Cost of Living Abroad

Cost of living abroad can vary depending on the city and country you will be living in. Cost of living guides and indexes are made to give a certain view of the standard living costs for each city and country. These are made to compare and estimate the expenses an average person or family can expect to spend to acquire basic commodities and services for a lifestyle, such as food, housing, transportation, utilities, entertainment, clothing, healthcare, child care and education, in a region.

We will look at what determines the cost of living and how the consumer baskets are organised.

The question that soon to become expatriate are trying to answer is: What salary should I get to maintain the same standard of living? This is taken in the hand of human resources managers that consult specialised companies that have access to data.

Your reflection should focus on your spendable income as this is where the cost of living index will have an influence. The basket of the COL index is not all representative of what you do with your spendable income, but they are trying to match with the broader spendable income representation.

The cost of living index is necessary as costs of these goods and services may vary between different urban and suburban residential areas in different parts of the world. Knowing the standard cost of living in your new home city and country is essential to help you plan your life knowing what to expect before you even move to your new residence. Negociating your contract while being in the know will help you access the proper salary that is in line with maintaining your standard of living.