rid of it when you want to.
e) Get a Skype account and buy a US phone number through them so your family and friends don't have to pay international rates to call you.
I also recommend you speak the language of your new adopted country at least at a conversational level before you go or you'll be resigned to hanging out with other expats and/or feeling alienated from your local community. This is a common complaint amongst expats and a major reason people fail to adapt and return to the States.
