Here are a few articles expats might be interested in… they cover safe travel advice, expat saving problems and a possible decline in cheap Chinese labor over the course of the next several years:
5 dangerous things international travelers can do that will land them in trouble.
More than 65 million Americans travel overseas each year –mostly without incident. But as the recent case of Sarai Sierra –the New York City woman who disappeared while vacationing alone in Turkey shows –just about anyone traveling overseas can be at risk.
Yes, expats love to say they are not tourists, but these are good tips to be reminded of when traveling to any unfamiliar place. Good lessons to learn after a tragic situation.
Expat rates: a fifth year of base rate at 0.5%
Despite having offshore accounts, expat savers are still feeling the effects of the UK government policy of providing banks cheap money to lend in mortgages.
To low interest rates, add inflation – still high at 2.7% – and making money on saving becomes nigh on impossible.
Savings rates are also being affected by the Funding for Lending scheme: banks have less need for savings because they can borrow money cheaply from the Government to lend in mortgages.
All of these factors add up to a toxic mix for savers. And for expat savers, it’s even worse as there are a diminishing number of providers keen to take your savings anyway, so there is less need for those still in the market to be competitive. As a result, expat savers are now lucky if they can get more than 2%, even if that ties their money up for several years.
What are the good saving and investment options now for expats? Are there any? Yeesh.
China has been a popular expat destination for years as the Asian nation has transformed its economy by introducing some level of free market principles. It has done this successfully in large part because of the seemingly endless amount of cheap labor. But how long will this last?
China’s world-beating growth has been built on the backs of hundreds of millions of people willing to work for wages low enough to make a labor boss in the West weep. Economists in and out of China have warned that model is bound to play out as China eventually runs out of surplus labor.
But when?
Two International Monetary Fund economists say China will become a labor-shortage country sometime between 2020 and 2025—and there isn’t much China can do about it.
How soon will this impact opportunities for expats in China? For many years, there was opportunity for them in China when there was none at home. It will be interesting to watch how this all play out over the course of the next decade or more.