The short answer

To build an international financial plan, first write down your goals and when each one happens. Then draw up a balance sheet of everything you own and owe, in which country, in which currency and in what kind of account. Match currencies to where you'll spend the money. Build a cashflow plan and stress-test it at a weaker pound. Put safety first — emergency money and health cover. Split the rest into three pots: cash for the next year or two, an income pot for the following few years, and a growth pot for the long term. Decide the order you'll draw income from pensions and savings, check the tax in both countries, sort your wills and records, write it all on a page or two, and review it every year.

What an international financial plan actually is

A financial plan is easiest to understand by saying what it isn't. It isn't a budget, although it contains one. It isn't an investment portfolio, although it decides what the portfolio is for. And it isn't a thick report full of projections that nobody reads again. A useful plan is short enough to fit on two pages and clear enough that someone you trust could pick it up and understand your finances if you couldn't.

At its heart, a plan answers five questions:

• What do I want my money to do — and by when?
• What do I have, where is it, and in which currency?
• Is it enough — including in a bad year for the pound?
• What could knock it off course, and how am I protected?
• What happens to it when I'm gone?

An international plan answers the same questions, but every answer has an extra dimension. "What do I have?" becomes "what do I have, in which country, in which currency, and which tax system can see it?" "Is it enough?" becomes "is it enough at today's exchange rate — and at a much worse one?" That extra dimension is the whole reason expats need a plan of their own rather than a UK plan with a Thai address on it.

The good news is that the process is the same whatever your circumstances. A 45-year-old working remotely from Bangkok, a couple retiring to Hua Hin and a widower moving near his Thai family all follow the same eleven steps. Only the numbers change.

The eleven steps at a glance

Work through these in order. Each step uses what you worked out in the one before, so skipping ahead usually means coming back later.

Our step-by-step framework. Allow a few evenings for a first draft.

Step 1: Write down your goals — with dates and currencies

Every plan starts with what you want, not with what you have. It sounds obvious, but most people skip it and go straight to "how should I invest?" — which is impossible to answer without knowing what the investment is for.

Write down every goal you can think of, big and small. Then give each one three labels: when it happens, roughly how much it costs, and which currency it will be paid in. That third label is the one UK plans never need, and it turns out to drive many of the most important decisions later.

Short-term goals (within two years)

These are things like the visa deposit, setting up a home in Thailand, a car or scooter, furniture, a trip back to the UK for a family wedding. Money for these shouldn't be invested in anything that can fall in value, because there isn't time to recover from a fall.

Medium-term goals (two to ten years)

A condo purchase, children's school or university fees, replacing a car, a big birthday trip, helping a child onto the property ladder. School and university fees deserve special attention: started early enough, an education plan invested for growth can pay around 40% of the cost — see education fee planning with Lawrence. This money can take some risk, but not too much, and the currency question becomes important: a condo bought in baht in five years' time is a baht goal, whatever currency the savings are in today.

Long-term goals (more than ten years)

A lifetime retirement income, care costs in later life, leaving money to children or a partner. These are the goals that need growth, because inflation has longest to eat away at them. They're also the goals where the frozen State Pension matters most.

Be honest about which goals really matter. A plan that funds everything at a stretch is fragile. A plan that clearly funds the essentials and treats the rest as "if things go well" is far more robust.

A goals template you can copy

Here are typical goals for a British couple planning to retire to Thailand, labelled the way your own list should be. Figures are illustrations at ฿44.38 = £1.

Illustration only. Your own goals, dates and costs will differ.

Step 2: Draw up a cross-border balance sheet

Next, write down everything you own and everything you owe. Businesses do this every year and call it a balance sheet; very few households do, which is why many people genuinely don't know what they're worth or where it all is.

For each item, record six things:

1. What it is — current account, savings, ISA, pension, property, shares, a loan to family.
2. Where it is — which country, and which bank, platform or provider.
3. Its value today — and the currency it's held in.
4. Whose name it's in — yours, joint, a partner's, a company's.
5. What kind of wrapper it's in — pension, ISA, ordinary account, Thai fixed deposit.
6. How quickly you could reach it — same day, a week, only after age 57, only if you sell.

Then list what you owe: a mortgage, a car loan, credit cards, money promised to someone. Subtract one from the other and you have your net worth — but the number itself matters less than the shape. You may discover that most of your wealth is locked in a pension you can't touch for years, or tied up in a UK house, or sitting in one currency you'll hardly spend.

Two columns are especially valuable for anyone moving to Thailand. The wrapper column tells you which money has special tax treatment in the UK — and whether that treatment survives your move. The date-of-origin question tells you whether savings were built up before 2024, which matters for Thai tax on money you bring in. If you can, keep a note of which accounts hold only pre-2024 money, and don't mix new income into them.

Step 3: Map your currencies to your spending

This is the step that makes an international plan different from a domestic one. The principle is simple: money should, as far as possible, be held in the currency you'll spend it in. Professionals call this matching, and it's how pension funds, insurers and multinational companies manage currency risk.

If your future spending is 80% in baht and 20% in pounds, then a plan with every asset in pounds is taking a large currency bet, whether you meant to or not. When the pound is strong, that bet pays off. When the pound falls, your Thai life gets more expensive overnight. Over the twelve months to October 2026, month-end GBP/THB rates moved between roughly ฿42.22 and ฿44.82 — a swing of more than 6% in a fairly calm year.

How to do the mapping

Go back to your goals list. Add up the costs in baht and the costs in pounds over the next few years. That ratio is your spending split. Now look at your balance sheet and add up assets by currency. That's your holding split. The gap between the two is your currency exposure.

You don't need to close the gap completely, and you certainly don't need to convert everything at once. A sensible approach is to match near-term spending closely — the next year or two of baht costs held in baht — and to accept more mismatch on long-term money, which has time to ride out swings and may be better invested internationally anyway.

Interest rates point the other way

There's a complication. In September 2026, the Bank of England's rate was 3.75%, while the Bank of Thailand's was 1.00%. Cash usually earns more in pounds than in baht. So there's a real cost to converting too much, too early: you give up interest. That's why the best plans convert in stages — enough baht for the next year or so, with the rest moved as it's needed — and use a forward contract to fix the rate for a big, known baht cost such as a condo or school fees.

Step 4: Build a cashflow plan — and stress-test it

Your cashflow plan is a year-by-year table of money in and money out. For most people a simple spreadsheet does the job, with one row for each year from now to about age 95, and columns for each source of income and each type of spending.

Start with spending, in baht, for a typical year in Thailand: housing, food, transport, utilities, health insurance, travel and help for family. Our Thailand cost of living calculator is a good starting point. Add the one-off goals from Step 1 in the year they happen. Then list income, in pounds: pensions as they start, rental income, part-time work, interest. Convert the income at today's rate and see whether, year by year, it covers the spending. Where it doesn't, the gap has to come from savings and investments — and the plan needs to show those savings lasting long enough.

The four stress tests

A plan that only works when everything goes right isn't a plan; it's a hope. Run your numbers again under four tougher assumptions. If the plan still holds — perhaps with some belt-tightening — you can be confident in it.

Four stress tests every expat plan should pass

Run your cashflow under each of these. The aim isn't to predict the future, but to make sure a bad year bends your plan rather than breaks it.

If a test fails, the fixes are usually a larger cash buffer, a slightly lower budget or a later start to some spending.

Step 5: Put safety first — emergency money and protection

Before any money is invested for growth, the plan needs to be able to survive a shock. That means two things: cash you can reach quickly, and insurance for the risks you can't afford to carry yourself.

Emergency money in both countries

Keep three to six months of Thai spending in an instant-access Thai account, and a smaller sum in pounds in the UK for flights home and UK emergencies. If you hold the ฿800,000 retirement deposit, treat it as separate from your emergency money — it's there for your visa, and dipping below the required level can cost you your extension. The alternatives are ฿65,000 a month of income, or a combination of income and deposit; whichever route you use, build it into the plan as a fixed commitment, not spare cash.

Health cover — the biggest single risk

For most expats, the largest financial risk isn't a stock market crash. It's a serious illness or accident without adequate health insurance. Private treatment in Thailand is excellent, but a major operation can run to hundreds of thousands of baht. Premiums rise with age and many insurers have upper age limits for new customers, so the earlier you buy, the better the terms. Your stress test for higher health costs belongs here.

Life cover and incapacity

If someone relies on your income — a partner, children, parents — consider life cover so they're not left short. And plan for incapacity: a lasting power of attorney in the UK, and the right arrangements in Thailand, so someone can manage your money if you can't.

We arrange health, life and other insurance quotes for expats. Ask our team for an insurance quote.

Tools for building your plan

Three practical tools: someone to build or check the plan with you, a way to fix the rate on the big baht costs in it, and a cheap route for monthly living money.

Step 6: Split the rest into three pots

Once your emergency money and protection are in place, everything else can be organised by when you'll need it. The simplest and most robust way to do that is with three pots. Planners sometimes call this a "bucket" approach. It works because it separates money that must be safe from money that can afford to rise and fall.

Pot 1: Cash — the next one to two years

Enough to cover the gap between your income and your spending for the next year or two, plus any short-term goals. Held in cash or near-cash, split between baht and pounds according to your currency map. This pot means you never have to sell investments in a falling market to pay the rent.

Pot 2: Income — years three to about seven

Money you'll need in the medium term, invested cautiously: high-quality bonds, a mix of cash and lower-risk funds. Its job is to refill the cash pot each year, steadily, without big swings.

Pot 3: Growth — eight years and beyond

Long-term money invested mainly in a diversified spread of shares around the world. It will rise and fall, sometimes sharply, but over long periods it's the pot most likely to beat inflation — which matters a great deal when your State Pension is frozen. Every year or two, you take some of its gains to top up the income pot.

The three pots side by side

How the three pots differ. The years are a guide — your own split depends on your income, goals and how comfortable you are with ups and downs.

The emergency fund and any visa deposit sit outside the three pots and aren't used for everyday spending.

Step 7: Decide how each pot is invested

With the pots defined, choosing investments becomes much easier, because each pot has a clear job and a clear timescale. The principles are the same as for anyone, anywhere: diversify widely, keep total costs low, match risk to timescale, and don't buy what you don't understand. The practical details are where living abroad changes things.

Where you can hold investments

Many UK platforms won't accept new money, or new customers, from people living abroad. ISAs can't be added to once you're non-UK resident, though existing ISAs can usually be kept. International platforms aimed at expats exist, but their charges and quality vary widely. Part of building the plan is deciding where each pot will live — and checking that the platform will still serve you as a Thai resident.

Costs compound just like returns

The difference between a portfolio costing 0.5% a year and one costing 2.5% a year looks small. Over twenty years it can take a third or more of your growth. Write down the total yearly cost of each pot — fund, platform and any adviser charges — as a single percentage, and ask for it in pounds too.

Watch for products sold to expats

Expats are a favourite market for long-term savings plans with high, hidden commissions and heavy penalties for leaving early, and for unregulated schemes promising fixed high returns. A plan built on these steps protects you, because every product has to earn its place in a pot with a clear job. If someone can't explain which pot a product belongs in, what it costs and how you get out, it doesn't belong in your plan.

• Total cost — every charge, as a yearly percentage and in pounds.
• Exit terms — how to get out, how long it takes and what it costs.
• Custody — who holds your money and in whose name.
• Currency — what it's priced in, and whether that matches your pot.

Step 8: Decide the order you draw your income

Most retirees have several sources of money: a State Pension that starts at a fixed age, one or more private pensions, savings, perhaps an ISA and rental income. The order in which you draw on them can make a large difference to how much tax you pay and how long the money lasts. For an expat, Thai tax adds another layer to the decision.

Guaranteed income first

Start by counting the income that arrives whatever happens: the State Pension once it starts, any defined benefit (final salary) pension, rental income. Remember the State Pension is frozen while you live in Thailand — it won't rise each year — so its value falls in real terms over time. It can be paid to a Thai or UK account every four or thirteen weeks; if paid in baht, GOV.UK applies a 0.39% conversion charge.

Then fill the gap

The gap between guaranteed income and spending is what your pensions and savings have to cover. Common questions to work through include:

• When to take any tax-free lump sum — up to 25% of a defined contribution pension, within the £268,275 allowance — and whether to take it before you become Thai tax resident.
• Whether to use pre-2024 savings first, because money built up before 2024 is treated differently when you bring it into Thailand.
• How much to draw from pensions each year to use your tax allowances well without drawing more than you need.
• Whether to leave pensions untouched for longer — bearing in mind that from 6 April 2027 most unused pensions will count towards your estate for UK inheritance tax.

There's no single right order. It depends on your pensions, your tax position in both countries, your health, your family and what you want to leave. But it's one of the most valuable calculations in the whole plan, and one of the main things a review will look at.

Step 9: Check the tax in both countries

Go through your income sources one by one and ask two questions of each: does the UK tax this? and does Thailand tax this? The double tax agreement between the two countries is there to stop the same income being taxed in full twice, but it only works if you know which rules apply and claim relief where it's due.

Thai residence. You're Thai tax resident if you spend 180 days or more in Thailand in a calendar year. Since 2024, foreign income earned from 2024 onwards that you bring into Thailand can be taxable. Savings built up before 2024 are treated differently — but you need to be able to show which money is which.

UK income. Rent from a UK property is usually still taxed in the UK. Government service pensions — for former civil servants, teachers, NHS staff, police and armed forces — are generally taxed only in the UK unless you're a Thai national and resident. Other income depends on the type and the treaty. Tell HMRC when you leave, and check whether you need to keep filing a UK return.

Keep records. The single most useful habit is a simple log of every transfer to Thailand: the date, the amount and what the money was — pension income, pre-2024 savings, sale proceeds, rent. It takes minutes a month and can save a great deal of trouble later. Our guide to receiving overseas income in Thailand explains the rules in more detail.

Step 10: Plan your estate in both countries

The last part of the plan deals with what happens when you die — not a cheerful subject, but one where a little work now saves your family a great deal of cost, delay and worry.

Wills that work together

If you have assets in both countries, consider a UK will for UK assets and a Thai will for Thai assets — a condo, a Thai bank account. They need to be drafted so that one doesn't accidentally cancel the other. Without a Thai will, dealing with Thai assets can take months and require a Thai court process.

Beneficiary nominations

Pensions and some insurance policies don't pass under your will at all; they follow the nomination you've given the provider. Check every nomination still says what you want, especially after a divorce, a new relationship or a death in the family.

Inheritance tax

Since 6 April 2025, UK inheritance tax depends on residence. If you were UK resident for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years, your worldwide estate stays within UK inheritance tax for between three and ten years after you leave. From 6 April 2027, most unused pensions will count too. Thailand's own inheritance tax only applies above ฿100 million per recipient, so most British expats won't pay it — but larger estates should check. Our guide to financial planning for expatriates in Thailand shows how long the UK tail lasts.

The "where is everything" file

Write a short list of every account, policy and property, with provider, account number and how to contact them, and tell someone you trust where it is. It's the most practical gift you can leave a family dealing with two countries' paperwork.

Step 11: Write it down — the two-page plan

All of this needs to end up on paper, or it fades. A plan doesn't need to be long. Two pages is plenty, and shorter is better if it covers the essentials. Here's what to include:

1. Your goals — the dated list from Step 1, with currencies.
2. Your balance sheet — a summary by currency, country and wrapper.
3. Your budget — in baht, with the pound cost at today's rate and at a 10% weaker rate.
4. Your safety net — emergency money, visa deposit and the insurance you hold.
5. Your three pots — how much is in each, where, and how it's invested.
6. Your income order — which money you'll draw, in what order, for the next few years.
7. Your tax notes — your residence, what's taxed where, and your transfer log.
8. Your estate — where your wills are, your nominations and the "where is everything" file.

Add a date at the top and the date of your next review. Keep a copy somewhere safe and somewhere digital, and tell the person you trust where to find it.

A worked example: building Paul's plan

Paul is 60, divorced, with two grown-up children in the UK. He's planning to retire to Chiang Mai next year. Here's how he works through the eleven steps. All figures are illustrations at ฿44.38 = £1.

Step 1 — Goals. A comfortable life on ฿60,000 a month (about £1,352). The retirement visa deposit of ฿800,000 (about £18,000). Two trips home a year at about £2,500 in total. Perhaps a small condo in five years. Something left for his children.

Step 2 — Balance sheet. A defined contribution pension worth £180,000. A one-bedroom flat in Leeds, mortgage-free, let out for £850 a month, about £650 after costs. £60,000 of cash savings, all built up before 2024, in one UK account. A £40,000 stocks and shares ISA. His State Pension will start at 67. No debts.

Step 3 — Currency map. About 85% of his future spending will be in baht. Today, 100% of his wealth is in pounds. He decides to move his first two years of baht spending, plus the visa deposit, over the first year, in stages — and to keep his long-term money invested internationally.

Step 4 — Cashflow. His spending is about £16,224 a year at today's rate. His rent covers £7,800 of it, leaving a gap of about £8,424 a year until his State Pension starts. At a pound 10% weaker, the gap grows to about £10,227 — the stress test shows he needs a bigger baht buffer rather than a smaller budget. At 67, his State Pension will cover most of the gap, but it will be frozen, so the gap will slowly widen again over time.

Step 5 — Safety first. ฿240,000 (about four months of spending) in a Thai instant-access account, separate from the ฿800,000 visa deposit, and £5,000 in his UK account for flights. International health cover bought before he moves, while he's healthy.

Step 6 — Three pots. His cash pot covers two years of the gap — about £20,000 including a buffer — partly in baht. His income pot holds about £45,000 in cautious investments. His growth pot is the rest of his pension and the ISA.

Step 7 — Investments. He checks his ISA provider will let him keep the account as a non-resident, and that his pension provider will pay to an overseas account. Total yearly costs across the portfolio come to well under 1%.

Step 8 — Income order. He plans to use part of his pre-2024 savings first, keeping them in their own account. He'll take a planned tax-free amount from his pension and draw a modest income each year until 67, then reduce his withdrawals once his State Pension starts.

Step 9 — Tax. His rent stays taxable in the UK. He'll be Thai tax resident from his first full year. He keeps a simple log of every transfer to Thailand and what it was made of.

Step 10 — Estate. A new UK will, a Thai will for his Thai bank account (and later the condo), updated pension nominations to his children, and a "where is everything" file with his daughter. He notes that UK inheritance tax will follow him for several years after leaving.

Step 11 — Write and review. Two pages, dated, with a review set for the month of his first visa extension.

Nothing in Paul's plan is complicated. But because it's deliberate and written down, a bad year for the pound, a market fall or a health scare changes the numbers without derailing his retirement.

A review calendar for your plan

A plan is only useful if it stays current. This simple calendar keeps it up to date without becoming a chore.

Many people tie their yearly review to their visa extension, so it never gets forgotten.

Mistakes to avoid when building your plan

1. Starting with products instead of goals — buying investments before knowing what they're for.
2. Building the budget at one exchange rate, usually a good one, and never testing a worse one.
3. Converting everything at once — or never converting anything — instead of matching in stages.
4. Treating the visa deposit as spare cash and falling below the required level.
5. Forgetting the State Pension is frozen, so the plan quietly falls behind Thai prices.
6. Mixing pre-2024 savings with new income, making the Thai tax position harder to show.
7. Ignoring costs — a 2% difference a year compounds into a very large sum.
8. Never writing it down, so the plan lives only in your head — and leaves with you.

Do it yourself, or build it with someone?

Plenty of people build a perfectly good plan on their own using exactly the steps in this guide. If your affairs are simple — a pension, some savings, no property left in the UK, no complicated family situation — a few evenings with a spreadsheet may be all you need.

Help is worth considering when the cross-border parts get complicated: several pensions, a UK property you're keeping, a large lump sum to move, a Thai partner and children from an earlier marriage, or an estate that may face UK inheritance tax. Those are the situations where the order of decisions, and their tax effect in two countries, can make a real difference.

If you do look for help, ask how the person is paid and what everything will cost each year, in pounds; whether they understand both UK and Thai rules; where your money will be held; and whether you can see it all in writing first. Be wary of anyone who approaches you out of the blue, promises guaranteed returns or pushes you to decide quickly. Lawrence's free review is designed to be the opposite: unhurried, clear and with no obligation.

Keeping your plan and accounts secure

An international plan means logging in to banks, pension providers and platforms in two countries, often from a phone on condo or café Wi-Fi. Your two-page plan and "where is everything" file are valuable to fraudsters too. A few habits keep it all safe:

• Use a password manager and a different strong password for every account.
• Turn on two-factor sign-in wherever it's offered.
• Use a private, protected connection on hotel, café and condo Wi-Fi.
• Store your plan securely — encrypted, and only shared with people you trust.

How we researched this guide

We used GOV.UK's guidance on the State Pension abroad; Thai Visa Services' guide to retirement extension financial requirements (updated 27 September 2026); our own guide to receiving overseas income in Thailand, which draws on Forvis Mazars and ThaiLawOnline; HaysMac's summary of the UK's residence-based inheritance tax from April 2025; AJ Bell's summary of pensions and inheritance tax from April 2027; Forvis Mazars on Thailand's Inheritance Tax Act; the Bank of England's September 2026 and the Bank of Thailand's August 2026 rate decisions; and OFX month-end GBP/THB rates. Worked examples use ฿44.38 = £1 (Wise, 12 October 2026) and are illustrations. Checked 13 October 2026. This guide is general information, not personal financial, tax or legal advice — rules change and individual circumstances differ.