Look into these things to reduce headaches caused at home while you’re away:
- check your bank statements
- make a list of all contractual obligations
- prepare your taxes
- cancel as many contracts as you can
- find a helper to take care of your affairs
- give the helper power of attorney
- make your helpers job as easy as possible
- have all your travel documents with an expiration date after your return date with you
Getting ready for not being at home for a long time involves some planning. “Long” for the purpose of this document should be considered the regular time you can get away with not paying a bill. Most of this is about money.
It’s like with any project: Sound planning will reduce the number and impact of the headaches ahead. Here’s a checklist of things to take care of to make your travels as free from worries at home as possible.
Finances and contractual obligations
Your bank statements are a good start. Get a bank statement for each of your accounts that goes at least one year back.
1. Identify regular payments. For every regular payment, you have the following options:
- Cancel whatever is the reason for the payment (gym membership, insurance you don’t need anymore, etc.)
- Find a way to automate the payment
2. Make a list of all counterparts that are recurring. Notify them that you will be abroad and inform them who is handling your affairs.
3. Make a list of all contracts that will be active during your time away. This could be
- Insurance contracts
- Investments
- Real estate
- Any type of membership
- Subscriptions
- Any debt that is still running
Taxes
This can be very smooth or very painful. You may have to do your taxes while you’re abroad. If you’re unprepared this can be painfiul.
You have two options:
- Do it yourself. Find out what you need to do to get this prepared as much as possible. Talk to your tax authority. Tell them you’re leaving and find out what you need to hand in. Prepare it.
- Outsource. This is what we did. We sat down with an experienced tax consultant 2 months before we left. We told him the scenario and asked him to think about what he needs to have us do before we leave so that he is in a position to do our taxes without us present.
Find someone to handle your affairs
Find someone who is
- trustworthy
- capable
- willing
to handle your business when you’re abroad. This will be mostly financial and mail handling. We’re lucky that my mom is taking care of our stuff – she’s a trained accountant, a banker and handles her own taxes. In Germany that’s about as good as a district attorney with a finance degree and super powers.
Give this person power of attorney. Depending on your legal system, this can be easy or complicated. It will usually involve signing a document with a witness – sometimes this needs to be an official person. We had to make an appointment with a member of our town council. Calculate time for this.
Some institutions will require you to use their forms. Especially banks are picky. Check all of your major counterparts if they have requirements like that for instating a power of attorney.
However capable and willing, think about what you want to burden your helper with.
Whatever you can do to make this person’s job easier: do it. Try to aim at them not spending – on average – more than an hour per week on helping you.
Professional handover of documents
Get your documents in order. Sort any document that might be needed during your time away and make sure that your helper has a fair chance of finding it without having to contact you. Binders with a register will do.
Documents that should be considered are:
- Any contracts you listed above
- Medical records
- Tax relevant documents
- Records of your employment or business
- CVs and letters of recommendation (should you need them quickly when abroad)
- Copies of all travel documents you need (passport, visa, driver’s license, etc.)
Handling mail
- Unsubscribe from everything you can. You’re not going to read the year old stuff when you get back and you will drive your helper crazy if the mailbox is full of newsletters and ads every day.
- Get the postal service to forward your mail to your helper.
- Make sure the helper has a way to send you the mail that is easy and quick for him/her. If they don’t have a scanner, buy them one. If they don’t know how to use it, show them.
- There are companies out there that offer this service: Scan mail and e-mail it. If you have a chance of someone taking care of your affairs, I would usually prefer this.
Leave clear instructions
Make the helper’s job efficient and easier by leaving clear instructions including
- what kind of mail to scan, what kind to trash
- how to handle call
- where to reach you
- by phone
- by e-mail
- by regular mail
Also leave instructions about what to do in case of you having an accident or dying. This person may be the one to make the call about life support or harvesting your organs. Make sure they know what you want.
Also: Leave a will.
Handling tragedy
Tragedy may happen at home when you’re abroad. People may get sick or die. Try to be prepared: Think and talk about scenarios.
- Who would you come home for? In what scenario?
- Does it make sense to travel halfway across the world for a funeral?
- Would you go back to traveling afterwards?
Any decision or even idea that you can come up while there is no situation will be one problem less to solve during the situation.
Stuff to take with you
There are a few things that you can take with you that will be one less headache at home:
- Online banking credentials
- Credit cards that are valid well beyond your return. If this is not possible, make sure you know the process of getting your hands on the new card
- Information on what to do if a card is stolen or lost.
- Passports and IDs that are valid well beyond your return. Renew in time if necessary.
