Retiring abroad from 'Merica- managing/obtaining your retirement monies

[Stash Engineer]

I feel like I'm not seeing the elephant in the room here, so let me as a silly question:  When you retire in a foreign country (say Mexico), how to do obtain your retirement funds?  I guess you just get them transferred into your foreign bank account at whatever the current exchange rate is?  Do you have to maintain an address in the US to hold your Vanguard accounts? 

[MacGyverIt]

I feel like I'm not seeing the elephant in the room here, so let me as a silly question:  When you retire in a foreign country (say Mexico), how to do obtain your retirement funds?  I guess you just get them transferred into your foreign bank account at whatever the current exchange rate is?

I'd check on which banks are available in the locality you're considering, the see what mega banks from the states work in partnership with them. Western Union is available in many 1st, 2nd and 3rd world countries and perhaps could function as an intermediary.

Do you have to maintain an address in the US to hold your Vanguard accounts?

Probably want to check this with Vanguard first. Cannot imagine you'd be their very first expat client.

[SunshineAZ]

This is something I eventually need to address, as well, since our retirement house is in Roatan, Honduras.  I can say that most of the people I deal with there have a US bank account (usually in Florida) and a local account and they appear to transfer funds on an as needed basis.  I would look for an ex-pat forum for the country you are interested in and ask there. 

[LadyStache in Baja]

You can use your US account debit card at any atm.  schwab waves atm fees!  next time im in the states im going to open a schwab account.

[Stash Engineer]

I don't know why, but I assumed that you have to have a US address to have a US bank account.  Silly, I know.

[LadyStache in Baja]

To be honest, my situation is all kinda duct-taped together.  I still use my mom's address as my mailing address when I need a US address.  But if you want to get all correct, I'm sure you could ask your bank for help.  We're not the only expats in the world, right!  Let me know what you find out, because I would like to get my stuff a little more in order! ;)

[ZiziPB]

There's quite a lot of discussion on Bogleheads forums on related topics.  Here's one but do some searches and you will see that most US banks refuse to deal with US citizens living abroad because of regulatory issues.

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=165807&p=2492307&hilit=abroad+us+bank+account#p2492307