In the current political climate it’s not surprising that we get so many questions around moving money offshore. This week’s episode was going to be about moving pensions abroad, but offshore exposure in general ended up dominating the conversation.

First, we talk about taking your pension fund with you when you emigrate. The good news is that it can be done if you’re not already taking a pension. The bad news is there’s no way to avoid paying tax. Next, we talk about tax on foreign dividends and finally we get to how much offshore exposure you need in your portfolio.

We land, if you’re too impatient to listen, on having much more offshore exposure than local exposure. Think 80-20. The question for a returns junkie like me remains how to work out how much of my offshore exposure should go towards developed markets and how much to emerging economies. I like the idea that there’s a lot of room for upside in emerging economies. It would be naive to assume those economies can only go up, however. The higher returns come at the expense of stability. How do I know how much risk to take?

We also explain how an ETF can be a feeder fund and talk about unitising your portfolio. The spreadsheet we mention can be found here. Information around unitisation is here.

Remember that we’ll be at the Money Expo this Saturday, 29 July. Between 9:00 and 10:00, Simon and I will discuss how your paycheque should be structured. It’ll be a Fat Wallet-style conversation, with the added bonus that you can ask questions. We look forward to meeting everyone!

Kris