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[istocnjak]

Hi all, I've been following the board for a while but this is my first post. I have been "lurking" for a while, and the information I have got from the board has been tremendously helpful in deciding to apply to move to (what I hope will be) my dream job in London, where I will be starting in September. So thanks to you all.

And now, a question for you all: during my years of working in the US, I built a nice hunk of retirement savings through TIAA-CREF, and I am now trying to figure out what to do with the money in this account. It seems that there are various options for people staying in the US, but I have not found advice anywhere for people who are leaving the country. From what I have been able to tell, these are the options:

1) leave it where it is until I am 65 (this might be fine, but it might be preferable to have my money in the same country as me, especially if the dollar continues to decline)
2) switch it into an IRA account (this seems to have the same problem as option #1)
3) take the money and run off to use it to try to get a foothold in the London real estate market (sounds appealing on the surface, but this means no retirement savings at my age and a lot of it would be lost to taxes and penalties)

What I do not know is whether the option that seems best is available to me: to shift the money into USS and pick up where I left off.

If it makes a difference, although "never say never" applies, our plan for now is to move to the UK and stay there.

[expatinuk]

I kept my money in TIAA-CREF. I've got Teacher's retirement here, which since I've been here a while is a final salary scheme (don't know if new hires are getting this). I've also got money in ISAs and other forms of investments. And... real estate. Never forget real estate here in the UK.

[observer3]

I just left mine as well, partly because I coudn't think about the complexity of transferring at the time of my move and partly as a means of more diversification for my retirement.

I do also remember something about tax implications of trying to mess with it before age 65, and that this was also an incentive to do nothing, but this is a while ago and I forgot the details.

[august_leo]

Never forget real estate here in the UK.

What do you mean?

[wegie]

Never forget real estate here in the UK.

What do you mean?

That house prices have doubled in the past 10 years. Very nice when you come to sell and discover you're sitting on a profit ratio that most hedge fund managers would kill for!

Also, in the UK, property is always seen as "safe".

Whether prices are going to continue to go up at such a rate, or even at all, is another matter altogether.