Moving from Atlanta, US to Singapore

maneo · Post by **maneo** » Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:48 am

{deleted - redundant post}

stillwater · Post by **stillwater** » Wed, 13 Mar 2013 2:42 am

Hi Maneo, don't understand your point. My wife manages the home and the kids, so it is a big change for her (not sacrifice), as she will have to do all the running around in a new place, while I am at the office. So would like to make this as painless as possible for her and the kids.

Can you clarify what you mean by living costs being misplaced? Thanks for your feedback...

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Wed, 13 Mar 2013 4:44 am

stillwater wrote:Hi Maneo, don't understand your point. My wife manages the home and the kids, so it is a big change for her (not sacrifice), as she will have to do all the running around in a new place, while I am at the office. So would like to make this as painless as possible for her and the kids.

Can you clarify what you mean by living costs being misplaced? Thanks for your feedback...

Many expat marriages have fallen apart in moves like this. Perceived downgrade in lifestyle (or at least where you live), unfamiliar culture, perceived rude people compared to the west, inability to buy many things your used to buying (favorite shampoo, toiletries, etc), can all weigh heavily on people making a move. Especially if it is for someone else.

Things will be even worse if your wife is self conscious when surrounded by small petite Asian women and suspects you may have a wandering eye. (Not accusing your wife, but enough western women suffer this it is worth mentioning.)

Taitaiwife · Post by **Taitaiwife** » Wed, 13 Mar 2013 8:44 am

Speaking as an expat wife who put her own career on hold temporarily to move to Singapore with her husband's job, I have no regrets. Of course, when you first arrive you will experience some culture shock and some frustrations (e.g. opening a bank account with HSBC and finding they only have 20 ATMs island-wide!), but we quickly worked through this.

We soon grew to appreciate everything that we have in Singapore - great weather, safe and clean environment to raise kids and being on the doorstep of a variety of wonderful travel destinations, to name a few.

Sure, some things here are different from home and you just have to accept it. Generally you will find whatever your budget (unless you're Warren Buffett!) you are downsizing on property and have little or no garden. (This is one reason why we moved from a condo into a landed house - at least we have a small garden for our child to play in!).

It seems like your wife has already managed some of her expectations - sure, maybe she doesn't appreciate what 1800 or 2000 sqft looks like in the flesh yet, but hey. Our house is 2,200 sqft and it's perfectly adequate. Once you've seen 10 places here and realised the size, you quickly adapt. Just don't ship the entire contents of your twice the size home here as you won't have anywhere to store it!

As this seems to be a short placement anyway I would grab the chance if you can and embrace it. It will be a wonderful opportunity to experience living and working in a different country and culture.

PS. I can also recommend that your wife checks out the professional women's group PrimeTime here. It's a volunteer-run not-for-profit group offering a range of social and professional activities for women. It's a great way to meet other expat wives, make friends and for those who are seeking work, to pursue business interests. It was a real life-line for me.

stillwater · Post by **stillwater** » Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:04 am

Taitaiwife, thanks for your encouraging feedback, I am sure that will make my wife feel a lot better.

stillwater · Post by **stillwater** » Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:53 pm

Hi bidisha06, could not send you a Private message with my email address, so can you post your experience on this forum?

Thanks

bidisha06 · Post by **bidisha06** » Wed, 20 Mar 2013 8:04 pm

Hi there,

I did send a public reply (scroll above). I am overseas on business so once I am back, I will write more.

Thanks!

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 20 Mar 2013 8:27 pm

Taitaiwife wrote: Of course, when you first arrive you will experience some culture shock and some frustrations (e.g. opening a bank account with HSBC and finding they only have 20 ATMs island-wide!), but we quickly worked through this.

HSBC is part of the ATM5 network*, so there are c150 machines from various banks island-wide that you can use fee-free. Plus in my experience queues at ATM5 machines are much shorter (usually no queue at all) than those of local banks.

*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AtmâÂ

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Thu, 21 Mar 2013 6:57 am

Fixed JR's link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atm5

But basically you can use any of these bank's ATMs in Singapore:

Citibank Singapore
HSBC
Maybank
ANZ
Standard Chartered Bank
State Bank of India

And no fees:
[quote]atmâÂ

maneo · Post by **maneo** » Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:02 pm

stillwater wrote:Hi Maneo, don't understand your point. My wife manages the home and the kids, so it is a big change for her (not sacrifice), as she will have to do all the running around in a new place, while I am at the office. So would like to make this as painless as possible for her and the kids.

Can you clarify what you mean by living costs being misplaced? Thanks for your feedback...

Thanks to zzm9980 for explaining some of the risks and to Taitaiwife for a perspective on how to deal with life here.

It's good that your wife views this as merely a big change for her (and not a sacrifice), so you can focus on the details for running around in the new place. We, in the forum community will try help make this as painless as possible.

By the way, the moderator SMS has a sticky post with a lot of useful links.
Not only are these good for finding things when you need them, but also for researching in advance.

Best wishes on your new adventure together.

maneo · Post by **maneo** » Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:47 pm

P.S. The sticky post link is in the post footer for sundaymorningstaple (aka, SMS):

http://www.keynote-engineers.net/useful_links.html

Landlocked · Post by **Landlocked** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 8:20 pm

Hi Stillwater. We too are relocating to Singapore this summer from Chicago with my husbands job. I will be staying at home with our three kids and we trying to figure out schools/housing/banking etc. We are very excited and a bit overwhelmed and would love to hear what you have found out or decisions you have made. We will visit in April to see schools and condos and hope to be there in July.

Landlocked · Post by **Landlocked** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 8:21 pm

Hi Stillwater. We too are relocating to Singapore this summer from Chicago with my husbands job. I will be staying at home with our three kids and we trying to figure out schools/housing/banking etc. We are very excited and a bit overwhelmed and would love to hear what you have found out or decisions you have made. We will visit in April to see schools and condos and hope to be there in July.

Brah · Post by **Brah** » Sun, 31 Mar 2013 8:10 pm

bidisha06 wrote:If I were you, I would say definitely go for it. An experience in Asia Pacific region will do wonders to your career.

Can you expand on this and why you think so?

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