Perhaps the biggest barrier for the most people when it comes to turning the dream of a new life abroad into a reality is money. a) it can seemingly cost a lot to relocate and b) it can cost even more to set up a new life overseas…
These two factors pale into insignificance next to the biggest barrier of all however, and that is, c) what on earth is it going cost me to live overseas in my favoured and chosen destination? This question will be on any would-be expatriate’s lips - whether they know they are moving abroad to take up a relatively well paying position, or they’re planning a move and will be living on a fixed income in retirement.
The best answer would be if you could find some sort of way to measure and gage the cost of living abroad wouldn’t it? Well, the good news is, thanks to the wonders of the Internet and a Shelter Offshore secret, you can now find out what the cost of living is almost anywhere in the world…what’s more, if you’re living abroad you can get involved and help spread the word about how much things cost in your neck of the woods, thanks to a brilliant new resource.
Which Resources Are Already Available to Help You Work Out the Cost of Living Abroad
Every year Mercer, “the global leader for trusted HR and related financial advice, products and services” produce a cost of living index. The index examines 143 cities across 6 continents, and ranks them in terms of their cost of living against a benchmark of what it costs to live in New York. The comparative cost of over 200 items in each location - including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment – are examined.
According to Mercer: “It is the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowance for their expatriate employees.”
The resource is available online to review on Mercer’s website, and the survey can be an excellent place to start when investigating what it can cost to live overseas in your chosen nation. However, the index is certainly limited in many ways for many people. For example, what if you don’t want to live in one of 143 cities covered? After all, if you moved to the UK, what’s to say you’d end up living in London, Birmingham or Glasgow – three of only a limited few cities Mercer looks at in the UK. Furthermore, do you want to have to pay hundreds of dollars or euros to get the complete report?
A viable alternative for you is perhaps the Economist Intelligence Unit’s cost of living index. It is certainly far more comprehensive than Mercer’s, covering far more towns and cities across the world, and taking into account a far broader range of indicators for the determination of cost. To access the index however, you have to subscribe, and you pay depending on how many towns or cities you want to assess and rank. You choose your base destination to compare all others to, and then pay as you add on towns. So, if you know where you’re headed abroad, you’ll only want to add on one city. This will currently cost you 595 USD for 5 days access however – pretty pricey!
The longer you want to browse for as you contemplate where you want to live abroad, and the more places you want to view and compare, the more you have to pay! This can mean you actually break your relocation budget before you go.
Where Can You Get Country Specific Information for Free?
Many expatiate sites have been set up that specifically focus on a nation, or even a city or region in that particular nation. These resources are usually run by expats who want to help others learn about the country, and who want to make a bit of money in so doing through selling advertising space on their sites. You will be amazed what you can therefore find in terms of free information when you start digging.
Additionally, there are of course expatriate forums where you can reach out and get in touch with others who have already made the move abroad to where you want to be living. Get registered and get on such sites and find out from those on the ground what it costs to live where you want to live!
What Information Do You Really Need?
There may be many specific items you would like to cost out, but for your general research into whether you can even afford to consider a given country, the following may be sufficient. Once you have ruled a country into the running, the best way to see if you can afford to live there may be to go on holiday there and spend your time in the local shops, DIY and furniture stores, the utilities providers’ offices and even looking in real estate and car showroom windows!
a) Average monthly rental costs for a 2 bedroom apartment in a nice area of town
b) Weekly grocery bill for a single person – or family of four…taking into account basics such as bread, milk, eggs, vegetables and meat
c) Cost of electricity per kwh
d) Cost of gas per unit
e) Cost of petrol or diesel per gallon or litre
f) Costs for local international school education
g) Cost for local medical insurance
h) Internet costs
i) Telephone/mobile phone costs
j) Eating out
k) Cost of property to purchase per square meter
With a decent overview of a range of goods and services you can begin to compare with what you currently pay to see how the cost of living overseas in your new nation stacks up. Note, there may be some odd discrepancies. For example, where certain items have to be imported, the imported goods will seem very overpriced because of the additional tax and transportation costs they carry.
Shelter Offshore’s Cost of Living Abroad Secret and How You Can Get Involved!
One man has made it his mission to create a resource at least as valuable, and probably more realistically accessible, than either Mercer or the Economist Intelligence Unit’s cost of living indices. Mladen Adamovic, a software engineer and former Google Ireland employee and expatriate, is building Numbeo.com – “the largest free Internet database for the cost of living worldwide!”
Yes, you read it right – this is a free, international cost of living database – not only that, you can search it and contribute to it as well!
Mladen’s talent is in statistical and data analysis and he researches and inputs data from around the world relating to many factors affecting the cost of living, and then he examines, processes and reports on the data he collates. Making this resource a wonderful one for expats and would-be expats to get involved with and learn from.
If you want to look at what it may cost you to go and live in the UAE compared to the UK, you can – or if you want to dig deeper and compare living costs in Derby compared to Dubai, you can too! And Mladen is independent, and not influenced by any governmental organisation. Meaning you can probably trust his data more than you can the stuff from the bods at Mercer and the Economist Intelligence Unit!
Currently Numbeo.com has collected and processed data from 484 cities around the world from 1,468 different contributors! That’s impressive! And if you want to get involved and research, survey and report back on what it costs to live where you live, you can – very easily. There is a seriously simple form to fill in where you input what various services, goods and items cost in your town or city.
At Shelter Offshore we’re so happy to have stumbled upon this resource – check it out, get involved, help out people around the world to get access to the cost of living data they really need to make life changing decisions. After all, why should we have to pay for this information?
Thank you Mladen! Thank you Numbeo.com…
