👋 Hey expats, this is Dexter. Welcome to a new edition of Money Abroad, my weekly newsletter where I bring you fresh tips on building wealth while living abroad.

Today in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:

• 💣 Three expensive mistakes made by expats

• 😯 Expat hedonic treadmill, comp packages, foreign investing

• ⚡️ How Yale endowment invests

• 🇯🇵 Japan launches new visas, Ireland & Portugal halting golden visas

💣 Expensive mistakes made by expats (part 2)

Second post in a two-part series. All numbers below are in USD

1. Climbing the expat hedonic treadmill

Cost: $1k to $57k+

🎓 International school fees. For expat families, private schooling is a major expense. They often have trouble accessing subsidized public schools. Cost to send a first year high schooler to Singapore American School is ~$40k USD.

🏠 Expat housing. Expats like to live near other expats, which tend to be more expensive areas. For example, in Singapore, rent for a 3-bedroom apartment in a popular expat neighborhood Tiong Bahru is 40% higher than a further out area like Pasir Ris (~$17k USD more per year)

🛫 Flights, accommodation, and visa fees. Let’s be real: you will travel heaps as an expat cause why not?! A week-long holiday in Bali will run the bill up to $1k (excluding flights, visas).

🚑 International health insurance fee. Be prepared to 1/ fork out extra for regional (or global) coverage and 2/ pay expenses out of pocket, then seeking reimbursement.

How to avoid this mistake:

• Account for lifestyle spending. I think it’s absolutely amazing to enjoy the expat lifestyle. Just also work backwards from your lifestyle goals and run the numbers.

• Exclude high-cost regions covered in your insurance. eg avoid US coverage. Cover the countries you spend 90% of your time in and use a solid travel insurance in the rest.

• Get an APEC / business travel card. Save hundreds of dollars of visa fees (and hours in queues) by using frequent traveler programs like APEC card & Singapore FTP.