The moving budget almost everyone gets wrong is not the flight or the shipping; it is the pile of upfront costs waiting at the destination. Rental deposits of one to three months plus agency fees, furniture for unfurnished apartments that may lack even light fixtures, car costs or transit passes, school enrollment and uniform fees, and mandatory insurances you did not know existed. Many landlords and services also demand payment history or guarantors you do not yet have, which pushes newcomers toward pricier options at first.
Taxes produce the nastiest surprises: ongoing filing obligations to your home country, double taxation questions, social security contributions on both sides, and the discovery that home-country investment accounts become awkward or restricted once you are a foreign tax resident.
Currency swings quietly reprice your salary or savings too. A sensible cushion is several months of living costs beyond what you think the move needs, and an early consultation with a cross-border tax adviser typically pays for itself many times over.