American Expat Retiree Financials, 2025

American - USA citizen, with passport and social security number
Expat - living abroad, or planning extended travel abroad
Retiree - no longer has active income
Financials - Banking, Investments, Residence, Taxes, Social Security, Estate Planning, Payments, Credit 2005 - the situation as of 2025

For persons holding less than $1 million.

This book covers only USA-licensed investments, companies and accounts. No foreign investments or income.

This book contains mostly general knowledge and also has some special sections specifically for expats.

• Get on it now, as soon as you stop working. Don’t wait.
• RMD is a scam. Roth Conversion is the magic cure.
• Open three brokerage accounts:
  • taxable
  • tax-deferred IRA
  • tax-free Roth IRA
• Consolidate your assets into these three accounts.
• Maximize Roth Conversions every year, while minimizing taxes, until all of your tax-deferred IRA assets are in your tax-free Roth IRA account.

• If you plan to travel with possible extended stays overseas, get your assets in order before you leave the USA.
• If you reside outside of the USA, even temporarily, there is only one bank that will support you, and it’s not a bank. It’s a credit union:
  • State Department Federal Credit Union (SDFCU).
• If you reside outside of the USA, even temporarily, there is only one independent broker who will support you:
  • Interactive Brokers (IBKR).
• USA-licensed Mutual Funds are not for sale to non-USA residents. Use ETFs instead.
• USA-licensed ETFs are not for sale to residents of most EU countries. Build your own fund instead, starting with the Magnificent Seven stocks: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, and Tesla.