Organizing Your Finances
The process of moving out of the country requires a lot of steps, and making sure that your finances are in order is a big part of the pre-travel planning. This is a list of all the "to-do" items we had on the financial planning tab of our spreadsheet.
- Decide which credit cards are best for travel - i.e. no international transaction fees and offer rewards miles (we have two - one for daily use and one for back up).
- Contact your back to let them know when and where you're traveling.
- Cancel any credit cards you won't be using.
- Set up online bill pay for any recurring bills.
- Cancel all services you're not using (I kept Spotify, but canceled Hulu and Netflix).
- Give power of attorney to some one (my dad in our case) for writing checks, making financial decision if needed.
- Write out our 5 Wishes (just in case - it's good to have this in place).
- Consolidate all bank accounts into two shared accounts; checking and savings.
- Set up a mail forwarding address (my parents).
- Put all valuables in a safe deposit box.