How to Approach Retirement Goal Setting for Success as an Expat

Step 1: Define Your Retirement Lifestyle Goals Based on Your Country of Residence

Start with what you want your retirement to feel like, not just a number in an account. Ask simple questions:

• Where do you want to live most of the time?
• How often do you want to travel, and to where?
• What kind of home do you want (own vs rent, city vs coastal, UK vs abroad)?
• How important are hobbies, community activities, or part time work?

Then consider how your chosen or likely country of residence affects these goals. Cost of living, climate, healthcare quality, and local amenities all influence what is realistic and how much income you will need.

Hoxton Wealth’s content on UK retirement options for expats and lifestyle planning can help you think through whether to retire in the UK, stay abroad, or split time, and how each choice affects your goals.

Step 2: Set Specific, Measurable Financial Goals Aligned with Your Retirement Lifestyle

Once you have sketched out your lifestyle, translate it into numbers. For example:

• Target retirement age or year.
• Desired annual income in retirement, in the currency where you expect to spend.
• Savings or investment targets by certain ages.
• Planned contributions to pensions and investment accounts each year.

Break income needs into “essentials” (housing, food, utilities, core healthcare) and “optional” spending (travel, hobbies, gifts).

This helps you see what level of income is needed to maintain your basic lifestyle and what level supports a more flexible or higher spending lifestyle.

Hoxton Wealth’s Retirement Planning and Retirement Savings Strategies services can help you test whether your current contributions and investment mix are aligned with these targets and what adjustments might close any gaps.

Step 3: Account for Taxes and Legal Requirements

Tax and legal rules can have a big impact on whether you reach your retirement goals, especially when you live or plan to live in more than one country. When setting goals, consider:

• How your home and host countries tax pensions, savings, and investments.
• How social security or state pension benefits are treated if you live abroad.
• What tax treaties exist between countries you are connected to and how they allocate tax rights.
• Rules for retirement accounts, such as when you can access them and how withdrawals are taxed.

This helps you set realistic “after tax” income goals, rather than focusing only on gross amounts. It can also shape goals around which accounts to prioritise, such as whether to build more in tax advantaged pensions or in more flexible savings.

Hoxton Wealth’s expat pension guidance and retirement income planning content provides practical insight into handling UK and international pensions, and how tax may affect your retirement outcomes.

Step 4: Account For Healthcare Costs And Plan For International Health Insurance

Healthcare is a core part of retirement goals, both in terms of access and cost. When you decide where and how you want to live, ask:

• What healthcare system will you rely on in your host country?
• Will you have access to public healthcare, and if so, what does it cover?
• Will you need private medical insurance, and what level of cover do you want?
• How might you handle long term care, such as home support or residential care?

Include healthcare in both your lifestyle and financial goals. For example, you might set goals around maintaining a certain level of health insurance, or ring fencing a portion of your assets as a future care fund. These goals can influence where you live and how you structure your budget.

Integrating health into your retirement goals makes them more grounded and less likely to be disrupted by unexpected medical costs.

Step 5: Track And Adjust Your Retirement Goals Regularly

Retirement goal setting is not a one-time task. Life events, moves, currencies, and markets can change your situation, and your goals may evolve too. To keep your plan useful:

• Review your goals at least once a year, and after major changes such as a move, job change, or family event.
• Check whether your savings, investments, and pensions are still on track relative to your targets.
• Update your goals if your priorities change, such as wanting to retire earlier, support family, or move to another country.

Tracking progress can be as simple as keeping a one-page summary of your main goals and key numbers, then updating it each year. Many expats find it helpful to use a planning tool or work with a cross-border planning team, such as Hoxton Wealth, to review both goals and numbers together.

• Start Planning Early
  The earlier you define your retirement goals, the more time you have to adjust contributions, investment choices, and location plans to support them.
• Diversify Your Income Sources
  Where possible, aim for a mix of pensions, savings, and other income so that you are not reliant on a single employer scheme, property, or country.
• Factor In Exchange Rate Fluctuations
  If your income and spending are in different currencies, build goals around how you will manage this risk, such as shifting more assets into your spending currency over time.
• Consult A Cross Border Retirement Planning Team
  A planner who understands expat issues can help you connect lifestyle, tax, pensions, and currency into one set of realistic goals.
• Review Regularly
  Check in on your goals and progress at least annually, adjusting as needed when life and rules change.

Retirement goal setting for expats is about joining together your lifestyle ambitions, financial targets, tax and legal realities, and healthcare needs into one coherent plan. By defining your desired lifestyle, setting clear financial goals, factoring in tax and healthcare, and reviewing regularly, you can navigate the added complexity of living across borders with more confidence.

Hoxton Wealth helps expats turn broad retirement hopes into specific, trackable goals linked to tailored savings, investment, and income strategies.

If you are ready to define or refine your retirement goals as an expat, you can contact Hoxton Wealth to talk through your situation and possible next steps.