Tell your brokerage you've moved abroad and there's a real chance they close the account within the month. Here's how nomads keep investing without that surprise.

The Non-Resident Account Problem

Once you're a non-resident in your broker's eyes, they can close your account entirely, restrict you to sell-only, freeze new deposits, change how your holdings are taxed, or simply require a level of ongoing paperwork that's nomad-hostile by design. Policy varies by country: UK and US brokers tend to be strict about this, Australian ones somewhat less so, but the pattern is consistent enough that you shouldn't wait to find out which one you got.

Brokers That Actually Keep You as a Client

Interactive Brokers is the default nomad broker for a reason. It accepts residents from most countries, is multi-currency native, and gives you access to global markets, with only occasional jurisdictional restrictions.

Saxo Bank is European-oriented but serves a wide range of jurisdictions on a strong platform.

Charles Schwab International is available in many countries and skews toward US-market access.

A local broker in your actual residency jurisdiction, a UAE broker if you're UAE-resident, a Panama broker if you're Panama-resident, isn't always necessary, but it's sometimes the simplest way to hold assets your home broker won't touch.

What Happens to Your Retirement Accounts

• US IRA / Roth IRA / 401(k)
  What happens as a non-resident: Retained. New contributions need earned income above the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which most nomads don't have. Withdrawals follow normal rules.

• UK SIPP
  What happens as a non-resident: Retained. New contributions require UK earnings. Withdrawal rules follow the usual age criteria.

• Canadian RRSP
  What happens as a non-resident: Retained. Contributions typically restricted without Canadian earned income. Withdrawals subject to 25% Canadian withholding, or your treaty rate if lower.

• Australian superannuation
  What happens as a non-resident: Retained. Contribution rules are complex and access depends on age plus conditions of release.

The through-line: you generally keep what you built, you generally can't add to it without domestic earned income, and withdrawal terms don't change just because you left.

US Citizens: Read This Section Before the Rest

If you're a US citizen, the general advice above isn't your biggest risk — this is. Non-US ETFs and pooled investment funds can trigger the US Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC) regime, which taxes gains and "excess distributions" at ordinary income rates rather than capital gains rates and layers an interest charge on top for the years the gain accrued before you sold. It is designed to be punitive, and it succeeds. The practical fix is simple: as a US citizen, stick to US-listed ETFs (VTI, VXUS, BND and similar), full stop.

FATCA and CRS both mean every investment account you hold reports back to your declared tax residency — for a US citizen that's the IRS, regardless of where you're living or which bank the account sits at. There's no version of this where non-disclosure is a viable strategy.

A Simple Strategy for Everyone Else

A simple global index approach usually wins, on the logic that your life is already complicated enough without a complicated portfolio on top of it. US-based nomads typically use VTI, VXUS and BND; those investing from a European base often use VWRA or IWDA — global equity and bond allocations either way.

Currency diversification matters more for nomads than most investors: if your income is in USD but you expect to eventually settle somewhere EUR-denominated, holding some EUR-denominated assets hedges that gap before you need it to.

Tax-drag awareness is the last piece — different jurisdictions tax dividends and capital gains differently, and optimizing for the jurisdiction you're actually resident in, not the one you used to live in, is where the real savings usually sit.

The Long Game

Nomad life is expensive if it isn't paired with investment discipline. "Traveled for fifteen years, has nothing to show for it" is a common enough story that it's worth actively avoiding. A sustainable version of this life usually includes setting aside 20–30% of income for investments at minimum, a diversified low-cost portfolio, real use of whatever retirement accounts you still have access to, deliberate currency diversification, regular rebalancing, and a tax residency plan chosen to support the investment strategy — not the other way around.

Sort Your Accounts Before They Sort Themselves

If you're a US citizen holding non-US ETFs or a foreign pension, that's a PFIC or reporting problem waiting to surface. Tell us what you're actually holding and we'll flag what's at real risk versus what's just paperwork.

General information only, not personalized investment or tax advice — a qualified adviser should review your specific holdings before you move anything.