Expat Focus Blog

Scene from the life of an English teacher in France

2009-11-23T03:12:00.000-08:00

"It was a very warm afternoon in October when I arrived at La Maison de l’Amitié in Albi, a medium-sized town, birthplace of Toulouse-Lautrec, in south-west France. It was a handsome red-brick building constructed around a large courtyard where an enormous horse-chestnut grows. After a hot and dry summer it was shedding its leaves as fast as its chestnuts.

I went into the office and said hello, in English, to Frédéric and Sandrine, the admin staff. It’s a sort of running joke, though their English isn’t bad: Frédéric even managing to aspirate his h. Natalie, who’s in charge of the office, fired off French at machine-gun pace in her strong south-west accent, all –ng at the end of words. I usually get the gist..."

More at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/6617646/Raining-cats-and-dogs-a-scene-from-the-life-of-an-English-teacher-in-France.html

Can you help near Bordeaux?

2009-11-04T03:18:00.001-08:00

A request for help from one of our members:

"Are there two fit men near Bordeaux able to help us with a once-only problem? Our 21-year-old son was knocked down in a hit-and-run incident 6 weeks ago and has been in the Pellegrin Hospital since. His bones are mending and he is out of a coma, but weakened and unable to walk. We need to get him home and expect the doctors to sign him off as fit to fly on or soon after 6 November. We just need to get him to Bordeaux Airport, where ground attendants will take over. So it is just a question of lifting him, all 6 ft-plus of him, from a wheelchair at the hospital, into a car or people carrier, and driving him with my wife, who has been with him all this time, to the airport. We'll gladly refund fuel costs. We'd use a private ambulance but the lad had inadvertently let his travel insurance expire. Please ring me, James Darley, on 020 7939 7979 (office), 01494 484414 (home) or my wife Crissy on 07906 218783."

Interview with Simon Hilton, foreign exchange consultant

2009-10-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Simon Hilton is a senior foreign exchange consultant at World First specialising in assisting private clients and companies with their foreign exchange transactions. Simon is authorised by the FSA to offer foreign currency options.

To contact Simon directly for currency transfer information or a no-obligation quote please click here.

Expat Focus: Simon, can you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to work for World First?

I have a BA hons degree from the University of Reading in History and Politics and joined the company in 2006. I have since undertaken regulatory exams and obtained FSA approval to advise our clients on hedging their foreign exchange risk.

Expat Focus: What services does World First offer and what is your own role?

World First offers a foreign exchange service for currency transfers as well as a range of foreign exchange products. Clients can purchase currency at ‘spot’ (for an immediate transfer) as well as being able to fix the exchange rate for up to 2 years in advance with a forward contract.

Our regular payment plans can be quite useful for those with commitments back home such as mortgage payments or if you receive a monthly pension which you would like to convert and receive in the country where you are an expat. You may also like to send part of your salary back to the UK on a regular basis.

World First has recently launched a new range of Currency Options. These products are suitable for transfers over £100,000 and allow you to fix your rate in advance but benefit if the rate subsequently improves.

I am responsible for assisting individuals with their currency transfers. I will take clients through the process from start (first contact) to finish (receiving the brought currency) and I will explain the different products and services we offer. I am also in charge of managing currency options and offering them to our private clients. As these are specialised products we have had to undertake regulatory exams and are authorised by the Financial Services Authority in the UK...

Expat Experiences: Netherlands - Anna Gilhespy

2009-10-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

My name is Anna Gilhespy, I am 29 and I run my own business (www.thehouseofmouse.co.uk) making handmade ornaments which I sell mostly online.

Where, when and why did you move abroad?

I moved to Hoofddorp (just outside Amsterdam) with my husband in 2003 when he was offered a good job over here. There was little work where we were living in the UK and opportunity was too good for us to pass up.

What challenges did you face during the move?

Our move to Holland was extremely smooth, mostly thanks to my husbands company arranging a relocation agent for us. She helped us find a house to rent and took us through all the paperwork we needed to fill out. The hardest part for me was that I still had one year left to complete before receiving my Fine Art Degree; it was a struggle to find a university that would accept me at such short notice. Fortunately I managed to get my UK university headmaster to pull some strings with a Dutch university that they had links to and secured a place. I did not enjoy the transition between universities; the differences in education approach were more extreme than I had anticipated. They were also not explained to me well, which led to several stressful misunderstandings. My husband slid into Dutch culture with much more ease than I did...

Thai Haiku

2009-10-27T01:45:00.000-07:00

THAI HAIKU

by Sean Lawlor Nelson

The sun was flaming
but I was young and hopeful:
was best and worst times

the butterflies
colored the campus neon:
soon lime-green was grey

The giant geckos
were noisy problems for Thais;
I looked up in awe

A stout old woman
cooked for me, was courteous:
I can see her face

I bloodily fixed
my toe, which was ingrown bad:
bathed it in Thai rum

bought ugliest fruit
from old Thai women, didn't know
lichii came so gnarled

Sean is an American who taught for a year in Phetchaburi Province. He lived in Thailand one year, and left 3 years ago. His article, "The Sparrows of Thailand", can be read here.

An end to the recession?

2009-09-30T02:59:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it is my imagination but I seem to be seeing a few more British visitors around at the moment. Yes, I know it’s the time of year when people start popping over for ‘quick trips’ and long-weekends but even so, there seem to be quite a few around. Some of my regular contacts in various countries are also reporting the same thing and saying that at least some of these people seem to be checking-out property.

It’s very risky to comment on what may or may not happen with the recession, but it’s been about 15 months or so since the news started to peak on banking collapses and the like. People have been in their bunkers for well over a year and many economic indicators still look gloomy BUT there are perhaps a few odd glimmers of hope around.

Now I’m not saying that what expats in Spain, France or Australia think is necessarily a very meaningful economic indicator but there may be some signs of less gloom around. Contacts in France tell me that the property market there has been largely dead for the best part of 18 months or even more but suddenly a few tentative buyers have appeared ‘looking around’ though not at the moment actually buying much.

Vast areas of Spain continue to be a disaster for many expat property owners in financial terms but in one or two areas potential buyers are reported to be sniffing around again.

OK, it’s very tentative stuff but it seems to coincide with some slightly more neutral news reporting on economic indicators. A friend of mine still lays much of the blame for the current global economic position at the door of the media who, he believes, started desperately looking for a financial crisis in January 2007 and managed to talk one into existence by the end of that year. Perhaps he’s just a cynic but who knows?! Maybe if the news channels are now getting bored with reporting bad news and gloomy indicators, perhaps they’ll search for a few half-optimistic signs and start reporting those. That in turn could generate increasing confidence and so on etc etc.

We could all do with it.

Still, it’s good to see that for some folk the recession remains an abstract concept. One UK family I know that are considering buying in Portugal just happened to say that the decline in Sterling against the Euro over the past couple of years or so was not a serious factor in their plans to buy and move. It must be great to be in that sort of position!

As always though, I’m interested in members thoughts on things and in that context, the recession. Does anyone else out there see cause for hope yet?

Marlboro Man on the Mediterranean – the Spanish attitude to smoking

2009-09-24T01:54:00.000-07:00

"If we're going to talk about the cultural differences between Spain and the rest of the West, you may as well get comfortable. Pull up a chair, order a drink and light a cigarette.

And there it is. One of the first things noticed by expats in Spain: The smoking. Cigarettes are everywhere, a carelessly enjoyed vice in the street, restaurants, bars and shops.

In this way, Spain is the last slice of Eastern Europe in Western Europe. Despite the (semi) ban on smoking implemented in 2006, Spaniards are slow to take their smoking outside. Shop owners are pretty likely to have an ashtray under the counter. Restaurants still lay out ashtrays as part of their table settings. Cigarettes are cheap (around €3 a pack) and generously shared with friends and acquaintances. Smoking here is less a dirty vice, and more a social signifier of generosity..."

Read more here. Discuss this article here.

Special Report - Sterling Crashes and Burns

2009-09-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

The following special report is provided by the official Expat Focus foreign exchange partner, World First. To request further currency transfer information or a no-obligation quote please click here.

Sterling Crashes

Given the volatility that sterling has experienced recently, we thought it only prudent to advise you all on what could happen to sterling in the coming weeks and months. We would say that 1.10 and 1.60 are near term targets for GBPEUR and GBPUSD respectively however the prospects of falls below these levels are very strong given the momentum behind the movements we have seen over the past week. A break below these levels could easily see 1.07 and 1.55 which were the lows of the previous range.

We still believe that those of you who need to buy either euros or dollars with sterling for overseas property purchases, emigration or other reasons should be thinking about hedging around these levels through ‘currency options’. Should GBP continue to fall as we expect it do so then the levels achievable will no longer be attractive.

We would therefore advise all reading this to contact the Private Client team here to find out how to protect yourselves against further adverse shocks.

‘Currency options’ like forward contracts, allow you to exchange one currency for another on a future date. However, with an option you can fix a ‘worse case rate’ and unlike a forward contract, if the rate moves in your favour you can benefit.

Below is a graph of GBPEUR 2 weeks ago detailing the ongoing trends in GBPEUR while below that we have GBPUSD.

The top line is a trend of 2 years whilst the lower is that of the past 7 months. GBPUSD seems to be capped on at these levels with many analysts predicting that a break of 1.60 will see this brief rally over and a move back to 1.55. Our expectations that the market would obey the longer term trend has come true.

That trend has broken now as shown below.

GBP is Overbought

Going further in you can see that this is a regression to the middle
ground over the past year.

by Jeremy Cook, World First

To request further currency transfer information or a no-obligation quote please click here.

Disclaimer: The above comments are only our views and should not be construed as advice. You should act using your own information and judgement. Although information has been obtained from and is based upon multiple sources the author believes to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy and it may be incomplete or condensed. All opinions and estimates constitute the author's own judgement as of the date of the briefing and are subject to change without notice. Any rates given are "interbank" i.e. for amounts of £5million and thus are not indicative of rates offered by World First for smaller amounts.

The Spanish Landgrab Law - Is it Fair?

2009-09-14T06:22:00.001-07:00

"Bob and Jane thought they had found their idyllic retirement in the sun. They had bought Spanish land, gathered all of the permits they needed and began to build. Six months later their house was bulldozed by the local government. Welcome to the Landgrab Law..."

Read the rest of this article here. Comment on it here.

Expat safety issues

2009-09-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

I read recently of the terrible accident in Portugal that involved a beach cliff rock-fall resulting in several fatalities.

This put me in mind of how dangerous the world can be and how some, notably holidaymakers or expats, can be in particular danger due to a lack of local knowledge.

I remember being on a beach once (abroad). It was a chilly and not particularly nice spring day. There were only a very few people on the beach mainly walking but one couple caught my eye.

They were sitting on the rocks at the base of a moderately high cliff. At the very second I noticed them, there just happened to be a fairly large collapse and fall of stones, earth and sand from the cliff above them. This came down and hit both of them before I could say anything.

This was a freak occurrence both in terms of how unlucky they were and the fact that the accident happened just at the very second I noticed them. The good news is that they were shocked but otherwise uninjured. They also just happened to be newly arrived expats that had been living in the country only a week or so!

Shortly afterwards I was asking a local why there were no warning signs on the beach under the cliffs. His response was fatalistic “..but everybody knows the cliffs are unstable and wouldn’t sit underneath them..”

Hmmm!

The stories of potential expat woe through ignorance abound. Poisonous snakes kept as pets without knowing what they were, dangerous plants cultivated lovingly in the garden and of course lack of local geographical knowledge. Some are no doubt the stuff of urban legend but many are known to be true.

I did know a medical first-aider in Australia that told me that a disproportionate number of the problems he had to help with affected visitors and expats that just hadn’t grasped the local dangers and ‘issues’.

One of my American friends had just moved to the UK when we met up at a mutual friend’s house. While sitting in the garden the English friend said that she must weed near the fence then departed inside.

My US pal suddenly decided to be dynamic and jumped up saying “I’ll get those”. Before I could get out the words “NO, STOP!” he’d dived with his bare arms into the world’s biggest pile of stinging nettles.

Cue a look of horror, screeching and hopping around – and the subsequent liberal application of lots of germoline. As you may have guessed, whatever poison oak and ivy they may have in Northern California, he’d never encountered or heard of stinging nettles before.

So even a suburban Essex garden can have its dangers for the unwary!

I guess the message for expats everywhere is – ‘get that local knowledge and FAST!’

Sangre Del Torro - The ethics of Spanish bullfighting

2009-09-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

Want to discuss this article in our Spain forum? Click here!

Bullfighting is one of the cultural earmarks of Spain.

Dating back to the times before Christ and rooted in the pagan mythology of sacrificing bulls to multiple gods, bullfighting is celebrated as a masculine display of bravado and human courage. The first formalised bullfight was staged in the eleventh century, almost a thousand years ago. More than a sport, bullfighting was seen as symbolic of the ongoing struggle between humanity and nature, or humanity and the underworld. Fans imbue it with an almost spiritual importance, and definitely as an artform.

Now social mores have changed, and general opinion has shifted. Even in Spain public consensus is very much against bullfighting. Only ten per cent of Spain's population are fans, with the remainder being either indifferent - dismissing bullfighting as a quaint remnant of a redundant past - or strongly opposed.

The arguments against it are hard to refute: Aside from the cerebral wrangles over an animal's consent to participate, there are more immediate and practical issues of cruelty. Bulls are not released into the ring in their best shape: they may spend an entire day weighted with sandbags to sap their energy, be fed laxatives to weaken and dehydrate them, be partially blinded with petroleum jelly or have their neck muscles cut to prevent full motion of their (shaved) horns. Like the bulls of Pamplona, many bulls are raised in dark confined spaces, released into the light only at the moment of entering the arena, to ensure that they are as disoriented and vulnerable as possible.

The Spanish government has responded to the shift in public opinion. Bullfights have been banned from being televised, following concerns raised by parents about the violent images being seen by children, and under-14s are no longer allowed to attend bullfights. These two moves effectively strangled the profit flow of bullfighting: TV advertising and family tickets to live matches were the two main market sectors.

Nevertheless, the ten per cent of Spaniards who do favour bullfighting are a vocal minority who put their money where there mouth is...

Read More: http://www.expatfocus.com/the-ethics-of-spanish-bullfighting

Top 10 Paris expat blogs

2009-09-07T00:55:00.000-07:00

by Meg Zimbeck at Budget Travel

"Ever wondered what it would be like to live in Paris? Immersing yourself in an expat blog is one of the best ways to find out. It seems that every year a fresh crop of bloggers has arrived on the electronic scene to share the ecstasies and agonies of life abroad. Because their lives often include a lot of food and fun, expat blogs are also a great way to learn about the local happenings. I've selected my current favorites (not including my own), and invite you to add your personal picks in the comments..."

More: http://current.newsweek.com/budgettravel/2009/09/top_ten_paris_expat_blogs.html

Shopping around in a credit crunch

2009-08-30T22:53:00.000-07:00

A lot of expats don’t shop around as much as they perhaps should, although now it's more important than ever to do so. That’s particularly true in countries where English is not the native language because trying to get comparison prices AND bargain in another tongue is not easy. It’s certainly a big help to a supplier or potential seller if they can pretend they haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about when you ask them why they’re trying to charge you double what they charge everyone else.

Even in English speaking countries it’s not always easy. A response such as “maybe you can get it for that price in England but here in the US of A nobody has been able to buy it at that price since the 1930s” can sort of stop you dead in your negotiating tracks.

However, it’s worth trying. Take a recent example - I had to renew some insurance.

For about 4 years I’d been using the same company. I’d received good service (though I’d made no claims) and the price didn’t seem too bad either. Still, I thought it was about time I looked around and checked online. To my surprise, I found I had several other options to purchase identical insurance at almost 150 euros cheaper per annum.

So I called my local office and asked if they wanted to re-quote. They seemed surprised that I would consider moving insurance for “only 150 euros” given that we had a good relationship. I thought to begin with that they were joking but saw rapidly that they were not. I slightly sadly had to explain to them that one annual phone call to confirm renewal hardly constituted a ‘relationship’. Much as I enjoyed their sparkling wit and repartee in our 2-minute chat each year, I didn’t actually think it was worth 150 euros.

So they changed tack to try and persuade me to stay with them. “Have you considered the benefits of our service and having a local office you can call into?” Once again, I had to say that I’d only been into their office once in several years and even then for only 5 minutes. Over the 4 years that 5 minutes had cost me about 600 euros – not exactly good value for money. Pleased as I was for them that they had a nice office in a nice location, it didn’t benefit me one iota.

After a few more increasingly bizarre attempts to justify their extra 150 euros per annum, they gave up and said they couldn’t match the price offered by the Internet supplier. I admit that I had some sympathy when they said, “we struggle to compete with many of the new online companies”. I almost felt mean and a little nostalgic for the ‘old world’ of the local office – right up until they followed up by saying “…and it’s usually the British that are very vulnerable to this sort of selling tactic….”

Selling tactic? Beating someone else’s price by a considerable amount is now some form of ‘dirty trick’? The British are somehow ‘saps’ for wanting a bargain? My sympathy evaporated. Ah well, “next time” I said. The moral of this tale is? Forget nostalgia – get those fingers tapping and hunt for some bargains!

Protectionism and its effect on expats

2009-08-24T02:14:00.000-07:00

Whether you’re a ‘corporate assignment’ type of expat or someone who is settling in a new country notionally forever, it seems likely that you’ll have read recently about moves towards ‘protectionism’ in many parts of the world. You’ve also probably been slightly concerned.

There are a few examples that have made headline news and others that have been rather less well reported. Examples include the “British Jobs for British Workers” strikes and disruptions in the UK oil industry and French politicians campaigning for the plants of French car manufacturers in Eastern Europe to be closed and their production moved back to France.

I’m not just picking on the UK and France. There have been major similar incidents and campaigns in many other countries in Europe plus the USA and Australia.

It’s no great surprise that economic hardship and recessions lead to a natural tendency to say, “let’s look after our own and let the foreigners sort their own problems out”. Sadly there are also a tiny minority of disreputable politicians who will also use troubles to wheel out their ancient and discredited views about how bad foreigners are in general.

In fact, the views and concerns of expats on this subject tend to vary slightly depending on the nature of their expatriate status. I’ve spoken to a number of expats of the fixed-term ‘corporate assignment’ variety that are slightly concerned that background political pressures to keep high-paying jobs for ‘locals’ may lead to an early curtailment of their job.

By contrast, many ‘permie’ expats seem to see this as a less of an issue. In some cases that’s a tribute to their integration or in others that they are self-employed and believe that they are more immune to ‘jobs for the locals’ types of pressures.

I’ll offer my personal opinion. I suspect that in some parts of the world, notably the EU, Australia and the USA, the idea that protectionism could directly affect the majority of expats living there seems unlikely. Arguing (rightly or wrongly) for trade protectionism is one thing, but using this to discriminate against an expat population is totally different.

In many parts of the above countries and political blocks, the world is essentially ‘global’. Vast numbers of people have upped and moved across national boundaries and there are very large expat communities of various nationalities in virtually every country in the industrialised world. Many expats are now an essential part of the economic infrastructure of the country they live in and it’s difficult to imagine how this could be changed.

So times may get tough and the odd person may ‘sound off’ about jobs for the locals but in reality I suspect that protectionism as such will probably have little effect on us expats. Of course if this is the last blog you ever see me post then you’ll know I was wrong!

Expat Tweeters on Twitter - who's your favourite?

2009-08-19T04:17:00.000-07:00

Do you follow someone on Twitter who has something interesting to say about life abroad? Do you yourself tweet about life as an expat?

Now that Expat Focus has finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon - and I can see what all the fuss is about! - I thought it might be useful to put together a list of everyone's favourite expat tweeters...

More here

Professional fees in a recession - expats beware!

2009-08-18T02:39:00.000-07:00

One of the advantages of having a blog is that it permits one to ramble on about anything that catches one’s attention. I always try to keep to the subjects related to expats and their affairs (of the non-romantic sort of course!) but I’m not sure I’ve done so in this case – but here goes anyway!

I have noticed recently how the prices of some things continue to rise even though there is a recession on across the globe. Food and some commodities do so in most countries and this is blamed on global supplies. OK, perhaps believable.

What I am less clear on is why some professional services costs are also rising in some countries. While the papers across the globe talk about mass layoffs, wage cuts, bonus reductions/eliminations and the ‘new harsh reality’ that people must learn to live with, at the same time lawyers, surveyors, accountants, architects, auctioneers, dentists and assessors, are all putting their hourly rates and fee charges up. Does this make sense to anyone? I ask because many of these categories of people are those that expats rely on very heavily when moving into or out of their new countries.

I don’t know if this is a common perception around the globe (comments gratefully received!) but in several European countries it seems to be so. I have yet to see any widespread discussion of this in the media but at least one person in the above categories recently ‘explained’ this phenomenon by saying that he’d had to increase his fee percentage as his overall volume of business had fallen due to the recession and he needed to keep his income levels up.

Pardon me? As there were now fewer customers around he had to charge those he had a lot more to keep his income level up?

I have actually seen a similar explanation elsewhere and when reading these I started to doubt my own sanity. How can this be sensible or justified? If a supermarket loses 10% of its customers to another or just because of a recession, do they put up all their prices by 10% to compensate for the lost income? If they did, what would they expect the result to be? How is it that some categories of professional seem to be immune from the law of nature that states prices should come down in a recession rather than go up?

The trouble is that many of these professions are guaranteed a role in aspects of life by the law. There are many things that cannot be legally completed without the intervention of these parties. You may not be able to put in that window without planning permission, and in some countries that means mandatory certified architect’s drawings. House moves usually require the high cost services of a solicitor or Notaire (sometimes both). In most countries a qualified accountant is mandatory for all but the tiniest of businesses and their accounts. Etc etc etc.

As a result, one can’t really ‘do without’ their role and the law protects their business and function in effect. Worse, in many countries these professional groups operate what are in effect pricing cartels. Shopping around can be useless in terms of finding lower fees.

As I said, expats are particularly vulnerable to high costs in these areas. This is not only because of house moves but also because many expats purchase property overseas and are obliged to use the services of architects and surveyors and so on – sometimes even for minor renovations. A high percentage of expats are also self-employed compared to national norms.

What can we do about this? Probably nothing – but sounding off is sometimes therapeutic!

We like to move it, move it!

2009-08-09T23:35:00.000-07:00

I couldn’t help but take notice of a recent news report that contained statistical projections from both the UN and EU. Any article headed up ‘latest statistical projections’ usually has a soporific effect but this one was interesting.

To cut a long story short, the two bodies have projected that by 2050 the UK will have the largest population of any EU country (assuming by then Russia hasn’t joined I guess). The figures being talked about were around 80 million.

The second statistic said that a large proportion of this population growth would come about through immigration. Apparently the forecasters believe that the UK will remain the most popular EU destination for immigrants, both those originating from other EU countries and those from outside of the EU.

Fascinating stuff but the first thought that struck me was how this related to another recently published statistic that up to 1/3 of the UK population is actively considering emigration from the UK? If we take this two together, the potential population movement is incredible.

Maybe my maths are faulty but very roughly speaking…at the moment there are around 60 million people in the UK. If over the next say 30 years roughly 1/3 are planning to leave and actually do so, that’s about 20 million people outbound. That would give a net population of 40 million left. For this to grow to 80 million, that means over 40 million people will need to move to the UK over the same period.

Now certainly I know that doesn’t take into account population growth etc but even so, it is a phenomenal population movement out of, and in to, one very small group of islands. In theory it also means that around 60 million people will be going in or out of the UK over the next few decades – and that excludes normal business and holiday travel.

As with all these statistics, there is a very high chance that they are wildly over-estimated and future guessing is a dangerous business. If you look at similar projections in the 1960s and 1970s, had they been right I would be writing this blog now from Lunar City central and discussing the expat situation on Mars.

Yet when reading these figures and thinking about it, a few slightly irreverent thoughts came to mind if these figures are even only partly right.

A) There are going to be a heck of a lot more expats around in future
B) This might be a good time to start a transport and removals business
C) Given that UK government statistics also show that the UK population continues to drift south towards the south-east and south west (e.g. the population of Scotland continues to fall) AND most stats show new arrivals also head to the south east and west, the UK’s going to be in danger of tipping up!

It just goes to show how global and mobile the world is becoming. There may be no new frontiers left but as people are people, the grass will always looks greener. These population movements could mean that one day the majority of people on this planet are expats...an odd thought!

New expat guide to Florida now online

2009-08-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

The Expat Focus guide to expatriate life in Florida is now online at:

http://www.expatfocus.com/expatriate-florida

Expats forced to play the property waiting-game

2009-08-04T01:39:00.000-07:00

I guess that many are getting tired of watching the value of their house decline. It doesn’t seem to matter much where one is living these days, the property market globally is stuck and retreating. There are of course a few exceptions still. Some city centres and a few property hotspots on some coasts are still just about holding their own, but there’s no doubt that times are tough.

The news is of course full of the various facts and figures, almost all depressing, but there is another aspect that is less frequently talked about.

Having negative equity in your home is of course a serious problem and I’m not suggesting otherwise, but the general stagnation of the property markets globally also carries with it a more all-pervasive logistical problem.

That is that many potential expats can’t make their long planned moves overseas because they can’t sell their home to finance the move. I know of a number of expats who bravely made the move to rented accommodation overseas pending the anticipated sale of their old house sale and are now stuck as their old house ‘back home’ is essentially un-saleable in the current market. This is hitting their finances badly as a lot of money is being sunk into ongoing rent they had never planned for. Some have now rented their old properties out which is good insofar as it generates income but it doesn’t allow them to liquidate their asset and use the capital to buy the home of their dreams in their new country.

This logjam is also starting to hit business. Although this is not just an expat issue, I also know of some expats who desperately need to sell up and move home within their new country for business and professional reasons. Needless to say, they can’t and this means they sometimes can’t take up that new job, position or opportunity – or if they do they have to leave their family behind. One expat recently told me that where he lives (France) it isn’t even a question of price; there are just no property buyers around at all - at any price.

Like just about everyone else including many self-appointed ‘experts’, I don’t know what the outcome of all this will be. I’m a natural optimist and I take some consolation from the fact that many past recessions seem to sort themselves out after a year or two. In some countries the recession also seems to be at least a little less serious than in others so perhaps they will be the countries that will first start to show evidence of an upswing in everything, including property prices and dynamics.

We can but hope!

International Measures - What a Muddle!

2009-07-27T01:33:00.000-07:00

As the metric system has become the global standard, in theory this shouldn’t cause most expats any trouble.

OK, many US folk moving overseas of course find metric measures a problem. It’s also true that any Briton much over about 45 or 50 years of age probably grew up in the imperial measurement system and still has to mentally convert in their head from time to time. Yet for most younger UK expats and holidaymakers this shouldn’t be a problem – should it?

Well, it’s an odd world. I happened to see a few weeks ago a UK school exam (informal) set for 14 year olds. One question was a gem involving calculations of an arrow’s flight and distance over time etc. The question was set in metres and kilometres per hour but the helpful information printed above asked children to keep in mind that an arrow can fly “several hundred yards” when released. That must have got the youngsters thinking!

Although hilarious, it’s maybe understandable given Britain’s way of going about things in fits and starts. Britain is probably the only country in the world that’s ‘partly metric’ and this will cause confusion at times. If you think I’m joking, just think about carpets in the UK. Quite often their width is quoted in imperial units but they’re sold by the linear metre. It’s still possible to find carpet shops selling some carpets by the square metre but others by the square yard. This frequently confuses not only customers but also their staff.

Yet these oddities with measures affect not only the USA and UK but in some respects, just about everywhere. I recently was looking at the prices of Forest Bark type products (I don’t have a garden – don’t ask why I was looking!) It’s quite incredible because most people want to buy something that will cover an area to a cubic capacity – i.e. an area so long by so wide by so deep.

Yet locally I found this product is sold by the tonne apart from small bags that are sold by the litre. “What is the cubic capacity of one tonne of this stuff?” I asked. “No idea” came the reply. Nowhere could I find any information that related a weight in kilos to a litre of cubic metre of the stuff – apart from on a US site that helpfully happened to mention an approximate weight by volume of Forest Bark. Unfortunately this was quoted in quarts and pounds/ounces so I had to convert both to metric to get back to a figure in kilos that I needed.

”How did you work that out?” said the local company. “Don’t ask,” was about the best I could muster.

Monthly Photo Competition - "Sunset"

2009-07-25T07:04:00.000-07:00

If you love taking pictures, why not set yourself a challenge by taking part in our online photographic competition. Every month we set you a theme, and all you have to do is use your creative genius to produce your photographic interpretation of that theme. Simple!

August's theme is "Sunset". Closing date is August 25th.

The winning member will receive a 20GBP Amazon book voucher (or equivalent if Amazon doesn't deliver to your country) together with a mention in the monthly newsletter. The winning entry will also be placed in the winner's gallery!

Further details about how to post your photo to this forum and enter the competition can be found HERE. Please remember to include details about when and where the photo was taken and what type of camera you used.

Click HERE to go to the photo competition forum and view this month's entries!

"Ask the Expert" at Expat Focus!

2009-07-22T04:56:00.000-07:00

A new feature called "Ask the Expert" goes online at Expat Focus today with our expert financial advisers ready to take questions from readers.

Do you have a question related to currency transfer, investment, UK pension transfer, expat insurance or taxation (US) which you'd like to see published and answered online? Now is the time to take advantage of our expert panel:

Mark Bodega is the Marketing Director at foreign exchange and international money transfer specialists HiFX. Click here to submit a question for Mark to answer publicly next month.

Tom Zachystal is CEO, President, and Chief Investment Officer of Individual Asset Management (IAM), a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) specializing in UK pension transfers (QROPS), portfolio management and financial planning services for expatriates. Click here to read an in-depth interview with Tom or click here to submit a question for Tom to answer publicly next month.

Geoff Birch has 28 years of experience in financial services and established the online brokerage Offshore-Rebates.com in 1999. Click here to read an in-depth interview with Geoff or click here to submit a question for Geoff to answer publicly next month.

Marc Strohl is the principal of Protax Consulting Services Inc., a US based firm offering tax accounting and consulting services for expatriates. Click here to read an in-depth interview with Marc or click here to submit a question for Marc to answer publicly next month.

Please note that our experts are only able to answer a selection of questions received but all questions are read and considered.

If you would prefer to discuss your individual needs privately or are looking for a specific quote please use our standard enquiry forms.

Interesting food abroad

2009-07-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Expats have to deal with the fact that they’re likely to have some ‘interesting’ gastronomic experiences.

This may all sound a bit obvious. Yes, different people in different countries eat different things and not all will be to each other’s taste. As an expat you will sometimes see some odd things served to you on a plate. You’re either going to see this as part of the rich experience of living an expat life or run screaming for the hills and the nearest tin of baked beans.

This also isn’t just a question of exotic locations and exotic foods – though it depends a bit on what you call exotic. I know one US citizen living in London that was appalled and terrified by some of the things the local people ate. Top of his list was of course Jellied Eels, cockles, mussels and whelks (though how many Londoners eat those these days?) but the power of speech left him entirely at the sight of a soup dish full of pie & mash.

Nor are all Americans amused by Fish ‘n’ Chips as many seem unable to recognise the battery object as fish. I’ve seen Americans (and some Englishmen for that matter) in Edinburgh and Glasgow with their jaws on the floor as their haggis was served on a plate. Some thought they were safe with the Scottish breakfast until it arrived and was seen to include Clootie Dumpling – a sort of fried fruitcake with the bacon and eggs.

My favourite was an American friend who once asked in Birmingham where the nearest Macrobiotic restaurant was. “Yaow wot?” To be fair to Brum, this was a long time ago.

Of course many people moving from one European country to another find even bigger differences. Many English speaking expats have trouble getting to grips with the horse steaks that can be served in France, the sometimes almost raw meat in Italy (and several other continental European countries) or in Spain several varieties of fish that look like they have been imported from Venus.

I personally think all this diversity is great and all about broadening one’s experiences. Not everyone agrees though. As I’ve commented on before, increasingly in supermarkets and even some local markets one can see the foreign food sections springing up to cope with the demand for fish fingers, beans and tinned soups. That, I think, is a less healthy sign.

Still, it’s always gone on. I have a Chinese friend that has spent a lot of time in Europe and he tells me that he can’t recognise a lot of the food served in Chinese restaurants here as Chinese. In some Chinese restaurants in the Chinatown areas of some big cities such as London, he will ask for the Chinese menu and select dishes from that. He likes ‘our’ Chinese food but just struggles to recognise it. He thinks that it is Chinese food that was first ‘Americanised’ for originally US tastes, then re-exported from the USA into Europe where an essentially American set of dishes was then ‘Briticised’ or ‘Francocised’ etc. Odd theory but he may be right.

So maybe the squeamish expat has a way out. Just open that local restaurant specialising in British or American dishes tweaked for local taste. What about in France battered fish in a Béarnaise sauce? In Italy egg ‘n’ chips carbonara? In Spain perhaps cheeseburger-aella? In Australia roo ‘n’ clootie pie?

Never say I don’t give you ideas!

Sending something abroad? Good luck!

2009-07-16T00:47:00.000-07:00

Many expats need to send and receive parcels – and fairly regularly. As many are self-employed, a lot of this is commercial and livelihoods can depend on it.

So, in the 21st century one would expect many companies and national postal services to be able to offer expats a good range of services to choose from and exemplary service to follow.

Yet in fact one of the most common moans and groans from expats virtually everywhere is how unreliable the various parcel services are. I know this to be at least partly true from personal experience.

A friend told me that they had ordered some special Easter treats for their children well in advance and paid for 48hour express delivery services from the UK. They eventually turned up many days after Easter and had been in transit for about 10 days. They tell me that the UK based parcel company had no idea where the parcel had been and they didn’t seem to care very much either.

Nobody seems to be immune. I know of one person that shipped an expensive gift via one of the household name US couriers. Upon arrival the recipient signed for it and opened the box only to find it was empty inside. The box had been opened with a knife, the contents stolen and the box then expertly re-sealed. As this was invisible from the outside the recipient had perfectly understandably signed for it on receipt as ‘OK’ because the problem was not visible externally. The shipping company have refused to pay up on insurance because they hold a signature that says “OK” from the point of destination.

I know of another appalling example of the dishonesty and incompetence that can arise. A large parcel was shipped to an expat business in Egypt via a prestigious carrier at a cost of almost 100 pounds sterling, and through a trackable service. The box then disappeared for nearly three months, during which time the tracking showed constantly that it was still at the airport of departure!

An insurance claim was launched. At the end of three months the doorbell rang at the shipper’s residence and the man said that the parcel had been found. He demanded another 100 pounds “return freight fee” before he would release it to the shipper. He said his documentation showed that the consignee in Egypt had refused to accept the box so it had been returned.

Upon examination, the box showed absolutely no sign of ever having gone anywhere. There were no entry stamps for Egypt, no flight stickers, no return slip documents and the consignee in Egypt confirmed they had never seen it and certainly never refused to accept it. It was clear that the parcel had never left the local airport in 3 months and the courier were unable to produce any evidence that it had ever been anywhere. Apart from losing a very valued client over the fiasco, the shipper is still 200 pounds out of pocket and is fighting to recover it – so far unsuccessfully.

So the message to the courier companies is clear – come on guys, get your act together! The cowboy days of the 1970s should be long dead. Expats (and many others) need services they can rely on and honesty/integrity from you. Make it happen!

Growing old overseas

2009-07-09T03:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, I accept this isn’t the most attractive looking title I’ve ever come up with and it doesn’t suggest there are barrels of belly laughs to follow. Even so, it is though a real issue and one that many expats may need to face at some time in their lives.

Quite a few expats have moved overseas and burned their boats in the process. That’s brave, admirable and probably not cause for concern if one’s 20, 30, 40, 50 or even in one’s 60s. The trouble is, time passes and we all age. As we get older we may need more help and attention.

There are of course two real aspects to this.

The first is to ensure that you have appropriate health cover and retirement benefits in place. It’s worth remembering that having health insurance isn’t necessarily the same thing as having ‘care cover’ for old age related situations. Check to see what benefits and cover may be available from the local social security and health services, if you are part of them. If you’re not, you should check to see what services may be available to you locally if you are on an ‘E’ form type of reciprocal cover.

The second is that of familiarity, culture and language. If an elderly person is living in an English speaking culture and needs to go into hospital for treatment or needs care and help, then that may not be a major issue. It could though be far more problematic if the person concerned is living in a non-English speaking country and could be surrounded by health or care professionals they cannot understand and who cannot understand them.

I know of one case where an elderly member of an expat family had to go for a week’s observation and specialist convalescence after minor surgery. Although the care was superb and the staff stunningly friendly, in fact few of them spoke any English at all. Although his family did all they could, they clearly could not stay with him 24x7 and during that week of being surrounded by people he couldn’t understand, the elderly gentleman became mentally very confused though he was normally quite sharp.

Fortunately at the end of the week he returned home and rapidly recovered his awareness and mental sharpness but it did illustrate the potential problems of becoming old in a foreign land.

I have no easy answer to this one but it’s worth keeping in mind – particularly if you’re thinking of bringing elderly relatives to come and live with you overseas.