Moving country soon - to invest or to wait?

[gcam032]

Hi Everyone,

So I'm reasonably new to MMM and have already started to implement changes.  First thing was to take a chunk of money that was sitting in a terrible savings account (0.5% interest - UK!) and pay my student loan in full (6% interest).  Feels great!

Now I am entirely debt free.  I want to start seriously getting my money working for me.  In the UK we have ISA's which are essentially tax-free savings schemes.  You can have a cash ISA (I have - 0.5% interest) or a Stocks and Shares ISA (I want).  You can mix and combine them up to a yearly limit.  On the stocks and shares ISA you can buy funds, so I was going to start putting some money into index funds.

Here's my dilemma.  I currently live in the UK but will be likely moving home to New Zealand within the next 12 months.  I'm thinking of buying funds anyway in pounds (GBP) now and when I leave, just leave that money to grow over time.  I won't be able to add money to the ISA from abroad as it's only possible for UK residents.

Anyone got any recommendations on what I see as my two options?
 - option 1 - put money in each month while still in the UK and hold it until a time I need it, allowing it to grow.
 - option 2 - wait until I move country and start investing then.

The GBP:NZD will always be favourable, plus my earning power in the UK is much higher so my savings value will be higher on a monthly level.

Any thoughts would be really appreciated!

Cheers,
G

[the_grillman]

The first question I would consider is where are you going to be living/working short and long term? If you are planning on returning to the UK for an substantial periods of time then that would favour leaving investments in the UK.

Second, having them in a Tax free accout is great, but upon moving back to NZ might be problematic. I have no clue about UK or NZ tax law but as an expat myself, I will warn you to try and look up what NZ rules are for such accounts as they might not be tax free in the NZ gov eyes, or might require filing rediculous amounts of paperwork every year.