How to control your finances as an expat

As summer ends and the working year begins again, expat financial realities begin to bite.

Spending too much in the holiday season is par for the course in the vast majority of expat destinations worldwide but, in the real world, the day of reckoning always arrives. Autumn is the time to get expat finances back on the correct footing, with the process not quite as painful as it seems at first. Reviewing your overspending on holiday is the first step, simply because it helps you not to make the same mistakes next year!

Going through your credit and debit card statements carefully will tell you where you could have saved money, with fees on foreign currency transactions a good place to start. Making payments in the local currency if there’s a choice can save extra charges and usually gets you a better exchange rate. The next move is to pay off your card or cards in full, as interest charges can mount up to considerable amounts. Painful although this sounds, it’s better to grit you teeth and do it than incurring the compound interest rates common on many overseas cards. Transferring your balance to a zero per cent card is another sneaky way to avoid charges.

Starting to save straight away is essential in getting your finances back on track, even if it’s only a minimal amount at first. Exchanging any left-over foreign currency and saving the local currency you’ve received is a good start, as long as you don’t rush out and spend it. Cutting back is the key to spending less, and can be done without making a major hole in your life. Free outdoor entertainment, home cooking and fewer trips to the nearest mall are effective ways to readjust your attitude to money. Becoming a smart shopper is an enjoyable exercise in which you’re in competition with the supermarkets for the biggest bang for your buck, not theirs! The store’s own-brands are the same as branded goods, and a good way to save.

Tracking your spending is essential, as it gives you an exact idea where your hard-earned cash is actually going. Budgeting apps are the way forward, and can be fun as well. After a month or so of all this, you’ll realise you have to target your savings to different essentials, from retirement through kids’ education to repairs and renewals and even a new car. Once you’re used to not having a huge debt on your plastic, you’ll start to enjoy the challenge of managing your salary to benefit your own life rather than increasing the profits of firms selling dreams to expats.