Have you managed to save much money by living overseas?

[furniss]

One reason people move overseas is to be able to save money for their return. My parents had several friends who lived in Hong Kong or the Middle East for a few years and came back with sizeable house deposits.

But with costs of living in those places being near to London levels (if not higher), I wonder if people are actually able to save much money?

Salaries in London are now high compared to some places/sectors. Even with lower taxes overseas, dh’s sector (law) only seems to be worthwhile in more senior positions due to tax regimes.

My experience in BC Canada, is that I am earning over twice as much (same job) as I was in the U.K. Food is more expensive though and housing is on a par, but petrol is cheaper. Overall, financially it was a good choice to move here.

I lived in the Middle East as a child in the 1980's. It was tax free, and I think free housing/schooling, BUT, the cost of food was more than you'd expect as most was imported. I don't know how much they returned with or if they saved enough to pay off mortgages etc. Its 40yrs on now and things may well have changed in terms of how much you really save.

You can save a fortune in HK despite high apartment/living costs. The tax is practically zero.
If your DH is a lawyer I'd definitely investigate it. Lots of opportunities for British lawyers out there

If they were on expat contracts then it's possible to save a small fortune over a few years.
Ours included all housing, cars and schooling paid for. Salaries were adjusted upwards to take into account the cost of living differences in various countries plus a 'hardship' allowance for the inconvenience of being posted overseas.

Nope. I am in Scandinavia and my financial situation is about the same as it would be in the UK. I didn't move here for the money though.

My understanding is that the old days of very generous housing and allowances are long gone, now that education is so international and local employees can provide a very similar skill set. Plus companies will aim to ‘localise’ your terms and conditions after a few years.

Yes, we save a large portion of our income. Rent is £40k pa but covered by rent allowance. No kids, no staff. We own rental property in a different country purchased outright with the proceeds from the sale of our UK home and that's the only tax we are liable for.

I lived in scandinavia for over 10 years, not specifically to save money -we went for the experience - but we did save a lot of money. Better paid jobs and comparatively very cheap housing. I found it very easy to save money. Now back in the UK and not saving anything.

All numbers GBP- my pound key won't work

Re HK, we did (14 years) but not everyone does. It depends on your salary/ package and your lifestyle when you're there and also your "benchmark"- i.e. what you were spending in UK. Income tax in HK is essentially 15% flat (bit more complicated than that but good enough for planning purposes). It's becoming less common to get a full package to move to HK, especially in very high paying jobs (front office banking/ partner in law firm) as employers consider the tax break sufficient to more than compensate you for your inconvenience . Probably fair enough

As you rightly say, cost of living and in particular rents are very high. Again these vary a lot- you can spend 25k a month on rent for some chichi apartment on Middle Gap road or you could live in a spacious village house on an outlying island and spend 3k. The expat average is probably around 5-6k on rent per month but huge variations. The other thing is school fees- unless you put your DC in at kindy, it's very difficult to integrate them into the (free) local system, so you are looking at 18-30k per child per year in school fees, depending on school. For many expats, they were already paying or planning to pay for private school in UK so it's just the same, but if you've been using the state system in the UK, or were planning to, then it's an additional cost.

Things that are cheaper: cars, transport in general and (big one) childcare- the minimum wage for a full time helper is about 650 per month - now most of them won't work for that but it would be rare to pay above about 1000 per month . However, the childcare cost and coverage (6 days pw live in) does make it much easier to sustain two "big" jobs with the requisite travel so you can max your earning potential.

Arguably, on a basic salary, rent + school fees - tax is a wash from an income point of view vs UK, However, where people save a lot is only paying 15% on their bonuses/ share issues which are often multiples of their basic. Honestly, I think for HK, this is where people who save a lot of money save it - getting that additional 25% of your bonus (15% tax vs 40%) AND being able to sustain two big careers - I know anecdote isn't data but from observation there were far more "2 big earner" couples (as in 150k plus basic plus big bonus) than in UK.

However, you are probably right that at lower levels of law, the bonus won't be a large enough component of your total comp to outweigh the extra COL.

I can’t speak about law but we’re in Singapore and it was certainly worth the move

Yes we have a package which as a PP mentions may be getting rarer - yet salaries are better, tax massively lower and mindsets are work hard and hussle, not crabs in a bucket

Sure not everything is perfect but financially yes we can save

Depends on the package. We lived overseas for 25 years and were able to buy a house and dh retired at 53. Our time in China made the difference: rent, utilities, school fees, healthcare, travel allowance, car, driver, tax all paid by the company.

We’re much better off financially than we would be in the UK (Switzerland). We paid off our UK mortgage within around 5yrs of being here. I think that wherever you go it really depends on your career level and the package. DH is senior and I’m mid-mgmt. The move was sponsored but we’re both local employees now so no package anymore. It’s always worth doing your research and, preferably, speaking with people already in the country to get a realistic view of costs. The high salaries here sound amazing but the cost of living is crazy in comparison to the UK.

It's dependant on location, position and package. DH has a director level job in the ME where our rent (all inclusive compound), transport (car+fuel), flights, schooling for ds and health insurance is paid for. So his 5 figure, tax free monthly pay is mostly saved.

Yes.
Saved an absolute fortune living in a shithole of a country, and were mortgage free in our 30s because of it.
BUT: full expat package in an undesirable country (it was fabulous, with major issues), and rented out UK house, which paid for itself too. We were saving more than our previous combined uk salaries each month.

We didn’t save any money when we lived in the US but we did buy a house which was sold for more than double about 5 years later (though we did extensive work on it too - hence not saving!) and the salE of that has allowed us to be mortgage free in the uk

Yup passive income from renting out now mortgage free property (finally paid it all off last year. Have 150k +in savings at the moment. Which will build up quickly now

Tbh though I made the mistake of giving up work and have only had jobs not a career. I live in a place where it’s nigh on impossible to get a job without experience and I’m not sure doing the SAHM stuff suits me.

A lot of expat packages in our region aren’t as generous as they used to be but we get schooling, health flights etc so it’s not too bad. We still save every month without trying. For us the tax free bonus is the big thing.

Tbh though I’m really disliking expat life and sometimes feel a quite desperate yearning to just go home (it’s not the locals it’s the expats!) But we won’t for a while because our DC are settled into school etc. I think if you have a clear target it’s better i.e. save 500k.

Yes (and agree with a previous poster that the lack of tax to be paid on bonuses and share issuances is a big part of that) BUT you need to be aware that opportunities to save will be lower in 'desirable' expat locations. Gone are the days where (eg) Dubai is seen as a 'hardship' posting and employers needed to pay massive uplifts on London salary to persuade people to come over. That only happens in specific niche roles now. If you want that in the Middle East, look to Riyadh (where lots of international law firms are setting up and your DH might have good opportunities, depending on area of law/experience). The compromise is that (of course) it's not such a desirable place to live!

I know a lot of people who have saved nothing (or, worse, are in debt) - to save significantly you also have to be living significantly below your means. There's always something to spend money on.

The type of lawyer who will be paid well in (eg) Dubai, is the type of lawyer who would also be paid well in London. So the opportunity to save is also there at home. It's all about controlling lifestyle, and what you want out of life.

Now back in the UK and mortgage free on a four bed detached house in the south in our mid 30s because of our time abroad. Plus another couple of hundred k in investments.

We were on a full expat package with accommodation, bills, food allowance & multiple flights per year covered. I was also able to pay for my Masters up front. I think our main expenditure was bottomless brunches!