There’s a new and frightening statistic doing the rounds – apparently almost one in five expats have no idea about money management and are too afraid of the complexity of their financial situation to seek help and advice. The reason why this figure is just so scary is because, of this estimated 20%, all are potentially losing out on excellent opportunities available to them to help them improve their fiscal standing.
As an expatriate you can have access to a whole host of new investment, savings, banking and even borrowing products – so to bury your head in the sand and ignore your debt or fail to save for your future tax efficiently and effectively, you’re perhaps limiting yourself, monetarily speaking, for life.
At Shelter Offshore we fully appreciate how complex getting finances in hand can be – it’s all too easy to put off even the payment of basic bills because there is always something far more interesting or easy to do instead! We’re all human, we’re all ‘guilty’ of ignoring things we don’t like or don’t understand. But we shouldn’t waste an opportunity when it’s available to us…which is why we’re here to lay out the simplest path for you to follow to get your money matters in order, and to enhance your financial status from 2010 onwards. A new year, a new you and a new and healthy outlook for your financial status as an expatriate!
Ignorance May be Bliss, But Knowledge is Power!
The fact that apparently up to 20% of expats have no idea about money management makes it very clear to us that the offshore world is one that does itself no favours – it doesn’t make itself seem as accessible or as exciting as it actually is. Therefore we need to put more effort in to showing you, as an expat and an international citizen, that there are ways you can enhance your wealth status, thanks purely to the fact that you’re living away from home, and have potential tax breaks and access to more interesting and potentially high returning investment paths.
Additionally, it is up to you as an individual to face the fact that there is an opportunity out there for you, and whether you are deeply mired in debt or cash rich, you can potentially use the offshore world of finance to improve your financial standing. Knowledge is power and money is a facilitator for life – therefore, understanding how you can make your money work for you is doing the absolute best you can for your current and future standing in life.
Get clued up about what you can and cannot achieve as an expat…seek professional and expert advice that is personalised to your individual status and you will have a complete picture of what the offshore world of money can do for you.
Why Budgeting is as Important as Borrowing
We are effectively borrowing money when we have a credit card, an overdraft a mortgage or an agreed loan, we are borrowing money if we have a credit agreement for a car or for furniture, and yet few of us give a great deal of thought to how we actually repay that which we borrow. We understand our repayment requirements and dutifully set up a direct debit perhaps – but who among us stops and looks at the bottom line of what we will actually be repaying over the duration of the ‘loan’ compared to how much we ‘borrowed’ initially.
If we all stopped and thought about how much our debt costs us we’d be very keen to get it paid back as quickly as possible. What’s more, in this day and age of dodgy interest rates on bank deposits, it can sometimes be the case that you literally would be better off paying off any debt before you begin budgeting and saving. NOTE: this is not personal advice for your personal situation, whether such an approach would best suit you is something to determine with the assistance of professional and qualified advisers, this article does not constitute advice on any level.
With this in mind, you can see why thinking seriously about your borrowing is as important as budgeting each month, and making sure you don’t spend more than you earn.
‘Offshore’ and ‘Expat’ Can Mean ‘Tax Advantage’
As an expatriate you may be able to benefit from tax advantages available to you from going offshore with your money. These advantages may be as simple as allowing you to defer payment of taxation on interest or dividends earned until the term date of an investment, and for a lucky few, the tax advantage can be complete and massively beneficial.
As an expat, because tax advantages are potentially available to you, you owe it to yourself to explore this fact with a financial adviser. Imagine ignoring the fact that you can potentially save tax, simply because it seems like too much hassle or it seems too difficult to speak to an adviser! What a waste!
Why Diversification is as Important as Protection
Diversification is actually a form of protection for your money – we all want to protect our assets and will think carefully about the insurances we have in place, the people, institutions and even jurisdictions we trust with our wealth – well, we should also think about diversifying that which we do with our cash.
We all usually have short, medium and long-term goals, plans and ambitions when it comes to our money – therefore this is another reason why diversification of the way in which you invest can be important. A way of saving money for your retirement may not be suitable as a way of saving money for your wedding in a year’s time for example.
Diversification is all about not putting all your monetary eggs in one basket – and not putting all your monetary eggs in one basket is all about protecting your wealth. Therefore, the two go hand in hand and should be explored by you as part of the planning you do with your adviser about how best to secure your future wealth status.
Seeking Advice is as Easy as Typing in Your Name and Your Email Address!
At Shelter Offshore we have a handful of what we call ‘preferred partners’ – these are experts in various financial fields. So, we have those we can call on for information and advice when someone asks us about tax matters, opening an offshore bank account, getting the best interest rates offshore, or starting a QROPS or offshore pension. Because we have worked with these people for a long time and know how they work, who they can help and how they are qualified and regulated, we can offer them as contacts to our readers.
Over the years the relationship we have developed with these companies and individuals has brought us to the point at which they are all willing to give Shelter Offshore readers their advice for free. There is no catch to this service. If you go on to act on a given adviser’s advice, there may commission paid to the adviser, in turn we may receive a commission from the adviser. The process is made transparent to you. However, as stated, they offer their advice and services to you as Shelter Offshore readers for free – they don’t charge you and they don’t charge us. Why? Because the queries that come through from our readers are generally very sensible queries from our very sagacious reader base…their time is not wasted by Shelter Offshore readers.
So, if you want advice, it can be as easy to get as filling in your name and email address on our expatriate financial service form. Although, if you supply an outline of your query, it can expedite getting you to the adviser best placed to help you!
