Americans who moved abroad say this big expense isn't worth it

Alex Ingrim knows a lot about how to move to a new country.

He was studying in San Diego when a study abroad trip to France led him to meet his now-wife, Louisa; in the 17 years since, the pair have grown their family and lived in Canada, France, the UK, Malta and now Italy.

Ingrim, 36, is a financial advisor with Chase Buchanan USA based in Florence, which has roughly 70 clients, where he advises fellow Americans about taxes and other financial planning involved with moving to Europe.

In his years helping Americans move overseas, he says one major expense ends up not be worth it: paying to ship your belongings to your new home.

"You can't just pick up everything from your old house and put it into your new house in Europe," Ingrim tells CNBC Make It. "It's not going to fit the same way or look and feel the same way."

A lot of times, larger furniture pieces simply don't fit in oftentimes smaller European spaces, he says. Plus, "The plugs on the appliances are a lot different. Certain things about TVs might be at a different standard. People underestimate a lot of those aspects. So that's been one piece of feedback we've gotten from people, they didn't think [shipping their belongings] was that worthwhile."

Instead, Ingrim says people have a better time of selling most of their belongings in the U.S. and moving to their new home country with a few suitcases.

The good news is that people are often "pleasantly surprised" at "how much cheaper a lot of the furniture is in Europe," Ingrim says. That goes for appliances, too: "A new kitchen in Europe is a lot cheaper than it is in the U.S."

Overall, Ingrim says his No. 1 piece of advice for people moving to a new country is to be realistic with their expectations and generally throw