Alan Noon is enjoying the expatriate life in Hong Kong. Alan, 40, and his wife, Henna, 36, have a rented apartment overlooking the bay and enjoy the buzz of living in one of the world’s most exciting cities.

However, their lifestyle is about to undergo a dramatic change. Now that they have two children — one aged 2 and a new-born baby — they are planning to relocate to the UK, where Alan has obtained a sales job with a salary of £40,000, plus company car.

Alan says: “We plan to move back to the UK to give the kids a more balanced family life and more space than we had in Hong Kong. We are looking to buy a property worth about £300,000 and won’t be needing a mortgage as we have enough saved to buy it outright.

“We have not chosen an exact location but it will be somewhere in the North East. We have the flexibility to live anywhere in that area and would appreciate some suggestions on attractive places.”

In addition to the £340,000 that they have put aside for their UK home, the couple’s time spent working as expats has enabled them to build a substantial nest egg at a comparatively young age. They have about $420,000 (£218,000) in long-term investments, mostly funds, and a further £50,000 in pension pots, divided roughly equally between them, though Alan’s money is in euros while Henna’s is in dollars. There is also $250,000 (£130,000) in a savings account.

Alan says: “We are looking for advice on two things in particular. First, about half our wealth is in US dollars or other currencies and we are concerned that if the dollar falls further, as some experts suggest, then it will hit our savings. We do not have to convert anything immediately from dollars to sterling, but we would like to know the long-term predictions of how the dollar is likely to move against sterling.”

He also wants advice on the portfolio of long-term investments that he and Henna have accumulated. “We don’t consider ourselves risky investors,” he says, “but we have built up a collection of funds with a strong bias towards energy, commodities and the Far East.

“The funds are Fidelity Japan, Norwich Property Trust, JF Korea, HSBC Indian, Merrill Lynch World Energy and Merrill Lynch World Mining. Is this a balanced portfolio or should we be switching some money into other funds? For example, should we have some money in Russia and does German and Asian property look a better bet than UK property?” Finally, Alan and Henna would appreciate some guidance on how to invest the $20,000 (£10,400) that they have set aside to help with the cost of their children’s education. Alan says: “The kids will not have things handed to them on a platter, but we would like to have enough money to send them to university if that’s what they want.

“We have money in India, China, US medical funds and Japanese funds. The Chinese and Indian funds have doubled, but the US and Japanese ones have performed poorly.”

On page 2: What the experts say, and Alan's response...()

The Noons: what the experts say

Alex Grieve, associate partner, Cluttons Residential

“The most attractive area in the North East is probably the Tyne Valley, which extends westwards from Newcastle. Hexham, the principal town, was recently voted the most desirable in England by Country Life magazine.