Update: After considerable lobbying from consumer groups, the US Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has amended the rule requiring evidence of independent income when applying for consumer credit, replacing it with a declaration of household income. This is excellent news for accompanying partners in the United States who had been denied access to [...]
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Relocating plays havoc with your money; the cost of moving, the unpredictable expenses, the loss of local financial history and the soaring banking costs all make creating a relocation budget the greatest work of fiction since Harry Potter.
Despite the uncertainty, financial preparation and clarity is vital to a successful global transition, because if you [...]
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This post was sparked by an episode Mad Men – a series about adverting executives in New York in the 50′s and 60′s. This particular one covered the characters’ responses to the Cuban missile crisis.
Kennedy was had just given his famous television broadcast, highlighting the potential threat to the US from the Soviets, plunging [...]
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I have two distinct groups of readers; those who enjoy watching and hearing about my expat disasters from a safe distance, and those who are listening carefully, trying to avoid making the same ones themselves. Some are happy to stay exactly where they are and enjoy the fun, and some of you have a [...]
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Let’s be clear about this – I am most definitely not the perfect host. My concessions to visiting guests limit themselves to clearing the accumulated debris from the guest bedroom, providing toiletries and ruthlessly utilizing their airline baggage allowance to my own ends. Guests to my home have to endure 5.30 am starts, midnight [...]
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A conversation over coffee last week centered around how we all adapt to any new environment, and I offered up the Feisty One as an example of someone who had it figured out from birth. Watching her walk into every new school leaves me sitting in the school car park in tears, while she [...]
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At Defining Moves we believe that the most crucial parts of successful global transition are a clear assessment of your situation and thoughtful planning. It seems self-evident, but in reality we are often working with inaccurate information, cross cultural confusion and an unrealistic expectations. With that in mind, here are our 3 essential strategies that [...]
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7. Who retains custody of any children in the event of a breakdown of the marriage / partnership, and can this be enforced?
We’ve talked about the financial provisions needed to ensure that dependents are taken care of, but as the accompanying partner, you also want to understand how the laws of your home [...]
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In the previous 9 Essential Questions Every Expat Should Ask series, we discussed some of the issues that transitioning couples and families should consider before taking the decision to move. Here, we change direction, and focus on the questions that every expat [...]
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The most important reasons for creating a relocation timeline are to avoid scheduling conflict between the essential tasks and and to ensure that any priorities that we have for our family are reflected in a our planning right from the start. It also allows us to clarify what lies ahead and to set our [...]
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