How to Use Untangle MINI Self-Serve If You Live Outside of Canada
Living outside Canada doesn’t mean you have to leave your financial plan behind.
Untangle MINI Self-Serve can still help you understand your Now Money and Future Money wherever you live. You just need to make a couple of adjustments so the numbers in your plan all speak the same currency - and make sure your government retirement benefits are represented correctly.
The good news? It’s pretty simple.
There are two things to do:
Use your own currency consistently throughout MINI.
Adjust the CPP and OAS assumptions to reflect the government retirement benefits available where you live.
Let’s walk through it.
1. Use your own currency consistently
Untangle MINI Self-Serve was designed with Canadian dollars in mind, but the math works the same way in any currency.
If you live in the U.S., use U.S. dollars.
If you live in the U.K., use pounds.
If you live in Europe, use euros.
...
You get the idea.
Just ignore the dollar sign
When MINI asks you for an amount, enter the number in your own currency and ignore the dollar sign.
So if you earn €5,000 per month, enter:
5000
If your rent is £1,800 per month, enter:
1800
If you have $250,000 in savings in your local currency, enter:
250000
You don't need to convert anything into Canadian dollars.
The important part: be consistent
This is the golden rule:
Pick one currency and stick with it.
Your income, Committed Money, debts, savings, investments and retirement income should all be entered in the same currency.
Don't enter your income in euros and your expenses in Canadian dollars. MINI isn't going to know that you've mixed currencies, and your results won't mean much.
Think of it this way: MINI doesn't really care what currency you're using. It cares that all of your numbers use the same one.
2. Adjust your government retirement benefits
This is the other important adjustment.
Untangle MINI Self-Serve includes assumptions for CPP and OAS, because those are important sources of retirement income for many Canadians.
If you live abroad, you may have a different government retirement system—or no government pension at all.
That's easy to handle.
If your country has a state pension
If your country has a government retirement pension, enter your expected state pension amount in the CPP or OAS assumption page.
Use the amount in your own currency.
For example, if you live in the U.K. and expect to receive a £12,000 annual state pension, enter:
12000
Don't convert it to Canadian dollars.
The goal is simply to make sure your government retirement income is included in your Future Money.
If your country doesn't have a state pension
No problem.
If you don't have a government retirement pension where you live, zero out the CPP and OAS assumptions.
That way, MINI won't assume you're going to receive retirement income that doesn't exist.
What if you have a pension from more than one country?
If you've lived or worked in multiple countries, you may have government retirement benefits from more than one place.
In that case, include the state pension income you expect to receive in your MINI assumptions.
The important thing is to make sure the amounts you're entering are all expressed in the same currency as the rest of your plan.
You don't need to make the numbers perfect on your first pass.
Start with your best reasonable estimate. You can always refine it later.
A quick checklist
Before you start celebrating your international financial planning skills, check these five things:
Income: Entered in your local currency
Committed Money: Entered in your local currency
Savings and investments: Entered in your local currency
State pension: Entered in your local currency, if you have one
CPP and OAS: Adjusted to reflect whether you have a government retirement pension
And one final reminder:
Don't mix currencies.
You don't need to convert your entire financial life into Canadian dollars just to use Untangle MINI Self-Serve.
Pick your currency. Enter your numbers. Keep going.
You’re ready to go
That's really all there is to it.
Untangle MINI Self-Serve is designed to help you understand the relationship between the money coming in, the money already committed, and the money you'll need in the future.
Those relationships don't suddenly stop working because you crossed a border.
Use one currency. Adjust the government pension assumptions. And get untangling.
Because your financial plan should work wherever life takes you.
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