👋🏻 Hey expats, this is Dexter. Welcome to a new edition of Money Abroad, my weekly newsletter. Each week, I dive below the surface to bring you fresh tips on building wealth while living abroad. Send me your questions and in return, I’ll do my best to offer actionable, no-BS tips.

What you’ll find in today’s edition:

• 🇸🇬 Singapore Expat Money Report: How 75 expats in Singapore from 22 countries approach their savings, investing, asset allocation, challenges, and personal tip

• 🎩 HNWI Americans renouncing citizenship

• 🔥 FIRE book pick, couples money therapy, Spain digital nomad visa

Let’s jump in!

🇸🇬 Singapore Expat Money Report

1. Expat Profile

Country of Origin

To kick thing off, I’m blown away by how the Singapore expat community looks like a mini-United Nations. Our cohort of 75 expats moved to Singapore from 22 countries. Wow.

The top 5 countries represented 2/3 of the cohort: United States (24%), India (14%), Indonesia (11%), Malaysia (10%), United Kingdom (8%)

Time Spent in Singapore

Out of this group, 86% expats have lived in Singapore for >1 year. Yet surprisingly nearly 35% have called the little red dot home for over 5 years.

• I take this data with a grain of salt given the small sample size, but I didn’t expect there to be so many long-term stayers.

• My take on “why”: Many expats initially believe (genuinely) that they’ll stay for <2 years, but decide to extend for work, family, and quality of life reasons.

Age

Our cohort grew up with Backstreet Boys and Beyoncé, aka millennial at its core. >90% of responding expats fell between the ages of 25-44, while 2/3 were in the 25-34 range.

Employment

Fortunately, nearly all (93%) respondents are gainfully employed by a company and not caught with their pants down from tech layoffs.

However, the entrepreneurship corner is awkwardly empty. Only 3 expats describing themselves as self-employed.

Education

This group was more academically dominant than a bunch of Ravenclaws. 99% had a college degree and 43% even had a masters degree.

Financial Literacy

Similar to how everyone loves to call themselves “middle class”, we got a majority (60%) of respondents rated themselves as “Intermediate” in their personal financial literacy. Out of the remaining folks, more rated themselves as “Advanced” (23%) vs “Beginner” (18%).

2. Income Levels

Now we’re getting to the real juicy stuff!

Our fellow expats are a high-earning bunch (no surprise):

• ~72% of respondents earned a monthly gross income that fell within $5k-$20k

• The group is more skewed towards higher income levels, i.e. ~10% earned over $30k / month vs only ~3% earned under $5k / month

3. Savings, Investments, Expenses

Participating expats allocated roughly similar % of their monthly income to savings, investments, and expenses irrespective of how much dough they brought in:

• ~25% savings

• ~25% investments

• ~50% expenses

TBH I didn’t expect these results. I personally expected that the higher the income, the higher the savings/investment rate.

However, like every French person’s World Cup finals prediction, I was wrong.

4. Asset Allocation

Here’s where things get even more juicy.

Key insights from our cohort: