My company has asked me to relocate for a min 1 / max 2 year period from N.C. to Singapore. This is something that my family is very excited about as we've always wanted the opportunity to live and work abroad with our children so they can experience different cultures. Also, I love my company. I’m part of the global leadership team, and lead Software Strategy / SW Architecture for a large portion of the business so I’m well taken care of. I expect the overall package they offer me to be reasonable, but I still think it’s important that I prepare to negotiate with as many of the facts as I can gather so I don’t miss something serious or leave an opportunity on the table.
HR has indicated that they don't have a "standard expat package", and typically handle each assignment independently. Because we are a global company there have been plenty of US employees moving abroad, so our HR team definitely has experience doing this. It does appear they prefer the “localization” option of providing a stipend + salary adjustment along with one-time costs for travel/shipping/visas over an expat package where they would directly cover school, housing, and other expenses.
I'll start off by listing what we know and what our concerns are:
About us:
- Single Salary in the low $200s
- Minimal debt: $40k in student loans and < $5k on credit cards
- Stay-at-home spouse
- 2 kids in elementary school
- Built a house in 2015 which has a favorable value in the market based upon the realtors we’ve contacted; we could net as much as $50k on the sale after realtor fees, etc but I know this is complex with taxes as we wouldn't be buying a new house in the same year.
- 2 Cars: 1 lease we can turn in, one 1/2 paid off that we would likely sell
Areas for consideration / concern:
- Education Expenses
- Upfront Costs & Semester Costs
- Housing/Rental Expenses
- Short-term housing during search
- Upfront Costs / Deposits & Monthly Costs
- Cost of Living Adjustment (things like increased Utility Expenses, etc)
- Salary Considerations
- Tax implications if localized
- Benefits (Bonus Plan, LTI, etc.) changes
- Benefit changes (Medical, Dental, Vision, etc.)
- Cost of Moving (Travel, shipping of necessary goods, visa fees)
- Cost of Relocation (Selling house, cars, storage of household items)
- This can be paired with cost of returning to the US
- Home Leave Expenses (1x per year)
We know school can cost between $25k-40k per child, per year and housing averages around $5.5k-10k in the areas closest to the schools we would likely select from. Compared to current expenses, we’d need a net +$8,000 USD per month to cover housing, school and a rough cost-of-living adjustment I’ve placed at around +25% based upon internet research.
So any advice on things we aren’t considering, or lessons learned from someone else who’s done this would be a huge help! We’re excited, but a bit out of our league on this and I’m hoping someone here in /r/personalfinance can lead us to the right decision! Feel free to ask questions if I left an important topic out; I'll be happy to respond with additional details.
Submitted July 29, 2018 at 10:30AM by TFalcon25 https://ift.tt/2mRRlBN
