16 Feb 2024
You expatriate to a foreign country for a reason. In most cases of expatriation, the reason is financial. Over 281 million migrants worldwide earn a living and send money online to offer financial support back home.
But do you think it is only about earning a living and continuing financial support for your family back home?
Well, think again!
An expatriate life is largely driven by certain goals, which in most cases are financial.
Therefore, this blog will shed light on expatriate life, the goals most of the global expatriates largely share and the essential financial tips to achieve those goals.
An expatriate or expat life is when you travel to foreign countries for employment purposes and stay there for a fixed time. An expatriate life essentially includes living in countries other than your native country and is often characterized by a brief or temporary stay.
The longevity of your stay abroad largely depends on several factors. This includes the country you have gone to, your purpose of migration, your life’s goals as an expatriate, and how you plan to achieve those goals.
While an expatriate life offers several benefits, the most important of which is the financial benefit, it comes with the following pros and cons.
Whether you are going abroad despite the challenges and cons of an expatriate life or staying back depends on what drives you in the first place. In most cases, it is a pressing financial need for which you travel abroad to earn a living and support your family back home through global money transfer services.
As an individual, you can set different financial goals for you. However, the following few are most common among migrants worldwide because financial woes and compulsions drive most expatriates to foreign countries for work.
You face an acute financial challenge, which is why you travel abroad. As an expatriate, your goal is to find employment opportunities with higher incomes. This can allow you to support your family and sustain yourself abroad.
With a meager income that you have in your native country, you simply cannot save money as the amount you earn is exhausted in meeting the necessities of life at a basic level. This serves as an impetus to take every possible step to save money.
The third most common financial goal most expatriates share is to make investments. Because whatever the level of your job is, it will end one day, leaving you financially vulnerable. Therefore, investments can offer you a passive income and secure your future financially post-retirement.
As mentioned earlier, your stay abroad is characterized by a temporary stay and financial support back home through money transfers. Therefore, you need to set financial goals, long-term and short-term, and do all to achieve them.
The existence of goals in your life as an expatriate gives it a direction without which your life is more like a rudderless ship at the mercy of tides. Given that your goals as an expatriate are largely centered on financial prosperity and stability, the following are the tips to achieve them.
As you limp across the finish line of the year 2023, you need to sit back and reflect on the outgoing year. Analyze how things went with your money, your average financial behavior across the year, and where you financially faltered.
In foreign countries, several companies offer the same services at different rates and in diverse packages. Make sure to understand every deal and package, and switch services if possible to save money. It also implies any money transfer made to your home country.
You must create and live on a budget to achieve your financial goals. Remember that creating a budget using the best budgeting techniques is critically important for achieving your financial goals as an expatriate.
Review your financials and see where your money is coming from and going. Analyze all of your sources of income, cut expenses, and optimize where possible. It will give you a clear idea and help you with your financial goals.
Start paying off your debts as soon as you can. Always remember to pay off the bigger amount and then go to the smaller ones. This will help you eliminate the debt and the interest that comes with the principal amount.
Always create an emergency fund; the best way is to open a savings account and contribute to it regularly. Remember that trying to save with one account, which is a checking account in most cases, does not help much.
Make sure to automate savings. With automated savings, you can dedicate a certain amount to your savings every month without having to think about savings. This also includes how much you should spare for savings, as the process is already automated.
Find opportunities to invest your savings. Always remember that keeping savings as savings alone will not help you much in achieving your financial goals. Invest your money in potential investment areas.
Never rely on your understanding of financial management. You are not an expert in financial management. Are you? So, make sure to seek the advice of a financial expert whenever the need arises.
It is easy to keep spending on both needs and wants. Most of the time, it appears easy when you are doing it. However, its grave effects appear later in life. So, make sure to differentiate between needs and wants and spend on needs only.
Always remember that the money transfer service provider you choose is vital in helping you achieve your financial goals. Choosing ACE Money Transfer is the safest bet for you because the firm offers you financial benefits with competitive exchange rates and ensures that every penny of your hard-earned money is not wasted in this cost-incurring recurring process!
Expatriate life is when you leave your friends and family behind and travel to foreign countries to earn a living you cannot find in your native country. An expatriate life is typically characterized by a temporary stay and earning a living abroad.
Some of the common expatriate life goals are earning a higher income that you cannot find in your native country, ensuring savings, which are not possible without a better income, and finding opportunities to invest in savings.
Some of the benefits of savings include understanding your financial status, dictating your financials, keeping a sharp focus, creating strategies to achieve them, and getting a sense of achievement and satisfaction.
Some of the tips for achieving your goals in 2024 are to review 2023, create a budget, review your financials, and create an emergency fund. It also includes automating your savings, investing money, seeking financial advice and knowing the difference between needs and wants.
An expatriate life has several advantages and disadvantages. Its pros are international exposure, knowing different cultures, getting a dream job, sending money abroad to your loved ones, and accessing free education and healthcare. In contrast, its cons are cultural shock, double taxation, language barriers and adjustment complexities.
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