Read Online The Grown-Up's Guide to Running Away from Home, Second Edition: Making a New Life Abroad by Rosanne Knorr - Free Book Online
Authors: Rosanne Knorr
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consultant in your current field or provide writing, research, graphic design, marketing, or other services from your location abroad. If you’re less technologically inclined, perhaps you could teach English as a foreign language. Can you sew? Make furniture or refinish antiques? Repair computers? Any or all these skills might provide an interesting way to meet people and supplement your adventure fund.
• Finally, maintain an emergency fund to cover a minimum of six months of expenses abroad and airline tickets home. In addition, maintain the funds needed to re-establish yourself back in the States if and when you choose to return. You’ll need cash for housing security deposits or down payments as well as money to purchase a car or furnishings you may have sold before you left.
5
Costs and How to Cut Them
All things are possible until they are proved impossible—and even the impossible may only be so as of now
.
—Pearl Buck
Create a runaway budget based on your interests, age, and financial condition. Cutting costs when you live abroad may be easier than you think, because some expenses at home may have been predicated on “keeping up with the Joneses” rather than on necessity and personal desires. Expats tend to be accepting types who are more interested in the adventure and meeting interesting people than in driving the latest new car. When we started to rationalize our dented used Citroën in front of one long-time New Zealand expat, he smiled whimsically: “That’s an American thing. You don’t have to explain, because we’re all doing the same thing and couldn’t care less.”
That said, let’s look at two categories of expenses you’ll incur when you run away from home: (1) start-up costs of getting overseas and getting situated and (2) daily living expenses.
Start-Up Costs
When you run away, you’ll incur initial expenses that are necessary to make the transition. You may be able to live, for example, in Mexico on US$1,000 a month. But you’ll need the money to get there, stay in a hotel while searching for an apartment, rent a car until you’re settled, and move your belongings or furnish your lodgings.
As these are nonrecurring costs, you won’t have to budget for them monthly. However, you will have to have a lump sum set aside to cover them immediately.
Nonrecurring Expenses
Airline tickets
________
Special shipping expenses
(luggage, pet container, extra shipping fees)
________
Car rental and/or car purchase
________
Moving (movers, boxes)
________
Classified ads (garage sale, car sale, rent or sell home)
________
Apartment security deposit
________
Furnishings overseas
(appliances or special needs for apartment or home)
________
Utility set-up
(fees required to begin service for electric, fuel, phone)
________
Total
$________
Daily Living Expenses
I debated whether or not to include budget numbers in this book, since they can change drastically based on inflation and exchange rates.
----
I pay about $350 a month rent for my house, which is rather western style and almost new when I moved in. Clothes are inexpensive unless you want to buy designer brands, which are available here and in Bangkok. The Thais will spend most of their money to present a good image. Rolexes and Mercedes are very popular with the rich
.
—Ray, Chiang Mai, Thailand
----
However, two questions everyone asks when they first dream of living overseas are “Can I afford it?” and “What does it actually cost?” Unless you’re nosy like me, no one ever tells you, because the topic of money, like sex, tends to be off-limits. But everyone wants a starting point, with figures to mull over, so here are a range of budget compilations, based on typical situations. Keep in mind that these prices are quick snapshots that reflect basic costs in a range of areas. I’ve converted the amounts into U.S. dollars using exchange rates current as of this writing, but be warned that they can change
• Finally, maintain an emergency fund to cover a minimum of six months of expenses abroad and airline tickets home. In addition, maintain the funds needed to re-establish yourself back in the States if and when you choose to return. You’ll need cash for housing security deposits or down payments as well as money to purchase a car or furnishings you may have sold before you left.
5
Costs and How to Cut Them
All things are possible until they are proved impossible—and even the impossible may only be so as of now
.
—Pearl Buck
Create a runaway budget based on your interests, age, and financial condition. Cutting costs when you live abroad may be easier than you think, because some expenses at home may have been predicated on “keeping up with the Joneses” rather than on necessity and personal desires. Expats tend to be accepting types who are more interested in the adventure and meeting interesting people than in driving the latest new car. When we started to rationalize our dented used Citroën in front of one long-time New Zealand expat, he smiled whimsically: “That’s an American thing. You don’t have to explain, because we’re all doing the same thing and couldn’t care less.”
That said, let’s look at two categories of expenses you’ll incur when you run away from home: (1) start-up costs of getting overseas and getting situated and (2) daily living expenses.
Start-Up Costs
When you run away, you’ll incur initial expenses that are necessary to make the transition. You may be able to live, for example, in Mexico on US$1,000 a month. But you’ll need the money to get there, stay in a hotel while searching for an apartment, rent a car until you’re settled, and move your belongings or furnish your lodgings.
As these are nonrecurring costs, you won’t have to budget for them monthly. However, you will have to have a lump sum set aside to cover them immediately.
Nonrecurring Expenses
Airline tickets
________
Special shipping expenses
(luggage, pet container, extra shipping fees)
________
Car rental and/or car purchase
________
Moving (movers, boxes)
________
Classified ads (garage sale, car sale, rent or sell home)
________
Apartment security deposit
________
Furnishings overseas
(appliances or special needs for apartment or home)
________
Utility set-up
(fees required to begin service for electric, fuel, phone)
________
Total
$________
Daily Living Expenses
I debated whether or not to include budget numbers in this book, since they can change drastically based on inflation and exchange rates.
----
I pay about $350 a month rent for my house, which is rather western style and almost new when I moved in. Clothes are inexpensive unless you want to buy designer brands, which are available here and in Bangkok. The Thais will spend most of their money to present a good image. Rolexes and Mercedes are very popular with the rich
.
—Ray, Chiang Mai, Thailand
----
However, two questions everyone asks when they first dream of living overseas are “Can I afford it?” and “What does it actually cost?” Unless you’re nosy like me, no one ever tells you, because the topic of money, like sex, tends to be off-limits. But everyone wants a starting point, with figures to mull over, so here are a range of budget compilations, based on typical situations. Keep in mind that these prices are quick snapshots that reflect basic costs in a range of areas. I’ve converted the amounts into U.S. dollars using exchange rates current as of this writing, but be warned that they can change
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