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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It’s Part 2 of the “8 Money Rules for Creating Your Expat Budget” post – if you missed the first part, you can read it here.
5. Protect Your Credit
So you think paying your bills on time is enough to get an excellent [...]
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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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Expat life plays havoc with your finances. Often you are paid in one currency but live day-to-day with another, creating a budget is impossible when you have no idea what you will need or what anything costs, and trying to keep track of your spending when you have to establish a whole new life, home [...]
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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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We never manage to move cheaply. We’re on our seventh home in 11 years and currently looking for our eighth, so you would think we would be experts by now. But relocation is an expensive business – the packing, shipping, storage, tax filing, document preparation and transportation are just the tip of the iceberg.
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When it comes to international assignments, relocation policy is not just a ‘one-size-fits-all’ affair. Not only is there flexibility to cater for specific individual needs within the various policies in use, there are also plenty of potential pitfalls to consider too. So what are [...]
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“Few people willingly move abroad to accept a lower standard of living – there are exceptions of course such as those who volunteer to help in nations affected by wars or dire economic circumstances. The majority of us move abroad expecting to find or achieve a better or [...]
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I recently went back to the UK for a seasonal family visit, and have just received my Christmas gift from AT&T, my cellphone carrier here in the US. It’s a bill for $286. I would never previously have described myself as innocent, but obviously in matters of data roaming charges, I am, because this bill [...]
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It’s not just expats that manage most of their life online – increasingly, we are doing everything from paying bills to car registration via the world wide web. And while we all lock up our houses and cars and warn our children not to talk to strangers, we are far more trusting with the [...]
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